I recently did a blog setup for a fellow demonstrator, Cathy Parlitsis. She is actually one of my up-up-up-upline's in Stampin' Up! How cool is that to be working with her! She created her temporary blog banner in Stampin' Up!'s MDS (My Digital Studio) software and I set the colors in TypePad's Theme Builder to match.
The problem with all TypePad blogs is the About Page design. If you clicked on About under Cathy's name it used to go to a template she had originally chosen – it looked nothing like her revised, custom design. I'm sure yours probably doesn't either as not many actually check that page or assume that it will look like the rest of the blog – this is not the case!
Give it a try on your blog. Go to Design->Content and add the About Me Module Then save changes and view your blog. Click on the About sidebar heading…and what do you see????
Or click on Account from the top of your screen, then click on About Me Page on the left, and you will see a link to your About Me page. Click on that link to view yours!
For Cathy, I wanted it to match her new beautiful blog theme. However, the page width is smaller for the About me page, not as wide as the main blog.
Custom About Page Theme in TypePad
So although you can write your own HTML for a custom About Page, there is an easy solution to create an About Page that coordinates with your Main blog's theme! Look at Cathy's below – her site is now polished and with her own MDS design!
What you need to do:
- ONCE you have the main blog's theme designed with the custom banner and theme (banner should be 870px wide if using a three column layout, 670px if using a two column design); then you go to Design.
- At the bottom, notice the design that is highlighted with CURRENT.
- To the right of the design under Actions, click the dropdown and choose Duplicate.
- Then it will be Copy of (whatever you theme name was, normally the name of your blog).
- Click to Rename that template to About Page Theme Only (in my example, Cathy's blog, it is named a little differently but you get the idea).
- If using a TWO column design, skip down to Continue.
- Then, to the right of that newly copied, renamed template under Actions, choose Apply.
- So at present you have two designs that are identical, but one is named About Page Theme Only.
- So at this point you need to resize the banner you have used in your main blog to be 670px wide (so it will fit in the About Me Page slimmer layout).
- Then come back to Design, Theme Builder, and in the Banner area at the top, click Image area and upload the newly sized banner.
- Save Changes.
- IMPORTANT STEP: Now go back to Design and find the original template name (not the About Me Page Only) and click Actions to Apply, which will then apply that design for the main blog (the one with the banner uploaded at 870px wide).
CONTINUE:
- Now, click on Account (text link) from the top of your screen.
- Click on About Me Page from the left.
- At the bottom, find Choose a Style. It's a dropdown box.
- Click that dropdown box and choose your About Page Theme Only from the list.
- Preview if you'd like or Save and Preview.
- You're done!
Now you have coordinating pages for your main blog and your About Me page, like the examples shown in the article compliments of Cathy Parlitsis.
Related Articles
- Install your own, custom banner in TypePad (except there is no Weblog in the dashboard, just go to Design and then Theme Builder).
- Tweaking the built-in Nav Bar.
- Centering the built-in Nav Bar (requires CSS, $14.95 Pro level).
- Entire list of How To Articles for TypePad!
Happy Blogging!
Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com