Blogger Beta Hack Round-Up 2 - Freshblog

A whole raft of new hacks for Blogger Beta since the last time we cataloged your available options. Most of these are courtesy of your usual suspects: Hoctro, Ramani, Hans, Vivek, Singpolyma, but there's some other folks working on this good stuff too.... Here's the latest:

• First, Hoctro notes the new Beta feature that allows the mass-application of a single label to a number of posts by selecting the checkbox on a list (just like when you delete your e-mail!) Good call, Blogger! Update: See screenshots etc at Phydeaux3.
  

• Since we're talking labels, check out Ramani's mighty-fine multi-mode choose-your-own-format label menu widget for your beta sidebar. Would you like your labels in a list? A drop-down? A cloud? (Mmmmm... Clouds!) How about all three, with the option for the reader to switch between them? 'Tis done....

• As I noted earlier in the week, Trackback for Blogger Beta is now available, using custom Haloscan code courtesy of Logical Philosopher, modified by Pete from Utter Muttering. If you have Haloscan comments, you'll need 2 sets of the code... 1 for the comments and a second (Pete-style) for the Trackbacks.
  

• Singpolyma has developed peek-a-boo comment code for beta, so that you can have inline comments that pop out beneath the body of your post. Apparently he's now investigating the possibilities of an inline comment form that will peek-a-boo too!

• Another goodie from Singpolyma... A feed-links widget for your sidebar, to get feed links up and away from your page footer, where they may not be having a lot of fun!

• Mohammed at Daily Routines explains how to add a third column to your Blogger Beta template, and suggests a strategy for adding HTML / Javascript elements to your template that are true page footers.
  

• Vivek Sanghi presents a workaround that will display "subscribe to comments" links on each post without displaying the default post-feed options.... Useful if you're on Feedburner or similar.
  

• Since Feedburner Feedflare is now post-footer legal, Loup d'Argent points to Feedburner's new Beta-friendly Feedflare insert code on the Feedburner forums. Flare your Beta Blog's Footer forthwith!
  

• More good stuff from Ramani. He's upgraded a couple of pre-beta hacks for the new system. You can now highlight your comments on your own blog, as well as setting up your comments section with e-mail icons so that you can e-mail a previous commenter to notify them of your comment / response. Very cool, & an additional tool to use alongside the beta comment feeds.
  

• Hans at Beautiful Beta has the scoop on creating a horizontal navigation menu between your header and your content on Blogger Beta. A useful & welcome addition.
  

• Hans also points to Gabriel Lau's Random Rotating Banner Hack for Beta. Change out your Beta header images automagically and in a random-type way! Grand.
  

• In a comment on Amit's Digital Inspiration, Vin from Blog Widgetry explains how to add a second element field to the main body section of your beta blog (where the posts go) so that (for instance) your adsense stays where you put it instead of scrolling down with the posts.

• While we're talking Adsense, Improbulus points out that the addition of Adsense to Beta blogs is now an officially sanctioned / supported activity, with official Blogger help etc, & that there might be an overload in the circuits due to the additional demand for accounts.
  

• Finally (for now)... If you still want to lose the Navbar from your beta blog, in spite of the new cool functions and the interface to your blogger acct when you're signed in, Epirater has edited the Blogger Templates nav-bar hack to make it work in Beta.

Lots of great stuff, and more to come, I'm sure. Update: Phydeaux3 looks at the promise of more to come by evaluating beta code that hints at more features than are currently offered.

For more, see our first Blogger Beta Hacks Round-Up, & watch for volume 3 in the series...

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