The Real Blogger Status

We see occasional reports of problems with photo orientation, from various blog owners posting in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . Why are my photos displayed horizontal, when they should be vertical? Presumably, if someone's photo was taken with her standing, the blog owner does not want the photo showing her lying on her side.

Recently, we have been reading comments from a few blog owners, who do not appreciate the latest version of the Post Editor, Some blog owners are so unhappy that they want Blogger to retain the old Post Editor , so they can avoid the changes indefinitely. At first glance, this may seem like a reasonable idea - why not keep the old version indefinitely, to accommodate those who cannot move forward?. Unfortunately, that strategy is not really practical. As Blogger releases new features to Blogger, having two versions of Post Editor will require some features that have to be developed in two aliases, each alias being compatible with a different version of post editor. Eventually, the next new version of post editor will be developed. Maintaining two old versions of post editor, or abruptly discontinuing the oldest version, would be an immediate necessity then. Neither strategy will really serve the folks who, right now, see the need to keep using the old version. The answer her...

There are different ways to get into a properly designed swimming pool. Most pools have a shallow end, possibly with steps - and a hand rail. Cautious people like to walk down the steps, slowly, holding on to the rail. At the other end, where it is deep, some folks like to dive (head first), or jump (feet first), and go in quickly. Summer is just around the corner - in the USA anyway. Some pools, that are not heated, you may not enjoy using for a couple more months. If you dive in to an unheated pool, you may not enjoy the feeling (you may not have any feeling in your body). Use the steps, or hop in to the shallow end, if you're experienced in early summer swimming. If you've been reading about my experiences with the new post editor, and about the new designer templates, you may wonder about how to get into that swimming pool. The water isn't very clear, and you may not know how deep it is anywhere. And, it's a good idea to know where the steps are, so you ...

The new Blogger solution for auto summarised posts, also known as "Read More" or "Jump Break", is becoming increasingly popular in Blogger blogs, for several reasons. Auto Pagination resulted in display segmentation , caused by the perceived need to publish hundreds of posts on the main page. Desire to display a dynamic index of posts as the main page. Desire to simply make the main page and / or archive retrieval displays smaller. The "Jump Break" feature itself is reasonably easy to use , when you are using the New Post Editor, and with blogs that use a template released after Jump Break was released - apparently in September 2009. If your blog was created before then, you may need to add a critical bit of code to the post template .

One point of contention , repeatedly echoed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , is Bring back spell checker! and Where is the video upload icon in new post editor? I've been explaining these omissions for a while, and sometimes feel like Sisyphus as I do so. Well recently, I learned that this may be history sometime soon. If you are able to use Draft (Blue) Blogger , you can now enjoy both spell check and video upload, and new post editor , together. Just remember that the Draft features are only seen if you use the dashboard. If you use the "New Post" link in the navbar, you will get the features of Production (Orange) Blogger - either classic post editor with old photo capabilities, or new post editor without spell check / video upload. >> Top

One problem which we seem to see, pretty consistently, in Blogger Help Forum , is where the posts and a sidebar end up in one long column, with one above the other. Reports like My posts have vanished! and My sidebar (my archives, my Followers, my profile gadget, ...) have dropped to the bottom of the page! are seen a lot in the forum. Generally, it's caused by trying to put too much in one place . Recently, though, a few bloggers report the dropped sidebar symptom, after they try the new post editor, and the Blogger "Read More" option (called by Blogger, "Jump Break").

Most web pages that you will view on the Internet are written in HTML. HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language , was designed long ago to enhance simple text, giving it ability to display more than simple letters, numbers, special characters, etc. What you're looking at is mostly simple text. Here, on the other hand, is an example of bold text . And here, italicised text . And here, red text . Are you interested yet?

For years, bloggers have complained about the inability / complexity of displaying HTML code in a blog post. Being told to display "<" as "&lt;" and ">" as "&gt;" confuses many folks - it's not easy typing "&lt;" and "&gt;" - and it's still harder to type "&amp;lt;" and "&amp;gt;", which is how you display "&lt;" and "&gt;", respectively. Don't ask me to go any deeper.

So for the first major overhaul to Blogger since December 2006 (aka "New Blogger 2006"), the Blogger interface has been updated with lots of shiny features. Currently, the new features are visible only in Draft Blogger . The first change you will notice when you edit your post. In "Compose" mode, you get a shiny new toolbar - similar to what you'll see in GooglePages. Almost the same buttons, almost in the same order. The two attachment buttons - for Photo and Video - have been combined into one labeled "Image", and moved to the left. Full Justification is gone. And spell check is gone (no major loss there IMHO). But most others are there, and in the same left to right order. The major change that you will see is in "Edit HTML" mode. The toolbar there is gone . And it's the same crappy small editing window. The one change that we've been waiting for - still somewhere in the distance. In Blogger In Draft: New Feature: New Post ...