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StatCounter code

I've discovered something about StatCounter. Putting the StatCounter code into the theme index.html file causes the StatCounter icon or counter to appear on every page using that theme, but it doesn't count hits on every page - just the first page!. I solved this by removing the code from the index.html file, then putting into each page using the "Override Default Settings" "Copyright" field. Warning: If you've got your email address in the page footer, this will also overwrite that, so you'll have to include that in the code.

Remember - you can use html in any of these fields. They're too small to really edit or write it in the field, so I use BBEdit for that. Any text editor will do though.
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Editing the index page

I haven't figured out all of the ins and outs of this, but you can edit the index page of your chosen theme. This is pretty nifty as it allows you to put html code that will affect every page using that theme. To do this, open the "Themes" tray (in 3.6, that's the little button on the bottom, next to the "Publish" button), and right-click the theme you want to edit. If you're editing the theme you're actually using, it's a good idea to make a copy by selecting "Duplicate Theme" before you start mucking around with it. Once you've made the copy, select "Show Contents". This will open a folder in the Finder. Find the "index.html" file and open it with your favorite editor. I use BBEdit, but TextWrangler or any other text editor will work just fine. From there, you can edit the theme to your heart's content.

For most things, you're probably better off using "Site Setup" from within RapidWeaver. You can put html code into the Copyright or Email fields. That will affect
all pages on the site (not just the ones using a particular theme), and it doesn't involve risky edits to the theme index page. But for those situations where you really do want to edit the theme, it's nice to know that it's possible.
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More about counters

Yesterday I noted that a hit counter can be put into the sidebar of any page. To do that, just open the Page Inspector, click the "sidebar" icon and past the html code. Be sure that the "HTML" button is clicked at the bottom of the sidebar panel, and not the "Styled" button. In theory, RapidWeaver will automagically recognize html and will click the correct button for you, but it never hurts to be sure.

You can also put the counter at the bottom of any page. Open the Page Inspector, click the "Plugins" icon (that's the last one) and paste the code into the "Copyright" field. You can actually put any html or plain text in there and it will appear centered at the bottom of the page. It's a pretty small field so if you're putting in more than a line of code you'll probably want to write it in BBEdit or another text/html editor, then paste it into the field.

That will get you a counter on one page, but what if you want the counter to appear in the same place on every page? For that, you'll use the "Site Update" panel instead of the "Page Inspector". If you put html into the Site Setup's Sidebar panel, it will appear on every page in the sidebar. If you put it into the Site Setup's "Copyright" field, it will appear centered at the bottom of each page. Remember that anything you have in the Page Inspector fields will override the Site Setup for that page.

You can also put the counter - or edit any html code - directly in the index.html page. I'll talk about that a bit later once I figure it out.

By the way, while I like
StatCounter, a lot of people are saying good things about Google Analytics, too. If you want other offerings, there are a bajillion counters available for free. I googled "hit counters" and got 2,800,000 hits!
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Adding a counter

I'm accustomed to seeing what sort of traffic is actually passing through my web pages. I use StatCounter for that. StatCounter provides a free service and their stats are presented in a convenient and readable format. StatCounter provides cut 'n' paste code that you can put into your web site or blog. You have a choice of whether to display the count, just the StatCounter logo, or nothing at all, as well as whether to make the stats public or private. You can set up a number of different projects to track different web sites, or just different pages or sections of your own web site. I don't know what the upper limit is on the free accounts, but I've got 9 projects running and they haven't squawked. They also support IP blocking, so you can block your own IP address from being counted. I'm not interested in knowing how many times I've visited my own sites!

I had already grappled with putting a counter into Blogger and Typepad. In Blogger it's easy. In Typepad, less so. I wondered what I would need to do to get a counter working in my new RapidWeaver blogs. Turns out it's easy! I just put the StatCounter code snippet into the sidebar, using RapidWeaver's page inspector tool. There are ways to put the code snippet elsewhere on the page as well, if you don't care to see it in the sidebar.
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MarsEdit

Alas, it appears that I cannot use MarsEdit for these blogs. MarsEdit depends on certain information being available from the server. That information is available from blogging sites such as Blogger and Typepad. But it is not necessarily available from other hosts that don't specialize in blogs.

Tant pis! I'll be doing my blogging using RapidWeaver's built-in editor or more likely, with BBEdit.
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Blogging in RapidWeaver

RapidWeaver sports a blogging tool that lets you create blogs. The blog tool lets you create blogs that have a summary, like this one... Read More...
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How I found RapidWeaver

When I was trying to figure out what to use to finally build my web site I looked at a number of offerings. I've had Dreamweaver for a long time. But Dreamweaver is really overkill for someone like me. It's like shooting an ant with an elephant gun. Besides, I wasn't interested in spending a lot of time building really complicated sites ... Read More...
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