The Real Blogger Status

With New Blogger 2006, Blogger added another layer of simplicity in web site development. They redesigned their templates, using Dynamic HTML , and XML , for more flexibility and options. And they added two key improvements. Template objects (aka "Page Elements", which are now called "gadgets" ). A GUI Page Elements editor , to setup, position, and maintain the template objects. The Page Elements wizard lets you add and re locate objects on the blog page, and maintains the blog template . This is Page Elements, in the Classic GUI. This is the Layout page, 2016. This is more of the Layout page, 2016. The Page Elements wizard is reached from the Design link in the dashboard or navbar (when you use the Classic GUI) - or from the Layout menu entry (when you use the New GUI (2011)). If the blog is setup to use a dynamic template, "Page Elements" won't apply - and "Layout" won't even be part of the New GUI menu. The B...

Sometimes, when we're working on a problem that requires editing the HTML in a layout template, we need to understand the need to expand (or not expand) the widget templates. This month, for instance, we have hundreds of blogs containing malicious code , unknowingly installed by the blog owners. The malicious code must be removed, but the installed code aggressively prevents use of the "Page Elements" wizard , and the "Remove" button. Note: The selection to "Expand Widget Templates" has been replaced, by folded lines of code , which are now expanded selectively. When the "Page Elements" wizard can't be used to remove code, you have to use the "Edit HTML" wizard , and remove the individual gadget entries, one by one. Here's what the unexpanded line entry for one problem gadget looks like <div class='widget Gadget' id='Gadget1' /> That's easy enough to find - and to delete. Here's what...

With all of the predefined page elements that Layouts Blogger provides, that fulfill maybe 90% of the need for you to edit the template, there will be the 10% that they don't provide. Services provided by third parties - like guest books , or news feeds , or even visitor meters - won't be provided by Blogger, to everybody's liking. In some cases, Blogger / Google will provide one version of a given service - like Blogger Comments, Blogger Feeds, and Google Analytics - but their versions aren't the most popular in many cases. And some blog owners will develop their own simple applets, like the Cumulus / Google Translation Bar . Bloggers are like any people in any walk of life - they all want something different - better - or new.

Back when the Internet was started, having a web page of your own was a tremendous accomplishment. You had to Setup a web server (or find one with available space). Write content to go on the web page. Format the content. Load the formatted content to the web server. Look at the web page, and how plain it was. Add more formatting, maybe decorations. And that was just one web page. Then you'd add a second web page. Write content to go on the second web page. Format the content, and add links to the first web page. Add links from the first web page to the second. Load the formatted content (first and second web pages) to the web server. Look at the two web pages, and how they didn't work together. Redesign the web pages, to work better. And that was just two web pages. Add a third, and still more details to deal with. Pretty soon, you were spending all of your time formatting the web pages. Not writing content, not making it pretty. Ugh. If you want an int...

Every week, we see questions I have friends posting in my blog, so it looks like a team blog. But it's my blog, and I want to show only my profile. or I want to list a friends profile, even though she's not technically a blog member. or maybe I want to add my birthdate (my city, the colour of my hair, whatever...) to my profile. How do I make it look good? and questions about tweaking the blog template, to accomplish this need, abound.