Troubleshooter - How to- Add widgets, Gadgets, And other stuff to blog And websites

With in 5 minutes
Start with a blank Blogger page (you should be logged in to your Blog). Choose a template with a wide sidebar—you don’t want your apps to spill over the boundary of the page. The Customize link at the top right will take you to the Edit Layout page—click on Add a Page Element and you’ll get a pop-up with options to add polls, pictures, HTML/JavaScript, feeds, logos, a video bar, and more. You can edit the HTML of the page —or do it the easier way. Choose from Google Gadgets (www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open) — they have an astonishing variety of gadgets tailored for almost everything. Inserting the into your page is simple enough—copy a line of HTML and paste it in Blogger’s element holder for HTML / JavaScript. Many of these Gadgets— especially those with eye candy—need Flash to work; install the free Flash player from www.adobe.com/products/ flashplayer/ if you don’t have it.

The First Gadget: Adding social networking sites—especially Facebook and Orkut—to your blog is now a breeze. If you’re a Facebook junkie, this is for you—a search on the directory will bring up Facebook apps that let you check your account from within your Blogger page. Select the gadget and click on Add to your webpage. You’ll get a snapshot of your gadget, with some minor settings like size adjustments and colour schemes. Play around with them till you’re satisfied. Other settings are specific to the gadget—in this case, you have options forto keep in your Facebook gadget.Once you’ve made your choice, click onGet the Code at the bottom. A line of HTML code appears, which you copy and paste into the HTML / JavaScript element holder. Simple. More Gadgets After putting in the first gadget, you should be raring to go. For the rest, here are our recommendations: Orkut: Access to Orkut is quite easy from your page, especially a Google site like Blogger. There are no sign-in hassles, and your Orkut profile with fullblown functionality is enabled with this nifty gadget. IM: Access to IMs (Gtalk, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and more) is quite easy with gadgets available. The Yahoo! Messenger gadget is nothing special, but Google Talk was like the real thing. Tabbed conversations, smileys, the ability to hold group chats, calling up contacts—you get all the goodies. Visitor Map: Find out where your visitors come from, on a Google map. The map uses an API from Clicky (www. getclicky.com), a Web analytics service. To use this gadget, register your site at Clicky, then go to the Google Gadgets page and get the HTML code. There is a slight bug here—till Clicky gets enough visitor statistics, the map shows the default image. For lighting up the mood, we put in the English to Yoda speak converter (we love Star Wars, and we love the little Jedi master most). Type in any English sentence—“Work is a pain in the neck”—and a few seconds later, up pops up, in Yoda speak: “Pain in the neck work is. Yes, hmmm”. (A swear word elicits a scolding.) Google Maps: Inserting maps, even if you have no experience with code, is very easy with Google maps. To create a custom map, you need to go to Google Maps, select My Maps, click on Create New Map and start dragging placeholders and drawing lines and shapes on your map. When you’re done, click on Link To This Page at the top right of the map, and get the HTML code. Flickr Zeitgeist: This is a small widget to display your photos from Flickr, if you have any uploaded there. Visit www.flickr.com/fun/ zeitgeist/ to get your HTML code. Of course, you don’t have to settle for what’s already there...