Adding A "Top Of Page" Button To The Blog

This week, I added a gadget that's been needed, on this blog, for some time.

You may see my new "Top" button, at the lower right corner of this blog. If you have a normally wide browser window, with wallpaper showing on either side of the posts / sidebar section, you'll see the new gadget floating on top of the wallpaper. If you have squeezed your browser window to save horizontal space, you may see the new gadget floating on top of the sidebar (but beneath the sidebar gadgets).

This is an extremely easy tweak to add. The hard part was finding - and sizing - the icon that I used.

To find a suitable icon for the button, Google for it.

To find the icon, Google Is Your Friend. Just look through the search listings, until you find one that fits with your blog.

free up arrow icon

Once you have found an icon that you like, download to your computer - then upload to your blog - politely. Don't hot link icons.

• Hotlinking is rude, and may abuse somebody's limited bandwidth.
• Hotlinking depends upon somebody's intention to host their icons, using their service, for eternity (however long you publish your blog, anyway).

Once your chosen icon is saved as a blog image, setup the button code.

Once you have your icon politely saved as part of your blog, add an HTML gadget - and add the gadget code, in the Content window of the HTML gadget.

<a style="display:scroll;position:fixed;bottom:20px;right:60px;" href="#" title="Top"><img border="0" height="60" width="60"  src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2eOcCRS3N1_JwNrk6zva82CQybo8TWCvgMs6lUtZhyl_6XrkbjWP8Ayf2eQLtg3KEaUMruYNMT3uHK7llf3gltPNd6PMaMEjSWXuTpPzCX-fAebzTg5xQTb9kdRRiRhVVm347DAyfZzdk/s320/Up+Arrow+4.jpg" /></a>

Here's the magic.

style="display:scroll;position:fixed;bottom:20px;right:60px;"

That positions the icon in a fixed location on the screen. The new HTML gadget contains the code - and can be located anywhere in the blog. The magic determines where the icon is displayed.

Adjust settings, to make the button appear in an acceptable screen position.

Adjust "Bottom" and "Right" values, to position your new icon in the desired location, for your blog. Resize the browser window a few times - make it narrower and wider - and get an idea how the final location of the icon may vary. Test in different browsers, too.

This is my icon:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2eOcCRS3N1_JwNrk6zva82CQybo8TWCvgMs6lUtZhyl_6XrkbjWP8Ayf2eQLtg3KEaUMruYNMT3uHK7llf3gltPNd6PMaMEjSWXuTpPzCX-fAebzTg5xQTb9kdRRiRhVVm347DAyfZzdk/s320/Up+Arrow+4.jpg

Your icon will have a different URL. Use your own icon, please!

Then sit back, and enjoy your blog, with its new navigational aid.

A caveat.

If you add your "Top Of Page" button code into a page or post, never switch between Compose and HTML modes, when editing that page or post.

Transferring A Blog From One EMail Account To Another - An Alternate

I've written about the simple procedure of transferring a blog from one Blogger account to another, and how simple it should be.

Sometimes reality steps in - and the normal transfer procedure won't work.

• Maybe you don't want your EMail (GMail) address known by the current blog owner.
• Maybe the two EMail addresses are thoroughly tangled - you invite the second EMail address as a blog member but just don't get the email - even in "Bulk" or "Spam"! What to do?
• Maybe you opened the invitation email under one account, but were logged in to Blogger using the other account. This can happen if you execute the transfer, using just one browser.

Sometimes, having ignored one or two basic (to me) rules of Blogger account existence, you just can't send a membership invitation to a second Blogger account.

Here's where we think outside the box.

• Setup an extra email account, based upon any non GMail email address. I'll suggest Yahoo.com as an example here - but you can use whatever email service works for you.
• Go to Settings - Permissions, and add your new Yahoo email address as an invited member.
• For the Yahoo email part of the process, use a separate browser. If this browser has been used before, clear cache, cookies, and authenticated sessions, restart the browser, and login again to Yahoo. Start with a clean browser here.
• Go to your Yahoo email account, and open your email. Remember to look in your "Bulk" or "Spam" folder, if you don't see anything in "Inbox".
• Accept membership in the blog.
• When you're asked for an account / password, select "Use a different account"!
• Enter the second Blogger account name (address), and the correct password for that account.
• Go back to the Permissions display, and refresh.
• Verify that you have a new member in the Author list.
• Return to the normal procedure, and complete the transfer.

A little extra work, that. But if you need to transfer control of the blog, to make it possible to manage the blog from the other Blogger account, it's probably worth it.

And, next time you transfer blog ownership, you will (hopefully) use two browsers, in the transfer.

Future Scheduled Posts Now a Thing Of The Present

Scheduling a post, to publish in the future, is not at all a difficult task. Before you hit the "Publish Post" button, simply select the "Post Options" link just above that button, and change the date and / or time to some time in the future. Then, hit the button.

If it takes effect, when you hit the button, instead of getting the

Your blog post published successfully!

screen, you'll see the "Edit Posts" menu, with your new post listed, but shown with the "scheduled" notation besides the date / time stamp.

After the indicated date / time, refresh the "Edit Posts" screen, and you'll see that the post is now published. Or refresh the front page of the blog, and the newest post, just published, should be at the top. With dynamic publishing of the blog, you (or another blog reader) will have to do something in the way of reading the blog, to trigger the publishing.

If you're like me, and like to publish posts with a far future date, to keep some posts at the top of the blog, just Publish the post once without changing the date. Then Edit the post, and change the date as you like. The future posting date only takes effect when you change the date on a new post; edit the post after publishing, and the future posting feature is bypassed.

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Are you having a problem with scheduled posts? Which scenario applies in your case?

1. Things that post immediately, when they shouldn't.
2. Things that post later, when they should post immediately.
3. Things that never post.

What time zones differences might apply, in your case?

• Time zone where you live.
• Time zone on your computer.
• Time zone of the blog.
• Is DST in effect?

And look very carefully, at how you typed the post date and time, and at several relevant settings on your blog and you computer. Did you type the date as "mm/dd/yy", or as "dd/mm/yy", for instance?

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