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"I stumbled upon it while preparing my previous article on How to add gadgets in Blogger blogspot where I played around with the various gadgets available for us in Blogger's Add a Gadget library. Here's another example why I simply love sharing my knowledge and in the process, gaining more! When I give, I receive abundantly too...it's an endless joyous circle of giving and receiving. Praise God!
For a long time, I had wanted thumbnails of my recent posts to appear at the sidebar but getting them there manually the only way I knew how, would entail too much effort and a constant update which will drain me out. Thus, you can guess how very excited I was when I stumbled upon the Recent Posts with thumbnails gadget, just waiting to be 'picked'. Of course, I installed it straightaway! I find showing recent posts with thumbnails most appealing and this is one interesting and engaging way to announce to your readers what's available inside your blog.
And, knowing that Cheah of No-frills Recipes would definitely love to have this widget installed at her blog too, I might as well share the tutorial here for my lovely friend and others who may be interested too.
How to add Recent Posts (Advanced) widget
- Log in to your Blogger account which will lead you to Dashboard. Click Layout and on the Page Elements page, click Add a Gadget link from the sidebar section.
- A window opens to display the various gadgets. In the search for gadgets box at top right, type in the keywords, recent posts. The search results will show 3 gadgets. Choose the gadget with the thumbnail, 'Recent Posts (Advanced)' and click the plus sign beside it as shown in the picture below.
- The Configure Gadget window opens for you to choose the various options available. The Recent Posts (advanced) widget features the following:
- Title (can be changed to whatever you wish)
- Height
- Blog URL (change to any Blogger blog's address whose posts you want displayed, including your own)
- Number of posts to display (limited to 25?)
- Display post thumbnails
- Display post summaries
- Summary length (necessary if opted to display summaries)
- Display post date
- Display the number of comments
- Display the Read more link
- Display a separator between the posts.
You can configure the gadget to display the features anyhow you wish. After you've configured, just click anywhere inside the window and it will update instantaneously your changes in the Preview section. If you're satisfied with the display, click Save to exit window.
An illustration is appended below to show 2 different display, following the selections I've chosen as examples.
- Back to the Page Elements page, you can now reposition the Recent Posts gadget - just click on it, hold down the click to drag it and release click to drop where you want. Click Save and View Blog. That's it! You're done!
Important Update - Sept 10 2010
The Recent Posts Gadget with Thumbnails has been recently updated! If you've installed the older version, check it out at Aneesh's post for further instructions on how to reconfigure the settings.
Hi Jacqueline, very interesting. Must check it out.
ReplyDeleteI too love to fool around check out whatever, its fun, as well keep the grey matter active, ha ha.
You have a pleasant week, best regards, Lee.
Thank you so much for enligtening me to put this up in my blog. Really appreciate your generosity in sharing!
ReplyDeleteLee - haha...well said...keep learning, have fun and don't allow 'dementia' to outpace us!
ReplyDeleteYou have a wonderful week too!
Cheah - my pleasure, dear friend! You're an interested learner and I love teaching you!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that the thumbnail is still the same everywhere in my blog.
Even worse, the thumbnail is showing deleted posts... terrible..
I tried to remove and re install but still showing old thumbnail.
Thanks.
HI,
ReplyDeletehave you solved your thumbnail problem with linkwithin widget? I have the same problem to.
I you know how, please let me know.
Thanks
Hi Putera Bongsu,
ReplyDeleteIt appears that your thumbnail problem is related with the LinkWithin widget and not with this article's post on Recent Posts thumbnails at the sidebar.
I'd advise you to contact LinkWithin to rectify your problem...I've found the team to be very helpful before!
Anyway, I've gone to your blog and noticed that most of your posts displayed the same image, that is, your signature, right? Hence, resulting in the repetitive images in your LinkWithin thumbnails, I think!
Yes, you are right. Now, i created a new blog and get new ID. Unless I get a new ID, the thumbnail will be the same. So, I solved the issue.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened was, initially, I just set my blog first. Without no image, unfortunately Linkwithin grabs the signature image. Then the image was forever even if I update the post and put some images.
Thanks.
Delighted to know that you've resolved the issue!
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day!
Thank you so much for this post. I was able to use it in my blog. http://watchonlinemovies.blogspot.com You're such a great help.
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcome!
ReplyDeletei text is getting below the image... how can i make it go right or left.
ReplyDeleteHi Apie,
ReplyDeleteJust edit the gadget where you can configure the settings ...scroll down to 'Extra Styling' and make your selection where 4 options are available. Then click 'Update' to preview and 'Save' to exit.
hi Jacqs: How do I modify this further to just have only thumbnails without text ? I just saw this recently on a blog , and it looks neat :-) Currently, I have customised this with thumbnail + post text.
ReplyDeleteHi Kalyani! Yes, I've seen that too and have always wondered how that was done. Thanks for asking as it gave me the incentive to experiment all the options available and finally pleased with the result... check it out at my other blog @ http://peacockflower.blogspot.com/.
ReplyDeleteTo display only the thumbnails, without any text, do the following changes at the Configure Gadget window:
1. Type the number 0 for Maximum Length of the Post Title and Summary Length.
2. Select Thumbnail Only for Snippet Style.
3. Select None for Post Meta Style.
4. Leave empty, the field for Border Colour.
Then click Update to preview and Save. That's it.
Jacqueline
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. I've changed my Recent Posts to just Thumbnails only, using your instructions to Kalyani. The page loooks neat.
You're most welcome, Cheah! It'll look even more cool if you have the thumbnails displayed horizontally (i.e. span across a single broad sidebar like the width for 'About Me' above). :)
ReplyDelete