The Real Blogger Status

We get occasional reports , in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about a broken Pages gadget. I created a new page - but when you click on the link, you get bounced back to the Home page! When you look at the blog with the problem, it's easy enough to verify the report - just look at the URL behind the link , for the most recent page created. Indeed, it points straight to the Home page (base URL for the blog). When this happens, there is a very simple workaround. Just create another page, identical to the problem entry.

The new Template HTML Editor has been with us for just under 2 weeks . Not every blog owner sees the new editor as an improvement. Some folks don't understand how to find the code sections, where they need to apply changes - and would probably be happier if "Expand All Widgets" were an option.

One of the more confusing features of the Blogger Template "Edit HTML" wizard , used to be the option to Expand Widget Templates With the new "Edit HTML" wizard , that option is not needed. Given the choice to "Expand Widget Templates", the typical blog owner was frequently caught between a rock, and a hard place, when editing gadgets. Don't use the option - and the gadget code section, which was to be edited, remained concealed. Use the option - and all gadget code sections were expanded, revealing all gadget code. This frequently left the owner with either no information - or too much information, from which to work. Broken templates, caused by improper template HTML edits, were common.

This week, we're seeing a small flood of problem reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken about problems with the Template Designer. Every time I change something, I have to refresh the page in order for it to show up. It won't "Save" when I try to save the layout changes. It just says "Saving..." at the top of the page and fades away, but doesn't actually save any changes. Many problems involve changes made to the template, using the Designer, which aren't being saved - or are broken when saved. Most of the people reporting these problems have made changes to the template, previously - some are so experienced at making changes, they can't believe that their latest changes could ever have problems. Interestingly, this history of changes is not a coincidence - and it's likely that some of the changes helps to cause these problems.

Occasionally, a blog owner wants to add the Pages Index gadget to the blog, but just can't. I go to add it - and I see "Already Added" - but where is it? The first thing to check, when this happens, is the "Show pages as" option in the dashboard Pages display. Sometimes, you'll find "Don't show" selected. Other times, you'll find "Top tabs" - but the template may lack the code which houses the "Top tabs" gadget. This will be a problem for older templates, installed before the Pages index gadget was offered - as well as some third party templates. Try selecting "Side links" (or change from "Side links", to "Top tabs", and back to "Side links") - and see if the gadget shows up, in the sidebar. Each time you change the setting, hit "Save arrangement". After each change, view the blog, to verify success. Remember to clear cache , and restart the browser, each time yo...

The gadgets ( previously known as widgets ) are the template components that can be manipulated using the " dashboard Layout " wizard. The post template is the most commonly used gadget (found in virtually every blog) - but it's not the only gadget.

This week, we are seeing a few reports from anxious bloggers that their blogs are redirecting to mysterious URLs containing the domain "smashingfeeds.com" . This is somewhat reminiscent of the "blogoholic.info" hijacks of June 2009 . My blog site has been hijacked & redirects to: http://searchinvented.com/?flrdr=yes&nxte=js&dn=smashingfeeds.com&fp=57S Immediate reports from some bloggers suggest that removal of a possibly recently installed "Tweet This" gadget may be the most likely solution, when faced with this problem. If you can access the "Page Elements" wizard , and if you have previously installed a "Tweet This" gadget on your blog, that's where you should start. Other blogs have the code installed directly into the template, and will have to use the "Edit HTML" wizard . As with the "blogoholic.info" redirect, this exploit has been seen to cause corruption of the blog or gadget template, ...