WotW: Blogger Mobile Templates

Whether you know it or not, if you blog, you probably have a handful of readers who read your blog on a mobile device: phone (Blackberry, Android, iPhone), iPod, iPad, iWhatever. You can “see” those readers by looking at your audience statistics in Blogger stats:

and you can help accommodate those readers (even if they are few) by using the new Blogger mobile templates.

What is a mobile template? It’s just a simplified version of your current Blogger template that makes it easier for mobile users to access the most important part of your blog: the posts.

The Blogger team has created a simplified version of each of the 27 templates in the Template Designer for mobile use, and even if you have modified the template or, (like me) are not using one of those templates at all, you can still use the new mobile templates to help those readers who are reading on a mobile device.

Just enable the mobile template by going to Settings > Email and mobile in your Blogger dashboard. Then in the Mobile section, select Yes for Show mobile template on mobile devices:

your exact screen may look different if your Blogger account hasn’t yet been switched to the new look of Blogger*

Now, instead of seeing a shrunken (to fit the screen) version of your full Blogger template, mobile users will see something more like this:

your blog header with individual post titles and thumbnails for each post.

Mobile readers can click on any post title to read the full post and comment. And if a mobile user still wants/needs to see the full template (that includes sidebar layouts and widgets), there’s a link to view the web version of the blog at the bottom of the page:

Pretty neat, eh? And yes, I feel like a complete rock star sharing those screenshots from my iPod. Just between us friends: Debra’s 2 year old daughter had to teach me how. Kids these days…

*If your account still looks like the “old” Blogger, don’t worry! You’re not doing anything wrong or being left behind. The Blogger team is gradually switching accounts to the new Blogger interface, so you’ll be seeing it soon. On a side note… how many of you are already seeing the “new” interface? And what do you think? Questions? I’m learning the ropes and exploring myself…

Lu (or Lorene if you prefer) is the mom of one squirmy boy and the wife of a singing and dancing elementary teacher. She is the proud author of this weekly Wednesdays on the Web (WotW) segment here on Housewife Eclectic and spends the other days of the week blogging about crafts and whatever else comes up at just Lu.