Why are we restricted to a 800 pixels width in Blogger if almost 100% of users use bigger resolutions?
According to W3Schools Browser Display Statistics, in January 2008 more than 90% of the users have 1024 or bigger resolutions.

In this blog I will publish step by step guides to increase the width of some Blogger templates.
If you don't feel like changing it yourself, just download and use the new template in the end of each guide.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Tictac 1024 Template

Changing the width of Tictac template is not that linear because of the several CSS entries we need to adjust and some images that need to be adapted.

I have increased the size of the TicTac Template by 140 pixels and here is the step by step guide for you:

Step 1
Follow the menu links:
Customize -> Layout -> Edit HTML

Step 2
Find the css entry #outer-wrapper and add 140 pixels to the width property. The change should be:

#outer-wrapper {
width: 987px;

Step 3
Repeat Step 2 to the css entries:

#content-wrapper
...
#main
...
body#layout #outer-wrapper,
body#layout #content-wrapper


Step 4
Now that the new width was applyed, we need to adjust the images to the new size.
The new images need to be 140 pixels wider but the extra pixels need to be added carefully to mantain the same design.

The images that neeed to be changed in the template are:

bottom_sash_left.gif
bottom_sill.gif
tile_left.gif
top_div_left.gif
top_h1.gif

Be aware that in the template "left" is replaced by a variable named "$startSide". For instance to find "bottom_sash_left .gif" you neeed to search in the template for "bottom_sash_$startSide.gif".

If you don't want to do your own version of this new images just use the new images I've created.

And that's all you need to know to increase the width of your blog!


Download

If you don't want to do the changes yourself, just replace your's b:skin tag by the following:



New Images

tictac_bottom_sash_left.gif


tictac_bottom_sill.gif


tictac_tile_left.gif


tictac_top_div_left


tictac_top_h1.gif




Preview

Preview this template in:

Monday, November 24, 2008

Minima 1024 Template

Changing the width of Minima template is simple because there is no images to adapt.

I have increased the size of the Minima Template by 140 pixels and here is the step by step guide for you:

Step 1
Follow the menu links: 
Customize -> Layout -> Edit HTML

Step 2
Find the css entry #header-wrapper and add 140 pixels to the width property. The change should be:

#header-wrapper {
  width:800px;

Step 3
Repeat Step 2 to the css entries:

#outer-wrapper
...
#main-wrapper
...
#footer

And that's all you need to know to increase the width of your blog!

Download

If you don't want to do the changes yourself, just replace your's b:skin tag by the following:


Preview

Preview this template in: