Saturday, August 2, 2008

Minibox - 3 Column Minima Template - Left Justified

Anton C requested a left justified version of my 3 Column Minima template for Blogger. He also requested a version with the main post column the same size as the original Minima template. Both of these versions can be downloaded below.

This is a left justified version. The center column is wider than the original Minima template to accommodate 500 pixel images blogged from Flickr.

DOWNLOAD Minibox v1.2 Left Justified (Wide)



This is a left justified version with the center column the same size (I think) as the original 2 column Minima template. So if your posts are all custom formatted to the narrow Minima version, this should let you have a 3 column Minima template without having to reformat all your existing posts.

DOWNLOAD Minibox v1.2 Left Justified (Narrow)

86 comments:

ANTON C said...

Thanx a lot James!

But unfortunately, the narrow version doesn't work :(

I hope its an easy fix?

I receive the error message:

We were unable to save your template
Please correct the error below, and submit your template again.
There should be one and only one skin in the template, and we found: 0

James William said...

Hi Anton C,

Sorry about that. I will have a look tomorrow (later today after some sleep). It's probably just a bone-head error on my part.

James

ANTON C said...

Ok James, thank you very much! I be looking forward!

James William said...

Okay Anton,

Try that. I'm totally retarded. I searched through looking for my bug and after finding that the file on my computer worked fine - only after downloading the file did I get the same error - I discovered the link was pointing to an empty file. I expect if you open up the old XML file that you downloaded it will be empty. Hence the "0" skins found error when you try to upload the template.

James

ANTON C said...

Thank you James! Thank you!

Its most wonderful! It works great and I like it, LIKE II!

But I do noticed the one your using on this blog is a little different from the ones available for download.

As in there is a section below the Page Header title for you to display a horizontal row of Adsense but I can't do it :(

So I had put it in the center column, but unfortunately it doesn't fits very well since I am on the narrow version. If you see, the last 5th ad is only shown partially:

http://anton-c.blogspot.com/

Is it possible to include a secondary Page Header so as to place Adsense there?

I tried to do it via blogger's 'add page element' function, but it says Page Header had already been added. :(

James William said...

Hi Anton,

I know exactly what your talking about. What you need to do is add a page element - but instead of adding another header - you should add an HTML block (if you are generating your adsense code from the adsense website and copying the javascript code) or an AdSense element (if you are configuring your AdSense ads through Blogger). Then, once you have the AdSense block (in the sidebar or in the footer) then you can drag it up to the top so it becomes a cross-column widget. It's a little tricky because sometimes the Blogger drag and drop layout editor has a hard time understanding that you want the widget to sit across all the columns right under the header, but it can be done - and that's how mine is set up.

If you just can't get Blogger to cooperate, there's a trick we can try but it requires editing the template code. It's not too hard. If you need help I'll make a tutorial to show you how.

Glad you like the template!

James

ANTON C said...

Yup I got it done via the blogger adsense elements.

I thought of doing it via adsense code too but I am unsure of the position within the template to paste it in. I don't wanna mess up so if you can show a tutorial I will be grateful!

And yeap, I can't get blogger to cooperate, it just simply wouldn;t let me move the bar into the position above all three column. How did you do it?

James William said...

Okay Anton,

The page formatting is a little rough but hopefully you can follow the instructions. Let me know if you have any trouble.

Tutorial for Manually Moving a Blogger Page Element

James

ANTON C said...

Thank you very much James, I followed your tutorial but when I try to preview it before actually saving it, I received the error message:

Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: The element type "div" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "


So I didn't want save it and risk messing everything up.

Are we short of one "/div" somewhere?

James William said...

Hi Anton,

Can you post the block of code that you changed so I can see what it looks like? You might have to change it again and then post it and then don't save the template.

James

ANTON C said...

I followed the tutorial;

I cut the Adsense widget I wanna move.

b:widget id='AdSense1' locked='false' title='' type='AdSense'/

I then inserted it under the crosscol bsection class line and closed the bsection tag

!-- start crosscol-wrapper --
div id='crosscol-wrapper' style='crosscol'
b:section class='crosscol' id='crosscol' showaddelement='no'/
b:widget id='AdSense1' locked='false' title='' type='AdSense'/
/b:section
/div
!-- end crosscol-wrapper --

But when I preview, it received the error message.

(Note that I removed the <> so as to be able to post the block here.)

James William said...

Hi Anton,

Remove the slash from the end of your opening b:section tag - so it should look like:

b:section class='crosscol' id='crosscol' showaddelement='no'

...but of course ad the <> back in.

When a tag (like the img tag) is self contained it usually has a slash at the end of it. When you have an opening and closing tag with stuff in the middle then the slash appears at the beginning of the closing tag.

I think it will work for you if you try that.

James

ANTON C said...

Roger that James, and done!

Thank you very much!

ANTON C said...

Hi James, I do noticed that ever since I started using the template, my google analytic had been showing zero visits everyday.

Any reason why or if there is anything I done wrongly?

Thanx in advance!

James William said...

The Google Analytics code is not included in the template because you need to insert the Google Analytics code that is generated by the Google Analytics website specifically for your website.

You probably did this at least once before - but you need to regenerate the Google Analytics code for your website and paste it into the new template (usually right above the closing 'body' tag at the bottom of the template code).

All of your old Analytics data will be fine but you may have lost a few days when the code wasn't active.

ANTON C said...

Ok, I guess I had done it when setting up the blog but forgotten about it. Thanx, will redo.

Liz said...

Hi James! Thank you so much for the 3 column black minima template! You just made it so much easier for me. It works well except for a dotted line that cuts through my blog post. Please let me know how to correct this: My blog is www.iseeinpart.blogspot.com
Thanks!

James William said...

Hi Liz,

I looked at your site and I don't see any problem. There is a dotted line that divides each post on your home page - but it is there by design. For example - on your homepage I see three different posts, and there's a dotted line that goes inbetween each of the three posts (plus one close to the bottom to divide the navigation links). There is also a dotted line on the single post page that divides your post and the comments for that post.

I've checked with Firefox & Safari on a Mac. What browser are you using?

ANTON C said...

Liz, as James explained, its part of the design.

But you can get rid of those lines easily if you don't like them.

Go to Customize, Layout, Font and Colors, scroll down to Border Color and select the black color.

It should then disappear.

:)

BTW do you guys I am trying to add social bookmark buttons to the post footers after every post. But I got luck following instructions on AddThis.com something is wrong.

Any idea?

Anonymous said...

Hi James - Fantastic template! Could you share how I can remove the blogger navbar from the code so it doesn't appear on the page? Thanks for the help.

ANTON C said...

Sorry James, I just realised the sentence structure of my last paragraph sucks.

I was trying to ask how did you add the Dig button underneath every post at your Tattoo Pics blog?

I was trying to add social bookmarking buttons from addthis.com but somehow I always get an error. I followed the instructions there and also from other blogs, but no luck.

Thanx.

James William said...

Hi Phoo-d,

I don't think any of my templates have the blogger nav bar removed. I have changed the nav bar colour (which you can do from the template editor in blogger) and I also have a few sites using this 3 column minima template for Wordpress (which I have not released yet, but so far testing is looking good). The Wordpress version obviously doesn't have the Blogger Nav Bar so maybe that's what you are seeing. Do you have an example URL that you are thinking of?

James

James William said...

Hi Anton,

I think I'll post a brief tutorial on 2600 Degrees over the weekend that will give you the code for the dig button. The code should work for any Blogger Blog. If you don't see it over the weekend post me reminder and I'll make sure to post it ASAP. It's late now and I think it's time to tear myself away from the glow of the screen :)

ANTON C said...

Hi James,

I couldn't find it at 2600 degrees. Would you give me a link please?

Thanx!

ANTON C said...

Hi James,

I guess the problem is gone already. Somehow I retry the script from Addthis.com and it now works. I don't understand why it doesnt previously...

But how did you do the digg counter thingy?

James William said...

Hi Anton,

Sorry, I got sick this past week. Still recovering. I will work at posting something for you as soon as I get back to the computer. Thanks for being patient.

James

ANTON C said...

Thats said to hear, hope you will get well soon.

James William said...

Hi Anton,

I posted a tutorial for How to Add a Digg Counter to Your Blogger Template.

Let me know if you have any trouble :)

James

Cheryl Pitt said...

Please tell me I'm not the only computer illiterate here! I downloaded the code for the wide center, but don't know what to do with it. Is there a simple answer? Can I just copy and paste? Thanks!

James William said...

Hi Cheryl,

Yes, you should be able to copy and paste the template code.

If you have a new blog you have nothing to lose if you encounter a glitch. If you have an existing blog - copying and pasting the code can wipe out your existing widgets. There are tricks around this.

Make sure you use the preview feature after you paste the template code - before you save the changes to the template.

If you have any trouble or if you need to know how to install the template on an existing blog leave me a comment and I will help you.

James

Cheryl Pitt said...

Thanks for the preview tip, I would have messed that up. I worked up ther nerve to try it :) and I was given this error message

Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: The document type declaration for root element type "html" must end with '>'.

Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

James William said...

Are you using this template on a new blog or do you have a blog that you want to update with this template?

Are you on a Mac or a PC?

When you download the template and open in it a text editor does it look like all the lines have been mashed together one after another (like there are no line breaks or returns at the end of each line)?

What text editor are you using to open the file and copy & paste the code from?

James

Anonymous said...

I'm updating a blog on my PC. I'm not sure what a text editor is. I click download and it brings up the code on a webpage. We use Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word...if that can help you. Sorry, again I'm pretty computer illiterate.

James William said...

Hi Ceryl,

Don't worry about being a beginner! Everyone has to start from somewhere.

First thing - instead of clicking on the link to download the template, right-click and choose Save As to save the template file on your harddrive somewhere (remember where).

Don't use Word. Word adds extra hidden characters that will make the template not work.

PCs have a little program called Notepad. You should be able to find it in your Start menu, under Programs, under Accessories - I think.

Open the template file and see if it opens in notepad.

Let me know how you do and I will help you through the next steps.

One thing you could try for practice is creating a new blog (Blogspot lets you create more blogs for free). Then you can play around with the "test" blog and not worry about messing up your existing blog.

James

Cheryl Pitt said...

Yay! Success! Thanks so much, I'm thrilled with the new template. I just need to tweak some photo layouts and get rid of the wrench icons and I'm good to go. Thanks again! You can see it at

http://headed-for-somewhere.blogspot.com

James William said...

Nice work! Your blog looks great! I love the huge opening picture!

FLORY said...

Guys,

How did u do that? I try to modify my template similar in your template but I've got error.

posting and gadget.

can anyone here share the xml...or the html code.

James William said...

Hey Flory,

Give us a few details on what you've tried and what errors you're getting..

James

Fã da Anita said...

Thank you sooooo much!!! I got the wide version. Will use it as a basis for my new blog. Awesome!!! TY!!!

Hui2 said...

Hi James,
I would like to use your Minibox Left Justified, but I've already customised my blog with plenty of widgets & links. Can you please teach me how to install your template without me having to redo all my current stuff? Thanks in advance!

James William said...

Dear Hui2,

I am happy to help you but it is just complicated enough that I think I should write a tutorial and post it. The bad news (for you :) is that I have a new one month old baby and my time is scarce. I will write myself a note and do my best to post something before long. Gotta run... baby is fussing

the lunch guy said...

i am a novice so please bear with me. if i save my existing blog template to disc, and then decide to try out your template which is not an official blogger template, will it still import all my settings and posts? also, if i decide to revert back for any reason, can i restore my old one by simply uploading it through the control panel area for edit HTML?

thanks.

congrats on the new baby, good luck.

dl

James William said...

WARNING!

You may lose your widgets if you back up your existing blog template and then try to restore it after using my template. Your blog posts should be fine, even if you run into errors and have to go back to a default template, but your widgets could get lost.

It's still on my mind to write a tutorial on how to preserve your widgets, but when a blank template is uploaded it doesn't have your widgets configured and the contents of your widgets can be lost.

Maybe I will be able to write the tutorial before the end of this coming weekend.

Unknown said...

Hi James,
I don't if u are still answering questions but i'll give it a shot anyway. I have downloaded your 3 column format to my blog and I immediately fell in love with the way it looks. The only problem is the widgets. Is there a tutorial I can read that will help me with that?

Thank you so much for doing this on ur own time!

Kitchen Adda said...

i am not ablw to get the download.. why?? please teach me step to step ...my O.S. is xp .

I am dying to have this 3 row template .

Thanks in advance

Sriletha Pillai said...

hello,thank you for the information and new design.But could you pls adv how i can replace my existing blog with this template.You have not given the code for copy/pasting.Mine is a malayalam blog.

Monroe said...

the mini box template has to be converted to html not xml. i heard thats what you need to do. get back to me if you know anything.

Serial Sinner said...

Hi James,

Thanks a lot for creating this, I love the clean and easy-to- customize template.

I do have an issue though. I changed the template to have fluid width and for some reason the main wrapper leans to the left instead of being at the center. This is also evident when I check the Page Elements Tab. Aditionally, unless I assign low percentages to the widths, the left sidebar keeps jumping below the main wrapper, even if the widths add up to 100%

I've been trying to fix this by myself for ages but can't seem to get around it. Would you please give me a hand? I've ran out of ideas...

Thanks a lot in advance!

Serial Sinner said...

Hi I fixed the problem, please disregard my question. Cheers!

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Just wanted to say THANK YOU!!! for your wonderful template (wide version)! I searched all over the net and I couldn't find the one I like or the one that WORKS without me getting into HTML.

I'm creating my trading blog now.

Patricia said...

I am unable to download the file for the template. I would like the wide version and thanks for your help.

Agnes CF Lee said...

Thank you for sharing. appreciate it so much, am thinking of fixing it on my other blogs too

atomicvelvetsigh said...

Ohh this is perfect! I really need to convert my classic blogger template to xml. The prob is the download link does not work and it just directs to a page with 2 other links to your sites. Where can I download this template?

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

I've been using the template for both of my blogs and very happy. But one thing I just recently noticed I want to share.

I've been doing the search optimization, and in the process I tried googling my own post. Then I found out that googlebot (or whatever that crawls) DOES NOT pick up the content of the post. It picks up the title of the post, then it picks up the text on the left column, whether it's "about me" description or text feed from the blog list that I have.

So I moved anything that has text input to the right column, and filled the left column with links and ads only. Then the search started to pick up the post text.

Maybe it has something to do with the originall template Minima, which had the blog post space on the left column.

Now I'm working on my next blog that has 7 columns. It would be interesting to see how the search engine picks up.

Best to everyone.

Mamás y Embarazadas Famosas said...

I love this template.

You could put on white? 3 columns wide.

Thanks.

4BabyAndMom said...

Help! I am trying to re-do my bff and my blog using this template. I think I figured out how to tweak it all, but now I cannot comment on the blog itself. If you click on 0 Comments, and then Post comment, nothing appears to comment in. What am I doing wrong? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

it managed services said...

Thanks for the helpful information. Hope to hear more from you.

Stratos Bacalis said...

Thanks for this great template! Just updated my blog with it and it looks exactly as i wanted it!

Elephant Booty Studio said...

awesome

Savage Legend Solomon House David said...

I cant open this download on my pc... could you send a copy of Minibox v1.2 Left Justified (Wide)as html please

Savage Legend Solomon House David said...

could you send Minibox v1.2 Left Justified (Wide) to me as a
html please i cant open xml

website design said...

wow! i love the tips. thanks for sharing this one out. I love your templates.

fuchi said...

Thanks for the template James!!!

This is a great 3 column template.

I was looking for black templates and I saw yours!

I love black and I'm just starting my new blog.

Your template is a blessing for me.

LOL.

Thanks again!!!

fuchi said...

Hi again James,

You might want to see my blog using the template that you created.

Thanks again.

Cool template!!!

acolytelive.blogspot.com

fuchi said...

Hi again James,

You might to check my blog using your very cool template.

Thanks again.

Edge

acolytelive.blogspot.com

Admin said...

I can't download either the narrow or wide column template. please help! I've been searching for this!

K said...

thanks a bunch for the narrow version James!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi! I think the download link Minibox v1.2 Left Justified (Wide)don't work. Will you fix it please!

Melisa said...

Thank you very much for sharing this template. I am now using it for my blog, and I'm happy that I can still customize the colors, unlike with other templates.

go2jee said...

Thank you! have successfully uploaded left justified template at http://1jomsembang.blogspot.com.
However the adsense dont seem to appear???

Unknown said...

I can not figure out how to get the code for the template or how to download it. I've been looking for a 3 column template and was excited to find this but I can't figure it out.

Jacqueline said...

Thank you so much, James, for sharing your Blogger Template for free!
Just downloaded the Mini v1.2 Left Justified (Wide) yesterday for my newest blog: http://jacqsbloggertips.blogspot.com/ and am so delighted. Like it so much! :-D
God bless you and your loved ones for your generosity!

Vicky Gallas said...

Thank you James!!! I downloaded the "left justified narrow" version, and poof - problem solved. It was 1,2,3 and I only had to place the widgets again.

I have downloaded a list of templates from a couple of free Blogger sites, thinking that each would work, but in every situation I met with disaster and spent hours repairing.

Thank you again - I am truly pleased with the outcome!

Vicky Gallas

Vicky Gallas said...

Thank you James!

I downloaded the "left justified narrow" and it works perfectly. I simply changed the color and fonts back to the previous template, placed the widgets again, and it is exactly how I want it.

I have tried this several times before with other free templates, and in each case the result was disastrous. Your template worked like 1,2,3. Thank you again!

Vicky

Simple Dreams said...

Hi James,

I'd like to thank you for the great assistance you're providing to newbies like me.

Though I haven't started using your template yet, I did try it and it works worderfully.

Best regards,
Robert Fernandes

Nik Amirah said...

Hai james..
ive just upload your black minima templates..its great.
Do u know how to move the left sidebar to the right sidebar?
i want both on the right..
i hope u can reply it asap..tq

Luke said...

Thankyou so much. You are a legend, you just saved me hours of battling with xml.

Happy Mailbox :) said...

I can't for the life of me figure out how to download Minibox v1.2 Left Justified (Wide). I try right clicking it, I try regular clicking it. What am I missing?

Tessa said...

Hi there, I really like the wider 3 column one, i think it's called left justified, but I cannot find an html code to copy and paste. when I click to download, it just takes me back to a link to your site. Help?!

Jin said...

hi~
thank you for making this awesome template!
i really want to use it but it isnt getting downloaded for me ><

James William said...

Hey All - there seems to be quite a few comments from people having trouble downloading from the links on this post.

If you just click on the download link, your web browser will try to render the XML file. This won't work well for you!

What you want to do is right click on the link, or hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard while you left click on the link. Then from the menu that pops up, choose "Save link as" or "Save As" or "Save Target As". The exact wording might be a bit different depending on which OS and which web browser you're using. But the links do work.

Thanks to everyone who has said such nice things about the template.

cindy kho said...

hi there! thank you so much for making this. i've been searching like crazy for the 3-column-minima till i found it here! it works perfectly with my blog. thanks! :D

cindy kho said...

uhm.. i'm sorry about disturbing again, but would you mind to make a template exactly like this, but with completely no borders at all? that would be a really really great help for me. thanks before!

Excellent Excel said...

hey nice template...can i request for the white color instead of black?
thanks a lot.
waiting to download :)

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@khocindy, excellent excel,

Butting in... I've been using this template for nearly two years for my blog (wide version). If you're using Blogger, you can customize the colors easily. Go to Design -->Template Designer, and click on Advanced. You can make border disappear, you can change background color.

FYI, my blogsite: www.ex-skf.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

says I can download but nothing appears when link is clicked...