January 2011

In this Blogger tutorial I expand on my previous article about how to add a 3-4 column footer to Blogger by showing you how add border styling to the new footer. You will learn how to add a border around all of your footer columns or around only part of the footer columns. You will also learn how to add different border styles and border colors to customize your 3-4 column footer.

If you have just landed here and need instructions on how to add a 3 or 4 column footer to your Blogger blog then please refer to how to add a 3 or 4 column footer to a Blogger template (Blogspot template)

This is a walkthrough designed to assist bloggers with no experience of CSS styling who want to enhance their Blogger template with borders and other CSS styling. By following these examples you will gain the knowledge you need to make many types of custom changes to the borders of your new Blogger footer. For help with changing the background of your blogger footer please see my article How to Change the Background a Blogger Footer.

How to Add Borders to the Footer of a Blogger Template
To add lines (commonly known as borders) to a Blogger template footer we need to add some CSS styling.

Before beginning to add borders there are 3 values to consider:

width of the border (line thickness eg 1px, 2px, 3px and so on)
line style of the border (solid, dotted, dashed, double)
color of the border (hex color)

How to Add a Border Around the Outside of a Blogger Footer
First we add the border property and then add the border style, border width and the border color values. In these following examples just by changing these values we can achieve lots of different results.
- To Add a Dashed Border Around the Outside of a Blogger Footer
  With the following code a dashed black line 1px thick will be added around the outside of the footer.
  
  #footer-columns {
  
  margin:0 auto;
  clear:both;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border: 1px dashed #000000;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
- To Add a Dotted Border Around the Outside of a Blogger Footer
  By changing the dashed black line to a dotted border it is simple to get a different line style.
  
  #footer-columns {
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border: 1px dotted #000000;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
- To Add a Solid Border (Blue 3px thick) Around the Outside of a Blogger Footer
  To add extra emphasis we can change the line color and its thickness. Here I have made the line blue rather than black and thickened it from 1px to 3px.
  
  #footer-columns {
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border: 3px solid #336699;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
To Add a Partial Border to a Blogger Footer
Sometimes we might want to add a border to only one part of the footer area rather than the whole thing. Again we add the border property but we append it with the following values: (top, bottom, left, right) depending on where we want to place the border.
- To Add a Solid Border to the Top of a Blogger Footer
  #footer-columns {
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border-top: 1px solid #000000;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
- To Add a Solid Border to the Bottom of a Blogger Footer
  #footer-columns {
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
- To Add a Dashed Border to the Top of a Blogger Footer
  #footer-columns {
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border-top: 1px dashed #000000;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
- To Add a Dotted Border to Both Top and Bottom of a Blogger Footer
  #footer-columns {
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border-top: 1px dotted #000000;
  border-bottom: 1px dotted #000000;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
- To Add a Dotted Border 4px thick to Both Top and Bottom of a Blogger Footer
  #footer-columns {
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border-top: 4px dotted #000000;
  border-bottom: 4px dotted #000000;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
- To Add a Blue Solid Border 5px thick to Both Top and Bottom of a Blogger Footer
  #footer-columns {
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }
  
  Change to:
  
  #footer-columns {
  border-top: 5px solid #336699;
  border-bottom: 5px solid #336699;
  clear:both;
  margin:0 auto;
  }

In this Blogger tutorial (Blogspot tutorial) I have shown you how to make some simple customizations to the borders of a Blogger footer. This tutorial is intended as an extension of my earlier tutorial on adding a three or four column footer to Blogger. However it is also suitable if you are using a custom template and want to enhance the footer styling further. You have learned how to add borders to a Blogger footer and change the position, color, width and styling.

If you want to know more about CSS styling I will be publishing further articles in the future. Look out for my next article in this series How to Add Backgrounds to a Blogger Footer.

Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
How to Add a 3 or 4 Column Footer to a Blogger Template

This Blogger tutorial (Blogspot tutorial) explains how to put a table into a Blogger post. You will learn how to create tables in Blogger ranging from a simple table to a more complex table with alternating colors.

We will start with a basic table and gradually add CSS styling to the table to improve the look and functionality until we have built the table pictured directly below. No knowledge of CSS and HTML is assumed so this Blogger tutorial is suitable for absolute blogging beginners.

A Blogger Table Caption
Table Header	Table Header	Table Header
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell

Tables are a useful way to display information particularly tabulated information. Tables are good whenever you want to align information so that it is easy to read and understand. You can add text, hyperlinks and even images to a table which makes them very useful for presenting information.

There is no easy way to add tables in Blogger yet. Even if you are using the new editor you will note that no table button is provided. Fortunately it is easy enough to use a bit of CSS styling to spruce up a table and enter this manually into a Blogger post.

How to Add a Table to Blogger Posts
First you will learn how to add a simple table to Blogger. We are going to start with a table with 3 columns and 4 rows including a header row. Then I will show you step by step how to add different features to the table including how to add extra rows, a background color to the header, a border, a caption, change the size of the table, center align the table and more.

Table Header	Table Header	Table Header
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell

In Blogger open either a new post or an existing post that you wish to add a table to
Click on the Edit HTML tab on your Blogger editor
Copy the following code into your Blogger post which will produce the basic table as shown above:

<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<tr>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr">
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
</table>
Make changes to the table to suit your own Blogger template if necessary by changing the following:

<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
- Border width (blue)
- Border color (black)
- Background color (red)
- Table width (orange) Can be a percentage or actual width eg 500px
Now we are going to fix an annoying problem in Blogger which renders too much white space above the table. We do this by adding the following styling denoted in red directly above the table tag and adding a closing </div> at the end of the table code

<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none }</style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<tr>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr">
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
</table></div>
Let's add some further styling to our table header to improve the look of our table as denoted in red. Change the background color and color attributes to suit your own color scheme if you wish

Table Header Table Header Table Header

Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell

Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell
Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell

<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none }</style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<tr style="background-color:#0033FF; color:#ffffff; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:4px;">
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
</table>
Now let's add another row to our table for Blogger so you can see how this is done

Table Header Table Header Table Header

Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell

Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell
Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell
Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell

<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none }</style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<tr style="background-color:#0033FF; color:#ffffff; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:4px;">
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
</table>
In this step we are going to center the contents of our Blogger table. This can be done in several ways but we are going to take a short cut here by assigning a style to every table row

Table Header Table Header Table Header

Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell

Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell
Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell
Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell

<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none } tr {text-align: center;} </style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<tr style="background-color:#0033FF; color:#ffffff; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:4px;">
Now we are going to jazz up our Blogger table by adding alternating colored rows to improve readibility and appearance. By far the easiest way to do this is to assign a class.

Table Header Table Header Table Header

Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell

Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell
Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell
Table Cell Table Cell Table Cell

<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none } tr {text-align: center;} tr.alt td {background-color: #eeeecc; color: black;}</style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<tr style="background-color:#0033FF; color:#ffffff; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:4px;">
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
</table>

It is also easy to add a caption to your Blogger table. For a caption above the table simply add the caption line as shown in red. For a caption below the table add the caption line in red and a style as shown in blue

A Blogger Table Caption
Table Header	Table Header	Table Header
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell

<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none } tr {text-align: center;} tr.alt td {background-color: #eeeecc; color: black;} tr {text-align: center;} caption {caption-side:bottom;} </style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<caption>A Blogger Table Caption</caption>
<tr style="background-color:#0033FF; color:#ffffff; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:4px;">
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
</table>

One more important property needs to be addressed in our new Blogger table to improve the look. We can reduce the double border into a single one. The easiest way to do this is to change the cellspacing to zero as denoted in red. Or, alternatively we can apply the border collapse property to our table as shown in blue. Note: Border collapse may not be supported by all browsers particularly if the cellspacing attribute is defined also)

A Blogger Table Caption
Table Header	Table Header	Table Header
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell
Table Cell	Table Cell	Table Cell

<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none } tr {text-align: center;} tr.alt td {background-color: #eeeecc; color: black;} tr {text-align: center;} caption {caption-side:bottom;}</style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table border="2" bordercolor="#0033FF" style="background-color:#99FFFF; border-collapse:collapse;" width="100%" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0">
<caption>A Blogger Table Caption</caption>
<tr style="background-color:#0033FF; color:#ffffff; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:4px;">
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
<th>Table Header</th>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
<td>Table Cell</td>
</tr>
</table>

Now go ahead and add your data to your new Blogger table. Filling in each instance of "Table Header" and "Table Cell" with your own data. The information you add to the Blogger table can be text, hyperlinks or even an image
Save your changes to the Blogger table by saving and publishing your post