Customizing Components

The Components page lists all the components that are available in your account, including both system components and any custom components that have been created.

1.	Open the Publisher Control Panel for the blog you want to customize.

3.	Choose the Templates option. The Templates main page opens.

Note: If you do not see the Templates option, contact your blog system service provider to request the enabling of the ability to add and edit templates for your blog.

4.	Click the Edit link beside the component you want to customize. The Select Style: <style name> page opens.

5.	Select the radio button beside style you want to customize.

6.	Click the Customize button at the bottom of the page. The Edit Template page opens.

7.	Ensure the Action drop-down list displays Copy, then click Go. The template is copied to the staging area in the lower part of the page.

8.	You now can make the required changes to customize the template in the Staging Template Content textbox.

To save your changes as a draft: click the Save Changes button near the bottom of the page. A confirmation message appears at the top of the page.

To save your changes and make the customized component available immediately: click the Save and Activate button near the bottom of the page. A confirmation message appears at the top of the page.

To delete your changes: click the Delete button near the bottom of the page. A confirmation dialog box opens. Click OK. A confirmation message appears at the top of the page.

When your work is complete: click the Return to Templates button at the bottom of the page.

Once you create a customized component, you can continue the customization in your own language either by:

•	Manually replacing the English word or phrase with translated text in the template.

•	Using the gettext function in the custom component. See below.

When you use the gettext function, you allow the user's language preference to determine the language in which the blog is displayed. To check which languages and words are available, refer to the translation dictionaries at http://blog.blogware.com.

Note: Only words and phrases included in the translation dictionary will be translated.

1.	In the Staging Template Content textbox, type the term to display in translation in the Content textbox using the following format <%=gettext("candidate word")%> where "candidate word" is the word or phrase that you want to display in translation.

The gettext function only finds exact matches to terms (words or phrases) that appear in the translation dictionary for the language specified.

2.	Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

The translated candidate word or phrase will be retrieved from the translation dictionary. It is necessary to use the exact spelling for terms used in the translation dictionary. To check the words and phrases that are available for use with the gettext function, refer to the translation dictionary that is published online at http://blog.blogware.com.

Note: You cannot delete a CSS theme if any blogs use that theme. In order to delete that CSS theme, assign a new CSS theme to any blogs that use the theme that you want to delete.