Confusion Between Draft Blogger And Production Blogger, In Various New Blogger GUI Problems

Occasionally, in answering a problem report in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken which involves custom domain publishing, or the Post Editor, or maybe template editing, we'll start by simply advising the blog owner to revert to the Classic GUI.

Click on the Gear icon, and select "Old Blogger interface".

Even when reverting to the Classic GUI is an acceptable - and effective - solution, we may not always get a positive response.

Where is the Gear icon?

or

I don't have a selection for "Old Blogger interface"!

Sometimes, this is not purely from the blog owner, balking at the unwanted change.

Besides accepting the invitation to "Upgrade Now"

The old Blogger interface will be removed in the coming months. Upgrade Now.

Some blog owners have voluntarily upgraded, using an obscure variation of Blogger. Draft Blogger has, traditionally, been a testing ground for some Blogger features, newly developed.

The New Blogger GUI (2011) was originally made available, as an option, using Draft Blogger. The current version of the New GUI, however, is outside Draft Blogger. Now, "draft.blogger.com" and "www.blogger.com" (with the latter "upgraded" using "Upgrade Now"), may involve completely different program libraries.

Long ago, we would simply ask

What colour is the "B" logo?

"Draft" and "Production" Blogger used different colours.

• Draft Blogger used a white on blue "B" logo.
• Production Blogger used a white on orange logo.

With the "New GUI" Blogger menu and utility complement, Blogger entirely abandoned the "Draft" vs "Production" colour schemes, and now we end up asking

Are you using the Classic Blogger GUI (dark blue / brown) or the New Blogger GUI (orange / tan)?

The latter colour scheme can, unfortunately, involve either the "Draft" or "Production" program libraries.

If you are using the "New Blogger GUI (2011)", and you're not getting a consistent or reliable diagnosis of your problem, check carefully, and ensure that you're not using "Draft" Blogger. If

• The address in the browser address window starts with "draft.blogger.com".
• You can't find a "Gear" icon that controls the GUI.
• The menu, beneath the "Gear", does not include "Old Blogger interface".

check what variation of Blogger you are using. Please, be careful - don't confuse the "Gear" icon used by the GUI itself with an identical icon, used by the "Reading list" display, on the "Blog List" display.

If you are using "Draft" Blogger, upgrade your variant of the New GUI.

• From your dashboard display (hopefully, with a white on blue logo), un select

  Make Blogger in Draft my default dashboard.

• From your dashboard display (hopefully, now with a white on orange logo), click on "Upgrade Now"

  The old Blogger interface will be removed in the coming months. Upgrade Now.

If you're going to use the New GUI, make sure that you have a consistent and up to date variant of the New GUI.

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