Three Column Minima Lefty Stretch

This blog is all about adding columns to free blogger templates, and this post is all about adding a third column to Minima Lefty Stretch. If you want a tutorial for a 3 column Minima Lefty Stretch blogger layout, look no further.

These instructions are simple and easy, and you can do it if you don't know the first thing about HTML (which is perfect, because I don't). Update again: thanks for all the great comments. While it's hard to respond to each one individually, I do carefully read them all and have modified the post in order to make it (I hope) a better resource for all. Cheers!

Adding a third column to Minima Lefty Stretch is easy, and these instructions make it even easier. The Minima varietals of Blogger are some of the simplest templates out there, and they are also easy on the eyes. Consequently, there are many, many bloggers who like and use Minima.

This post is for adding a third column to Minima Lefty Stretch in "Layout Version". To check which version you're using, go into your dashboard and look just to the left of the "View Blog" link on the top left of the page. If the tab there says "Layout", you are using the Layout version of Minima and this post is for you.

So without further adieu, let's get started. First, open up Blogger and go into your Dashboard, then click on the "Layout" tab. Then go into the "Edit HTML" tab. You will see a bunch of gobbledygook and gobbledygook it shall remain - you don't need to know anything about it. Just scroll down until you see the "Outer-Wrapper" section, it is marked by the following: /* Outer Wrapper. Easy enough, but an even easier way to find it is use your brower's control F (CTRL+F) command. You can just type CTRL F and then type /* Outer-Wrapper into the dialog box and click "next".

/* Outer-Wrapper
-----------------------------------------------

Now, change the width of the "main-wrapper" from 67% to 52%, and the float from $endSide to $startSide. Note that the html code "$startSide" is case sensitive, to avoid the problem you can just use "left" for "$startSide" (and you can use "right" for $endSide):

#main-wrapper {
margin-$endSide: 2%; <-------change to $startSide
width: 67%; <-------change to 52%
float: $endSide; <-------change to $startSide
display: inline; /* fix for doubling margin in IE */
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */

That piece of code should now look EXACTLY like this:

#main-wrapper {
margin-$startSide: 2%;
width: 52%;
float: $startSide;
display: inline; /* fix for doubling margin in IE */
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */

So far so good. Now, take this new block of code (below, in red) and paste it exactly as it appears directly in the space just before the */ Headings section. It's helpful to use "CTRL C" to copy, and then "CTRL V" to paste, if you didn't already know that trick. Regardless of how you cut and paste, you must paste the code directly in that space before the */Headings section and do not accidentally delete any code from the "#sidebar-wrapper" code above, including the "}" character at the very end. To paraphrase Monty Python, every character is sacred!

#right-sidebar-wrapper {
margin-$endSide: 2%;
width: 20%;
float: $endSide;
display: inline; /* fix for doubling margin in IE */
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

The new code block should look exactly like this:

#main-wrapper {
margin-$startSide: 2%;
width: 52%;
float: $startSide;
display: inline; /* fix for doubling margin in IE */
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
#sidebar-wrapper {
margin-$startSide: 2%;
width: 20%;
float: $startSide;
display: inline; /* fix for doubling margin in IE */
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
#right-sidebar-wrapper {
margin-$endSide: 2%;
width: 20%;
float: $endSide;
display: inline; /* fix for doubling margin in IE */
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

At this point, believe it or not, there is only one more step. Update: You MUST insert/paste the below new section in the right place: AFTER the main wrapper div. Your code should go sidebar wrapper first, then main wrapper, then right sidebar wrapper. If you are still having trouble, also check to make sure your floats are set correctly. The left sidebar should be set to left or $startSide, the main side bar wrapper should also be set to left or $startSide, and the right sidebar wrapper should be set to right or $endSide. This particular step is hard only because you need to make sure you paste the additional code in the right spot, and this next spot can be a hard place to identify (CTRL+F helps here a lot), but you must put in the right spot.

Anyway, scroll down to the very end of the entire page. Several lines above the very end you will see the following:

<!-- spacer for skins that want sidebar and main to be the same height-->

Now, immediately above the line that says <!-- spacer for skins that want sidebar and main to be the same height--> and below the end of the "main-wrapper" div section (be careful not to delete any of the code in that section), paste in the following code EXACTLY as it appears below:

<div id='right-sidebar-wrapper'>
<b:section class='sidebar' id='right-sidebar' preferred='yes'>
<b:widget id='Subscribe1' locked='false' title='Subscribe' type='Subscribe'/>
</b:section>
</div>

Note: this will also insert the RSS feed widget into your new sidebar, but you can customize that however you'd like after you finish adding the new column. Update: If you get an error message that says the widget ID should be unique, you have an RSS feed widget already loaded in your original sidebar and you'll need to delete that one temporarily. But don't worry, you can customize your columns however you like once you get them set up. If not, there's no need to worry about it. So, after you do that, the newly modified section should now look like this:

<div id='main-wrapper'>
<b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'>
<b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'/>
</b:section>
</div>

<div id='right-sidebar-wrapper'>
<b:section class='sidebar' id='right-sidebar' preferred='yes'>
<b:widget id='Subscribe1' locked='false' title='Subscribe' type='Subscribe'/>
</b:section>
</div>

<--spacer for skins that want sidebar and main to be the same height-->

And you are a now master Minima Lefty Stretch coder, because you're done! Hit preview to see your new 3 column Minima Lefty Stretch layout, and then save the template. Best of luck with your blogging. I hope your new 3 column Minima Lefty Stretch template helps make your blogging even more fun and enjoyable!

Best of luck with your blogging. Links to this post are always welcome. If you would like to create a quick link in one of your posts or on your blogroll but are unsure how to do it, just insert this html string in your post text:

</a href="http://www.threecolumnblogger.com/">Three Column Blogger</a>

It will appear in your post text/blogroll as Three Column Blogger

Thanks!!