Since the blog was to be released within days of my hearing about it, (Jacqueline already had the address and template ready) I requested that Jacqueline kindly arrange the sidebars so I could concentrate on TRANSLATING - which should have made things a whole lot easier for me; I only had to go and change the English descriptions to Japanese.
I already knew how to upload pictures and post articles, so that was not a problem.
The biggest issue I came up with was the "Japanese style font".
Although the Blogger is Japanese compatible - apparently it did not take into consideration whether the Japanese font in the template looks pretty or not.
So the default for the customized template (What in the world is Trebuchet MS?) showed up as what I consider a "ghostly" style font.
The type of font non-Japanese natives would use - like what you see on T-shirts sold in the US that say Kamikaze or Harakiri or other words that you are not supposed to mention in Japan.
I don't know about other people but I really prefer clean, gothic type fonts - in English, I would prefer Arial over Century (just as an example. I do like Century).
So I googled and wandered over cyberspace and found a way to change the font, which was to edit the HTML template; a very dangerous task, because if I destroyed the template, it would blow the blog itself and what would I tell Jacqueline?
However, being the determined person I was, I started on it.
Here is what I started with:
Here is how it ended up:
I chose "MS PGothic" as basic Japanese font; I listed as many Japanese gothic fonts as I could for Vista and MAC users, and somehow managed to leave Georgia for the English parts, because I found it pretty.
Then I DID THE SAME THING 10 TIMES for the headers, the sidebar headers, footers...
I posted the html - but FOUND THAT THE FONT DID NOT CHANGE.
So I wander into cyberspace again, and got information that I needed to make some adjustments on the font setting on Firefox, the browser I usually use for the Needleprint blog.
Soon the problem was fixed, I had a pretty looking Japanese blog, and I was happy -
until I opened it with Opera, the browser I use to look at my personal blog and other Japanese stitcher blogs.
I FOUND THAT THE FONT DID NOT CHANGE!!
So I wander into cyberspace AGAIN, having learned that perhaps I need to change the font setting of Opera - changed a few things- and looked at Needleprint blog again.
I FOUND THAT THE FONT DID NOT CHANGE!!
What was more, by changing the font setting, the blogs which had been shown nicely before was now shown in an awkward font setting.
SO I GAVE UP ON OPERA.
I really hate the way Opera restores its original setting even when it is un-installed and then re-installed. What is uninstallment for?
It is ironic that Internet Explorer 8, my last choice, because of my many experiences of IE7 crashing in showing Needleprint blog and producing gazillion windows - presented the nicest arrangement of fonts in the revised HTML setting.
I also learned in the meanwhile that "adding contributors" (up to 100) came as simply as setting something up on the sidebar, which was shocking.
All the worries I had experienced on my Japanese SAL blog, because it is not meant for multiple users - what was that? (not to mention I could never find time to learn how to customize the template).
Other Head Girls have so much nicer looking blogs and they use Blogger!
I know it is the CONTEXT that counts, but I still want the blog to be neat-looking and attractive.
I am trying not to notice the fact that 99% of the Japanese readers do not have what is required to comment easily on Blogger blog - a Google account.
How I wish I had more IT literacy.
Paule - I could start another blog, but not in Japanese and not Blogger please - I can't go through this again.
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