Technology Lesson: Modifying Your Tumblelog's Appearance

Today we're going to change "our" Tumblelog's appearance. You may notice that these screenshots look familiar. Because this blog is "real" some of these posts are out of order. It seemed negligent to tweak the blog's appearance before telling you how to post content. (With some exceptions, it's more important to me that the blog looks pretty before I "launch" it.)

Starting with the dashboard (turn on your computer, go to www.tumblr.com, and log in), click CUSTOMIZE, located on the right side of the screen.

The navbar at the top of the page is what you want to focus on here. It's where you can modify the colors, themes, and information for your blog. If you want to save time and have plenty of options at your fingertips, you might want to click THEME.

Tumblr will list themes that are not free. Skip these. This is the Internet, and except for some exceptions by law, everything should be free.

When you click a theme, you'll see a preview of your Tumblr with the theme. You can click INSTALL THEME or SAVE to accept the theme you 

If you want to see more themes, or write your own, your options are at the bottom of the dialogue box.

I chose Stationery by thijsjacobs because I think it matches the theme of this blog.

If you want to skip all of the themes, click APPEARANCE. (You'll want to click "appearance" if you do click a theme, as it includes more customization.) You can upload a header image (click UPLOAD next to HEADER IMAGE), and customize your blog's appearance here. You can also specify your likes, tools, about page, and more here.

The SERVICES tab is very helpful. It's where you connect Facebool Twitter to your Tumblelog and allow Facebook Twitter to automatically post your Tumblr entries.

The COMMUNITY tab will let you customize setting regarding comments and participation. The submit option is good if you are running a blog like Fuck Yeah, Boston Terriers! ("Fuck Yeah" is a Thing on Tumblr) and Clients from Hell. I opted out of a submission page and favored comments.

The ADVANCED tab will let you choose how many entries/articles are displayed per page (the default is 20, I picked 5), whether or not to submit your blog to search engines and the Tumblr directory (I chose yes), and more. If you're not sure what something is here, it's best to leave it alone.

Make sure you click SAVE as you make changes. When you've completed your customization, click SAVE + CLOSE. The buttons are both green.

When I was finished, the blog looked like this:

Any questions?