Switch Blogger to “Classic” or “XML” Mode

Many people still seem to be confused about how to apply new templates to their Blogger blog. It’s not suprising though because Blogger didn’t seem to care about clearly marking the differences between the two when you are at the template editor page in your control panel. They should have used a much better naming convention and put some type of heading on the editor page that CLEARLY says which mode your blog is running in. The fact is that Blogger can run in two different modes, one is called “classic” and the other is often referred to as either “XML” or “beta”. The confusing interface is what causes most of the problems when people try to paste in a new template, with complaints like “I can’t get it to work, I keep getting errors!”.

This tutorial should help you to see the differences between the two modes and how to switch back and forth. First up is how to switch your blog to the new XML or “beta” mode. If your blog is running in “classic” mode already you will see a template editor like the one pictured below, and you will see the words “Customize Design” as pointed out by the red arrow. All you have to do is click it and choose a new template and you will automatically be switched to the “new” or “beta” mode. This will allow you to replace the code in the template editor with a custom template designed to be used in “beta” or “new” mode. “Classic” templates WILL NOT work in this mode!!!!

Now for switching your blog to “classic” mode if it’s already running in “beta” or XML mode. If you look at the image below you’ll see that the template editor page looks different than the one pictured above. The editor is much narrower and there’s a check box that says “Expand Widget Templates”. If you see that then your blog is running in XML or “beta” mode. Switching to “classic” is very easy, however Blogger did a very good job of hiding the link to do the switch over. You have to look underneath the template editor window for the words “Revert to Classic Template”. Once you click the link it will take you to a page where you can select a new template. Once you make the choice and save it you will now be running in “classic” mode. This will allow you to edit the template and install custom templates that are designed for the “classic” mode. Templates designed for XML or “beta” mode WILL NOT work in classic mode!!!!

There are a number of differences between the two modes in how they work, but the most important one when trying to edit your template is determining WHICH mode you are currently in. If you try to edit your template manually and you keep getting XML parse errors you are running in “XML” or “beta” mode. “Classic” mode is much simpler to work with for manually editing your template but the drag and drop widgets are unavailable and will not work and neither will templates designed for “classic” mode.

If you want to use templates designed for “classic” mode you MUST SWITCH your template FIRST or the template WILL NOT WORK.

What is Blog and how to be blogger ?

Image via Wikipedia

Create a blog. It’s free.

• Your blog. Share your thoughts, photos and more with your friends and the world.
• Easy to use. It’s easy to post text, photos and videos from the web or your mobile phone.
• Flexible. Unlimited flexibility to personalize your blog with themes, gadgets and more.

It’s easy and only takes a minute.

What is a blog?

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a website, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.

And Blogger is pretty sure the whole deal is just getting started.

Publish your thoughts

A blog gives you your own voice on the web. It is a place to collect and share things that you find interesting— whether it is your political commentary, a personal diary or links to websites that you want to remember.

Many people use a blog just to organize their own thoughts, while others command influential, worldwide audiences of thousands. Professional and amateur journalists use blogs to publish breaking news, while personal journalers reveal inner thoughts.

Whatever you have to say, Blogger can help you say it.

Engage Your Friends

Blogging is about more than just putting your thoughts on the web. It is about connecting with and hearing from anyone who reads your work and cares to respond. With Blogger, you control who can read and write to your blog — allow just a few friends or the entire world to see what you have to say!

Blogger Comments allow anyone, anywhere, to offer feedback on your posts. You can choose whether you want to allow comments on a post-by-post basis and you can delete any comments that you do not like.

Access Controls allow you to decide who can read and who can write to your blog. You can use a group blog with multiple authors as an excellent communication tool for small teams, families and other groups. Or as a single author, you can create a private online space for collecting news, links and ideas to keep to yourself or share with as many readers as you want.

Blogger Profiles allow you to find people and blogs that share your interests. Your Blogger Profile, where you can list your blogs, your interests and more, allows people to find you (but only if you want to be found).

Design your blog

Whether you are starting your blog or just think that it is time to give your existing blog a facelift, Blogger’s user-friendly editing tools help you easily design a great-looking page.

Templates — Our collection of templates will get you started with an attractive site right away without you having to learn any HTML, though Blogger also allows you to edit your blog’s HTML code whenever you want.

Custom colours and fonts — When you are ready to take the next step, you can further customise our templates to create a design that perfectly reflects you and your blog.

Drag-and-drop page elements — Blogger’s simple drag-and-drop system allows you to easily decide exactly where your posts, profiles, archives and other parts of your blog should live on the page.

Post photos

Sometimes you just want to share a photo. There is a button for uploading photos in the Blogger interface. Just click the photo button to upload a photo from your computer. If the photo you would like to put on your blog is already on the web that is fine too. Just tell Blogger where it is.

You can also send camera phone photos straight to your blog while you’re on-the-go with Blogger Mobile.

Go Mobile

Blogger Mobile lets you send photos and text straight to your blog while you are on the go. All you need to do is send a message to go@blogger.com from your phone. You do not even need a Blogger account. The message itself is enough to create a brand new blog and post whatever photo and text you have sent.

Later, if you want to claim your mobile blog or switch your posts to another blog, simply sign in to go.blogger.com and use the claim code that Blogger sent to your phone.

Blogger support most popular mobile carriers in the UK and worldwide. If Blogger Mobile is unavailable from your provider, you can still send posts to your blog using Mail-to-Blogger.

Get started

The fastest way to understand blogging is to try it out. We have worked really hard to make it really easy for you. Just click the link below, and you can be part of the phenomenon that is transforming web and media to a participatory activity in less than five minutes. Seriously.

What will happen then? Who knows. It might be fun, though.

And remember: Blogger is totally free and if you have any trouble, just click the Help button from any screen to find the answer that you are looking for—or ask Blogger dedicated support staff.

Here after all these info on how to start blogging ! all you need is to press here and start your own blog

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How to upload a blogger template???

Image via Wikipedia

Many people make the usual mistake when installing a new blogger template (XML format). Most of the problems faced while installing a new template are caused by the blogger widgets (Page Elements) that you’ve spent time setting up in your previous template. Almost all Blogger templates available for download on this blog are in the new Blogger .xml template format so if you’ve downloaded the template from here, it’s going to be lot easier to follow our instructions.

Step #1 – Backup Your Current Template:

Backup your current Template just in case you make a mistake. This is very important so you can always go back (click on the screenshot to the left to see exactly how this is done). You’ll want to navigate to the “Template —->Edit HTML” section of Blogger and then look for the “Before editing your template, you may want to save a copy of it “.

Here, click on the “Download Full Template“ and save it somewhere easy to find later on your computer. We are not responsible for any mistakes you make in applying your new Blogger template. Once you have saved this .xml file onto your computer, move on to step #2.

Step #2 – Take a Screenshot of Your Page Elements

This next step isn’t necessary but I like to do it anyhow. Take a screenshot your “Page Elements” page just so you know exactly what widgets (Page Elements) you had before applying the new template (an example of the exact page you should take a screenshot of is in the image to the left). If you blow away all your widgets and you don’t remember which ones you had, this screenshot will at least help you to remember.

Step #3 – Upload Your New Blogger Template

Now it’s time to upload the new Blogger template from your computer. You’ll want to navigate to the “Template —> Edit HTML” section of Blogger and then look for the “Upload a template from a file on your hard drive” text. To the right of that you’ll see two buttons. First, you’ll click on “Browse” and navigate to the new .xml Blogger template on your computer and click “Open”. Then you click on the “Upload” button and cross your fingers.

At this point Blogger is attempting to apply the new .xml Blogger template to your blog. After it’s done, you’ll get a message stating that the upload and new template was applied successfully (in that case you’re done!) or more likely in my case, you’ll get a red error message that states something like:

Widgets are about to be deleted

Please confirm that the following widgets should be deleted. All the widgets’ configuration data will be lost.

• Text1
• BloggerButton1
• Poll1
• Profile1

Now you can go and backup the widgets or if they are not so important just click the

Voila!!!! you just changed the look and feel of your blog…

A word on widget backup :

You need not be worrying about backing up all the widgets, most of them are like Labels, Categories, Profile widgets, etc. which are available in Blogger by default.You need to worry about the html / javascript widget.Before changing the template, copy the scripts from this widget and save as a text file. Later, after successfully uploading your new template, reinstall these codes using the same html / javascript widget.

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15 Best Free Premium Blogger Templates

Portfolio: 2 Column Blogger xml Template With Slideshow

Features:

Professional Blogger xml Template 2009, 2 Column

Dominated black, white, and blue color

Java Script slide featured for showing your blog post

Top vertical CSS based Navigation menu with a: hover effect

Suitable for artwork, art folio, design portfolio blogs

Expandable Post summary (Read More) enabled

Search box ready

Easy customizable

Demo |Download

Dreamy: Blue Premium Style Blogger xml Template

Features:

Simple, organized, professional look, blue, minimalist blogger template 2009

Gallery style main page

Automatic summary (Expandable post) feature

Automatic thumbnail of post images

Cool CSS based Navigation Bar

Custom comments, Blockquotes and Lists

Suitable for entertainment, Photo gallery Portfolio blog

Demo |Download

Paper View:Stylish Blogger xml Template

Features:

Simple, cool looking premium minimalist blogger template

Blogger template 2009 with old newspaper (background) paper style

very cool contrast and stylish posts and blog title.

A custom vertical CSS menu at the top

4-column footer! That’s even more place for content and widgets

Custom lists, blockquotes and also a custom comments section

Automatic Post summary enabled

Customizable Blogger xml template

Demo |Download

Magazine Template R.1.2: Free Premium Blogger Template

Features:

Magazine style free blogger xml template 2009

3 column fixed width template

Image Hover Link on Carousel Viewer (a: hover effect for the carousel viewer more attractively)

Expandable post summary

Drop down CSS+Java Script Menu on the top (Sub menu enabled)

Stylist Real magazine blue xml template

3 columns on Footer widgets

Favicon Icon included

Google adsense ready

Highly customizable

Demo |Download

Comfy: Magazine style Premium Blogger Template

Features:

Free Magazine style one column blogger xml template

Adsense ready professional blogger template, Clean in design

2 vertical CSS navigation menu

Post title and blog title swap for better SEO

Yahoo smiles to comment box

Read More option activated

Related post widget to make your work easy

Retweet(Social Bookmark) Button For better traffic

Page Navigation enable, wordpress style

Built in search bar

Highly customizable

Demo |Download

Plantilla : web 2 Style Magazine Blogger Template

Features:

Free Magazine style one column blogger xml template

Adsense ready professional blogger template, Clean in design

vertical CSS navigation menu

Image based Navigation on top

Expandable post summary / Read more option

Built in search bar

Cool footer design

Footer widgets

Customizable template

Demo |Download

Corporate :Stylish Black Blogger Template

Features:

Free Professional style one column blogger xml template

Black-Blue and Stylish in design

2 CSS navigation menus

Navigation on bottom

Built in search bar

Cool footer design

Demo |Download

Gamezine: Free Professional Template For Blogger

Features:

Free Professional style blogger xml template with a lots of Interactivity

Video bar, Search box

Java Script Slide Show, Read more option

Java Script and CSS based menu

Magazine Style blogger Xml template

Professional content glider

Java Script tab enable

Content glider

Video And News mini thumbnails

Multi level drop down menu

Best for game, news and entertainment site

Search bar, Adsense ready

Easily customizable

Demo |Download

Bmagazine : Magazine Style Blogger Template 2009

Features:

Magazine style premium blogger template

Highly customizable

All browsers Supported

Java Script Day and Date shower

Updates section above header

Facebook style lightbox – Facebox

Multi Level Drop down menu

Browser support: FF1+ IE6+ Opera8+ 8

Subnavbar – one click show and hide

Three column middle box

Dedicated space at homepage (just above Content area to input any content)

Bookmark icons ready

Embedded Comment Form

Go to top and bottom buttons

Links in sidebar widget tile

4 Column Footer. (Fixed height)

Search box, adsense ready

Demo |Download

Magasin Seis : Web 2 Style Professional Blogger Template

Features:

Unique magazine style Blogger xml Template

Smooth Gallery based Featured Content Slider

Ads gadget for ready ads(Adsense Ready)

Top Java Script Navigation Menu

Email Subscription button

Twitter update section

Flickr section image utility

Best view in IE 8, Firefox RC3, Opera 9.6, Google Chrome 0.3.154.9, Safari 4 Public Beta

Read more option

Search, video bar

Customizable template

Demo |Download

Bcute : Fresh Blogger Template For 2009

Features:

2 Columns, Fixed Width, Right Sidebar Blogger xml template

Beautiful Wooden and Grass background

Floating Content within post area

Twitter, search box, top CSS menu links

Clean and Dark background

Customizable blogger template

Demo |Download

Notebook : Cool design Inspiration Blogspot Template

Features:

2 Columns, Fixed Width, Right Sidebar Blogger xml template

Beautiful artwork and background

Floating Content within post area

CSS menu links

Clean background

Customizable blogger template

Demo |Download

One Room : WordPress Style Web 2 Blogger xml Template

Features:

Web 2 style blogger Template, adaptation of wordpress

3 Column green fixed width blogger template of 2009

Right and left sidebar

Widgets ready

CSS navigation menu, Subscribe and Search bar enable

Unique design in Comment section

Professional Page navigation

Customizable blogger template

Demo |Download

miniBlog: Cool Blogger xml Template of 2009

Features:

Web 2 style blogger Template, adaptation of wordpress

minimalist, simple, theme options

1 Column grey fixed width blogger template of 2009

Widgets ready

Tab Content viewer

Read More(Expandable post summary enable)

Widgets ready

Integrated Feed, Twitter update, Search bar

CSS vertical top navigation menu

Highly customizable blogger template

Demo |Download

SchemerMag: Magazine style 3 Column Blogger Template

Features:

Thumbnails on articles (automatic resize)

Google Adsense/banner ready

3 Columns

SEO Optimized

Featured video

Read more..(automatic summarize)

Integrated FeedSearch bar

CSS vertical top navigation menu

Demo |Download

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20 New Templates

So in this blog post I will share 20 new free blogger XML templates and you can download them from given sources [ Click on template image to visit download page ] .

1. Mosaicus Ultimate Blogger Template :- It is a gallery style blogger template which has a premium jQuery feature called FullSize to show up a bigger version of each photo . So you can use this theme as photo blogger template too .

2. Lizzard Theme :- It is a 2 column clean and simple free blogger layout . Designer added navbar on top and provided banner ads space on header .

3. Touch River Template :- It is a three column new blogger theme which contains features like summary read-more hack , avatar comments hack and content slider .

4. Luxuryliner Theme :- It is a three column cool blogger template which can be used for travel and Tourism blogs . Layout of this blog template is very clean and neat and contains all same features like above design .

5. Ibizpress Lighttech2 :- It is a 3 column magazine style blogger template . Width of theme is fixed and it has features like summary read-more hack , avatar comments hack and content slider .

6. Silvermotion Blogger Template :- It is a 3 column magazine style blogger template . Originally it is designed for wordpress theme but designer converted it for blogspot users also .

7. Techstop Theme :- It is a two column adsense optimized blogger xml template . Designer also added 125×125 and 300X250 Banner Ads space for users . I think this design is created for tech bloggers but with little customization you can use it for any niche blog .

8. Trendy Cork Blogger Template :-It is a two column adsense optimized black blogger template . Designer provided 300×250 advertisement block near the featured tabber option .

9. Chucky Blogger Template :- It is a magazine style blogger layout with neat white and blue color combination . It contains all good options like Featured with minipost and slideshow featured menu . It also contains In-built automatic thumbnail and read-more feature .

10. Mainam Template :- It is a three column professional blogger theme . Its header is splitted into two sections and theme contains some great features like Swap Title Hack For Blogger , Hidden Navbar Layout , Embed Comment Form etc .

11. Harry Potter Black Edition :- It is a three column black blogger theme . Designer created this theme for all Harry Potter movie fans .

12. Blog Art Zine Layout :- This theme layout looks same like wordpress CSS gallery designs . If you are planning to open your own blogger template gallery blog than you can use this them .

13. MobiPress :- It is a Stylist blue, white, and grey color template which is converted from wordpress to blogger . For more installation guide you can click on below given image .

14. Prometheus Blog Template :- It is a magazine style premium blogger template .You can use this blog design to show news or articles on your blogs .

15. Xclear Blogger Template :- It is a four column clean white color newspaper style blogger template. I think blogspot users can use this theme for news blogs .

16. FreshPick Blogger Theme :- Its a 2 column template that has a minimalist and clean layout. FreshPick contains a featured post section below the header, that allows you to display a brief of your best post along with an image .

17. Letter Frame Template:- It is a three column traditional and artistic style classic blogger template with amazing letter and its cool frames . Template is tested on all major browsers and working fine with all .

18. Not Magazine Blogger Template :- It is a 4 column template that becomes 3 column on entering a post. Its a wonderful feature as it gives more space for your post .

19. Voo Cogozy Magazine Theme :- It is a 2 column professional blogger theme . I like header style designed by this user very much .

20. Voo TwizttreZ Template :- It is a twitter based 2 column blogger template which contains features like Slider Image Slideshow , Link Navigations etc . Designer also added 125×125 banner ads images where you can post sponsors ads .