Blogger.com Wishlist - More Flexibility and Options for the Navigation Menu

The "Pages" and the "Link List" gadgets allow you to create a menu bar when you place those gadgets. That's a big improvement since the introduction of the new template designer, because from then on, those menu bars have been integrated into the templates. Therefore once these gadgets are "added" to your blog, you can change the look and feel of the bar itself, the "buttons" and the font.

In the context of using Blogger.com for more than "pure" blogging and to make the menu bar much more usable and flexible, here are our wishes:

1. combine the Pages and Link List options, so that the menu bar links can point to pages as well as  configurable URLs
2. although technically, once that combination is possible, one could include the URL with the Label Search, for most users it would be great to include pre-configured choices, like
• home (including the option to insert an image as logo on the menu bar)
• pages
• labels
• posts
• enter link URL
• search element (the search field is often nicely 
3. last but not least, drop-down menus would be great, 
• freely configurable or
• if the top link is selected as label, the sub-menu could include up to 7 (?) laets or selected posts and the last sub-link for "more".

The drop-down element could be included as an additional "menu" element, same functionality as the normal menu bar element, just nested in to the main menu bar...

Templates

You can start manipulating your blogger site layout by chossing first a standart blogger template and then modifying it to your own taste and for the pupose of the site.

Trick One
Try to find your favourite websites, which suits
your structure
your layout tastes
the kind of content

We don't recommend to copy the content of your favourite website, merely trying to analyse why you like it, why your are regularly coming back and read it.  This might be great help, because very often the initial concept of the site is often first driven by visuals whereas many websites have a great success, many visitors and most importantly readers DESPITE the visual (non-)appeal.  To simply create a visually attractive site does not automatically attract visitors and customers, despite the die-hard believe of marketing departments and advertising agencies.  Just as we usually don't buy a house because the facade is nice when the rest is not.

The visial layout is therefore less important than a good structured template.  The graphical elements can be replaced and adapted.  If the template is complex and cryptic it might be difficult to adapt.

A quick check can be done with the firefox plugin "web developer bar".  Using that you can visualise many of the CSS elements.  Too many overlapping CSS boxes might indicate that the designer (or Blogger migration coder) has not done a clean CSS job.

If you plan to use Blogger as a CMS-like website, why not starting to search for blogger templates with menus or multi-column templates.  Some of the code you need to have for your website is then already integrated.