Earlier this year, I took a leap into the future, and upgraded this blog to use a "Responsive" class template.
There are four "Responsive" templates - Contempo, Soho, Emporio, and Notable. The differences between the four include more than merely the visible design.
My serious opinion about template choice is that two people, each starting a blog about the same subject, and using the same source of content, will still have different perspectives - and each will probably choose a different template.
Anybody who asks me, bluntly
Gets my facetious reply
It's your blog. Your blog is valuable, because of the content.
Our clean, exciting new look.
Our boring previous look.
If you want more advice, I'll offer you my four "Responsive" class demo templates - Contempo Test, Soho Test, Emporio Test, and Notable Test. You can examine this post, and compare the visible differences, on each of the four test blogs.
Just click on the "hamburger" icon, in the upper right corner of the screen, to see the sidebar - and the "Responsive Templates Tests" blog list.
Click on the "hamburger" icon, to open the hidden sidebar.
Besides the "Mobile" template that is now redundant, there are various differences between the "Responsive" class themes and previous classes. If this interests you, move your blog forward, by choosing an exciting "Responsive" class template, from the dashboard "Theme" page.
Pick one of the new and exciting "Responsive" class templates - Contempo, Soho, Emporio, Notable.
You can setup your own demo / test set, easily enough.
If necessary, setup your own test blog set, with your own test posts - and compare your content on the different templates, to see what your blog will look like. Or, you can use my sidebar menu "Responsive Templates Test" - and look at my four test blogs.
My personal choice of the "Notable" Responsive template, was not immediate - it took several days, and some experimentation using various tests - and my 4 test blogs. You can take your time - and change your template, as you feel the need.
The Real Blogger Status has moved into the future - and is now using a new #Blogger supplied "Responsive" class template. It's going to take some work, to make the blog truly look good under "Notable" - but progress always has a price.
There are four "Responsive" templates - Contempo, Soho, Emporio, and Notable. The differences between the four include more than merely the visible design.
My serious opinion about template choice is that two people, each starting a blog about the same subject, and using the same source of content, will still have different perspectives - and each will probably choose a different template.
Anybody who asks me, bluntly
Which template is a better choice, for my blog?
Gets my facetious reply
Whatever template encourages you to write more original and quality content, in your blog, is best for your blog.
It's your blog. Your blog is valuable, because of the content.
If you want more advice, I'll offer you my four "Responsive" class demo templates - Contempo Test, Soho Test, Emporio Test, and Notable Test. You can examine this post, and compare the visible differences, on each of the four test blogs.
Just click on the "hamburger" icon, in the upper right corner of the screen, to see the sidebar - and the "Responsive Templates Tests" blog list.
Besides the "Mobile" template that is now redundant, there are various differences between the "Responsive" class themes and previous classes. If this interests you, move your blog forward, by choosing an exciting "Responsive" class template, from the dashboard "Theme" page.
You can setup your own demo / test set, easily enough.
If necessary, setup your own test blog set, with your own test posts - and compare your content on the different templates, to see what your blog will look like. Or, you can use my sidebar menu "Responsive Templates Test" - and look at my four test blogs.
My personal choice of the "Notable" Responsive template, was not immediate - it took several days, and some experimentation using various tests - and my 4 test blogs. You can take your time - and change your template, as you feel the need.
The Real Blogger Status has moved into the future - and is now using a new #Blogger supplied "Responsive" class template. It's going to take some work, to make the blog truly look good under "Notable" - but progress always has a price.
Comments
I have a 1366x768 laptop. Here on Blogger, I can read only the first 20 words in your post without having to scroll down, while on Inoreader I saw everything until the first image - 130 words. The post title element is just too huge and empty.
I also find it bad to hide the labels and other links in a hamburger menu... and to display the popular posts at the end of the article with the same font size and style as the main text. As I scrolled down, I thought that I was on the blog frontpage and those were your most recent posts.
Probably because I found them less adaptive to design changes than the older templates like Simple or Awesome Inc. That could be because I'm not much of a coder, but I like a simple layout because I want people to focus on the content and for me, that tends to mean a lot of photos along with the text.
I've seen a lot of people using the new ones but ... nearly all of them look alike, and seem pretty lacklustre to me. I'd really like to see blogger offer designs that have more options for page layout, as well as design changes that don't require someone to use CSS, html, or scripting of any time. More like a drag-n-drop option I suppose.
The new templates trade customability, for mobile computer readability. I, too, dislike the tremendous waste of space in the post title element - plus I dislike white characters on black background, period.
I am hoping that once I start to play with the Template Designer, I can slowly eliminate some of the crappy design details (white on black will go, first).
Right now, I am trying to make blockquotes display properly - one post at a time. Every time I answer a question in Blogger Support, I look at the linked posts - and take a few minutes to edit key posts. Unfortunately, that leaves me with less time to write new posts.
You have to break a few eggs, to make an omelette.
"Here's the posts that you should be reading - simply because other people are reading them!"
I write each post for a reason. One post does not substitute for another. I don't see that "What's The URL Of My Blog?" is relevant, to people who want a solution for the local country domain redirection.
But I, like so many others, like something new from time to time. And so, I "upgraded".
And yes, the "hamburger" menu bothers me, too.
CONS:
1) Difficult to locate the search box, located on the top, almost invisible. it can't be easily customized.
2) 'Hamburger' type of collapsed archives and labels, readers may feel too lazy to click and uncollapse. Can't be easily customized.
3) Very oddly formatted 'blockquotes', which jumps out of the text. Can be tweaked though.
PROS:
1) Nice layout for mobile phones and tablets. There is no need to tweak 'jump breaks'. It is the single reason why I switched to the responsive template.