Blogger - How to Create Hyperlinks (Links to other websites)

 Hello readers!

I have another quick tutorial today that I wanted to stomp out really quick for those who are a little newer to blogging.  Hyperlinking is simply adding a 1-click button into your post that will automatically direct the user to a different page.

Here's a for instance, below is a list of every Blogger post I have made to date along with the "about" pages I created for the Continuous Learning Blog.

1. Starting a Blog
   
2. Buying a domain name
   
3. Say hello to 2023
   
4. Blogger - Embedding YouTube Videos
   
5. Bogger - How to Jump Link
   
6. PTC Creo - Basic CAD Modeling
   
7. About the Author
   
8. About Continuous Learning Journal
   

Anyone who is familiar with using email or any of the Microsoft programs is probably familiar with hyperlinking.  It is easy to copy and paste a page link by simply copying the web address and pasting it as shown below.

https://www.continuouslearningjournal.com/

The problem is, unlike the Microsoft programs and various email platforms which automatically turn web addresses into hyperlinks, Blogger does not automatically make web addresses into hyperlinks.  Fortunately I stumbled across a quick fix that actually works great!  

How to hyperlink

• Press the "ctrl" keyboard key and the "k" keyboard key at the same time.

• In the pop-up type what you want the hyperlinked text to say (what the blue underlined letters will read as)

• Open a new page and navigate to the website you are hyperlinking to

• Select the web address at the top of the page (it will be highlighted when you select it)

• Press the right mouse button to open the options menu and select "copy"

• Go back to the post you are editing

• Click on the "paste or search for a link" area

• Right click and select paste

• Check the box that says, "Open this link in a new window"

• Press the "APPLY" button at the bottom of the pop-up

• BOOM!  Congratulations you have done it!

This is just another example of random tidbits I have discovered while learning to write with Blogger.  As someone who works with the Microsoft Suit daily I found it interesting that hyperlinking wasn't automated in Blogger but now I know how to do it and you do as well!  

If this tutorial seems a little rudimentary stay tuned because I have a lot of exciting things to post about that I believe you will love!  I will be posting an ideas page in the near future listing all sorts of topics that I would like to learn about and explore over the next year.  If you have a subject you love or want to learn more about feel free to drop a comment, it might even be something I would love to learn about as well!

-John 

Bogger - How to Jump Link

 I know very little HTML.  In fact I could correct that and say I know basically nothing at all about it.  I started a free online course almost 2 years ago to start learning but it was summer time and I had other distractions going on like jumping on the trampoline and trying to fix my CRV.  Anyway, I know what jump linking is or rather I know that it is possible but I have never actually created one before.  In my previous post Buying a domain name I listed it as something new that I learned and BOY did I learn.  I am sure it was mostly due to ignorance but I had a heck of a time figuring this out.  For something so simple I thought there would be thousands of tutorials and how to videos but everything I could find did not do the best job of giving an in depth step by step guide.  So here is my step by step guide for you, enjoy!

What I learned

• How to Jump Link
• How to arrange Blogger's HTML view so it's readable

How to Jump Link

Do not be afraid but there is a tiny amount of code you need to write in order to make this happen.  So let's rip the band aid off quickly, this is the required code

<a href="#jump1"></a>

<a id="jump1"></a>

Okay!  We survived, not all that scary right?  Now that we know the code let's get started

• Open the blog page you are editing

• Open the page view drop down menu (the pencil looking icon in the upper left)

• Select the HTML view option
• Click the format HTML button

• Select the find tool

• Type in the text you are adding the jump link to (in my case "How to Jump Link") and press enter

• Select the area where you are jumping from

• Insert <a href="#jump1"> directly before the text

• Insert </a> directly after the text

• Selection the area where you are jumping to

• Insert <a id="jump1"> directly before the text (notice the # is not needed here)

• Insert </a> directly after the text

• Switch back to Compose view

• BOOM! D-O-N-E, your page should have jump links now.

Something to note.  In the above walk through I used the word jump1 to showcase how this jump link thing works.  In reality that can be changed to anything that you want it to be as long as there are not any spaces in the word.  One key point to remember though, this text needs to be exactly the same in both locations to work correctly.  If you have multiple jump links the text will need to be different for each jump link. i.e., "#example1" to "example1", "#example2" to "example2", "#example3" to "example3"

Lastly, this took me quite a bit of time to figure out and I wanted to give special thanks to another blog I stumbled across that gave me the information I needed to figure this out.  Swing by and give this blog and check it out, I know I will be.  Easy Blogging Tricks

How to arrange Blogger's HTML view so it's readable

Here is some great news!  You already know how to do this because I included it in my tutorial above.  I wanted to add this in because it is a feature I discovered by accident while trying to figure out how to add in jump links.  This made it sooooooooo much easier to read the code and figure out where to add in the new code.  All you need to do is press the 3 horizontal lined button (shown below) found on the format banner while you are in HTML view.

Looking forward

Now that I have learned this new skill I plan to update my old posts and include jump links in my new post.  The only way for this skill to really sink in is to continue to use it until it's second nature.  I am super excited that I was able to figure this out and share it with you!

-John

Blogger - Embedding YouTube Videos

 It was a challenge getting a YouTube video embedded and looking nice in my last post so here is a more in depth look at what I did.  Super short post.

How to embed YouTube videos

There are a couple ways to do this, you could edit the HTML code for the post you are writing and insert the script YouTube provides, you could hyperlink the video or you can embed it with the built in feature Blogger has.  The last option was the easiest.

• Open another webpage and navigate to YouTube

• Search for the video you want to embed
• Open the video (start watching it)

• Click the share button at the bottom of the video
• Click the copy button (on the share pop up window)

• Open the post you are editing

• Click the image button at the top of the screen

• Select YouTube
• Select search

• Paste the copied text (that you copied from the YouTube share pop up)

• Click the search button (magnifying glass icon)
• Select the correct video (if done correctly there should only be one video)

• Press the select button at the bottom of the window
• BOOM!  Mission Success!

I hope this helped you out.

-John

Buying a domain name

I've always wanted to own a domain but for whatever reason was scared to buy one.

Weird right?  Call it the fear of the unknown or maybe it's the thought of owning something that is literally not tangible but either way I have officially bought a domain for this blog!  It started with waking up about 5:00 am this morning.  I knew I was going to start this blog today so I had ideas rolling through my head.  What can I talk about that's interesting, how am I going to organize this endeavor, what is the best way to learn to use Blogger, how do I get a domain name, what is a domain name, the list went on and on.  So I started looking into domain names.  I guess I sort of knew a little bit about it just from 20+ years of casual web browsing but I had to really nail down what I was getting myself into.  Needless to say it was easier than expected, not scary at all, and with a couple hours of searching the web I found everything I needed to get started. 

What I learned about starting a website

• What is a domain?

• What is a domain registrar?

• What is a web host?

• What are web design services?

What I learned about Blogger

• How to jump link text in your blog

• How to embed YouTube videos in your blog

What is a domain?

My understanding is that a domain is simply a location or address.  People type in that location, i.e., example.com and are pointed to wherever your website is hosted.  Web hosts are the house for your website, it is literally a physical place (server) where the information for your website resides.  

Great, got it, I need a domain so I have an address people can find and my domain needs a web host.  Now if only I had a real estate agent to help me find this address.

What is a domain registrar?

Ahhhh, there's my real estate agent!  So I can go to various different domain registrars such as: godaddy.com, domains.google, namecheap.com etc.  These are companies that have access to a registry (owned by a non-profit entity) and can make changes to it for entities looking to buy, sell, or update domains.  

I spent about an hour looking through the different domain registrars, what services they offer, what prices the services were set at and I came to the conclusion that I have no idea what I'm doing but domains.google seemed like a good option.  The price I paid was $12.00 USD for a full year of ownership for the domain name.  There were a couple addons I could purchase such as Google Workspace but I declined because I am the sole contributor to this blog currently and I don't really see the need for having a special email address for it.  The service was very cheap though, $6.00 USD would have gotten me a specialized email address and a bunch of customization options and specialized emails for any employees if I had any.  Sweet, that will be a fun thing to learn about in the future!  Now if only I had a house for my domain...

What is a Web Host?

As I mentioned above, a web host is the server where your websites files are located.  There are a ton of web hosting service providers that offer cheap or even free plans.  Some popular web hosts I am aware of are: godaddy.com, bluehost.com, shopify.com, and of course google.  Once again I stumbled into something that I am not exactly knowledgeable on and so I defaulted with Googles services.  "Why would I have Google as my web host", you might be asking and I have a very simple response.  Google hosts blogs on Blogger for FREE.  Yup, $0.00 USD, does not get better than that.  

In all honesty, I could have opted to have the Blogger domain, web hosting, and website design services all for free from Google (Blogger).  You do not need to spend one cent to start a blog using Blogger.  The reason I bought the domain is purely to learn and for the experience.  I guess it is an investment as well because there are only so many domain names you can buy and lots of companies that need them (hey to all potential domain buyers out there, this domain is definitely for sale for the right price)

What are web design services?

You caught that didn't you?  Yes, after you have an address (domain name) and a house (web host), you need a website!  Once again I am faced with even MORE options to chose from.  There are all of the big names that you are probably familiar with from adds on YouTube such as squarespace.com, Wix.com, Shopify.com and the list goes on!  Obviously I went with Blogger because it is free and so far from what I can tell extremely easy to use.  I plan to learn more about customization later today and tomorrow and plan to post some blog updates about my experience.  I have used Wix.com years ago which if I recall was really easy and I am currently working on a Shopify store.  Shopify is taking a bit of getting used to but it is really starting to grow on me.  These web design services come at all different price points and with their own perks and drawbacks.  The main drawbacks usually involve tiered pricing for access to premium options.  With Blogger I haven't encountered anything like that yet so I am hopeful that this was a good choice!

Website wrap up

So my website continuouslearningjourney.com is officially up an running!  That literally took me half a day between researching what I needed, where I wanted to purchase my services from and writing this post.  I hope this journey has given a little insight into what it takes to create your own website.  I am brand new to owning/launching a website so if you have any recommendations feel free to drop a comment.  I look forward to continuing on this journey!