Bloglist from Blogger

One reason why Blogger is my favorite blog host or content provider is that it continues to upgrade its facilities. A month ago I’ve tried its beta version widget or element called bloglist. “The Blog List is powered by Google Reader, so it can show when each blog was last updated and even include post titles and snippets.”

The main advantage of including a bloglist to a blog is that I would be informed of the new entries that my favorite blogs have posted. This is very ideal if I make routine visits to blogs in my blogroll or links. With the bloglist, I would save time from going to blogs that are not updated yet.

However, I notice a small problem with bloglist. It doesn’t update when I refresh the page. It was doing well during the few days I installed it but to this date, it would not still update. So what I did was to delete or remove the cookies that have been saved or stored in my cache. It updated as expected.

I hope Blogger already received such observation. It would surely look into this and fix the problem before it would finally release the widget for blogger users.

If you want to try the widget, you can go to Blogger… in draft.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You need to log in to your blogger account before you can access or use the bloglist widget.

Good Readability

A good blog post is not only evaluated on how entertaining, informative or educational it is. It also needs good construction for good readability. I have been writing as a hobby and experience tells me that the following would help a lot to improve readability of blogs.

First, keep your sentences simple and short. Short sentences are very easy to read and understand. They also help readers time to breathe and pause between sentences. If a long sentence is unavoidable, use commas, colons and semi-colons appropriately.

Second, separate paragraphs properly and avoid long paragraphs. Seeing a huge block of paragraph would tire the reader even before he starts reading it. Readers may even skip reading it and proceed to another link. Also use the most appropriate letter-spacing and line-height for a specific font type and color.

Third, use the proper contrast for the foreground and background color of the blog. Visit other blogs and get inspiration on the color schemes they are using. Wellstyled and Colorblender are good resources for color contrast and blend. If they are easy to the eyes, then the colors are safe to use.

Fourth and last, try to write a draft of your entry on a text editor. This is the most practical and convenient way of at least tuning in your composition. The text editor could somehow check your spelling and grammar.

Technical writing skills are not born. They can easily be learned through practice and by reading other blogs and let us remember that we blog to express ourselves and not to impress others.

Keep blogging!

Decisions to make

It’s really been a while since my last entry.  That would be roughly five months ago. The long hiatus is due to my workload and other personal blogs that keep me from attending to this one.  I think it is very easy to write something that is personal or casual than a technical one.  Writing technical stuffs requires much detail and focus.  In addition, I really did not enjoy my template.

My current template was developed haphazardly because there was an urgency to finish it.  I got a free domain and hosting from a blog competition.  It is hard-earned but it did not provide much inspiration for a good design.  I thought creating a four-column site is cool but in the end it looked cramped and I feel unsatisfied looking at it.   I guess I am also experiencing a designer’s “overexposure syndrome”  wherein  I am becoming “over-sated” by the sight of my own design.  That’s quite ironic.

Right now, I am halfway through my newest version and I know I like it very much.  It has a very minimalistic theme.  It is still a blog inspired design but would focus more on my work as a web designer and graphic artist.  My previous readers would find that I would be starting all over again.  All of my previous posts are now located in my personal blogsite.  Hopefully, my decision to separate my technnical and personal lives would be beneficial in the end, not only to myself but to the web community as well.

Please expect heavy activity from this site.