Formatting Posts
Note: be sure and read the post Using a TypeList to Maintain Style before proceeding...
For those of you interested in formatting your site, the proper method is to use styles. If you’ll include something like the following in a post (after selecting 
"Edit HTML" in the TypePad posting editor interface), you can control the appearance of your posts.
The example formats the Paragraph (p) and Anchor (a) elements, which are probably the only ones you are interested in, except perhaps the visited link, which is a:visited, e.g.:
a:visited {color: red;}
You can find a complete list of attributes (font face and color, background color, etc.) and possible values (color, bold, etc.) at DevGuru. He also has color charts for fine tuning colors using RGB values (the #FF8800 in the example). Play around with things and find what you like. You can, of course, get much more sophisticated. If there is interest, I might give a tutorial on using CSS to make your site pretty much whatever you want it to be--notice my orange footers.
Note that all posts on the page are affected, as well as other aspects of the page! Once you’ve included the style you don’t need to include it with subsequent posts. You can remove the style and revert back to the default by saving the original post which contained the style without the style code snippet, which actually disappears after posting (so be sure and save a copy of the code someplace to cut and paste back in).
Important: Although this change is rather innocuous, you should always make a backup of your site before attempting anything like what is described in this post (actually you should backup regularly anyway). You can make a backup by exporting your site in the TypePad dashboard and saving the results. If you do not know how to do this, wait. My next post later today will describe the process of backing up your site in detail.
-- Michael Norton
Hey Michael,
Thanks for thr tutorial. Is the code snippet you have posted above the one that you are using as I read your blog (except with the color blue)? Do we paste a snippet in the very beginning of the post before all the other code? Or do we have to paste it before every paragraph?
Cabbie
http://bestblog.mlblogs.com
cshimkin@yahoo.com
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Carl,
Essentially. Here are the values I'm using right now:
p {color: #000044; font-size: 11pt;}
a {color: #0000FF;}
a:visited {color: #0000AA;}
.entry-footer {color: orange;}
The RGB values, e.g., #0000FF, give me greater control. The color charts at DevGuru (there is a link in the post) will give you values to try.
I've only put the code in once, at the beginning of the post, though I doubt it matters. Seems TypePad consumes it and sets the values for the site, which means you only have to do it once. You definitely don't have to paste it before every paragraph. That is the point of stylesheets.
Don't hesitate to let me know if you need any specific help.
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I tried out the code you gave but the spacing is not as nice as yours. I think I need an e-mail correspondence with you on this.
Cabbie
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BTW, RGB means Red, Green and Blue. The first two "numbers" (they are hex, from 0-F) represent the amount of red. Thus #FF0000 is absolute red. The brightness of the color is indicated by the quantity: 31 would be darker than 62. The second pair of "numbers" is Green, and the third is Blue. Thus bright blue is #0000FF.
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Carl, no problem. I'll email you the code.
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Ok, I tried the one you just gave me---that looks better. I'll investigate some more. You'll probably hear back from me. Great info!
Cabbie
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Anytime, Carl. I've uploaded a screen shot which might be helpful to others. If you double click on it the larger image will appear in a new browser window. A picture is worth a thousand words--except in your case 8)
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Nice job, Michael, especially in noting that it can be done once rather than having to do it in each subsequent post.
Mark
http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com
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Hey, I just noticed that the "Some Ballyard" title at the top shrunk in point size...
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Mark,
I'm doing more on my site than I'm describing for others. I've been playing around with some classes and ids and probably whacked something. I'll take a look at it.
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I figured it out and it would effect others (it occurs when you format the Anchor element, since the title is also an anchor). I'll fix it up momentarily and publish the new code.
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OK, I've corrected the issue. The Anchor tag should not have had a font size specification. Demonstrates the pitfalls of trying to use code to both function and illustrate.
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Looks great...
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