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Dragonflies

Along with Labels, the Layouts template editing ability is probably the neatest feature in New Blogger. The GUI Page Layout editor is totally kewl.

Not too many folks realise though that you can edit page elements from other than Page Layout editor mode. When we're logged in as an administrator, we can make changes to the individual page elements, just as we can edit posts. Similar to the "Edit Posts" pencil at the bottom of each post, you'll find the QuickEdit widget at the bottom right of every page element.

And here's some confusion.
How in the world do I get rid of the cute little dragonflies that seem to be a part of the template that I have?? I do not know enough about the HTML to find them or what they might be called.

Well, I've been studying the HTML / XML, but I don't know the name myself. It does sort of look like a dragonfly, though. It's just another thing that got put, into Blogger Beta, without a name. Another violation of one of my principles
Everything gets a name.

Fortunately, named or not named, it's only visible to you, in a specific situation. And, once you explain that to folks, the general philosophy is
I can live with that, as long as the readers aren't seeing it.

And they're not seeing them. Only you can see them, in a specific situation.
  • When you are logged in to the blog as an administrator (or were logged in just recently).
  • When the blog has Quick Editing enabled.


There are 3 ways to prevent the dragonflies from displaying.
  1. Log out from your account.
  2. Disable Quick Editing.
  3. Edit your template.
    1. Backup your template.
    2. Select "Expand Widget Templates".
    3. Find, and replace, all instances of
      <b:include name='quickedit'/>
      changing each to
      <!-- <b:include name='quickedit'/> -->
    4. Save Template changes.


If none of the three possibilities above help you, or apply, then look at template corruption.

(Note): You may find it necessary to clear browser cache, after doing each of the above, to make sure the dragonflies will be gone. But in cache or not, after you log out, you still can't edit your blog. Try logging out then clicking on a dragonfly (if you still see them). You'll find out.

You're welcome to do without your dragonflies, and edit your page elements from the Page Elements GUI wizard. I won't - I like mine.

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Comments

bibla said…
You are a star thank you.
Anonymous said…
Those 'dragonflies' have been annoying me for years!

Thanks for the excellent advice.
Anonymous said…
Dragonflies? awesome name :)
Thank you so much!
Unknown said…
Thank you so much for this quickedit tip, the html surgery worked perfectly. I didn't know if the "fireflies" were a bug or odd vestigial remnant.
Anonymous said…
Hi, I'm on the minima template.
I found the pencil icon, deleted back the src code in the ref to it and added text 'Edit', which is working well and giving one less call for an image while I'm blogging. But I can't find the location of the wrench and icon img src. I found the email and delete comment dustbin icons. Can you find the wrench icon image src??!
:o}

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