Ever since AutoSave was developed, and added to posts being edited, people have been having problems when editing un published posts.
We see periodic cries of anguish, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue. I had been working on this post, for weeks! Just as I selected a portion to delete, AutoSave kicked in, highlighted the whole post, and saved an empty post!!
andI was working on this post, along with another member of the team. We keep making changes, and erasing each others changes!!!
Blogger allows long period editing of un published posts - and they provide team blog ownership - but you'll do better to not use either possibility, with any important projects.
I've been warning people, for a long time, that Blogger is not a Content Management System.
Blogger provides neither Draft mode edits, nor team membership, as compared to a CMS. Both Draft editing, and team blog membership, provides potential for loss of content, that only you (the original blog owner) will be able to recover.
AutoSave, And Editing A Draft Post
We've known about AutoSave, and it's ability to destroy carefully edited posts, for years. AutoSave is known for it's tendency to cause the entire post to be highlighted - and, after you just pressed delete, to save a newly deleted, empty post.
If you, as the author, have been working on a post for days - or weeks, and you save an empty post, your work is now gone. And Draft mode provides no consistent ability to recover previous versions of the post.
Team Membership
Team membership provides either authors (who can only edit their own posts), or administrators (who can edit, and destroy, everything). There is no middle ground.
If you want to have people able to collaboratively edit a post, you have to make them all administrators. When you do that, every team members absolutely must be someone whom you can trust.
If one team member takes it upon herself (himself) to take over the blog, and remove the other members (and you), this is a problem that you must handle - since you made the decision to give control of the blog, to that person. Blogger Support cannot get involved, legally, since it is (was) your blog.
And, even if team members play by the rules, two people, editing the same post, can easily interfere with each other. The Blogger post editor provides no ability for two team members to edit the same post, simultaneously.
Use Google Drive For Collaborative, Long Term Editing
Having noted the limitations, Google has provided a solution. Google Drive provides a real, Content Management System approach to long term, group development of documents, with version based recovery.
Just start a document, and invite people to help you edit the document. When the document is ready, embed it into your blog. You, and your team, can work on the document - and your only very trusted blog administrators can work on your blog.
If you don't like the embedding options, you can download the document as Rich Text or Plain Text, then copy the text into a new blog post and format the post as you like. If AutoSave misbehaves, you have the original Drive document, as a backup.
You can keep the blog, and the document, separate. When you embed the document, you can let some people continue to edit, while others can read the blog / document, as developed - and the general public can, as you like, be unable to view either one. And your trusted administrators / webmasters can develop the host blog.
Blogger and Google Drive, together, provide interesting possibilities. Imagine the possibilities. Use Google Drive, For Team Document Development Use Google Drive, To Develop Important And Group Documents Use Google Drive, To Develop Important And Group Documents
Long before Blogger developed static pages, blog owners had wanted to have some accessories or gadgets visible only on specific pages.
Initially, we discovered that gadgets could be displayed conditionally, based upon the URL being displayed. This is a fairly simple task, when you get used to it - but it requires editing the template HTML - and can look a bit scary, to those inexperienced in template editing.
Recently, we realised that some gadgets can be embedded in a page or post, by editing in HTML mode - and accomplish the same. I demonstrated my custom "Contact Me" gadget, using that ability.
Both the technique of embedding a gadget in a page or post - and of conditionally displaying a gadget - have their advantages, and their disadvantages.
Embed A Gadget In A Page Or Post
My custom "Contact Me" gadget, which is provided by Google Docs as an IFrame embedded page, is published in my static page "Contact Me, Improved". <iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JvoY2yf5aTChnvXlCgGsUerSCtI7RHpRdkq5SPBPm90/viewform?embedded=true" width="700" height="800" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>
That's the code for my gadget - you can make your own, in 10 - 15 minutes. You can use this technique with any Google Docs based file.
My expanded Followers gadget is part of my static page, "Followers". The code for that page was provided by Google Friend Connect, and is no longer available. You may now install the "Followers" / "Google Friend Connect" gadget, using "Add a Gadget".
The Followers gadget is JavaScript based, though - and the rendered gadget code can be extracted from the blog source, using any suitable text based browser. Having extracted the JavaScript, it can be added to any page or post, in HTML mode, just as I did to make "Contact Me, Improved".
Display A Gadget, Conditionally
Gadgets which are provided as XML, and do not provide convenient rendered JavaScript code, cannot be easily embedded in a page or post. These gadgets will still be added using "Add a Gadget", and will require the conditional template tweak. My Labels index page, "Topics", is an example of this technique.
Any BlogList or LinkList gadget can be found as rendered HTML, and the code can be extracted - again, from a blog source listing - but both bloglists and linklists are dynamic - and frequently long. If you extract the rendered source, you get a static copy - - which is fine, if you never plan to change your list.
The blog has half a dozen lists, of various types - and I like to add or remove list elements, whenever necessary. I enjoy the Quick Edit feature of the "Peer Resources" bloglist, for instance - and have no intention of publishing that bloglist as a static HTML based linklist. If I was to display "Peer Resources" on a specific static page, I would use the earlier technique of editing the template XML code, and adding a conditional.
It seems as if it should be possible to add XML code, directly, into a page or post. If I discover the appropriate technique for doing that, I will surely update this post.
Know The Alternatives
Just know the alternatives, and choose wisely.
Just as many blog owners enjoy the option to include photos and videos to their blogs, some would like to add office type multimedia.
Queries about adding PDF documents, spreadsheets, and Word documents, to our blogs, are frequently seen, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.
One of the issues that need to be considered is that many professional documents are created using proprietary office software. PDF files, for instance, are created using Adobe Acrobat. Excel spreadsheets and Word documents are created using Microsoft Office. Another issue may involve confidentiality. Office documents may contain confidential data, that's not intended for the world to view.
Google has a solution for handling all of these proprietary file formats, and for the confidentiality issue.
Google provides Google Docs / Drive, which can be used to develop, publish, and share proprietary professional multimedia files - and maintain confidentiality.
Start by uploading any "professional" format file.
If you have a professional file, accessible from your computer, just open Google Docs / Drive, and upload the file. The "File upload" wizard has the standard wizard to "Select a file from your computer".
Or, you can make a new file, using Drive.
Alternately, you can develop a new document, using "NEW", and selecting the appropriate document type.
- Document (.doc, MSWord)
- Spreadsheet (.xls, MSExcel)
- Presentation (.pdf, Adobe Acrobat)
- Form
- Drawing
All useful document types.
You can embed a Docs / Drive file in an IFrame, using the document link.
Having created or uploaded your file, follow instructions to embed or share your document, using Google+, EMail, FaceBook, and Twitter.
Using an IFrame, you can embed a document in any HTML gadget, page or post - or even publish to a separate page, in the blog.
First, open the document / file.
With a Docs / Drive document displayed, click "File - Share".
This gives you the "Share with others" wizard.
Then, click "Copy link".
Take the link, and build the Embed - or add the link into a blog gadget or post.
Here is a live Google Drive document. The link leads to the document, as embedded below.
<iframe frameborder="0" height="680" src="https://docs.google.com/document/preview?authuser=0&hgd=1&id=1Z-4gSKJWzvb5onD5gslN69q9_sC6BH-f-4WwkXEYfaw" scrolling=no title="Test Document" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="680" src="https://docs.google.com/document/preview?authuser=0&hgd=1&id=11pX2o4DotLA0fyThrATbKxNp2WKWDKteVH7b3KDtLec" title="Embedding A Google Docs Document" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="680" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/preview?authuser=0&hgd=1&id=17QfNFmMmdJ8M9vx5avsffehjgsK5VgdGYccFvKdAAMw" title="Embedding A Google Docs Document" width="100%"></iframe>
Google Calendar is a useful complement to all of these. You can embed your calendar - or anybody else's - using instructions from Google.
There are various options, for adding a blog to a Google Doc or a website.
Adding a Google Doc / Google Drive file to a Blogger blog will have similar possibilities, similar to adding a Blogger blog to a website.
Use Drive for developing collaborated documents.
Be sure to set appropriate editing and viewing permissions for your readers, in the "Share with others" wizard. "Share with others" lets you create collaborative documents - giving other workers the ability to comment on and / or edit your documents, as you designate.
You can use Google Drive to develop important documents, in a group environment - and avoid the stress caused by AutoSave and Draft blog post editing. Maybe Blogger is not a Content Management System - but Google Drive can be.
