Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Everything Button

Voila, another tutorial! In this one I will walk you through how to get a snazzy button of your own. No thread required. And please note the pretty image; it was incredibly hard to find one that my font colors could be seen on.


~What They Are~

Buttons. They're not the kind shown in the picture above, so sorry :) They are pretty, custom squares that when you click them, boom, they take you to a blog. Mine is my sidebar and I hope you like it, because I'm going to show you how to make one exactly like it. Just not with my picture, please.


~Why You Should Have One~

Just like with Favicons, I find buttons are super handy. While they don't really round out your blog like Favicons do, they make your blog more accessible. Do you know how many of your internet friends have Favorite Blog pages? A lot. And they want a button to put there. So, if you have one, you're going to get more exposure as a blogger. That's always a good thing.

~How to Make One~

If you already have one, you don't have to read any further, but thanks anyway :)

I had no idea how to do this for a while. I knew I wanted a button, but I just never took the time to look it up. And then when Jonathan was parading his shiny new one, I realized that you click "Generate Your Button Code" underneath the button and follow the steps. It's that easy! So this tutorial will be for the buttons with the code that you steal. I don't know how to make or utilize the others yet :)

So have you clicked generate yet? Do so. This will launch the necessary website (www.mycoolrealm.com) in another tab. Go ahead and input your web name and path name, just like it wants.


Now I'm going to show you how to get your image URL.

Open Blogger and create a new post. Insert the picture you would like to use for button (again, I use PicMonkey for editing, etc). You will want the image to already be the desired dimensions- usually a square. Now, right click the picture and choose "open in link new tab."


The gobbledy-gook that appears in the search bar is your image's URL. Copy that and paste it into the code generator. Notice the string of random letters in the third line now? Yes, that's it.


So now, you get to customize. Click the "Help me find out" button for container type and use whatever it says to. I left every other option on its default, because I had customized my picture the way I wanted it previously. And go ahead with the representation. It's polite and handy for other bloggers. Then click preview. As long as it looks the way you want it to, go ahead and select "get code" and copy it.

Go back to Blogger, select your website, and go to Layout. I put my button in my sidebar, so add the HTML/Java Script gadget there. Paste your generated code that you copied and save.


Preview your blog to make sure it turned out the way you wanted it to. If not, go back and do the necessary customizations. If so, you're all set. Hit "Save arrangement" and you're done.

~~~~~

Hopefully all of that made sense. I want all of you to have shiny new buttons by the end of the week! Let me know if this was helpful and I'll walk you through any problems you have. Good luck!!

21 comments:

  1. YES, THIS IS PERFECT. Exactly what I needed! How did you know?? (Besides the fact that I told you I didn't know how to make a blog button. *cough*)

    So the directions are GREAT, and everything went well up until I clicked the preview button. For some reason, nothing happens when I click it. It isn't showing me what my button looks like so I can't get the code. D: Any suggestions?

    Great post, Abi! I'm sorry I've been absent from your blog for so long. I miiight go back and comment on all your old posts, but I'm basically buried beneath all the stuff I've fallen behind on in the blogosphere. So no promises. ;) In any case, I'm back for the moment. :)

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    1. That was doing the same thing for me but after a few days the website worked.......

      //Hannah
      Hannahrodriguezwriter.wordpress.con

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    2. Yeah, maybe try again late, Mary? Because I went back and fiddled with it and every time I hit preview, it would tell me what I needed to fix to make it work or show me what it looked like if it was right.

      I'm glad this was something you wanted to learn, though! I hope it works for you :)

      That's okay, I've been really bad about reading blogs, too. I"m probably not going to play catch up on most of them and just plow ahead!! :)

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  2. TUTORIALS COOL. Also everyone she's totally right you do need a button RIGHT. NOW. *cough* so you should probably start working on that. XD

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    1. Thank you for your brilliant words of affirmation, sir :) Maybe I'll eventually come up with a tutorial that you haven't already applied!

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  3. Abi Ellison, do you know how much I love your blog tutorial posts? A lot. A LOT. Seriously :D.
    Thank you so much for this! My blog button looks all pretty and shiny and I LOVE IT. Definitely enjoying these posts of yours :D. Thanks again!

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    1. Aw, you're so sweet! You just made my day :) You're very welcome. I'm just glad it's helpful ^.^ *goes to check out your button*

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    2. Wait, I don't think I've ever been to your blog before. What's your web address? :D

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    3. Yes, it was very much helpful :D.

      Well, my blog is private as of now, but if you email my mom (theperrans AT cox DOT net) I'll invite you :).

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    4. Alrighty, you've been invited :).

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  4. THANK YOU FOR THIS.

    I did all the things but the app wasn't working though :( I tried it again on my iPad but it STILL wouldn't work. SO. I'll have to keep trying ... *sigh* But thank you! I know /how/ to do it now!

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    1. Grr, technology stinks sometimes. I hope it works for you!! You're welcome :)

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  5. Yay, a button tutorial! :D I've been slowly working at fixing things up on my blogs, adding pages, etc. Making a button and a favicon are definitely on the list. ;) Thanks, Abi!

    (And I love the button-y image. ^_^)

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    1. You're welcome! And thanks :) Can't wait to see what you come up with!

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  6. Hi Abi!
    I wanted to let you know that I tagged you for the Text Tag on my blog. ;)

    Emily

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    1. Ooh, awesome. I'll go check it out! I haven't done a tag post in a long time! Thanks, Emily!

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  7. Very clear tutorial, Abi!

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    1. Thanks, Madison! Can't wait to see your shiny new button :) (And I'm loving your blog by the way!)

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  8. Ooo, ooo! I know how to make these!!! *dies of shock* It took me FOREVER (no, not literally) to figure it out though. *sheepish grin* Thanks for the help anyways. ;)

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    1. Good for you! I'm so proud of you for knowing how :P It took me a while, too, and I finally had Jonathan explain it. It was the image URL that was throwing me :P Thanks for the comment anyways ;)

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