You Cannot Fit Your Entire Blog Onto The Main Page

Some blog owners would like their readers to view the entire blog in one page.

A small blog, with very limited size, can theoretically fit on one page. If you intend to publish a blog with any future, and page rank, you will have to publish content periodically - and the size of the blog will increase, steadily.

And eventually, thanks in part to main page limitation by auto pagination, older posts in your blog will be forced into archive pages.

For a blog with any future, and publishing activity, there are four possibilities for main page size.

• Segment main page, limiting post count.
• Segment your blog, using virtual blogs.
• Use a dynamic template, and "continuous scrolling".
• Use a non dynamic template, and Jump Break - and accept archiving.

Segment main page, limiting post count.

One of the simplest ways to make your blog reader friendly is to limit main page size, using a post count limit. This won't work as a final solution, however, if you're planning to publish the blog with any regularity.

Segment your blog, using virtual blogs.

If you can break your blog into multiple subjects, you can use a Pages tabbed index to access each different subject. You can fit each different subject, possibly using Jump Break, onto one page.

To complement the virtual blogs, you can have a static main page - providing a "welcome" message, and / or indexing the virtual blogs.

Use a dynamic template, and "continuous scrolling".

For public blogs, a dynamic template, with continuous scrolling, may provide a solution. Dynamic templates, unless you a very comfortable with editing the blog template, will never offer the accessory and customisation possibilities of non dynamic templates, however.

With a dynamic template, you won't be able to use Jump Break - though some dynamic views may provide a summarised main page view.

Use a non dynamic template, and Jump Break - and accept archiving.

Careful use of Jump Break will let you limit the size of the main page. If you continue to publish posts - which is necessary for a blog with any future - you will eventually have posts displayed on archive pages.

For best results, design the blog structure - and the posts structure - consistently, and accept archiving and pagination.

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Some #Blogger blog owners would like to display all post content in one page - and ignore page display size. They do not realise that not all blog readers want to read a blog with an unlimited page size, all at once.

Don't Try To Number Dynamic Pages

One interesting question, which we see occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, would be about making the blog easier to read - if the blog were static.

How do I number the pages, in the blog?

This blog owner does not quite understand the concept of dynamic content.

With a static website, and each page linked linearly, one after the other, it might make sense to number the pages.

Blogger blog content is dynamic.

A Blogger blog has dynamic content. Each reader retrieves the posts, in reverse date sequence, in a number of contexts.

• In main page view, one page linked to the next - owner selectable maximum posts / page, auto paginated.
• In individual post view, one post linked to the next - one post / page.
• In an archive retrieval, one page linked to the next - a maximum of 20 posts / page, auto paginated.
• In a label search, one page linked to the next - a maximum of 20 posts / page, auto paginated.

Each label in the blog can generate a different label search, one search / label.

We say that the content is dynamic, because each of the above contexts use blog content, retrieved just when a reader clicks on a link.

Each time content is retrieved, for each reader, it will differ.

Each different retrieval will generate a series of physical pages of display, with a different combination of posts. Each retrieval will be paginated according to amount of content, by auto pagination.

If the posts are summarised using Jump Break, pagination will reflect the visible post content. With other "Read More" solutions, this may or may not be the case.

Dynamic indexes can use any combination of various dynamic accessories.

You can index the posts in a blog, using various dynamic sidebar gadgets.

• An archive index.
• A label index.
• Any number of linklists.
• Any number of feed gadgets.

Again, each index will be dynamic.For truly dynamic indexing, you can provide a single blog search - or a multiple blog search - or even a label combination search.

You can get installable gadgets, and custom templates, from various third party developers. Some gadgets and templates will let you setup an index (whether dynamic, or static), with page numbers. This will be third party code - and carries with it the risks of using third party code.

Non dynamic accessories require post template tweaks.

Non dynamic indexes generally install as code, inserted into the post template. The post template is not a blog component that should be tweaked, without understanding the risks.

Also, if you apply to host AdSense ads on the blog, you'll probably get a refusal, cited as "Difficult navigation". The AdSense crawler can't navigate JavaScript based links - and won't be able to analyse post content, to place ads.

The AdSense crawler can't navigate this blog, with numbered pages.



All of the above details affect how much content may appear on one physical page, and how many pages may be relevant to the retrieval. With these unknowns, it is not productive to identify each post - or set of posts - using page numbers.

How many index listings would you want to keep - especially considering that any one index could change, in the next minute, as a new post is published, or maybe a label is added to, or removed from, one or more posts?

Blogger content is dynamic. Treat it, dynamically.

All "Read More" Solutions Are Not The Same

Auto pagination, and "Jump Break", have been a (controversial) feature in Blogger blogs since 2010.

Oddly enough, not all blog owners yet understand the difference between "Jump Break", and other "Read More" features. And there are more than a couple "Read More" features available, in the Internet - some not so beneficial.

Occasionally, we see the confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I have 12 articles which must appear on my homepage. Just 10 of the 12 articles are showing up. When I added 2 new articles, another old post disappeared from my homepage.

This blog owner, like many, suffers from the effects of auto pagination.

When I suggested using "Jump Break", to make the posts smaller, I was met with confusion.

Did you not look at the blog? I have "Read More" there, already.

And looking at the blog again, I saw that he was correct.

Examining main page view, and a post in the the blog, I used my browsers HTML viewer.

HTML view shows a post which uses "Read More" - but not "Jump Break". Examining various blogs main page view, as HTML, we can see the difference between "Jump Break", and this "Read More" solution.

With "Jump Break", on the main page, one sees the post summary, followed by a link to the post page. The post page then contains the full post.

With "Read More", on the main page, one simply sees the entire post. The JavaScript code (provided separately in the template) automatically displays the post summary, for each post, consisting of a certain amount of words, followed by a "Read More" button - and hides the remainder of the post, as displayed in main page view.

When clicked, the "Read More" code simply makes the entire post visible. This would be a clever way to display a post summary - if auto pagination was not involved.

Since auto pagination limits the number of posts based on total downloaded content, main page view, using "Read More", is limited by content which is not visible. This causes confusion.

With "Jump Break", each carefully sized post summary, in main page view, downloads only the post summary to the client computer. This makes each individual post relatively small - and allows the main page, even with auto pagination, to include a large number of posts.

Look at main page view for this blog. I display anywhere from 10 to 15 posts, at any time, in main page view. Long ago, you would see this post at the top of the page (but time has passed, and this post is archived). Do you see how small the posts are, as displayed on the main page?

With "Read More", however, even with the post displayed as a summary, the entire post is downloaded. Auto pagination then limits main page view to a handful of posts. Main page view looks smaller than it should - and the blog owner is left, scratching his head.

Only "Jump Break" works properly, with auto pagination. That is the bottom line. Don't settle for less than "Jump Break", if you want your blog, in main page view, to include a predictable number of posts.

Dynamic Templates Display Blogs In One Page

Ever since Blogger installed auto pagination. Blogger blog owners have been asking

How do I disable auto pagination?

and

Why can't I display my blog on the main page, without my readers having to use "Older Posts?

The response, up to this year, has been simple.

You cannot disable auto pagination. You have to allow sharing of network resources.

Though technically correct, the latter response has not always been met with appreciation.

The solution, for avoiding auto pagination, is now simple. Install a dynamic template, on your blog.

With a dynamic display, an entire blog is presented in main page view, with no archiving needed.

A dynamic view presents one page at a time - just without requiring clicking.

You get one display page at a time - either the index, or blog content, depending upon which view you select. To see earlier content, you simply scroll downwards, and wait a few seconds while the display refreshes.

The display is still segmented - the segments are simply selected fluidly. When the display is scrolled to the bottom, the dynamic display code (running on the personal computer of the reader) simply requests another page of content, from the Blogger server.

The readers using a non dynamic blog view are not affected.

Since the content is coming from the blog feed, your other readers, using a non dynamic view of the blog, are not affected.

The average reader, who cannot see any more than one page of content at a time anyway (current monitor technology provides limited sized displays) never knows, or cares (subject to bandwidth and processor limitations) that the entire blog is not downloaded to the local computer, immediately.

Within limits, you can combine dynamic and non dynamic views in one blog.

If you want to let your readers use a dynamic view (non paginated), or a non dynamic view (paginated), depending upon personal preference, you can link the dynamic and non dynamic views.

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Auto Pagination Being Triggered By Post Images Encoded In Base64 - Redux

The problem of auto pagination, triggering display page segmentation, has been with us since early 2010.

Even in the beginning, auto pagination was not 100% popular with blog owners. As more blog owners got used to the inevitability of auto pagination, more scenarios were discovered, where it critically affected blogs.

The most recently identified scenario, where auto pagination was involved, was with images hosted as Base64 content - first discovered a year after the initial opposition started.

Having examined enough cases of Base64 hosted photos during the past year, we now see that the problem appears to be related to installation technique.

Both the drag and drop technique, or the "From the web" option in the "Insert image" wizard in post editor, when adding photos to blog posts, appear to consistently add images hosted as Base64 content, into blog posts.

With the causative scenario identified, we can now recommend a technique for resolution. Hoping that any blog showing the problem of critical display page segmentation does not have an unacceptably large number of images / photos hosted as Base64 content, each image or photo has to be identified and removed, and a properly installed image / photo replacing it.

1. Find the original of each photo installed, using drag and drop or "From the web".
2. Copy each photo to your computer.
3. Edit each post containing each photo. Remove each photo, as previously added.
4. Add each photo again, using "Insert image", and selecting the copy on your computer.
5. Re publish each post, so edited.

If the blog in question contains too many images or photos hosted as Base64 content, a possible alternative might be to change the blog to display using a dynamic template. This may provide a solution because dynamic templates, with the content rendered on the client computers, do not appear to be susceptible to display page segmentation.

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Innovative Concepts Behind The Dynamic Templates

Now that the new dynamic templates have been available for several weeks, and people are actually using them on their favourite blogs, some folks are disappointed that they can't use them.

I'm trying to install the dynamic template on my blog, and I'm seeing

Sorry, dynamic views aren't available for this blog.

Why me? What did I do wrong??

And these people simply have no idea how the new templates work - and why they don't always work.

Previous templates, whether Classic, Layout, or Designer types, served the formatted content of your blog, as posts applied to the template, page by page, from the Blogger servers. Since the blog content is served page by page, from Blogger, auto pagination is required to protect the Blogger servers from overload by single, large blogs, which generate irregular and large amounts of network and server load.

Blogger Dynamic Templates are a very innovative approach to web content, where the dynamic templates use the client computers as local web servers. Check out my test blog, and watch what happens. What you see is a few seconds of the orange gears turning, while your browser downloads the dynamic template code. This code is reused, when you view any Blogger blog that uses a dynamic template.

Once the dynamic template code has been downloaded, your computer simply retrieves the raw text of the newsfeed from the blog being displayed. Newsfeed text is far lighter than formatted blog posts, as served by Blogger from Classic, Layout, or Designer template blogs. Also, the newsfeed text is downloaded on a page by page basis. The overall effect is far less load on the Blogger servers and the Blogger / Google network - and eliminates the need for auto pagination.

Also, dynamic templates, which provide less options, are more stable - and require less support resources, which is necessitated by blog owners who are more concerned with accessories and style, rather than content. Use of third party accessories, and extensive tweaking of the blog layout, are two major causes of instability of Blogger blogs, using a dynamic template.

For all of its simplicity, reduced support resources, and the reduced load on the Blogger network and servers - and yes, reduced load on your network too - the dynamic templates have serious limitations.

1. The careful formatting of your posts - including fancy, relevant, fonts and other features - isn't available. Newsfeed text, which you can see in a copy of this blog, for instance, contains very few formatting options.
2. The dynamic templates only work for blogs with a full feed. Blogs with a disabled blog feed - or a partial blog feed - can't use them.
3. Since the dynamic templates require the blog feed, they can't be used on private blogs.

So, the new, dynamic templates aren't for everybody - or even for everybody who are willing to overlook the currently known design deficiencies. For public blogs which don't require extensive formatting and special retrieval options, though, they offer definite possibilities.

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Classic (HTML) Templates Get A New Lease On Life

As a result from a few (justified) complaints about Auto Pagination and its effects on blogs with classic (HTML) templates, Blogger has released an enhancement which will make classic templates, in general, more usable.

In Creating pagination links on Classic Templates, we see two new options for classic templates.

If you are using Classic Templates and would like to add pagination links to your blog, there are currently two options for setting this up. Both involve adding a snippet of code to your blog's template, which can be done from the Template | Edit HTML tab.

You even have the ability to customise the link caption, with the phrase of your choice, or even a graphic - as you can see on some of my blogs.

• "<$BlogPaginationLinks$>" (for language automatic, "Older / Newer" captioned links).
• "<$NewerPosts$>" / "<$OlderPosts$>" (for manually labeled custom captions).

Anybody with a blog with a classic template will enjoy using these options, and especially those with blogs subject to unwanted display segmentation. You may see my initial test, in my Classic Template Laboratory. Here's my implementation, with copious amount of detail removed.

<!-- Begin #main -->
<div id="main"><div id="main2">

<Blogger>

<BlogDateHeader>
<h2 class="date-header"><$BlogDateHeaderDate$></h2>
</BlogDateHeader>

<!-- Begin .post -->

...

<!-- End .post -->

<!-- Begin #comments -->
<ItemPage>

...

</ItemPage>

<!-- End #comments -->
</Blogger>
</div>
<$BlogPaginationLinks$>
</div>
<!-- End #main -->

You need to insert the extra code at the very end of the "main" section. Note that precise placement, after the right "</div>", is essential.

You'll note that neither "<$BlogPaginationLinks$>" nor "<$NewerPosts$>" / "<$OlderPosts$>" provides the exact functionality of the links that are built in to designer / layout templates. If you want full functionality, you have to upgrade. Fortunately, since FTP Publishing was terminated, there is no real need to remain with classic templates.

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Auto Pagination And Shared Network Resources

Many of you who publish blogs have home computers, connected to the Internet.

If you don't live alone, you probably share the use of your computer, or your Internet access. Even those who live alone may share resources occasionally.

It's possible that, if you own your computer and provide your Internet access, you recognise two truths about computer and Internet use:

1. Network resources have a cost. Neither your computer, nor your Internet service, is free. You (or somebody) had to buy your computer, at one time. Somebody pays your ISP a monthly fee, so you can surf the Internet.
2. Network resources are shared. You may have a problem downloading the latest blockbuster movie, while your roommate is listening to his / her favourite Internet radio station. You may notice that it takes 2 - 3 times as long to download a movie in the evening, as it does very late at night. If your household shares a computer (I believe this is still not uncommon), you may have to wait to use YouTube, while somebody else is reading email.

Believe it or not, similar limitations apply to Blogger and Google resources.

There are millions of Blogger blogs, all sharing a handful of servers. At any time, your blog may be shared on a server, and a network, that is also sharing a few thousand other Blogger blogs. The servers and the network, are not free, and they are shared.

All network resources have avaliability limitations.

Since resources are not free, they are limited in availability. Not everybody maintains a second computer, to use when the first goes down. Nor do many blog owners have redundant Internet access - so if the phone line goes down, you can switch to cable based Internet. Or FIOS, if you're so lucky.

Google, believe it or not, is subject to some limitations. They do not manage their resources as tightly as I manage mine - from researching custom domain designs, I can tell you that. However, even Google does not have infinite network resources - there are limits, and those limits can be exceeded.

A blog with excessive main page size can use resources that other blogs deserve.

If your blogs main page display is 10 times the size of most blogs (and I've seen some that are 100 times the normal size), your blog will use the resources allocated to 9 other blogs, when it's being served to your readers. This is called peak resource use, and it's a problem. Blogger can plan for average use of servers, and the network, a lot easier than they can plan peak use.

If your blog is topical - for instance a school blog that may be accessed by 20 - 30 students simultaneously - and it uses 10 times as much resources, as other blogs, to serve its main page, your blog can possibly take over an entire server or network segment, temporarily. This could even be part of the cause of the occasional

Error 500 Server Error

that we see, from time to time.

Breaking your main page into segments is good for everybody.

Blogger doesn't want to prevent you from enjoying your blog, nor are they going to prevent your readers from accessing it. All that they do is take the archive or main page display, and serve it in segments. This helps your blog coexist with the thousands of other blogs, when it's being served.

You don't have to do anything extraordinary, either. Just design your main page so it doesn't require half the blog to be displayed at once. Alternatively, accept the need to use shared resources, politely. Remember - the life that you save may be your own.

Auto Pagination And Broken Links To Archive And Main Pages

Among the many odd circumstances connected with the controversial Auto Pagination feature that was introduced a month ago, we see reports by a few bloggers of broken inlinks, caused by segmentation of archive and main pages. Most reports specifically mention broken SERP entries, which link to content that's now found in an archive or main page segment that's reached by one or more clicks of "Older Posts". The new and currently un indexed segments have URLs which differ from the SERP entries.

This effect is similar to a problem which I wrote about some time ago, which affect SERPs linking to main page content. Both the archive pages and the main page in a blog are more likely to be indexed by the search engines, because there is more content on these pages, and some content has already been indexed. Some posts, lacking inlinks completely, and depending upon the publishing frequency, may never be indexed except as archive or main page content.

In the case of the SERP entries affected by page segmentation, the potential reader may click on an interesting SERP entry which lands them on a page which contains only the later posts for the period, with the rest, including the content featured in the SERP entry just referenced, behind one or more "Older Posts" clicks. Finding no relevant content on the displayed page segment, the potential reader abandons this SERP entry, and moves on to the next in the retrieval page.

The bloggers with blogs subject to this treatment are naturally concerned about loss of potential readers, and cite this scenario to justify their demands that Auto Pagination be made optional; meaning that they want it turned off for their blog.

Fortunately for them, the broken inlinks are a temporary problem. Blogs that are properly publicised will be re indexed by the search engines, periodically. As the re indexing occurs, the content of the new page segments will be indexed, and will replace the current SERP entries. This effect is similar to the gradual re indexing of blogs re published under a different URL, for instance as part of publishing to a custom domain.

You can - and should - monitor the indexing of your blog, page segmentation or not. Here, the diagnostic reports provided in Google Webmaster Tools will be quite valuable.

The inaccuracy and latency, in indexing blog content, is an inherent problem with search engines in general. It's not a problem unique to Blogger blogs, and certainly not to the Auto Pagination feature in Blogger. It's simply a problem which we all have to live with.

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Auto Pagination, And Blogs Vs Static Web Sites

Some bloggers seem to treat dynamic Blogger blogs like static web sites.

They design their blogs so specific blog posts are consistently presented as part of the main page view. They overlook the basic design of blogs, where the main page simply contains the most currently published posts.

This attitude is merely eccentric, except in cases like the current controversy about Auto Pagination.

I have chosen to display 12 posts, because mine is a listing of twelve exact posts which i update daily. I now have only nine of the posts showing regardless of how many - 12 or 50 or 500 - that I preset to display. I need them all to show, because I daily print out this entire list in an MS Word booklet format - and without having the entire blog display, I can no longer do this.

This is merely one example of the bloggers who are having trouble accepting the reality of Auto Pagination, and the consequently segmented archives, labels, and / or main page displays.

Let's look at how web sites are setup, for background.

The smallest unit of content in a web site is a page. Pages are structured hierarchically, where the main page indexes child pages, and the various child pages index other child pages. Each page in a web site is built statically - both content and links never change.

In the above example, the blogger wishes to display the 12 posts as one static page. Now, let's look at how blogs are setup.

The smallest unit of content in a blog is a post. Pages are structured based upon relationships of the various posts, on the pages, to each other. Each page in a blog is built dynamically, and is based upon the relationship of the posts being displayed in the page. Both content and links are dynamic, and change as the nature of the retrieval changes.

Posts are associated with other posts by date, and by subject. Posts associated by date are displayed in archive / main page retrievals, and posts associated by subject are displayed in label retrievals. Even when displayed by date or by subject, specific posts may or may not be displayed on the same physical page.

Displays are segmented, and various posts are displayed on different pages, when the amount of physical information in a given retrieval exceeds a given size.

This post, Auto Pagination And The Difference Between Blogs And Static Web Sites, may be part of a dynamic retrieval for Archive: March 2010, for a Label such as Auto Pagination, or Blogger, or maybe New Blogger Experiences, or - well, it was for a while - as part of the main page.

As I published a few more posts, this post dropped off the main page. That's a dynamic main page - you showcase your most current posts, archive your older posts, and keep the main page brief and clean. All of your posts are indexed, and can be found by your readers, using any index, or hyper text links, such as links in this post.

That's how blogs work best.

1. Brief and clean main page display.
2. Dynamic retrieval of all posts, as relevant and needed.
3. Showcasing of new posts.

Why would you want anything different?

Auto Pagination moderates peak resource use, caused by excessively large archive, label, and main page displays. When appropriate, Auto Pagination segments large displays, and simply requires the blog reader to use the "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links to move between display segments. As implemented a month ago, it's been quite effective.

There are several issues, which are causing some confusion and ill will.

• Blogs with classic templates can't use "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links (This issue was resolved on 2010/04/12).
• Some blogs appear smaller than actual page size, because the posts use "Read More" code which reduces visual page size, yet does not reduce content downloaded to the client computer.
• Some blogs appear smaller than actual page size, because the posts contain meta code created by MS Word.
• Search engine indexing of posts won't be consistent. Not all post content will be indexed, because of segmentation. Some posts that are indexed may be present on segmented pages, which will cause SERP entries that lead to non visible content.

Besides these issues, the bloggers who design their blogs with static displays may need to rethink their actual needs. Some bloggers may be happier hosting their web sites with services outside Blogger - services that display content as static web site pages, instead of dynamic blog pages.

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Auto Pagination And The Difference Between Blogs And Static Web Sites
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/03/auto-pagination-and-difference-between.html
Auto Pagination And Blogs Vs Static Web Sites
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/03/auto-pagination-and-blogs-vs-static-web.html

Blogs Composed Using Microsoft Word Causing Problems With Auto Pagination

Besides the somewhat predictable cases of blogs with lots of text and / or pictures, comes a third possibility for problems with Auto Pagination - excessively complex HTML. We've noted before that Microsoft Word generates a lot of complex and mysterious HTML - and some large blogs, which contain a lot of articles composed under Microsoft Word, appear to be suffering from segmentation - possibly without justification.

My blog was BIG, and no one ever, not once, complained it was slow loading.

It's (almost) unbelievable how long Google is taking to flick the switch and restore things to how they were pre auto-pagination.

and the reply

It appears that you have done a lot of copy-pasting from MS Word into your blog, and unfortunately doing so will add a very large amount of unseen (but still 'heavy') HTML tags to your post.

If you look at the source code of this very short post (http://naturealert.blogspot.com/2010/02/bbc-news-panorama-palm-oil-products-and.html), you will notice the huge amount of garbage that MS Word adds.

If your blog is big (but not that big), and lacks huge amounts of text and / or pictures - and you're still seeing segmentation of the archives or main page - and you use MS Word for composing your posts, this is a possible reason why your blog display is being segmented.

Whether Blogger can actually filter MS Word ML code, before generating the blog display pages, is an interesting question. You might be better off removing all MSWord generated meta code on your own, if possible. Better yet - always paste content, unformatted (Ctrl+Shift+V).

Auto Pagination Is Not Optional

The Mercedes brand automobile is a marvel of efficiency, engineering, and safety (so I've heard). It's designed for comfort, and for speed. If you drive one in Germany, where it is designed and built, you can even enjoy its comfort at speed - whatever speed you desire - perfectly legally.

Get on the Autobahn, get in the fast lane, and use your headlight flashers when you approach someone from the rear. Keep an eye in the mirror, for someone using their flashers at you - and be prepared to move over, when someone uses their flashers.

In this country, Mercedes owners (and other drivers) have to obey the speed laws, just as everybody else does. Try telling the policeman

My car is safe at 90 MPH. I'll pay extra fuel tax, and use the premium lanes - and I can go 90 MPH, because I want to go 90 MPH.

and see what response you get.

In Blogger, we have some folks who publish blogs with lots of pictures, and who wish to display their entire blog as the main page. And until last month, they have been doing just that. They designed their blog to look good, using a large main page display.

A couple of weeks ago, that changed. Blogger started segmenting the main page displays, for blogs that have excessively heavy front pages. Predictably, this wasn't a popular change, for the owners of the blogs that now have segmented archives or main page, displays. Readers of blogs that do not have excessively heavy front pages won't see any difference, as those blogs won't need display segmentation.

Auto Pagination isn't arbitrary, nor is it excessively harsh. Your entire blog is still served - your readers simply use "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links, to navigate from page segment to page segment. "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links have been used, since Layouts Blogger was deployed, for reading an entire blog in sequence. And now, "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links are available for blogs with classic templates.

In order for Auto Pagination to have a consistent effect, every Blogger blog, including Blogger blogs published to non BlogSpot URLs, has to be subject to it. Reasoning

My ISP is providing unlimited bandwidth packages for normal users, so there won't be any bandwidth problem in my country.

would be valid, if you had a dedicated server, and dedicated Internet connection, used by your blog.

Unfortunately, your blog shares server space, and bandwidth, with millions of other Blogger blogs. When your blog requires excessive server space, or bandwidth, to display the main page, that's server space and / or bandwidth denied the readers of other Blogger blogs.

Blogger didn't terminate your blog, they just segmented the main page display size (when necessary) - and asks that your readers use the "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links, to access the main page in it's entirety.

Learn to share - slow down, and maybe save a few lives. An alternate solution would be to try the new, dynamic views, for your blog.

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Auto Pagination And Read More Solutions

Possibly the hottest issue this week, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, is the Auto Pagination feature, which was introduced last week. Auto Pagination automatically helps people to limit the sizes of their archive / label / main pages, as downloaded from Blogger servers.

Before the Blogger post editor "Jump Break" solution was provided, there were at least 3 known variants, for auto summarising posts. One was provided in Blogger Help: How can I create expandable post summaries?; and at least 2 others were provided as third party suggestions. It's possible that any of these 3 variants are present in some blogs, where the owner has not seen fit to remove them, in favour of deploying the "Jump Break" in new post editor.

Cloud Strife, in Blogger Help Forum: Problem Rollup: Auto Pagination for blogs with Layouts templates suggests an obvious solution - replacing use of all early "Read More" variants, with the new post editor "Jump Break".

The problem as I explained earlier is that with the older solution, the blog post still had all the content sent to the viewers' browser while just making the post look smaller by not showing all the content. This will solve the aesthetics problem but not the slow-ness problem. The perceived slowness differs much more to the person who has cached everything in the browser (mostly us who view our own blog) than those who view it first time or rarely.

The new feature which is as simple as adding an extra <!-- more --> in the HTML or rather simply using the new editor, keeps the look and feel as good and makes your website much faster to load. Which I am sure your readers will appreciate. And once the site loads faster for your viewers they are more likely to visit the pages you have there.

I'll add the advice that adding the "Jump Break" option to your posts will have to be done on a post by post basis, but the individual post update is fairly simple to do. And, taking the advice from Cloud Strife

with the older solution, the blog post still had all the content sent to the viewers' browser while just making the post look smaller by not showing all the content

it appears that not all "Read More" solutions actually reduce page size when loading.

The bottom line - if you replace the old "Read More" with the new "Jump Break", your readers will see a significantly faster main page download. Or, if you wish, you will be able to load more (abbreviated) posts total, and stay within Auto Pagination induced page sizes.

As Blogger continues to resolve the problems associated with Auto Pagination, its not a certainty that all 3 earlier used variants of "Read More" will continue to operate. If your blog uses an out of date "Read More" variant, and you're unable to replace it with the recommended "Jump Break", you might want to watch the display of your blog carefully, during the next week or so.

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Auto Pagination Feature Receiving Mixed Review

The latest significant change to Blogger - Auto Pagination - is causing some concerns in the blogger community. Early reports were focused on inability for readers or search engines to find all posts

I need to display 12 posts on the every page. Please give a way to disable auto pagination. Not everyone needs this feature.

and

Auto Pagination doesn't help me!

As you can see in my blog, "Auto Pagination" doesn't help. I need at least 45 post in my front page. Doesn't help people reading my posts. Can anyone help me with this?

are probably among the more objective problem reports seen this morning.

Looking at the problem reports in detail, we can see at least 3 classes of problems.

1. People with blogs with classic templates, who need to move to layouts and use "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts".
2. People who are using "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts", and simply perceive the need to decide their own page size.
3. People who are seeing badly calculated page size, as in one post / page. A large number of these reports may be connected with use of the "Jump Break" / "Read More ..." option.

So, I setup 2 rollup questions, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

• Problem Rollup: Auto Pagination for blogs with Classic templates.
• Problem Rollup: Auto Pagination for blogs with Layout templates.

As noted, Blogger has admitted to blogs using the "Jump Break" / "Read More ..." option as being one possible problem cause. Until Blogger fixes all of the problems, and there are no more complaints, I'll suggest that anybody still seeing any problem involving Auto Pagination should continue to supply details, objectively and politely, to the rollup questions. It's always possible that the "Jump Break" / "Read More ..." option is not the only cause of the problems being experienced - and your report might provide the needed diagnostic detail to help Blogger identify another problem.

If you're seeing a problem with your blog, which involves Auto Pagination, please observe some basic guidelines.

• Post in the right question. If you have any doubt about whether your blog uses a classic or a layouts template, read here.
• Read the instructions at the top of the question, and provide the details about your problem. The requested details vary by question, and will change as this problem continues to be explored.
• Blogger will decide whether the change was necessary, what the problems are, and how to fix the problems. The more facts that you provide about your problem, the more chance that Blogger will find the cause of your problem, and will fix your problem first. The more opinion that you provide, the more chance that Blogger will look at somebody else's problem report, and fix their problem first.
• Be patient.
• When this is over, review and trim your main page size.

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A Template For Virginia USA #2

For Christmas (End Of Year) 2009, I went back to Virginia again, for a brief visit. What I found, besides the snow (and there was too much of that) were some positive notes. The State Of Virginia USA really is moving into the future. For us Californians (Yes, I consider myself a Californian) they now have a Frys Electronics, a Trader Joes (2 of them in the Richmond area!), and an In-N-Out Burger (No, they don't have that yet!). OK, I'll settle for 2 out of 3.

The point is, Virginia really is moving ahead, into the future. And this month, some bloggers are feeling the need to do that. Two changes in Blogger - Auto Pagination, and the approaching end to FTP Publishing, will both hasten the end to classic templates, and make the move to layout templates more natural.

Owners of blogs with classic templates have, for a long time, been asking about how to get "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links for their blogs. That's not a feature that can be provided, in HTML, unfortunately. The "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links have to be dynamically generated, so they can't be part of HTML based templates.

This week, we're seeing a new need for the "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links. Owners of blogs subject to restriction in archive or main page size, thanks to Auto Pagination, report inability to get all posts indexed by the search engines, or viewed by their readers. Neither main page view, nor individual archive page views, will consistently display all posts in a single page. Without "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links, all posts can't be indexed or viewed.

Without the dynamic display that's part of a blog with a layouts template, your blog won't have "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links, and won't provide indexing or viewing of all posts in an archive or main page. Nor will the blog have a dynamic labels index.

Now, blogs that use classic templates, and have large or complex posts, are just broken. When support for FTP publishing ends next month, there will be no more blogs that absolutely must use classic templates.

No support for FTP published blogs = no need to support classic templates.

XML based layouts templates are now reality, in Blogger blogging. It's time to move ahead, Virginian bloggers.

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That said, I am suggesting that you provide details about your problems, so Blogger may be able to fix your problems.

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