How to Use Dreamweaver to Edit Blogger
Templates

People who aren't content with an average blog can go the extra mile and edit blogger templates with Dreamweaver. While it is something of a technical challenge to learn how to use dreamweaver to edit Blogger templates, it's not as hard as it might seem, and the payoff is both a stunning customized blog and more knowledge of HTML and other web tools.

With this simple step-by-step method, you can easily find, edit, and upload the necessary templates to your Blogger account. However, this presumes that you already have a blog. If you don't, then take the time to go to Blogger and set one up for free. You can also link it to your Google account for easier access and editing.

While it is certainly possible to simply alter the template already in place on Blogger, it is often easier to let others do the bulk of the work for you, and just find a template that already somewhat matches your personal style. Blogger templates are a labor of love for many designers, and it's relatively easy to find entire galleries of templates, from artsy to sporty to fan-based.

Be a little careful of that last category, though – many of those templates can be incredibly beautiful, but also totally illegal, especially if you've monetized your blog with Google AdWords or something else. Few celebrities or networks want to let you use their image for free in order to make money – and they hire lawyers to make sure it doesn't happen. Just make sure that the template you're planning to modify is free to be used for whatever you're planning to use it for.

Some places where you can find blogger templates :

• On Blogger Itself – After signing into blogger, you are taken to an area known as the "Dashboard." This area has four tabs, and the third one, labeled "Templates," is where the magic happens. It has three sub-sections too – one of which, "Edit HTML," you'll come back to later. But the next one, "Pick New," brings you to a full range of templates designed by award-winning designers such as Jeffrey Zeldman. These also have very easy "Use This Template" buttons which automatically apply them to your blog, with no room for error.
• Blogger Templates is a Blogger Blog about Blogger Blog templates. It features a very easy way to download the featured templates (which have thumbnails as a preview) – the "Download" link for each opens a window with the HTML code in it, which you can then select (control/command-A) and copy (control/command-C).
• Pyzam – Although it is annoyingly crammed with ads, Pyzam also features a lot of quality layouts in various categories for not only Blogger but also other accounts like [MySpace].

Once you've copied the code, you need to put it into an editor. While technically any text editor like NotePad would work, using a code editor such as Dreamweaver has a lot of advantages. Simply open up a new document and select "HTML" from the list of document types. However, this selection doesn't actually matter, because while you will save the file, you will not be uploading the file back to the server.

Make sure that the "code view" is selected. This shows you the Document Type Declaration and some general HEAD and BODY tags. Delete all of this, and paste the code that you copied from the template site.

At this point you are free to edit, and you will see that Dreamweaver color-codes the text so that it is easier to read. It also adds spacing and tabbing in sections. This is the advantage to using Dreamweaver as an editor. Another advantage is that the code autocomplete can speed up the process immensely when you get used to it.

As far as how to edit the code, that's left to other articles such as How to Design a Blog Template. There are so many variables involved that it is far beyond the scope of this article. However, there are many tutorials, forums, and examples of templates and code to draw from on the Internet. Some templates will show the changes you make as you do them in Dreamweaver, but it's likely that each change will have to be uploaded to see if it does what you want. For that, you will need step 3.

Remember the section on your "Templates" tab on the Blogger dashboard called "Edit HTML"? That's where you click now, and you'll see a big text entry box there with the current template code showing in it. Simply replace all of that code with the edited code from your Dreamweaver document (remember to copy from the Code View, not the WYSIWYG editor!). Then, check your blog and make sure it's how you want it to look – usually it will take a few tries to get everything tweaked exactly right.

The best part about learning how to use dreamweaver to edit blogger templates is that you can then share it with one of the gallery sites and continue to spread that knowledge on the web. Remember to respect the community and contribute to it – that's what social media is all about.

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