Customize your template in blogspot.com

One of Blogger's best features is the ability to easily customize virtually aspect of your site's design.

The templates available when starting a new blog are but a small sample of the designs

and layouts available for you to try. Furthermore, you can add “gadgets” to the layout for

virtually every need, from a simple linked image banner to your blog archives and a list of

your public followers!

The Template section of the Blogger dashboard enables you to change the overall design

of your site, either by using the Blogger template designer or by directly editing your

template HTML code.

To get started customizing your template, click the orange “customize” button which

appears beneath the web preview of your site. This takes you to the Blogger Template

Designer through which most visual settings can be changed.

Choose a base template

There are currently 7 varieties of base template you can choose from (including Dynamic

Views, see below), each of which includes several variants.

Select the template style you would like to use, and the preview below will update to

demonstrate how your site will appear.

Backgrounds and colour schemes

You can add a background image to your blog in the Backgrounds menu, or – if your

chosen template includes a background image – edit the existing one.

Blogger has a vast library of images you can upload in just a few clicks, or you can upload

a background image from your hard drive.

Several pre-set colour schemes are suggested for each template, enabling you to quickly

switch between them. More control over individual font and background colours can be

accessed in the “Advanced” menu.

Sidebars and Footer Columns (or not!)

Aside from Dynamic Templates, all of the basic Blogger templates enable you to adjust the

overall layout of your site.

Using the Layout menu, you can choose where to position sidebars (if indeed at all!) and

how many columns to feature in the footer. You can then add Gadgets to these areas of

your layout (see Gadgets and the Blogger Layout).