Target="0"

Every time I link to something, I always include "target='0'" in the code. But it's a drag to do that manually every single time. Is there a way to format things so that when I click on the blogger "link" button, "target='0'" is included in the code?

Thanks!


This Post was written by Emily Stone from Chocolate in Context

Me and My Side Bar

As you may have guessed from my numerous posts today, I'm doing some updating on the layout of my blog.

One thing that I've done is to nix the grade-schoolish blogger profile and write my own bio. But I'd like to clean up the appearance a bit more. I'd like to put a border around the bio, but I can't seem to find the right solution. (That is, all of the solutions I've dug up seem way to complicated. Does anyone know of a simple one and/or would you be willing to break down one of the more complicated solutions into a simple step-by-step description?)

I also wonder if it's possible to (why can't I think of the write editorial lingo?) format the text in the bio so that it's flush on both the right and left sides, making it look like a clean column, not the jagged one that it is now. Any ideas?

And I can't remember what they looked like before, but all of my links seem to have centered themselves, instead of aligning on the left, and I think they look goofy. Could someone tell me (I'm sure it's really simple) how I changed my links from being centered to being left-aligned?

Many thanks!


This Post was written by Emily Stone from Chocolate in Context

The Old Internet Explorer Disappearing Side Bar Problem

When viewed in Internet Explorer, the side bar of my blog disappears from the right-hand side of the page, only to reappear all the way down at the bottom. This is incredibly frustrating because regular visitors find the links that they want hard to find, and first time visitors don't know that the extra bells and whistles (my bio, links, etc.) are there. This is not news. Not only have I had this problem for months but numerous other food bloggers have ranted about this problem on the pages of this blog and numerous others have offered up extensive potential solutions in response. The problem is that the problem is still there. It won't go away! I can't get my side bar to actually appear on the side of my blog.

(NOTE before continuing on: This is only a problem in Internet Explorer. The blog looks just like it should in Mozilla, and I believe in Safari as well. This matter is further complicated by the fact that I can't seem to install IE properly on my computer--but I certainly have access to IE-running computers, so I can check the problem.)

I'm guessing that the problem has something to do with the coding in the blog's template. Someone also proposed that it could have something to do with adsense--I don't think that's the case, but I've removed adsense from my blog anyway. Another possibility is that a coding problem in one of the posts is screwing things up. While I don't rule out the possibility of coding snafus in my posts, someone pointed out this side bar problem to me as far back as March--at that point, the blog was only a few months old and there was very little coding in the posts, so I'm thinking that the template is the more likely culprit.

I took a look at the template today, but I think that this is a job for someone with expertise beyond my own adhoc knowledge of html conventions. I'm not sure what the etiquette is for this, but is there someone out there who would be willing to take a look at my template to see if they can locate the glaring problem (or to just generally help me clean up the mess made by my non-professional coding style)? If that's too much to ask, is there anyone out there who hires herself out for this type of work? Any and all suggestions are welcome. By all means, reply here, or contact me at EmilyStone200[at]hotmail[dot]com.

Before signing off, I'd just like to write a quick thanks to every one of you Food Blog S'cool members. I haven't been participating much recently, but I've certainly been reading along, and this group is amazingly helpful. Thanks!


This Post was written by Emily Stone from Chocolate in Context

My blog is at Typepad and I'm using domain redirection, which works pretty well except that the image links for the fullsize images in the popup window all still point to "kitchenmage.typepad.com" instead of "blog.kitchenmage.com" The thumbnail that is automatically created is correctly pathed to my domain, which makes it doubly confusing as to why it's not for the other. I've tested and if I simply change the URL to swap domains, it still resolves to the image, so I am thinking it should work correctly.

This is the case on other blogs and sometimes it causes serious problems. Like Stephen Cooks, which I pretty much don't go to because I've never been able to resolve the URLs for his images, which are all going to whats_for_dinner.typepad.com where they aren't. I sent him mail a long time ago and he didn't have any idea why it was happening so I asked Typepad's people and they never had an answer. (yes, i realize this is some bizarre DNS thing on my side since you can all see the images, but the images should be pathed to stephencooks.com, nonetheless...and I've changed DNS servers and tried from about 5 different computers here...and yes I know that's a lot of computers... laughs)

So you may see why I doubt that I'm going to get very far with Typepad, especially after reading Stephen's (waves at Stephen) mail about image issues. And I really need to fix this because I've got a number of Typepad blogs I manage (some of which I'd rather not have linked to my kitchenmage site in any obvious way like images in posts) in addition to my primary food site and this is true on all of them. Unfortunately. Which means a lot of code tweaking once I figure it out. *sigh*

Thoughts?

This Post was written by KITCHENMAGE from kitchenmage

Becks & Posh: Lovely Jubbly Bubbly#comments

Gee Sam, I dont't know...you might have to twist my arm on this one...

NOT!

Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy. Champagne, Happy, Happy, Happy.

:-)

Becks & Posh: Lovely Jubbly Bubbly#comments

Beating down the blogging blues

One of my favorite food bloggers, Lisa of Oslo Foodie, has decided to close down her blog. I'm really sad about it, but boy do I know where she is coming from.

My enthusiasm for keeping up my blogs comes and goes. At the moment I can feel the enthusiasm for the food blog ebbing; luckily I piled up a few articles during a high-energy period, so I have enough to keep it going until hopefully my inspiration comes back. In the past though, I've stopped blogging for weeks and months (and suffered the subsequent traffic drops). Sometimes it's just because I just don't feel like even thinking about food, much less cooking it. Sometimes I just get major writer's block. (My recent receding of enthusiasm was triggered by a number of separate copying/scraping incidents, like this page, which has three of my posts copied intact with links and pictures in 2 of them. I think I'm pretty tolerant about people copying my recipes...but this just went too far even for me.) Regardless of the reason, sometimes it's hard to keep up the energy.

Do you go through blogging blues? How to you combat them? Or is it worth combatting them?

This Post was written by maki from Just Hungry.

No credit, but compensation?

I was recently approached by an popular on-line magazine for the use of one of our food photographs - no "photo credit" will be given, but they are offering compensation (we've never been offered any compensation before, so I don't know if it is a good offer). The firm does seem legitimate, but as I said, this is a first for us. If we agree to let them use the photo(s), is there anything we should watch out for or be aware of? Thanks!

This Post was written by Joe from Culinary in the Desert

MySpace & Site Promotion

I have no interest in the "social networking" aspects of MySpace, but I wondered if anyone had found it a useful tool when it comes to promoting their food site.

This Post was written by Bill from Tea Guy Speaks.

(del.icio.us) Adding "Save to Del.icio.us" to every post

First, I have a del.icio.us cookbook and I love it. It's a wonderful way to save recipes without using bookmarks.

However, today I am hitting my hand against my forehead and muttering. I recently added "save to del.icio.us" to my post template (in Blogger) thinking that someone could click it and it would add that post to their del.icio.us acount. I just found out (by accident) that when someone clicks that link on my post pages, it adds Kalyn's Kitchen (the url) to their del.icio.us page, not the permalink for that recipe. I suppose people who know how to use del.icio.us have been figuring it out and going to the permalink before saving it, but that's not what I had in mind.

Does anyone know how to configure it in Blogger so that you can add the "save to del.icio.us" option and have it appear on each page and save the permalink? I read about it on the del.icio.us page and I see instructions for typepad and wordpress but I don't know enough to know if they willwork for Blogger.

Thanks so much.

This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen.

Finding other food bloggers by geography

I'm going on a couple of vacations in the next month and would be like to reading food blogs from the places I'm going before I go and maybe even try to arrange meeting up with a food blogger or two while I am there.

I know that the S'cool would get very cluttered if everyone posted their vacation plans etc. on the site, but is there a way to search for food blogs by city or by zip code or maybe there is a map? I've come across a couple of things but they never seemed comprehensive.


This Post was written by Chris from Electric Stove

[Photography] Digital SLR's

I just ordered a digital SLR (Canon Rebel XT) and am anxiously waiting for it to arrive. I hesitated for a while to spend the money, partly because I know that the cost of the camera is just the start; now I need to buy lenses, filters, etc.--essential, I think, in order to use it to take food photos. But I'm confused about what equipment to get. So many of the lenses I've looked at allow you to focus as close as 36 inches from the subject, but I'm used to being able to get right up close to things, almost touching, with the super-macro mode on my current camera. Will I not be able to do that without a very expensive macro lens?

Anyway, those of you who use a digital SLR, how do you use it for food photography? Do you use a macro lens, a close-up lens (one of those that screw on like a filter), an extension tube, or something else? I'd love some recommendations for specific equipment, so please be as detailed as you like. Thanks for any help you can give.

This Post was written by SusanV from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen.

Changing Domains - Pros and Cons

Over the last few months a number of bloggers that I have a lot of respect for have advised me that if I am serious about my blog, I should move it from Blogger. I know that Blogger has some drawbacks, primarily the lack of the ability to easily create categories. However, I really like my blogger blog. I have concerns about moving domains and wonder whether my concerns might outweigh the benefits.

My biggest concern is that I have a large number of links, a high percentage of which are permalinks. Not only are there are all the links from Weekend Herb Blogging, but also I link internally with nearly every post, giving recommendations of other recipes to go with each dish I post about. I don't know whether any of those links would transfer if I switched to my own domain.

I also worry about losing page rank, although I am guessing that you would eventually get that back. I don't even really understand the transition process. Currently I have the domain kalynskitchen.com pointing to kalynskitchen.blogspot.com so my blog can be accessed by either url. Could I keep the blogspot blog up and have that address point to kalynskitchen.com if I made the switch?

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has gone through this or who has a greater understanding than I do about just what is involved. (That would probably be most of you, since I rely heavily on my brother for assistance with anything very techie.) Thanks in advance for anyone who takes time to give input.

Posted by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen.

P.S. I've already decided that if I move I would use Wordpress, so I don't need advice about that, just about the transition and how things will be affected.

[Events] Reminder

Just a reminder everyone:

We try to keep the promotion of Food Blogging "Events" run by bloggers out of the main body of Food Blog S'cool Posts. The reason for this is because a while back it got out of hand with too many of these posts, and the real message of the school as a place for learning our skills and discussing our art, was beginning to get lost.

So instead I placed a calendar on the blogroll where it could be clearly be seen.
This calendar is now the focus on this site for food blogging event promotion.

Check out the calendar here

Read the event promotion guidelines post here.

Thank you for your understanding.
I am going to check out the gmail calendar and some others to see if it has an rss feed or something which could be more useful than the calendar we are currently using.


This Post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh

Posting Photos to Typepad

I'd gotten used to (mostly) the way things posted on Blogger, but then I had to move to TypePad. When I try to splash of line-up of photos, everything lays down on top of each other. I'd had a similar problem several months ago; somebody gave me a tag that I needed to add onto the end. However, I couldn't find the answer in the archives (and didn't write it down).

Are there any tutorials out there on how to layout photos? I'm not uploading directly to TypePad, I'm trying to link everything from my Flickr page.

I spent several hours today trying to get a single posting laid out, and still wasn't able to finish. Any advice is GREATLY appreciated.

Here is the post in question.

This Post was written by s'kat from s'kat and the food.

heads up on image "stealing"

FYI

Your photos and posts found here?

Mine are, so is Andrew Barrows, as well as Nicole Weston, whose else?

Not sure what to say about this other than its a chinese mirror site that keeps on co-opting pics from me and also other food bloggers. It looks like they are cloning slashfood's feed for the most part. Hard to tell.

Not much anyone can do about it is my sense, maybe I am wrong.


This Post was written by Nika from Nika's Culinaria

[Community] Blogathon recap

Before I forget the pain.

Some of you may know that I recently completed a Blogathon for Charity. Incase anyone is thinking of it for next year, I wanted to report here that Blogathonning is tough. Really tough. Much tougher than I could ever in a million years have imagined. Despite my blogging experience. I struggled with it. I was stressed, I was emotional, I felt frustrated at not being able to answer all the comments that were left for me, etc. it took its toll. I don't want people to be put off, but you need to go in with your eyes open. Email me with questions, or for more advice, nearer the time if you want to take part next year.

Why did I take part? Well, I had originally wanted to launch an August charity event for all food bloggers to join in with, if they so wanted, called "8-Dinner". My idea, such that it was, was that perhaps food bloggers could host dinner parties, or picnics, or buffets, or whatever, to raise money for the charity of their choice, during the month of August. The idea was that people would host and provide a wonderful spread of free food and then the guests would make a donation, to the value of a restaurant meal, or more, or whatever to the chosen charity.

And so I was meaning to organise this, but I never got round to doing it, because when I found out about the blogathon, I was seduced into taking part in that instead.

But what do people think of the 8-dinner idea? I am going to be talking to the Blogathon organiser about perhaps running a side-event alongside the blogathon, using their model of donating to individual charities, as per each individual bloggers choice. And that is one idea.

But on the other hand, perhaps group charity events, especially within a single community can lead to oversaturation of good deeds happening with a result that people get fed up with it in the end? I don't know, I am just putting these questions out there for mulling over. I am not sure if Pim will be doing a Menu for Hope again this year, I'm all for it, but I am not sure if I can take part, at least not to the extent I did last year, maybe I need to move on to something different, yet again. Or maybe I just need to calm down and be less enthusiastic about my involvement, though of course my personality would not rest easily if I did not give it my all.

These these things squeezed every last drop of effort out of me to the point where it would be difficult to try and follow what I have done before. I am wondering if the only way forward is to always do something different each time?

One thing that is clear to me is that it is great to be able to use ones blog to do some power of good in the world, and I don't want to put an end to that for a minute.

OK I will stop rambling now.
Any thoughts anyone else?

This Post was written by sam from becks & Posh

Quick Question for Text Formatting

I know that "em" is italic, and "strong" is for bold text -- what do I use when I want to make strike-through text?

Thanks!




This Post was written by Cyndi from Cookin' With Cyndi

Yet another strange commercial offer.

After my first commercial blandishment (La Censa) I just got hit up with an offer to advertise on my site that was followed up with the following:

The plain text links are one of the methods we use to advertise
I do have one other form of advertising that I can offer to pay much more for
We would create 5 sub-domains off www.tomatilla.com we would create the content for the sub-domains (subject to your approval of course), and we would host them
You would make the DNS entries for the sub-domains to point to our server
The topics for the sub-domains would be broad topics like “investing”
Once the content was uploaded - you would place text links to the sub-domains on the pages of your root domain
We need only a small amount of space for the text links - 2-3 words of hyper-text on 5 lines
I can offer you $xxx USD paid upfront for the 5 sub-domains for 3 months
We do not operate in the adult / gambling / pharmaceutical marketplaces
Let me know if you are interested in this

I'm absolutely not prepared to do the sub-domain thing but I did wonder if anyone else had received this or had done it.


This Post was written by Owen from Tomatilla!

[Blogger] Template Problem or Blogger Problem?

UPDATE: I added a post lamenting the issues and somehow it was magically fixed. I am not going to ask questions, I am just going to appreciate it.

Looks like it is a day full of Blogger issues. I did some changes to my template today, but simple ones like adding links. When I used the preview function in Blogger, my blog looks perfect, with everything in its place. But when I saved the changes and republished, my entire sidebar is missing and the last post is cut off in the middle with the html code showing up at the end.

Even now, if I go into my template and use the preview function, it looks fine. But visiting it directly, it is all messed up. So, I guess it could be a blogger issue or I did something weird to my template (but they why would the preview function show that it is fine?).

Help!

This Post was written by Madeline Miller from Everything Rachael Ray.

Blogger display problem in IE

I usually develop and preview my blog in Firefox, and everything looks fine. But with IE, after a few paragraphs or short posts the text size gets bigger with more leading between the lines. No problem with Netscape. I just got a comment about this, and I had noticed it when I view the blog in my office with IE, where I don't have Firefox.

Any ideas on what the problem is?


This Post was written by Peter Cherches from Word of Mouth