Insert tag cloud in the new blogger

phy3blog shows a fantastic way to create a tag cloud {as seen in this blog sidebar} of the blog categories (tags). You have to have a blog on New Blogger, and you MUST be using the layouts templates - no old blogger or classic templates here.

Essentially, the method uses the del.icio.us tag cloud code with slight modification. The entire process can be summarized as :

1. The first part to put in is the stylesheet section added between the <b:skin> tags. This stylesheet should not be modified unless you are a certified CSS guru.
2. This next section is the configuration section for the Cloud. It also goes in the head
   of the template, but outside of the stylesheet part. Easiest thing to do again is to find
   the closing stylesheet tag ]]>
   But this time place the code right AFTER that line, but BEFORE the </head> tag. Here, you can modify the look of the cloud by modifying any of the following style sheet : >

   var maxFontSize = 20; /* Change to a different size */
   var maxColor = [0,0,255]; /* Change to a different value */
   var minFontSize = 10; /* Change to a different size */
   var minColor = [0,0,0]; /* Change to a different value */

3. Now is the time to add the code that renders the cloud, find out the following tag in the template : and replace with the code to build the tag cloud. You can get the code from the original article.

4. Also the CSS modification is explained in great detail in this article.

Darn ! How did I miss this excellent and very simple way ?

Technorati tags: Blogger, CSS