In a recent discovery whilst trying to solve problems on Blogger I discovered I could simply replace the URL of the gif or image with another one. Here is the code for the new gold flashing back to top button at the bottom of this post.

<p><a href="/pg/pages/view/17226/" title="Back to Top"><img src="http://www.feebleminds-gifs.com/arrow-up-icon-b.gif" border="0" />Back To Top</a></p>

You do not have to add the text "Back To Top" if you don't want to. To remove the "Back To Top" text simply delete those words just before the </a> at the end of the code:    border="0" />Back To Top</a></p>

The whole code will now look like this:

<p><a href="/pg/pages/view/17226/" title="Back To Top"><img src="http://www.feebleminds-gifs.com/arrow-up-icon-b.gif" border="0" /></a></p>

Here is what it will now look like without the text:

To replace the image of the up arrow just find a suitable image on the internet. Right click on the image you like and click on the "Properties" tab. In the middle of the pop up window there will be the words "Address (URL)" and a url to the right of that. Just highlight the url and right click on it and select copy.

Then, come back to what you are doing and paste the new url straight after the  "><img src=" which is in the second half of the code. Don't forget to remove the existing url before saving it. There is nothing you can do about aligning the back to top button, for example, to the right, or make it float. That is one of the disadvantages of this site.

So, have fun and create your own, unique, back to top button. It's that simple!

Back To Top

I spend probably too much time going back and forth from this site to Blogger.com. I have several blogs on that site and find little bits of treasure every now and then on the internet of things to add to my blogs. The most recent addition was a back to top button with an actual image. It looks great and works perfectly but for some strange reason I thought I’d try the same code out on the alienufosightingsvideo site. The button code, to my amazement actually works on this site but unfortunately the code itself needs tweaking a lot to get it to sit where it was designed to originally sit, on the far right hand, bottom corner of the page. It was designed (for Blogger’s use) to not move when you scroll down the page, so at any point you could click on it and go to the top of the page whenever it suits you.

But here on this site the button does not work like that. It is positioned at the far left, bottom corner of any page, including your profile page, or blog post, where you add the actual text/contents. And it does not stay fixed in position on the page either. It just sits at the bottom of all the content you have added and does nothing except take you back to the top of the page when you click on it. Changing this little bit of code is going to be a challenge for me as I have only experimented with a back to top button code just once, and that was to change the position of the button on the page itself. That part is fairly easy but getting the button to do what it is supposed to do, knowing that the code itself does not match this site’s code, is going to be hard to achieve. Not impossible, just hard.

I do enjoy a challenge and thinking about little problems like this makes me think harder about the solution. I just hope I can solve this problem because I absolutely hate scrolling back up a page and I’m sure so do your fingers too. Here are the steps to add this back to top button to your profile:

STEP 1 :

To add the code to your blog (or your profile or a page you created) simply display your blog page (or whichever page you choose to add it to) as the image below shows…

STEP 2 :

Click on the edit function at the bottom of the very first (or bottom of the list) blog post you have. (If you want to add it to the bottom of your profile page you must click on the "edit profile" function to display the "About me" section and the button code will need to go in that section.)

STEP 3 :

Once the edit page appears click on the HTML box just above where you add text or images to that section. You can’t miss it as it is in a row with other small square buttons but at the right hand side of those boxes.

STEP 4 :

Highlight the code below, right click on it and select "copy". You could do this step beforehand if you like, if you have a good memory or have opened a second web page. Then paste it onto a new line at the very bottom of the html code, in the HTML pop up box/page that appears. Now click on "update". The button image will be displayed to the far left at the bottom.

STEP 5 :Once your page/blog/profile reloads you can test the button if you like. It’s really that simple! Of course, if you are good at html code perhaps you could make some suggestions of your own, or add a tutorial of your own as a comment to this post. Scrolling back up a page is no longer a major issue.

The edit page will reappear…..click on "save" to save the changes you made to that page/blog/profile.

Here is the code if you would like to add it to your own profile, page or blog for now:

<a style="display:scroll;position:fixed;bottom:5px;right:5px;" href="#" title="Back to Top"><img src="http://i34.tinypic.com/35lyjrb.gif" /></a>

I will update this post when I have found the solution to the button and will display the code as well. I’ll keep you posted. Don’t miss out on any of my updates.

The quest for the perfect pdf download function still eludes me. I have come across a small handful of various buttons and widgets that will achieve the same result as this tutorial below. The buttons and widgets I came across were very appealing to look at but had the disadvantages of being ever so slow in performing a simple function.

No-one in their right mind wants to spend anymore than a minute converting an entire page into a pdf file. It’s just madness to even ponder about taking anymore than 1 minute to convert a page into a pdf file. With all the technology we have now, and the amount of time people spend in front of their computers, the last thing we want to do is waste valuable time waiting for some widget or button to work.

This simple little bit of code, even though it is not appealing to look at, is the fastest gun in the west when it comes to not wasting your time. Within the amount of time it takes you to click the mouse on buttons, your page has been converted to a pdf file. I’ve tried this many times on Blogger and it works really fast, less than 20 seconds and you’re done. Once placed onto your page/profile/wherever the code just looks like a bunch of underlined words. It is not attractive but because this code is, generally, barely 3 lines long the entire pdf conversion function will not slow down your computer in any way nor will it interfere with your page loading like some widgets have a habit of doing.

There is only one tiny drawback with this simple html code and that is you need an Adobe PDF reader on your computer, but as they are free anyway it is no big deal to obtain one. 

This is one of the easiest bits of html code to work with as it is simple, very easy to copy and paste, and can be edited over and over again. The pdf function works quickly, within seconds, and the pdf file will be automatically saved to your computer wherever you wish to put it. You can even add this code to every page, profile, and website you have or are a member of.

This is the html code for the “print this page as a pdf” button on my alienufosightingsvideo blog. There are only two things that you can change in this code: 1. your own URL, and 2. how you want the text to appear on your page. Here is the code for my own URL and the text “download blog page as a PDF” which I altered which I have highlighted in blue and is also in “bold” for your convenience: 

<a href="http://pdfmyurl.com?url=http://www.alienufosightingsvideo.com/pg/blog/bluelights">download blog page as a pdf</a>

The url I added in blue was: www.alienufosightingsvideo.com/blog/bluelights in case you forgot what you deleted! Also you must add "pg/" between www.alienufosightingsvideo.com/  and blog/ otherwise it just won't work.

The thing to always remember when using this html code is to copy and paste the exact URL where you want the underlined text to appear. As long as you have the correct URL nothing else matters, really. The text to alter you can basically write anything instead of what I wrote. You can alter the text so it will read “PDF my blog” or “Convert my blog into a PDF”, etc. You can say anything really but no matter what you do keep it simple and keep it clear so people understand what its function will achieve.

So, how do you add this code to your profile or blog? Well, firstly highlight and copy the code with my altered URL and text in it – all the code which includes the blue text in it. I mean the second lot of code that does not have a border around it. Go to the page you want to add it to (for example, your blog page or your profile page) and on a piece of paper write down that page’s url which will be displayed in your web browser’s url address bar (top left hand corner of your computer screen, generally). Click on the edit function for that page. (If you want to add it to your profile page you would need to click on “edit profile” at the top of the page, for example.) When the edit section page appears, I mean when the next page loads up, click on the “HTML” function tab. It’s a little blue square in the top part of the edit section. After that page loads scroll down to the very bottom and on a new line right click the mouse and click on “paste”. All the code will then be pasted into that section.

Delete carefully my URL highlighted in blue and bold and replace it with your own URL which you wrote down on paper – letter for letter, symbol for symbol. Don’t add a forward slash “/” at the end of your url though. Make sure the text is not in “bold” and is black in colour. Carefully delete the text which I have highlighted in blue and in bold and replace those words with your own.

Only two more things to do now! Next, click on the “update” button then click on the “save” button at the very bottom of the edit page you were on first or if on a blog edit page click on the “publish” button at the top. Now you can check out the pdf function for yourself, or as the saying goes take it for a test drive.

I always recommend testing all new alterations and additions out that were added to a profile or blog to see if they work properly. So test yours out and see if it works. If it works for you it will work for your visitors.If you've left some code out the link will take you to this web page : http://pdfmyurl.com/?url=http://www.alienufosightingsvideo.com/blog/bluelights . If that should happen recheck all the code again that you added to see if you left "pg/" out of the code.

This is actually what it looks like, and you can test it here if you like. download this blog page as a PDF

With several months experience working with html code on my Blogger blogs looking at this site again with fresh eyes I now see where a lot of things can be placed on this site without uploading everything as a file. There are many things that simply cannot be uploaded as a file anyway that actually can also be embeded onto a page or on your profile. I am no expert in html code or website making – that should be obvious because I don’t know the proper terminology for such things. Although it is still a trial and error lifestyle being a member of this site my endeavour to help others with their profiles has become a big concern and obsession with me. I guess this is why I have begun making video tutorials for this site, and why I wrote up the entire FAQ by myself. Paul Fanning just added it to his website template.

I have over 100 video tutorials I plan on making for this site but whether I will make them all is another story. Some of them I will turn into tutorials just like this one and they will become blog posts. I am considering deleting my current blogs and replacing them with an alienufosightingsvideo blog devoted to helping people with html codes, etc. You know the sort of help blog I’m referring to, right? Well, it’ll be like how to add certain html codes to let’s say add a side panel to your blog or something silly like that or how to add certain functions to help improve the look of your blog or profile. Everybody wants to have all their stuff out there and recognized by the bigger rating providers (like Google or Alexa) and have all their content searchable and indexed. You can achieve that on this site but it does take time to achieve.

Blogging is never one of the easiest things to do on any site least of all this one. At first glance the blog page is dull, unchangeable and well, pretty lifeless if you ask me. The same can be said about a standard profile page but at least you can swap widgets about and edit them but it’s still pretty much the same though. Boring!

So let me turn that frown upside down and share with you the many ways of improving, altering, and adding content to your profile or blog that will make you a lot happier. This blog is all about just that!

Let’s say you want to share your profile with someone on Facebook, or be able to email a friend or yourself a copy of your profile page. Most people, when they come to this site do not usually add other things to their profile except for the basic information required to build a profile, if anything at all. Some people still don’t know how to do the most basic functions on this site and that is fine. I guess that is what I am here for. But as the only member who sees so much potential and the most actively involved with wanting to help improve this site I must say that there is so much you can do with your profile once you know how and it can be made to be as active and prominent as any other popular website. Ok, it’s not the most perfect website for a social network site at the moment and the little problems that do arise on this site you can simply go around most of the time. They are not major problems to really be concerned with or stress over.

Sharing your profile with another person or website is probably one of the easiest things to do in the world. It doesn’t involve skill as such – even a monkey could do it. Below is the code for a “Addtoany.com” share button. It is one of my favourite all time buttons to have on any of my profiles anywhere. It is a simple button that has multiple functions as well as an email function built into it, so you can email anyone, even yourself, the entire page you place this button on. Well, in reality, that is the plan but what you end up with in an email to yourself is just a link to your “whatever” page you added the share button to. That’s frustrating and defies the whole point in sending an email in the first place. I’ve come up with a better solution for emails which I will discuss in another blog post. You can post the page on Facebook, MySpace, or numerous other profiles. Here’s the code for the share button:

<a href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkname=&linkurl=http://www.alienufosightingsvideo.com/pg/blog/bluelights><img src="http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" border="0" width="171" height="16" /></a>

Below is what the button looks like once added to your page. As you can see if you hover your mouse arrow over the button a lot of options are displayed. As the button suggests you can either share content or save content.

To add this button to your profile simply highlight and copy the above button code, or go to the www.Addtoany.com website and choose your own button, style and size you want to add to your profile. Don’t worry, you do not need to register and the button code is entirely free. I’ve tested the button out on numerous profiles and it works, even on this website. The code must be copied either way! Then go to your alienufosightingsvideo profile page and click on “edit profile”. In the “about me” section click on the “HTML” square button at the top of that section. When the html pop-up box appears scroll down to the very bottom of all the text and/or code and on a new line at the very bottom right click your mouse and select and click on “paste” in the drop down mouse menu. The share/save button code is then pasted into the html box. You only then need to remove my URL http://www.alienufosightingsvideo.com/pg/blog/bluelights and replace it with your own url. You can also adjust the width "171" and make that number smaller, as well as adjusting the height "16" to make it bigger or smaller to suit your needs. Then just click on update and the share/save button will appear in the profile editor section right at the very bottom of the “about me” section. Simply click on “save” at the bottom of that page to add the button to your profile page. It’s that easy!

So, where can you put this share/save button? Well, where do you want to put it? You can add it to a blog post or to your entire blog. You can add it to a page, to your profile page. You can add it as a comment along with a text or video comment. The possibilities are endless really!

This is where I got this blog template from:

http://www.createblog.com/blogger-layouts/                         

So for many hours now I've been trying to figure out how to alter a blog template to make it into a mini blog but I am having no luck with it whatsoever. It is far easier to embed a video than figure out how to make blog templates work on this site. It is really frustrating not having a decent blog to display all the vital widgets or even to have a blog page that continues on and is not a separate entity to previous blog posts.

Print me!        download my blog as a PDF