Trying Skills

With a fine blend of shades of black, white and blue this template gives your blog a professional look. Blog posts are displayed neatly on a white background. There is a sidebar on the right which can contain as many widgets as you like. There is a navigation bar on the top right side that gives your blog a website-like look. Also included is a favicon that would distinguishes your blog from other blogs and gives it a more professional look. The comments on your posts are displayed on a separate background which is completely customizable. When you download the template you also get the banner image so that you can modify it to display your blog title.

Here are the steps you can follow if you wish to customize this template when you use it for your own blog.

Change the date display format- To change the date display format such that it suits this template follow these steps:

• Go to Dashboard=>Settings=>Formatting
• Change the Date Header Format to the second option in the dropdown menu (June 8, 2009)
• Save Settings

Enable Comments- To allow people to comment on your blog post:

• Go to Dashboard=>Settings=>Comments
• Change the Comment Form Placement to Pop-up window
• Save settings

Change the Navigation Bar Links: To change the navigation bar links and text follow these steps:

• Go to Dashboard=>Layout=>Edit HTML
• Search for
  
  <li><a href='YOURLINKHERE'>Home</a></li>
  <li><a href='YOURLINKHERE'>About</a></li>
  <li><a href='YOURLINKHERE'>Download</a></li>
  <li><a href='YOURLINKHERE'>Reviews</a></li>
  
  
• Replace the text in green to the url of the location where it leads and the text in orange to the name of the button.
  
• Save Template
  

Change the Subscription Link: To change the subscription link to display feeds from your blog:

• Go to Dashboard=>Layoout=>Edit HTML
• Search for
  
  <div id='rssbox'>
  <a href='http://tryingskills.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss'><img alt='Subscribe' src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_qj_peLuSvqA/Sit9eykibEI/AAAAAAAAAF4/jP33tdGGpgI/Button-subs.png' style='vertical-align:middle'/></a>
  </div>
  
  
• Replace the text in green with the title of your blog
  
  <div id='rssbox'>
  <a href='http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss'><img alt='Subscribe' src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_qj_peLuSvqA/Sit9eykibEI/AAAAAAAAAF4/jP33tdGGpgI/Button-subs.png' style='vertical-align:middle'/></a>
  </div>
  
  
• Save Template

Change the Blog Banner: To change the blog banner to display the name of your blog

• Edit the image banner.jpg that comes along with this template using a photo editing software to display your blog title.
• Upload the image to some image hosting site like imageshack
• Search for the following in the Dashboard=>Layout=>Edit HTML
  
  .top {
  height:200px;
  margin-top:0px;
  background:url(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_qj_peLuSvqA/SivRM6gekHI/AAAAAAAAAG8/uu-87Y8WYh4/1-banner3.jpg);
  background repeat: none;
  border-top:0px solid #BEC4C4;
  }
  
  
• Replace the url in green with the url of your image

These are some of the basic settings that you may choose to customize. If you have any troubles regarding this template or if you wish to know how to customize other features such as the comment background or the favicon CLICK HERE