Showing posts with label Blog Template. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog Template. Show all posts

Friday, August 31, 2018

Now, Ya See It - Now, Ya Don't

For those not yet familiar with the new "Responsive" class themes, I offer my demo 4 "Responsive" blogs - one blog per exciting theme.

You can see the links to the 4 demo blogs, at the top of the sidebar.

You have to make an effort, to find the sidebar, however. The effort is necessary, to help the "Responsive" class templates replace the "Layout" / "Designer" class templates - and their special "Mobile" template.

See the linklist "Responsive Templates Tests", in the pop out sidebar?

Whether you are viewing this blog as The Real Blogger Status, or as Now, Ya See It - Now, Ya Don't, or even as Custom Domain Redirection, And "A" Referral Servers, you probably are not looking at the sidebar.

If you do want to see the sidebar, just click on the "hamburger" icon, in the upper right corner of the screen.

Click on the "hamburger" icon, to open the sidebar.



The "hamburger" icon is in the upper right corner.



The sidebar, normally hidden, to let the post content be more readable on a tiny "phone" display.



The "pop out" sidebar is one majorly innovative design feature, that helps the "Responsive" class templates replace the "Layout" / "Designer" class templates, and their special "Mobile" template.

The pop out sidebar is only visible, when you want to access sidebar content - by clicking on the "hamburger" icon.

Now, you see it.



Now, you don't.



Click on the tiny "right arrow" icon, to hide the sidebar, when the sidebar is open.



So yeah, if finding the sidebar is now an effort for your readers, I sympathise. But the hidden sidebar has a practical origin - it's not purely cosmetic.



If you recently upgraded your #Blogger blog to use an exciting new "Responsive" theme, and you can't find the sidebar, with its wonderful complement of gadgets, that's because the sidebar is now hidden.

Just click on the "hamburger" icon, and all will be seen.

Saturday, February 3, 2018

The Real Blogger Status Moves Into The Future

Several months ago, I took a leap into the future, and upgraded this blog to use a "Responsive" class template.

There are four "Responsive" templates - Contempo, Soho, Emporio, and Notable. The differences between the four include more than merely the visible design.

My serious opinion about template choice is that two people, each starting a blog about the same subject, and using the same source of content, will still have different perspectives - and each will probably choose a different template.

Anybody who asks me, bluntly

Which template is a better choice, for my blog?

Gets my facetious reply

Whatever template encourages you to write more original and quality content, in your blog, is best for your blog.

It's your blog. Your blog is valuable, because of the content.

Our clean, exciting new look.



Our boring previous look.



If you want more advice, I'll offer you my four "Responsive" class test templates - Contempo Test, Soho Test, Emporio Test, and Notable Test. You can examine this post, and compare the visible differences, on each of the four.

The navbar is gone.

Where's the navbar?



It's possible that the navbar contains details that are not compatible with hosting on the Google CDN. Is this why Blogger started providing a "Report this blog". gadget?

The sidebar is now hidden - unless you need to see it.

See the linklist "Responsive Templates Tests", in the pop out sidebar? You need to click on the "hamburger" icon, in the upper right corner of the screen, to see the sidebar.

The "pop out" sidebar is one majorly innovative design feature, that helps the "Responsive" class templates replace the "Layout" / "Designer" class templates, and their special "Mobile" template.

The pop out sidebar is only visible, when you want to access sidebar content, by clicking on the "hamburger" icon.

There are more, undocumented improvements, too.

Besides the "Mobile" template that is now redundant, there are significant differences between the four "Responsive" templates, that may encourage choice of one or the other. As I continue to upgrade the older posts in this blog, to look better using "Notable", I'll start discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each.

If this interests you, move your blog forward, by choosing an exciting "Responsive" class template, from the dashboard "Theme" page.

Pick one of the new and exciting "Responsive" class templates - Contempo, Soho, Emporio, Notable.



You can setup your own demo / test set, easily enough.

If necessary, setup your own test blog set, with your own test posts - and compare your content on the different templates, to see what your blog will look like. Or, you can use my sidebar menu "Responsive Templates Test" - and look at my four test blogs.

My personal choice of the "Notable" Responsive template, was not immediate - it took several days, and some experimentation using various tests - and my 4 test blogs. You can take your time - and change your template, as you feel the need.



The Real Blogger Status has moved into the future - and is now using a new #Blogger supplied "Responsive" class template. It's going to take some work, to make the blog truly look good under "Notable" - but progress always has a price.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Recovering From A Corrupt Template - The Next Step

There are three possible dashboard wizards, used to recover a blog with a corrupt template aka "500 Internal Server Error".
  1. The Template Designer page.
  2. The Template page.
  3. The Template Editor ("Edit HTML") page.
With most blogs, one of the three can eventually be used, to install a clean, new template - and recover a blog that's offline because of the broken template.

Some blogs, unfortunately, cannot be recovered this way.

Some blogs have templates so badly broken, that no dashboard template wizard can be accessed - and used to restore the blog to operational status.

If there's no way to recover a broken blog by replacing the template, the next possibility is to recover the URL - and install a new blog at that URL.

  1. Create a new blog - with a clean, working, Blogger supplied template.
  2. Swap URLs between the old and new blogs.
  3. Export content from the broken blog - and Import to the new blog.
  4. Transfer / update Followers.
  5. Rebuild the template, and add gadgets.
  6. Provide notice to your Followers, readers, subscribers, and other viewers.

Create a new blog - with a clean, working template.

Use the dashboard "New Blog" button, and create a new blog. You'll only create the new blog, in this case, to recover the URL of the broken blog - so just use a random, non valued URL.

Choose a template similar to the one on the broken blog, from the dashboard Template page - and get your new blog online. Use a Blogger standard template, until you are satisfied that the problem won't continue.

Swap URLs between the old and new blogs.

Hoping that you can access the Settings - Basic ("basicsettings") page - first rename the URL Of the broken blog, to a second random, non valued URL. Then you can rename your new blog - created above - to the URL previously used by the broken blog.



Just Edit "Blog Address", twice, to swap URLs.

First, for the broken blog, to free up the current URL - then, for the new blog, to recover the current URL.


Now, your broken URL is back online, with a clean template - though without content.

Export content from the broken blog - and Import to the new blog.

Use the "Import & back up" wizard at the Settings - Basic ("othersettings") page for the broken blog, and export comments, pages, and posts. Then use the wizard for the new blog, and import the content just exported.

Transfer / update Followers.

If the broken blog uses Blogger Followers for community building, and you had a significant Followers community, the community will remain on the old, broken blog. This is the one down side of recovering a broken template using this technique.

Fortunately, the only specific problem is the effect upon the Followers community. The other half of Following - the blog feed - will be re established with the new blog, which will now have the desired URL being recovered. And the sooner you get the blog back online, the sooner you can rebuild / recover your Followers.

Rebuild the template, and add gadgets.

If you periodically back up the template, as you tweak it, this will be the easiest step in the recovery. Of course, since you are here because the template is broken, maybe you should rebuild the template, one step at a time. Try to not repeat the previous mistake.

Then add gadgets back, one at a time - and test carefully.

Provide notice to your Followers, readers, and viewers.

If you care about your community - Followers, readers, subscribers, and other viewers - a new post, briefly admitting to your mistake might be a good idea. You can even display your new post, as a Featured Post.



Sometimes, it's not possible to recover a broken #Blogger blog, using any of the Template dashboard pages, with a blog sidelined by a "500 Internal Server Error" broken template. If the URL has any value to you - or your viewers - you can recover it, using a new blog.

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Thursday, May 12, 2016

Blogger Magic - Backup The Template

It's always wise to backup the blog contents - and the template.

If you are publishing a blog, you may occasionally make a mistake. Being able to recover from a mistake, using backed up content, is always a good idea.

Blogger provides a dashboard wizard to backup the blog template - and a complementary wizard, to backup blog content - comments, pages, and posts.

Backing up a Blogger blog template is reasonably simple.

The template backup wizard is on the dashboard Theme page.


Start from the dashboard Theme page.




And click on "Backup / Restore".




Then click on "Download full template".





This will give you a standard file save wizard, that is used by your computer.



The file save wizard will depend upon the operating system.

On my computer, the file save window is "Save file as". Your computer operating system might have a similar wizard - or it may be different.

Other than choosing file and folder (your choice, on your computer) for backing up the template content, you just sit back and let the backup work. Don't wait too long though - a few seconds is all that it should take.

Understand how and why to backup.

Just don't backup blindly - or for the wrong reasons. To be useful, a backup needs to consider how to restore - and why you might restore.

Any backup is more useful, if you plan how and why you might need to restore.



As you develop a #Blogger blog, making regular backups of the template is always a good idea. Everybody makes mistakes - and recovering from a template coding mistake is a lot easier, if you're able to restore a previous template copy.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/-7808eOAZ7c

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Mysterious Text, Overlaying The Post

A few times recently, we've had reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, of mysterious text, appearing in the middle of the posts.
How do I remove unwanted text appearing in the middle of the page?
Frequently, all that we can see is a mass of text.

Occasionally, the mysterious text has been readable. Extracting key phrases from the text, we can some times locate the source of the mysterious text, in the post code.

Having located the mysterious text, we are no smarter than we were just previously, however.

The mysterious text. In this case, the text is simply unreadable.


In some cases, we've been able to read the text. A text search, in the source code for the page, might turn up this snippet of post HTML code.

<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
The project sees local artists joining forces with the University’s smart material researchers to work with local community groups to explore, create and design different applications for smart materials - See more at:
http://www.bolton.ac.uk/MediaCentre/Articles/2013/Feb2013-3.aspx#sthash.JEpPZWbT.dpuf</div>

stcpDiv


The key phrase in the code snippet appears to be the div id, "stcpDiv".

A Google search turns up a few discussions about the mysterious text. It appears that "stcpDiv" is part of a copy protection technique.
STopCoPyDIV
Apparently, this allows source websites to publish content with metadata - the equivalent of a non visible watermark - linking back to the source, when content is copied to another website.

To resolve this, you have to edit the post which contains the "stcpdiv" code in Compose mode, and use the "Remove formatting" tool. Then reformat the entire post.

Alternately, edit the problem post in HTML mode, and find and remove all "stcpdiv" code - one section at a time.

And in the future, never copy formatted content from a protected website.

This is yet one more reason why copying formatted text is not a good idea. If you must copy text, copy it unformatted - then re apply formatting, as necessary, after copying.

Monday, February 20, 2012

The New GUI Template Editor, And Removing The "Blog Posts" Gadget

Since the most important part of almost all Blogger blogs is the posts, the "Blog Posts" gadget is an essential element in the template. Sometimes we have to remove the gadget though - maybe the gadget is corrupt - or in odd cases, we may have a duplicate "Blog Posts" gadget.

In either case, the solution is known, and is quite simple.
Remove (the / one) "Blog Posts" gadget.
Unfortunately, not everybody, needing such advice, is able to do this. People using the Template Editor in the New Blogger GUI (2011) may find, to their frustration, that removal of a "Blog Posts" gadget isn't permitted.

Sometimes, when we advise someone to remove a "Blog Posts" gadget, we find the advice not well received.
It won't let me do that!
or
I get a bX code, when I try to save the change!
Apparently, somebody who designed the New GUI Template Editor decided that removing "Blog Posts" just isn't a necessary option.

Right now, if you're going to remove "Blog Posts", you have to switch back to the Classic GUI.

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Saturday, May 1, 2010

Identify The Gadgets In The Template, Reliably

When you tweak the code in a gadget, based upon my instructions, you'll be editing the template HTML. Or, you might be using the Layout wizard, to locate and remove a problem gadget.

You'll do most editing with widget code unfolded. You'll have a lot of code to sift through - and with many gadgets in your blog, there's always the chance that you'll see the code for one gadget, and confuse it for another.

If you delete or tweak the wrong gadget, you may not like what you get. Before deleting anything, or editing the template, take an extra minute, and find the specific gadget, by its name. This could save you a lot of grief.

Here, I'll look at the Welcome message in my Buzz blog.

This is what I did, as I tweaked it to make it show up only on the Home page.

So, welcome to The Buzz.

If I right click on the screwdriver / wrench ("dragonfly") under that gadget, and select "Copy Link Location" (or possibly "Copy link address"), I can paste the URL into Notepad for easy examination.

Alternately, use the Layout wizard, click on "Edit" - and stretch the gadget window out horizontally, until the entire URL is visible.
http://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6525860816441104874&widgetType=Text&widgetId=Text1&action=editWidget

The gadget in question is "Text1". To find the code to tweak, I use the Template "Edit HTML" wizard - and completely unfold the code for "Text1".
<b:widget id='Text1' locked='false' title='' type='Text'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
<b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
<h2 class='title':gt;<data:title/:gt;</h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<data:content/>
</div>
</b:if>

<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
That beats an eyeball based search, any day. It's 100% reliable, and takes just a few seconds to find the code for "Text1". After you do this a few times, you'll be able to hover the mouse, and spot the widgetId=Text1 in the URL display in the browser status area - and go straight to
The gadget in question is "Text1".

(Update 2014/12): If you use a text browser, you can locate and identify a problem gadget, much more easily.

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Friday, April 30, 2010

Static Pages, And A Custom Pages Index - Part 2

There are always details to deal with, and the "Linklist as Pages Index" solution, to provide a "Pages" gadget that indexes non pages, is no exception. As pointed out to me this morning, a "LinkList" gadget, when simply substituted for the "PageList" gadget, doesn't have the right stuff to make the selected tab light up, when the requested page is being displayed. The lit up tab makes the Tabs gadget seem so user friendly, and some folks like that little detail.

Fortunately, this problem is not difficult to correct.
  1. First (yes, he's telling us again), backup your template.
  2. Next, "Edit HTML" and select "Expand Widget Templates".
  3. Look for
    <b:section class='tabs' id='crosscol' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='yes'>
  4. Look a few lines below that for
    <li><a expr:href='data:link.target'><data:link.name/></a></li>
    and replace it with
    <b:if cond="data:blog.url == data:link.target">
    <li class='selected'><a expr:href='data:link.target'><data:link.name/></a></li>
    <b:else/>
    <li><a expr:href='data:link.target'><data:link.name/></a></li>
    </b:if>
  5. Save Template.
  6. Test.
  7. And finally, backup your template,again.
Not terribly complicated. Just another detail.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Static Pages, And A Custom Pages Index

Ever since static pages were released by Blogger, bloggers have been asking how to index non static pages in a static pages (aka "tabs") index. Questions like
How do I publish a label page with my static pages?
and
How do I link to another blog, in my Pages gadget?
and
How do I publish posts in pages?
are asked, fairly regularly.

The typical answer, to the question above, has been
You can't index anything but pages, in the Pages gadget. You have to make a custom index bar.
Posts are dynamic content, and pages are static content. Posts and pages are simply different blog content. And the standard Pages index gadget only indexes static pages.

Fortunately, a horizontal menu bar, to replace the Pages index gadget, isn't difficult to make. You can see one right now, in my home blog, Nitecruzr Dot Net.

If your blog has a new Designer Template, you may wish to go a bit further, and make a custom Pages Index. With a Designer Template, we simply position a linklist in the Pages Tab Index space, and we get a horizontal menu bar / tabs index with the look and feel of a Pages gadget.
  1. First (should you ask?), backup your template.
  2. Go to "Page Elements", and look below the page header space, in the Tabs section. If you do not see a space just below the page header, upgrade your template. The picture below shows what you will want to see. If you have an old blog, with a template created before static pages were released, you'll want to use the Template Designer, and give the blog a nice Designer Template.
  3. If you have a Pages Index gadget already installed in the template, delete it.
  4. Create a linklist, and put some links into it. You can add or change any links that you put into your new linklist, whenever you feel the need. If you want to index posts, use labels, and index label searches. In some cases, you may be better off creating an HTML based linklist, using raw linklist code copied into an HTML / JavaScript gadget.
  5. Position your new linklist where the Pages gadget was (or would be).
  6. Save.
  7. Backup the template, again (yes, do it again)!
  8. Test.
  9. Add more links to the linklist, when you feel the need. It's a linklist, and you hopefully know how to add links to a linklist.
See the "Add a Gadget" space below the header ("Nitecruzr Designer Template")? If you don't see that space there, you need to get an updated template.



You can see my demonstration in Nitecruzr Buzz. I just took the linklist out of the sidebar, repositioned it as I discuss above, and voila. It took me 2 minutes.


Of course, there are details which should be attended to, any time you tweak a new Blogger feature.

For more detail, see Roberto's Report: New Designer Template and the Tabs Index.


(Update 2011/08): The pages editor, in the New Blogger GUI (2011), now provides us with this option.

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Monday, April 26, 2010

Where Is The Template Designer Wizard?

The new Designer Templates were released over a month ago, and still not everybody knows how to access them. Almost daily, we see the plaintive query
Where in my Blogger settings can I access the new Blogger template designer?
and to be sure, it seemed, at one time, a bit tricky.


(Update 2010/06/10): The Template Designer is now a production Blogger feature.

The Template Designer is now part of Production (Orange) Blogger, and is accessible from the dashboard "Template" page - or the navbar "Design" link.



If you click on "Design" from the navbar, you get the "Template" page, where you find the "Customize" button.

There it is - "Template Designer".



Just login to Blogger, click on "Template", and hit the "Customize" button.

You can't miss it.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Make The Blog Header Non Clickable

Everybody has their own idea how they want their blog.

Not everybody wants the blog title to link back to the main page at all, while some folks would like to have the title link back to the main page even when the main page is displayed.

The default Blogger code enables a link in the blog header, when anything but the first segment of the main page (aka "home" page) is displayed. Some people would like the link completely disabled, on all segments. Others would like the link enabled, on all segments.

Some folks don't like the way the title changes colour - in many blogs, the "links" (unvisited links) and "visited links" have colours that stand out from the text. Look below - see the purple and blue text? Those are links. If you don't like the title to colour itself, you remove the links - or replace the title with a picture - as I have done above.

In most of my blogs, I could do without the clickable title, completely, as I have my Menu Bar, which includes a "Home" link.

For some blogs, removing the link, in the blog title, is a fairly simple change.

Blogs that use text in the header (including text over a picture) contain code that's reasonably easy to tweak. Blogs that use a custom image in the header, with no text, are slightly more challenging.

This is done under the layout template editor. First, (yes, again!) back up the template. Next, "Expand Widget Templates" and look in the body, for
    <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<data:title/>
<b:else/>
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>
</b:if>

To disable the link completely, change all of that to one simple line.
     <data:title/>

To enable the link, completely, change all of that to one alternately simple line.
     <a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>

Blogs that use only an image in the header contain some more complex code to display the image. They include the link in all pages, without any checking for the home page.
      <!--Show the image only-->
<div id='header-inner'>
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl' style='display: block'>
<img expr:alt='data:title' expr:height='data:height' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_headerimg"' expr:src='data:sourceUrl' expr:width='data:width' style='display: block'/>
</a>
<!--Show the description-->
<b:if cond='data:imagePlacement == "BEFORE_DESCRIPTION"'>
<b:include name='description'/>
</b:if>
</div>
Here, the only choice is to remove the link, if you wish.
      <!--Show the image only-->
<div id='header-inner'>
<img expr:alt='data:title' expr:height='data:height' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_headerimg"' expr:src='data:sourceUrl' expr:width='data:width' style='display: block'/>
<!--Show the description-->
<b:if cond='data:imagePlacement == "BEFORE_DESCRIPTION"'>
<b:include name='description'/>
</b:if>
</div>

Save, and test. And (yes, yet again) backup the template.

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

The New Blogger Template Designer Is Here

After months of waiting, Blogger today released their new template library.

Instead of a static library, though, they chose to provide an array of combinable choices.
  • Multiple, exciting styles.
  • A huge library of theme organised backgrounds, each with an associated colour palette.
  • A selection of layouts, with symmetrical combinations of
    • 2, 3, and 4 columns
    • with and without split sidebars
    • in both left and right variations
  • Adjustable column widths.
  • An updated Fonts and Colors GUI interface, with selections for new template objects like Pages Index gadgets.

From the dashboard or navbar, select "Design". From "Page Elements", then select "Template Designer" - and check out the possibilities.

What we have, now, is an almost infinite variety of possibilities, which should keep many bloggers happily occupied for days. If the Template Designer for your blog lacks options, you can even add some wizards to the Designer menu.

As with every new feature Blogger presents to us, always remain aware of security restrictions on your computer and network, and consider how the Designer content is hosted. If you can't get the Designer to work on your browser, try another browser or another computer.

Those deficiencies aside, I now have a new look for my Buzz blog, and another for my Recipes blog.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Editing The Blog Template

The template is like the skeleton of your body - you can't see it (easily), but the success of the blog depends upon its being there, and being structured properly.

If you're going to have a blog, and publish it effectively, eventually the dashboard Layout and the Template Designer pages won't do enough for you. You're going to want to get to the details, underneath the GUI processes.

You access the template editor using the dashboard Theme page, where you will find (among other options) the "Edit HTML" button.


Click on "Edit HTML".



Clicking on "Edit HTML", you may get a serious warning to read.

Directly editing HTML may affect the way some features work and is only recommended for advanced users. Editing template HTML may unpredictably affect other Blogger features. We recommend using the Template Designer first, where you can Add CSS under the Advanced section.

Should you choose to click on "Proceed", you'll be into the "Edit HTML" display.


Edit carefully. Some changes may require editing / removing multiple lines of code.



With a Classic template, you have just one major activity when you're in "Edit HTML" - and that's what the name suggests, you edit the HTML. You'll have some CSS code, but no XML - so it's all relatively straightforward.

With a Layout template, you'll have a few extra options.


With a Designer template, you'll have one additional minor option.


And with a layout template, you'll have "Edit HTML", but with a few more tweaks than with a classic template. You'll have CSS and HTML - and XML - code to edit. And don't overlook the possibility of using HTML code in place of XML code, in a layout template.

One of the least understood selections in the Template "Edit HTML" wizard is the option to "Expand Widget Templates" , which has been replaced by selectively unfolding any gadget to be edited. Just understand when to unfold - and when to not unfold.

Remember that Blogger blogs offer many possibilities. Some code can be installed using HTML / JavaScript gadgets, as an alternative to adding code to the template using "Edit HTML".

And please, as always - backup the template, before and after using Template Editor.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Identify The Template In Your Blog

My preferred policy in Information Technology starts with
Everything has a name.
Having worked with Blogger for several years, I have compromised that, and now say
Everything should have a name.
Unfortunately, there will always be things that have no names, they are just there.

When you work on the template in your blog, and especially when you ask for help with the template, the first thing that you must provide is the URL of the blog.

The first thing that I do, when providing template help, is look at the blog, and determine.

  • Is the template classic, or layouts?
  • What is the make and model?
    • Is it a Blogger standard template, or third party?
    • If Blogger, what "model" is it?

While you're reading this article, do "View page source" or "Ctrl+U" (for Chrome), "View", then "Page Source" (for Firefox), or "View", then "Source" (for Internet Explorer). Alternately, use an HTTP text proxy. That will give you a display of the code behind the page. You'll find a couple relevant and useful clues, in the display.

At the top, and since this blog uses a Blogger standard template, you will find the template "model" information. Third party templates may, or may not, have this. Likewise, highly customised templates may, or may not, have this.

/*
-----------------------------------------------
Blogger Template Style
Name: Simple
Designer: Josh Peterson
URL: www.noaesthetic.com
----------------------------------------------- */

That tells me that I am looking at a blog that uses the Blogger standard "Simple" template. It's "Simple" - but somewhat customised.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Two Templates

Your Blogger blog uses two different yet related HTML / XML templates, in formatting and displaying your posts.

The blog template defines objects that are consistent for the entire blog - and the post template defines objects that are consistent for each post (though the content of each post will vary, from post to post). You can change the blog tempate, when you wish.

The post template, when the blog is published, becomes part of the blog template - but the two are maintained separately. This lets you change your blog template (and the page layout) without affecting the post template (and the posts layout), and vice versa. When Blogger makes changes to post related features, they change post template code.

The blog template is configured using the dashboard Layout and Template pages.

The blog template is configured using the dashboard Layout page - or the Template - "Edit HTML" Template Editor.

You can add / arrange objects on the page, and re locate any object that you want, anywhere on the page (with a few exceptions), using a GUI drag and drop process. Wherever you drag it, the object becomes part of the page, and displays in that location on the page. And when the page is displayed, the object in question is displayed there, with one copy of each object / page.

When there are problems with any of the blog content except the posts themselves, and the problem can't be resolved by editing a widget or using the Layout "Edit HTML" wizard, the blog template is possibly corrupt - or probably just out of date.

Third party developers don't have access to the latest Blogger post template code. If you install a third party template, you frequently get out of date post template code - and broken comment / post features.

A corrupt / out of date blog template is, most easily, resolved by getting a new template.

When you have a corrupt blog template, if you didn't back the template up previously, you'll have to use the "Pick New Template" wizard, and get a fresh copy of your template. Or copy it and paste it into the "Edit HTML" window. Note that each widget includes a quickedit function (the "screwdriver / wrench" icon), which is also part of the blog template.

The post template is configured using "Configure Blog Posts".

The posts template is configured using the "Configure Blog Posts" widget in the dashboard Layout wizard. You can arrange (but can't add) objects using the GUI blog posts widget. If you want to add an object to be part of the posts, and display with each post, you either add it into each post manually, or using the (Settings - "Posts and comments") Post Template "Edit" link.

The Post Template Editor (please, do not confuse this with the "Template Editor") uses HTML code, not GUI - and it works for new posts only.

When there are problems with the posts, and the problems can't be resolved by editing the posts using the post editor, the post template is possibly corrupt. This can sometimes result from unwisely applied tweaks, made by the blog owner.

A corrupt post template is resolved by refreshing "Blog1", using Template Editor.

When you have a corrupt / out of date post template, you have to refresh the post template. This requires that you reset gadget "Blog1", in the Template Editor.

Any time you install a third party template, you should refresh the post template. Third party template developers have their own product development schedules - and will not reliably have access to the latest version of the post template.

Note that the post template also includes the post quick edit function (the "pencil" icon), the comments, and the labels - all elements which are different for each post.

Be sure to backup the template, before and after refreshing the post template.

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