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Inconsistencies In Template Designer Layout Are Disturbing

As I noted in an earlier article, the Template Designer is now a part of Production (Orange) Blogger - and now, merely a day after having noted the fact, inconsistencies in the design of the displays are becoming visible.

A very lamentable omission from the Template Designer screen itself is the lack of the Blogger "B" logo, which should link to the dashboard. Such a basic feature, and now it's gone.

The schizophrenic nature of the "Design" link is also disturbing.
  • From the dashboard, the "Design" link leads to the "Page Elements" display. You click on "Template Designer" to get to the Template Designer.
  • From the navbar, the "Design" link leads to the Template Designer. You click on "Back to Blogger" to get to "Page Elements".

The "Page Elements" GUI appears to be where we will add and rearrange the gadgets on the screen. A former "Layout" component is thus necessary for a Designer template function.

Conversely, the Template Designer "Advanced" feature appears to replace the (former) Layout "Fonts and Colors" wizard. A "Designer" component is thus necessary for a Layout template function.

One can only hope that these are merely oversights on the part of Blogger, and they have plans to remedy them shortly. I just wonder how long it will take, for them to do so.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
If you ask me, there are still a lot of problems with the new designer. It took me a long while, but their code for putting in your own background is lacking (centering is key). If you choose your own background and have it set to "clear" you get a faded affect. So, you have to pick either a light or dark background, to get your own to display correctly. Another issue is getting the background to display. You have to go into the HTML code and establish three different URLs and codes to make it work. A lot of that has to do with these unusually long strings that Sites produces, that you can shorten, but there is clearly a disconnect there as it does not work as flawlessly as pages.

There are an abundance of smaller things that I won't bother going into, but one of the BIGGEST issues for me is the incompatibility with Disqus. I can get it to work and as soon as someone uses it, it's gone, even though the code is still there. Unless, Blogger wants to to come up with their own commenting system that fully integrates into Facebook, Twitter and their counterparts, this is key.
Dudel said…
Yeah I poked the design settings for like ten minutes before just saying to myself, "Eh... good thing I'm not making another blog any time soon."

Not to user friendly. I'm not sure why it was released at this time, clearly it has a lot of needed work.
Unknown said…
Not loving the new.
PussDaddy said…
I never really mess with this stuff. I don't think I even picked out a font for the title box of my blog and just took whatever came up. I just like things simple, and clean, and easy.

PussDaddy
Grumpy1 said…
As you well know, Chuck, whenever Blogger comes up with something good, they often stuff up something else - something that didn't need altering, or amendment.

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