The Real Blogger Status

Sometimes, you have to start over. If you edit your post too enthusiastically - or if you switch between Compose and HTML modes too much, while editing - you can corrupt the formatting. You can cause a cornucopia of symptoms, from messed up index pages, with dropped sidebars , to unreadable posts (and yes, pages). Even the old trick of doing nothing but toggling between Compose and HTML modes may not work, every time.

Recently, in advising a blog owner of a (probably) unrelated problem, I discovered an unknown (to me) option, in both page and post editor. Pages and posts can apparently use bold and italic characters, in titles. This interesting option does not work transparently, however.

Occasionally, we see signs of confusion, in in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Where are the buttons, in the toolbar? or Why don't I have a Colour / Font / Jump Break / Video Upload / whatever selection, in my post editor? The reason is very subtle - and not easy to spot. Blogger page / post editor is very elegant, with no feature being colourfully different. Most people compose their posts in Compose mode - and don't use HTML Mode, except for specific needs - or maybe by accident. And the people who don't use HTML mode, intentionally, can't always spot the difference, in the mode selector buttons.

This week, we have a multitude of complaints about Windows LiveWriter, and similar third party editors, unable to login to Blogger. Blog owners who use LiveWriter, and similar third party products, to compose and publish posts, have reported authentication problems. I have used Windows Live Writer, to publish to my blog, for years. I now cannot publish, and the message I get is that the ID and password are not correct.

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.

The New Blogger GUI (2011) is newly available to the public - and many blog owners are, gradually, getting used to it's peccadilloes. One source of confusion is the post editor mode. As you publish posts, you can be in either Compose or HTML mode - and there's no obvious indication of which mode you're in.

Long ago, before my previous blog improvement , I would include a link to the top of the displayed page, at the end of my posts. Before I added my "Top Of Page" button , I would compose my posts in "Edit HTML" mode, and at the end of each post, I would add >> Top <a href="#Top">&gt;&gt; Top</a> That gave me a link to the top of the page, since I included an anchor link "Top" inside an HTML gadget, at the top of the page. <a name="Top"></a> That's simple enough , once you get used to adding the code. There's a caveat here, though.

Every week, you see the question Why do my posts all end up as one long paragraph? I carefully type each paragraph, and put in lots of line breaks. What I get is a mess. And in most cases, it's a simple problem. On the surface, that is.

Lately, there have been a few odd complaints in the Google Blogger Help forums . Help, my toolbar is missing buttons! I can't change the text colour. Where's my font name / size list selection? Why do I see code, instead of text and pictures? Now, these complaints aren't strange at all. Blogger makes changes to their code , and has even admitted to causing these problems , occasionally. You, too, can cause your problems - on your computer or network . Besides permanent changes caused by security on the computer or the network, you can also have temporary, and transient, problems. If we don't use the same URL when we login, consistently , we can have problems. If we don't use the Post Editor the same way, consistently, we can have problems too. Oh No! Where are my toolbar buttons? If you don't see a tab for Compose mode, do not panic. Go to Settings - Basic, and under Global Settings, set "Select post editor" to "Old editor" (or to ...