Many problems with post features or layout can be resolved by refreshing or resetting the post template, using the Template Editor.
Not all post display problems are caused by unwise use of the Template Editor - some problems may be part of the individual posts. The dashboard Post Template wizard, in Settings - Posts and comments, lets you add a template to the posts - in addition to the "post template".
The "Post Template" added content then appears as part of each new post, in the post editor window.
The "Post Template" wizard, which is frequently used to add fancy signatures and other accents to the posts, contains HTML code, like any other blog component.
If used improperly, the "Post Template" entered code can cause problems with the posts - just as any use of the Post Editor or Template Editor.
If you just added a fancy post signature or other custom feature or graphic to your posts, and you're now seeing problems with the newer posts, your first instinct might be to reset the post template. Before doing that, why not check the Post Template wizard, at Settings - Posts and comments, and verify what you're adding to your new posts?
If you have code in the "Post Template" box, click "Remove" and remove it. You can always copy the contents, to an old post for instance, before you Remove the contents - should you later decide to try again.
After Removing the contents of the "Post Template" wizard, test your changes by publishing a new post - and see whether the new post is any better than any recent posts, where you observed a problem.
If your new post is successful, you will have to go back and edit each post, by hand, that you published since you last edited the "Post Template" template. Remember also, to clear browser cache, and restart the browser, before checking your old posts for successful correction.
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Showing posts with label Post Template. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Post Template. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Unfold Widgets Selectively, Instead Of All At Once
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.
Like the old saying goes, you just cannot please everybody.
Fortunately, with this change, it's not difficult to find the code sections that need changing - you just do a little bit of research, before using "Edit HTML".
With the old editor, finding a section that needed changing could be a bit frustrating - though simple, given enough time.
With the new editor, you have a bit more work to do - and what you have to do appears to be simply repetitive.
Instead of spending so much time unfolding, searching, and rechecking everything, why not do some research? Figure out what needs changing. Look at the display on the dashboard Layout wizard (previously called "Page Elements"). Identify the widget to be changed, using both the relative position on the page, and the title.
Find the widget id, by looking at the widget to be changed, then at the URL behind the "Edit" link. If you're editing the post template, you'll be looking at "Blog Posts", which has the widgetID of "Blog1". Click here, for instructions on determining the widget id.
Once you have the widgetID, for the specific widget that you need to modify, go to the Template "Edit HTML" wizard, use the "Jump to widget" pull down list, select the widget by widgetID, and there it is. Now, unfold that widget, and do what you have to do.
Isn't that simpler, when you think about it?
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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.
Like the old saying goes, you just cannot please everybody.
Fortunately, with this change, it's not difficult to find the code sections that need changing - you just do a little bit of research, before using "Edit HTML".
With the old editor, finding a section that needed changing could be a bit frustrating - though simple, given enough time.
- Hit "Expand Widget Templates".
- Search for a recognisable section of code.
- Try very carefully, to find the right section of code.
- Be careful, and don't select the wrong section of code.
With the new editor, you have a bit more work to do - and what you have to do appears to be simply repetitive.
- Find a folded code section.
- Unfold the section that's folded.
- Repeat, until everything is visible.
- Search for a recognisable section of code.
- Try very carefully, to find the right section of code.
- Be careful, and don't select the wrong section of code.
Instead of spending so much time unfolding, searching, and rechecking everything, why not do some research? Figure out what needs changing. Look at the display on the dashboard Layout wizard (previously called "Page Elements"). Identify the widget to be changed, using both the relative position on the page, and the title.
Find the widget id, by looking at the widget to be changed, then at the URL behind the "Edit" link. If you're editing the post template, you'll be looking at "Blog Posts", which has the widgetID of "Blog1". Click here, for instructions on determining the widget id.
Once you have the widgetID, for the specific widget that you need to modify, go to the Template "Edit HTML" wizard, use the "Jump to widget" pull down list, select the widget by widgetID, and there it is. Now, unfold that widget, and do what you have to do.
Isn't that simpler, when you think about it?
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Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Consider, Carefully, The Decision To Use A Third Party Commenting System In Your Blog
Not all Blogger blog owners appreciate the features provided, in Blogger native commenting.
Some suggest that third party commenting systems, such as Disqus, provide a superior service. It's possible that, to some, third party commenting systems are more feature rich - but only Blogger native commenting provides one essential feature, in comment moderation.
Blogger commenting is one component, in the global Blogger / Google spam classification and mitigation strategy.
Blogger blog classification, Blogger commenting moderation, and various Google services, all contribute globally to spam detection, and to spam removal, in Google Internet space. Each service both provides input into - and accepts input from - other services.
Third party commenting products, while they may have some interesting design features that Blogger won't include, won't necessarily contribute to the Blogger blog spam classification effort, or to the community commenting moderation process. Nor will they accept input from Blogger blog spam classification, or from the community comment moderation process.
If you, as a blog owner, believe that Disqus - or other non Blogger commenting products - provides more useful service to your blog, you're entitled to use any service, that you can make work, in your blog. It is, after all, your blog - and this is one feature in our blogs which Blogger / Google leave to our discretion.
As with all third party accessories and services, however, you will get limited support, for any problems. If you break your blog, you'll have only yourself (or the provider of the third party service) to support your problems. You may even see the blog deleted or locked, because of suspected malware.
When you use a third party commenting system, there are two details to consider.
When you install a third party commenting service, you'll have the service import existing comments into their database. And, you will have to install the necessary code into the post template - and deal with ongoing changes to the post template, in the future.
If, in the future, you want to return to use of Blogger commenting, you'll have both of the above details to consider, in reverse. Third party services, while they may provide importation of Blogger comments into their database, may not provide a reverse service. Nor are they likely to provide easy reversal of post template changes - particularly as the Blogger post template may have been changed after installation of the third party service.
If your blog uses Disqus, right now, you'll probably find it easiest to refresh the post template, to return to Blogger comments. If you have various custom tweaks in the post layout, you may not find this to be a pleasant solution.
If you are contemplating changing your blog, to use Disqus - or another alternate commenting system - you may do well to consider all of these issues, before changing.
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Some suggest that third party commenting systems, such as Disqus, provide a superior service. It's possible that, to some, third party commenting systems are more feature rich - but only Blogger native commenting provides one essential feature, in comment moderation.
Blogger commenting is one component, in the global Blogger / Google spam classification and mitigation strategy.
Blogger blog classification, Blogger commenting moderation, and various Google services, all contribute globally to spam detection, and to spam removal, in Google Internet space. Each service both provides input into - and accepts input from - other services.
Third party commenting products, while they may have some interesting design features that Blogger won't include, won't necessarily contribute to the Blogger blog spam classification effort, or to the community commenting moderation process. Nor will they accept input from Blogger blog spam classification, or from the community comment moderation process.
If you, as a blog owner, believe that Disqus - or other non Blogger commenting products - provides more useful service to your blog, you're entitled to use any service, that you can make work, in your blog. It is, after all, your blog - and this is one feature in our blogs which Blogger / Google leave to our discretion.
As with all third party accessories and services, however, you will get limited support, for any problems. If you break your blog, you'll have only yourself (or the provider of the third party service) to support your problems. You may even see the blog deleted or locked, because of suspected malware.
When you use a third party commenting system, there are two details to consider.
- Integration of existing comments.
- Post template modification.
When you install a third party commenting service, you'll have the service import existing comments into their database. And, you will have to install the necessary code into the post template - and deal with ongoing changes to the post template, in the future.
If, in the future, you want to return to use of Blogger commenting, you'll have both of the above details to consider, in reverse. Third party services, while they may provide importation of Blogger comments into their database, may not provide a reverse service. Nor are they likely to provide easy reversal of post template changes - particularly as the Blogger post template may have been changed after installation of the third party service.
If your blog uses Disqus, right now, you'll probably find it easiest to refresh the post template, to return to Blogger comments. If you have various custom tweaks in the post layout, you may not find this to be a pleasant solution.
If you are contemplating changing your blog, to use Disqus - or another alternate commenting system - you may do well to consider all of these issues, before changing.
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Saturday, 15 December 2012
Template Designer Upgrades Require Supporting Updates To The Individual Blog Templates
This week, we're seeing a small flood of problem reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken about problems with the Template Designer.
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.
Take a look at the template code in your blog, some time. You'll notice a lot of code which doesn't look like CSS, HTML, or XML. Some of it is code which supports the various blog features that are adjusted or configured using the Template Designer.
Many template features involve two sets of code.
Blogger Engineering does not edit each individual blog, after they upgrade the Template Designer. They make changes to the master template code - and their changes replicate into the individual blog templates. These changes replicate much more consistently, when the individual templates have not been changed.
The more custom a template is, with changes applied by the blog owner or in a third party template, the less likely it is to properly update, to support each succeeding Template Designer update. Any time Blogger Engineering updates the Template Designer, to add a new feature, or maybe to support a new browser version, their updates may require changes which are not properly applied to all blogs - and the Template Designer stops working, in some blogs.
When the Template Designer stops working, the usual recommendation is to refresh the post or widget template - or maybe to upgrade the blog template - and things start rolling again. And the blog owner goes back to tweaking the template, until something breaks again.
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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.
Take a look at the template code in your blog, some time. You'll notice a lot of code which doesn't look like CSS, HTML, or XML. Some of it is code which supports the various blog features that are adjusted or configured using the Template Designer.
Many template features involve two sets of code.
- The Template Designer wizard, part of the Blogger dashboard, is common code used by all blog owners.
- The blog template, post template, and / or widget template, is part of the individual blogs. Some template code does nothing but support the Template Designer - and let you configure your blog layout,
Blogger Engineering does not edit each individual blog, after they upgrade the Template Designer. They make changes to the master template code - and their changes replicate into the individual blog templates. These changes replicate much more consistently, when the individual templates have not been changed.
The more custom a template is, with changes applied by the blog owner or in a third party template, the less likely it is to properly update, to support each succeeding Template Designer update. Any time Blogger Engineering updates the Template Designer, to add a new feature, or maybe to support a new browser version, their updates may require changes which are not properly applied to all blogs - and the Template Designer stops working, in some blogs.
When the Template Designer stops working, the usual recommendation is to refresh the post or widget template - or maybe to upgrade the blog template - and things start rolling again. And the blog owner goes back to tweaking the template, until something breaks again.
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Friday, 25 May 2012
Setting Options In The Post Template
Every person who maintains a Blogger blog (or other web site) has his or her own idea about what features she or he wants to present, on his or her blog / web site. Under Classic Template Blogger, this need was provided only by editing the blog template, using HTML.
With a Layouts / Designer template, besides letting us add and move template objects all over the display page, Blogger also provides us the ability to add and move objects all over the post layout. This, too, is done without even opening the "Edit HTML" Template wizard.
The Layout wizard lets you add and re locate objects on the blog page, and maintains the blog template.
From the Layout wizard, you can edit the Blog Posts gadget, and configure or re locate the various blog post components, in the post template. In the Classic Blogger GUI, the Layout wizard was called "Page Elements", and was the first tab that you see when you clicked "Design" in the dashboard or navbar. In the New Blogger GUI, it's the Settings menu entry on the Dashboard.
Find the "Blog Posts" gadget, which is the only gadget that will probably never be found in the footer, header, or sidebar, in the Layout GUI. Just like any other gadget in Layout, Blog Posts has an "Edit" link. So click on the link, which gives you "Configure Blog Posts".
There are useful options here.
You can change captions / formats, include or exclude altogether, and / or reposition the various elements in the post template.
You can rearrange various post elements into the order that pleases you. Do this carefully though.
Whenever you add, change, remove, or rearrange, any of these features, always clear browser cache, then restart the browser, before testing for success. If your changes are unsuccessful, or the settings are not persistent, you may have to refresh the post template.
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With a Layouts / Designer template, besides letting us add and move template objects all over the display page, Blogger also provides us the ability to add and move objects all over the post layout. This, too, is done without even opening the "Edit HTML" Template wizard.
The Layout wizard lets you add and re locate objects on the blog page, and maintains the blog template.From the Layout wizard, you can edit the Blog Posts gadget, and configure or re locate the various blog post components, in the post template. In the Classic Blogger GUI, the Layout wizard was called "Page Elements", and was the first tab that you see when you clicked "Design" in the dashboard or navbar. In the New Blogger GUI, it's the Settings menu entry on the Dashboard.
Find the "Blog Posts" gadget, which is the only gadget that will probably never be found in the footer, header, or sidebar, in the Layout GUI. Just like any other gadget in Layout, Blog Posts has an "Edit" link. So click on the link, which gives you "Configure Blog Posts".
There are useful options here.- Disable / Enable Post header elements like the date.
- Disable / Enable post footer elements (and change captions) like Poster Name, Date and Time, Comments, Backlinks, and Labels (I call my labels "Topics").
- Disable / Enable Quick Editing and Email Post Links.
You can change captions / formats, include or exclude altogether, and / or reposition the various elements in the post template.
- Date / time stamp.
- Author attribution.
- Author date / time stamp.
- Comments.
- Backlinks.
- Labels.
- Quick Editing pencil icon.
- Reactions buttons.
- Email Post Link envelope icon.
- Share Buttons.
- Per post location captions.
- Per post author profile links.
- Ads Between Posts.
Whenever you add, change, remove, or rearrange, any of these features, always clear browser cache, then restart the browser, before testing for success. If your changes are unsuccessful, or the settings are not persistent, you may have to refresh the post template.
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