Below are the instructions on how to turn "Labels into Horizontal Tabs," my third hacking attempt. Many thanks for the Exploding Boy website for making it free for everyone to use (I just couldn't help it by referring to a Beatles song, but indeed your contribution to this hack is about 75%, I'd say :-)


Step 0: Label your posts.

Make sure your blog has some posts with label assigned, otherwise nothing will get created. See this topic on how to create labels:

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=44498&topic=9084



Step 1: Downloading and unzipping the file from the Exploding Boy website

(You can skip this step if you are going to useRamani's hosted pics in step 3.)

Here are the downloading and sample links:

http://www.exploding-boy.com/2005/12/15/free-css-navigation-designs/

http://exploding-boy.com/images/cssmenus/menus.html

Step 2: Changing the Header to become appendable.

Modify this line:

<b:section class="header" id="header" maxwidgets="1" showaddelement="no">

to become

<b:section class="header" id="header" maxwidgets="2" showaddelement="yes">



Step 3: Preparation the CSS portion of the hack.

Go to the very end of this article and cut the CSS portion you like there, then paste it at the very end of the CSS code (right before the closing CDATA part - see picture below)



Below is an example of pasting the code for style F:


/*- Menu Tabs F By http://www.exploding-boy.com/2005/12/15/free-css-navigation-designs/------
*/

#tabsF {
float:left;
width:100%;
font-size:80%;
line-height:normal;
border-bottom:1px solid #000;

}
#tabsF ul {
margin:0;
padding:10px 10px 0 50px;
list-style:none;
}
#tabsF li {
display:inline;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
#tabsF a {
float:left;
background:url(" http://www.anniyalogam.com/labeltabs/tableftF.gif") no-repeat left top;
margin:0;
padding:0 0 0 4px;
text-decoration:none;
}
#tabsF a span {
float:left;
display:block;
background:url(" http://www.anniyalogam.com/labeltabs/tabrightF.gif") no-repeat right top;
padding:5px 15px 4px 6px;
color:#666;
}
/* Commented Backslash Hack hides rule from IE5-Mac \*/
#tabsF a span {float:none;}
/* End IE5-Mac hack */
#tabsF a:hover span {
color:#FFF;
}
#tabsF a:hover {
background-position:0% -42px;
}
#tabsF a:hover span {
background-position:100% -42px;
}

The pictures the CSS code is referring to are gracefully hosted by Ramani of Hackosphere. Thanks, Ramani. (Of course, if you download the zip file, you can manually upload the corresponding files to Blogger Beta instead.)

Step 4: Adding Label Widget

Follow the instructions from this article, especially step B.4. After you've done with inserting the code & save it, go to Page Element option and drag the newly added widget to stay under the Header area (that we fixed so that it would accomodate this new widget.)


<b:widget id='Label10' locked='false' title='' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<div id='tabsF'>
<ul>
<li><a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><span>Home</span></a></li>
<b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
<li><a expr:href='data:label.url'><span><data:label.name/></span></a></li>
</b:loop>
</ul>
<!-- <b:include name='quickedit'/> -->
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>


If you use a style other than F, than make sure id='tabsF' reflects the correct tab, such as id='tabsE' for style E. Later, if you like a different design, just cut-and-paste the style's CSS code, then change this id again to reflect the change.


Update (9/16/06): Please see my improved code at the end of this article if you would like to exclude some tabs from showing.

There you have it! Well-designed tabs from professionals (The Exploding Boy website) being integrated into the new Blogger Beta.



I would like to thank Mr. Ramani for his contructive comments to make this tutorial more readable and to make this hack much easier for you to install on your blog.

Have a nice day and see you next time,

Cheers,