Creating a Table for your Link Ups page

I have found a table generator that made it easier to put linky buttons into neat rows and columns.  I found it on 2 Create a Website

It was free and relatively easy to use.  Once you have got your table set up you can just enter each button code into the relevant place.

The settings I chose were Border Size 1, Width of Table 95%, 3 columns

You also have to choose a colour for your border (which I recommend you have because I tried it without and it looked funny) and for your background colour – I chose a grey initially but will probably change that.

It is worth fiddling around to get the table settings right before starting to put the buttons in because otherwise you have to search round in the morass of code to find what you want to change – and I don't know about you but html coding makes me nervous.

Once you have your table set up, all you do to put a code in is go to html and then paste the code over the column no and row no which will look something like this "row 1, column 1".

Good luck!  It took me a bit of time but the result is much better than the haphazard page I started with.

I have one remaining problem that I need to work out how to fix without redoing the whole page.  Right up til almost the last the width of the table fitted nicely into my page and then suddenly it expanded to cover my sidebar … sigh

 [Update – I have temporarily almost fixed it by taking out the buttons that were too big – I now need to work out how to shrink them so they can go back in]

[further update – this post by The Scrap Shoppe told me how to shrink blog buttons … phew!]

OMG – now I find the page displays perfectly on Google Chrome but all wonky on Internet Explorer!   If this page is not displaying properly in Internet Explorer ie the columns are bleeding over the sidebar, you can fix this by hitting F12 and then selecting Internet Explorer 9 (or whatever number you are ) Compatibility View and Internet Explorer 9 (or whatever) standards.  This fixed it for me.

PS:  One final tip - I suggest you save the table format code and all the button codes in a Word document so you can re-create your page if it all goes wrong - I didn't the first time round and had to start again from scratch.  I also suggest you decide in your Word document what order you want your buttons in, I started trying to drag and drop them and it completely mucked up the page - that's why I had to start over

Here's a link to a tutorial on making personalised social media buttons

This is a link to a tutorial about making social media buttons from a blog I follow called Charlies and Harry's Daddy.  It seems pretty clearly explained - although I haven't done it myself yet so can't say it works for sure!

Buttons and awards – your views please?

Hi everyone.  Up to now I have kept Carole's Chatter a button and award free zone.  Not for any particular reason other than a wish to keep each post based on real content and also a belief that the less cluttered my home page is the better.

I would be really interested in starting a discussion about what you think the best approach is.  Obviously there could well be a different approach to buttons from awards.

So many of the awards going round seem to be a bit  like chain letters.  Does this bother you?  I must say that when I have been nominated for an award, I feel like a bit of a heel declining it.

In relation to buttons, I don't have a button for my Food on Friday or Books You Loved series.  I try to make each link event as easy as possible for people to participate in.  And because of this I haven't up til now put buttons on my site where I have linked in to other people's events.  I do visit lots of the other links and comment and so I do feel I am doing my bit.  Again what do you think is the best approach?