How to Change Jump Break (Read More) Font, Color & Background Color in Blogger Template Designer

Blogger officially supports 'after the jump' summaries. You can insert a jump break anywhere in a post to make it short on the blog homepage. The part after the jump break will be visible only when user will click on the Jump Break or Read More link. In this tutorial, we'll add some coding in the template HTML. After that, you'd be able to change the font, color or even the background color of the Jump Break or Read More from the Template Designer.

Update!: This tutorial has been updated on 08/06-2012. Now, it can be applied to any default Blogger template without errors.

What is Jump Break or Read More Link?

If you don't know anything about Jump Break or Read More links, please read the following article in the official Blogger help.

Creating 'After the jump' summaries

Steps

Follow these simple steps to complete this Blogspot tutorial.

1. Open the Template section.

2. Click the Edit HTML button.

3. A new window will open. You'd have to click the Proceed button to start editing.

4. Scroll down a bit and you'll see this code:
   

   /* Variable definitions
   ====================

   Tip: Windows users can press 'Ctrl + f' to fing the code.
5. Replace the above code with the following code:
   

   /* Variable definitions
   ====================
   
      <Group description="Read More" selector=".jump-link">
        <Variable name="readmore.font" description="Font" type="font"
            default="normal normal 12px Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" value="normal normal 30px 'Courier New', Courier, FreeMono, monospace"/>
        <Variable name="rm.link.color" description="Link Color" type="color" default="#FFFFFF" value="#666666"/>
        <Variable name="rm.link.hover.color" description="Link Hover Color" type="color" default="#222222" value="#f5f5f5"/>
      </Group>
   
      <Group description="Read More Background" selector=".jump-link">
        <Variable name="rm.bg" description="Background Color" type="color" default="#00000" value="#222222"/>
      </Group>

6. After that, find ]]></b:skin> and replace it with the following code:
   

   .jump-link { float: right; font: $(readmore.font); background: $(rm.bg); }
   .jump-link a, .jump-link a:visited { color: $(rm.link.color); }
   .jump-link a:hover { color: $(rm.link.hover.color);  }
   ]]></b:skin>

7. Now, save your template.
8. After saving template, open the 'Template Designer'.
9. In 'Template Designer', expand the Advanced tab and you'll see "Read More Link" tab at the top.
   
   
   
10. You can change the font, color and background color and instantly see the preview. However, changes in hover link color will not be visible in the preview.
11. After customizing the Jump Break or Read More link, click 'APPLY TO BLOG' link to save your changes.

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Blogspot How To: Change Post Title Color in Blogger Template Designer Templates

I have received a lot of comments on a previous post. Readers are asking how to change the post title color in the new Blogger Template Designer templates. Well, here is a very simple step by step tutorial for you.We'll make some changes in the template CSS and then you'll be able to customize post title without any coding stuff.

Warning: Before making any changes, you must backup your existing layout:

Blogspot How to: Backup Your Blogger (Blogspot) Template

Steps to Make Post Title Font Customizable in the Blogger Template Designer Templates.

1. Open the Template section.

2. Click the Edit HTML button.

3. A new window will open. You'd have to click the Proceed button to start editing.

4. Find the following code:
   

   /* Variable definitions
      ====================

5. REPLACE the above code with the following one:
   

   /* Variable definitions
      ====================
   
      <Group description="Post Title Color" selector="h3.post-title">
        <Variable name="post.title.link.color" description="Link Color" type="color" default="#ff0000" value="#ff0000"/>
        <Variable name="post.title.hover.color" description="Link Hover Color" type="color" default="#0000ff" value="#00ffff"/>
        <Variable name="post.title.color" description="Color on Post Page" type="color" default="#ff00ff" value="#ff00ff"/>
      </Group>
   

   
   Don't save or preview your template yet. Proceed to the next step.
   
6. Now find this code:
   

   ]]></b:skin>

   and REPLACE it with the following one:
   

   h3.post-title { color:$(post.title.color); }
   h3.post-title a, h3.post-title a:visited { color:$(post.title.link.color); }
   h3.post-title a:hover { color:$(post.title.hover.color); }
   
   ]]></b:skin>

7. Click the Preview button. You'll see the post title color as blue. Don't worry you can change it later in Blogger Template Designer. Save your template and click the Close button.

Hurray, Coding Done! Go & Customize the Post Title in Template Designer!

Simply click the Customize tab to open the Blogger Template Designer. Select Advanced from the left options. You'll see Post Title Color at the top.:

There are 3 options in the Post Title Color. Here is their detail:


Link Color: This is the color of the post title as a link. Any change to this option will appear in the Template Designer.


Link Hover Color: This color will appear when someone brings mouse over the post title. Any change to this option will not be visible in the Template Designer. You'd have to Apply the change, open the blog and bring your mouse over the post title to see the change in color.


Color on Post Page: This is the color of the post title on post page when post title is not a link. Again, you'd have to Apply the change and open some post title page to see the affect.

Help BetaTemplates!

If this tutorial was helpful then please add a link back to BetaTemplates on your blog. The link code is available at the bottom of this page.

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Blogspot How to: Add Adsense Below Post Titles

Google Adsense is the most popular ad network on the planet. A lot of Blogger users also use it. It's an endless discussion where to place these ads on your blog for maximum exposure. The best ad places are around the header or above the posts or below the post titles. You can easily add adsense in your sidebar as a gadget. But Blogger doesn't allows us to directly place the ads below post titles. The ads below post titles have proven to be one of the most successful money making positions. So, what are you waiting for? Follow this tutorial to add your Adsense ads below post titles.

Please Note: I'm assuming that you're using the new Adsense interface.

Steps!

1. Log in to your Google Adsense account by going to https://www.google.com/adsense/
2. Go to My ads tab and open Ad units from the left side by expanding Content link.[View Screenshot for Help]
3. Click new ad unit to create a new ad.[View Screenshot for Help]
4. Select the size, type and color of your ad. For best results chose either 300x250 medium or 336x250 large rectangle.[View Screenshot for Help]
5. Give your ad a remember-able name and ad a custom channel to track the ad performance. If you don't know anything about channels then leave that option.
6. After filling required information, click save and get code button at the bottom of the page.[View Screenshot for Help]
7. A pop-up window will appear with the ad code. Copy that code.[View Screenshot for Help]
8. Before pasting the ad code in Blogger, we must make it compatible with Blogger format. So go to http://www.hacktrix.com/adsense-code-converter/ paste the ad code and convert it. You'll find the converted ad code in the bottom box there. Copy the converted ad code.
   
9. Open your Blogger account and go to Design then Edit HTML tab and check Expand Widget Templates option.
   
10. Press Ctrl + f & find <data:post.body/> you'll see some code like this:
    

    <div class='post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>

11. Paste the converted ad code just before the above code. The result would look something like this:

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
/* my ads */
google_ad_slot = "xxxxxxxxxx";
google_ad_width = 300;
google_ad_height = 250;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<div class='post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>

12. Click the PREVIEW button to see the result. Thought you might not see ads below post titles instantly because sometimes Adsense ads take some time to display.
13. After that save your template by clicking the SAVE TEMPLATE button.

Tip: Make Ads Appear Only on Post Pages

Usually, users don't like to see too many ads on a single page. So, we can hide the ads under post titles on main page. These ads will appear only when users will click the post title and go to the post page. To do that follow the steps above but after step 8 you have the converted ad code. Ad some more code in that converted code so that it should look like this:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
/* my ads */
google_ad_slot = "xxxxxxxxxx";
google_ad_width = 300;
google_ad_height = 250;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script></b:if>

What I did here is that I've added an if condition to make the ads appear only on post pages. After that, follow the steps above to complete the tutorial.

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Please post your comments on video page (right click on video and chose "Watch on YouTube"). Also subscribe to my YouTube channel because I'll be posting more tutorials for beginners. Your feedback will be appreciated, thanks :-)