Add 3rd column to Blogger template

Want to add 3 columns to your Blogger template? This post will show you how to update your Blogger layout a to WidgetSidebar - Main Post - WidgetSidebar format (based on Blogger's "Minima" template). Here's how:

Backup your current template
You can do this by logging into your Blogger account and selecting Layout > Edit HTML. Check the Expand Widget Templates box and then click the Download Full Template link. Save a copy to your desktop just in case this doesn't work :-) I also recommend writing down a list of all your sidebar widgets.

Download this template
Right click here, select Save Link As... and save the file to your desktop. This is the minibox template, courtesy of www.2600degrees.com.

Update your code
Open the saved .xml template file with a text editor like Wordpad and copy the entire body of code. Go back to your Blogger browser window and replace all current code with the copied portion from Wordpad. Preview before saving, and if all looks good Save Template (WARNING: you may lose all your Widget data by saving your template). You may have to do some minor adjustments to make everything fit (I had to adjust the widths of each sidebar wrapper). If you lost Widget data, go back to Layout and add your widgets again. You will notice that you now have 3 columns!