The Real Blogger Status

Sometimes, a problem with a specific gadget or post, when displayed, can affect the appearance of the entire blog. We've known for years, about the mysterious dropped sidebar . Sometimes, we see similar problems, in other blog performance. Gadgets missing. Gadgets visible, but they don't work. Gadgets visible in the desktop view - but not the mobile view (or, vice versa). Posts that are unreadable - or worse, previously published posts, in that index page, that are unreadable. Both the HTML / JavaScript gadget, and the page or post, can be edited either as code ("HTML"), and as displayed ("Compose" / "Rich Text"). If you spend a lot of time in "Compose" / "Rich Text" mode, when editing gadgets, pages and posts, you may not know about "HTML" mode - or its dangers.

Besides the somewhat predictable cases of blogs with lots of text and / or pictures, comes a third possibility for problems with Auto Pagination - excessively complex HTML. We've noted before that Microsoft Word generates a lot of complex and mysterious HTML - and some large blogs, which contain a lot of articles composed under Microsoft Word, appear to be suffering from segmentation - possibly without justification . My blog was BIG, and no one ever, not once, complained it was slow loading. It's (almost) unbelievable how long Google is taking to flick the switch and restore things to how they were pre auto-pagination. and the reply It appears that you have done a lot of copy-pasting from MS Word into your blog, and unfortunately doing so will add a very large amount of unseen (but still 'heavy') HTML tags to your post.

When you use post editor to create a blog post, and you use the convenient picture upload wizard in the post editor, you notice one annoying behaviour. No matter where the cursor is when you upload a picture, the picture always gets uploaded at the top of the post. Multiple pictures get uploaded at the top, each one placed above the next. If you like your pictures interleaved with the text, you then have 2 choices. Upload the pictures in the post before you write the text. Plan the order and arrangement of the pictures, then add text, before and after each picture. Relocate each picture, one at a time. If you upload in Compose mode, learn how to grab, drag, and drop each picture, into the desired location. If you upload in "Edit HTML" mode, learn how to cut and paste the exact components of code, into the desired location. If you relocate the pictures after uploading, do so carefully. There are known problems with certain browsers, using drag and drop under Compose mode ....

We've been seeing reports of this problem, however vague, for some time. Bloggers complain of photos that aren't enlargable, or don't respond when you click on them. When you investigate, you find that the complete code, that provides the link to the full size photo, isn't there, or is damaged. Upon further investigation, you find that the Blogger used Post Editor Compose mode to relocate the photo, after uploading it. Additional detail is pretty hard to come by. Identifying click and drag as a causative factor is a revelation, and generally is the limit of the Blogger's observation. Today we have a well written and conducted case study , documenting one instance of the problem. Possibly relevant details: What operating system and browser (name and version please) do you use? Did you clear cache before trying your test? What add-ons do you have in your browser, and which ones were active when you were doing this? (Update 6/8): Blogger tells us that there is a k...

Here's a sample of a Word document, copied directly into Post Editor. Now is the time For all good men To come to the aid Of their country. The quick brown fox Jumped over The lazy dog. The fountain pen Of my aunt Is filled with whiskey. And this is what we now have. How can you edit this, when you need to? Auuugh. Content composed in Microsoft Word, with lots of "<div> ... </div>", a "<div>" tags, may be a cause of problems with the New Post Editor 2008, and the "Read More" feature . <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">Now is the time</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">For all good men</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">To come to the aid</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: cen...