Bloggers everywhere are now enjoying the new look of the redesigned Blogger Dashboard, and the improved buttons in Post Editor. With every change though, such as a redesign or improved functionality, comes problems. This change is no exception.I notice that there's a new dashboard but I also noticed that when I try to put my cursor over the "publish" button it turns into a line and the button doesn't work unless I rest it below the publish button.
orThe button for NEW POST, PUBLISH POST & SAVE NOW are NOT working?
orI can't upgrade my template. There's no "UPGRADE YOUR TEMPLATE" button!
Whenever Blogger makes a script change, like this one (that's visible), or similar ones that you can't see immediately, things will stop working. Sometimes, it will be because of old code, cached on your computer, interfering with their new code. Other times, it may be because of differences in the browser that you are using. And in many cases, you'll have a security device in the browser, in the computer, or on your network, that interferes with cookies and / or scripts on your computer.
If you see a problem, check the Blogger Help Forums, and look for others reporting the same problem. Look at the etiological spread of the problem. If you don't see a huge flood of reports of your problem, look at your computer, and see if there's anything different on your computer, that could contribute to the problem on your computer.
(Update 9/30 18:00): Blogger Employee is now asking for diagnostics describing your experience with the missing Template Upgrade button.Please reply to this thread with your browser and operating system info.
Also, I recommend trying from another browser to see if that helps.
(Update 8/17): Help us out here, provide details please if you're affected by this problem. Precision counts here.- What is your exact problem - buttons missing, or buttons don't work?
- What buttons, on what screen?
- Are you using Draft (Blue) or Production (Orange) Blogger?
- What browser, and what operating system (name and version) do you use?
- What anti-virus product, and what cookie / script blockers, do you have on your browser or computer?
- Have you tried clearing both cache and cookies, and restarting the browser?
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Many bloggers who depend upon comments as an essential part of their posts have never been content with comments in a separate window - popup or not. Occasionally, you see the anxious queryDoes anyone know how to make all comments appear directly under the post?
Until now, the answer to that question has always beenNot under native Blogger, unfortunately.
With New Blogger June/July 2008, that limitation is no more. Now, you have a third option for displaying comments.Embedded below post
Note that you may, or may not, see my test comment below this post. If you're viewing posts in archive view, or in main page view, you'll still see the comment link, and have to click on that. A page with multiple posts, and comments interspersed between the posts, would be too hard to read.
If you're viewing this individual post, inline comments "Embedded below post" make sense.
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Most web pages that you will view on the Internet are written in HTML.
HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, was designed long ago to enhance simple text, giving it ability to display more than simple letters, numbers, special characters, etc. What you're looking at is mostly simple text. Here, on the other hand, is an example of bold text. And here, italicised text. And here, red text. Are you interested yet?
Here's how I coded the above paragraph in HTML:
Most web pages that you will view on the Internet are written in HTML.<br /><br />HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, was designed long ago to enhance simple text, giving it characteristics beyond simple letters, numbers, special characters, etc. What you're looking at is mostly simple text. Here, on the other hand, is an example of <span style="font-weight:bold;">bold text</span>. And here, <span style="font-style:italic;">italicised text</span>. And here, <span style="color:rgb(255,0,0);" >red text</span>. Interested yet?
The above paragraph was translated, from the introductory paragraph at the top, by Postable, a web based utility.
You can use Postable, other similar utilities, or Notepad, and convert your HTML to displayable text. When you compose a post, in "HTML" mode, there are several special characters, that you can't enter as simple text.
- The quote symbol " which must be entered as """, or """.
- The apostrophe ' which must be entered as "'" (If you are reading this in Internet Explorer, you may not see this properly!), or "'".
- The ampersand & which must be entered as "&", or "&".
- The less than sign < which must be entered as "<", or "<".
- The greater than sign > which must be entered as ">", or ">".
When you display HTML code in your posts, you'll have to translate each of these characters as in the above examples - or using the corresponding ASCII numeric codes - if you want your code to be selectively readable as code, in a post.
If you want the entire post to display all special characters as code, you can use the Post Editor "Post settings" feature - Options - "Compose mode", and select "Interpret typed HTML". This lets you display a block of code without requiring special character translation, as above - though it prevents you from using formatting in the post, in HTML mode.
To display """, "'", "&", "<", or ">", you enter "&quot;", "&apos;", "&amp;", "&lt;", or "&gt;", respectively.
I'll let you figure out how to display "&quot;" "&apos;", "&amp;", "&lt;", or "&gt;".
Now that the post editor in New Blogger June/July 2008 is part of Production Blogger, you can, optionally, display HTML routinely, by a selection in the Post Editor "Post settings". Or, you can still enter special characters in HTML.
For years, bloggers have complained about the inability / complexity of displaying HTML code in a blog post.
Being told to display "<" as "<" and ">" as ">" confuses many folks - it's not easy typing "<" and ">" - and it's still harder to type "&lt;" and "&gt;", which is how you display "<" and ">", respectively.
Don't ask me to go any deeper.
With the 2008 post editor, we have a new setting, under Post Options.Interpret typed HTML.
The phrasing there is confusing, to me anyway. What it means, in effect, is that typing "<" will display "<" and ">" will display ">", without any work from us, with "Interpret typed HTML" selected for that post. No more having to type "<" and ">".
In other words, in a single post, you'll be able to copy and paste raw HTML and have it display as raw HTML - if you can make single posts without any HTML, like formatting or links.
This feature may hasten the elimination of the toolbar in "Edit HTML", and make that mode still less usable for composing content. And this should make the New Blogger June/July 2008 Post Editor more attractive, at least slightly so.
I use "<pre> ... </pre>" blocks in my posts a lot, as a way to highlight code examples and log outputs. Unlike blockquotes, preformatted blocks preserve indentation in the material highlighted, and with both code and log listings, indentation (horizontal spacing) is as an important part of the display as is line spacing (vertical spacing).
Earlier this month, I showed how the corrected (finally!) vertical line spacing issue had been corrected, and how easily you can tweak the line spacing for elements like pre-formatted blocks. At that time, vertical line spacing for pre-formatted blocks was predictable, and could be tweaked. Since that time and just before the (mostly Draft) New Blogger June 2008 release, vertical line spacing changed.
You can see the problem, in Blogger Spacing Issue Fixed - June 2008. When I wrote that post, the code displayed, as I describe farther down in the post astighter vertical spacing (1.2em)
Now, it's not tighter.
Coming just before the release of New Blogger June 2008, we have to wonder.
>> (Update 6/28 21:00): This issue appears to be fixed.
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It appears that, in their push to launch (in Draft, mostly) New Blogger June 2008, Blogger overlooked one significant challenge. This month, Mozilla released V3.0 of their popular browser, Firefox.
Various bloggers are reporting odd problems using Blogger, and seem to connect the installation of the new version of Firefox with the start of their problems.
Several bloggers have complained that the links that switch between "Compose", "Edit HTML" , and "Preview" modes are inoperative. Other Bloggers are missing toolbar buttons, or find that some toolbar buttons don't do anything. These are scripting problems, that have been observed from time to time.
Note that Firefox V3.0, like V2.0 before it, was a major update. The Firefox V3.0 install doesn't require any complicated procedures - it just goes right over V2.x. Anybody with any experience with computers - either programming, software support, or user support, knows that installing one version of a program right over another (aka "install in place") isn't always the best policy - even if the software vendor lets you do this.
With Firefox and its extensive add-on library (and most add-ons are produced by third parties, not Mozilla), an install in place is not a good idea for major version upgrades (i.e., from V2.x to V3.0). The extent of the changes made in the base product (Firefox itself) make compatibility problems between the base product and the add-ons a very real problem. Even when neither Mozilla nor the third parties intentionally ignore a problem.
If you do an install in place, and carry over your current Firefox profile, and all add-ons, when upgrading to V3.0, you're going to get some problems. Some add-ons, even though they think that they're compatible with V3.0, may not be so for all applications like Blogger.
If you are seeing any of the above mentioned problems with Blogger, and you just casually upgraded over V2.x (installed in place), that may be why you're here. Try a clean install of Firefox V3.0, while you wait for Blogger to read your problem report - maybe you won't need to file one after all.
- If you're running NoScript (which you should be), Export your whitelist.
- Save your Firefox Bookmarks file.
- From Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs, uninstall Firefox (V2.x, if you're reading this soon enough - or V3.0, if not).
- Delete your current Firefox profile.
- Install Firefox V3.0.
- Test Firefox V3.0 with Blogger.
- Install NoScript, and Import your whitelist saved previously.
- Add each additional add-on (that's available for V3.0), one at a time. Test Blogger and other high risk applications after each add-on is installed.
The good news is that NoScript V1.7.4 does work with Firefox V3.0 and Blogger. That's a start, and that's the first add-on that you should be installing. Just install it on top of a properly installed Firefox V3.0.
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As I said in my previous post New Blogger June 2008 - The Post Editor, the changes offered to us, today, represent the first major overhaul since December 2006. Of course, I overlooked the rollout of Draft Blogger, without which this update would not be possible.
So, having looked at the Post Editor, let's look at Settings, where we see changes in the Basic and Comments tabs.
There are interesting changes in Basic. We have the promised "Import blog" - "Export blog" links. And next to that, a major change - "Delete blog", which now leads to a Delete your blog confirmation screenThis will permanently delete your blog including all posts. You can create another blog at this address using the Google Account you're currently logged in with, however, we can't restore your blog posts once you choose to delete your blog.
Before you delete your blog, do you want to export it ?
Comments gets a possibly popular improvement. "Comment Form Placement" now has a third option - "Embedded below post". Embedded comments is a long awaited improvement.
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So for the first major overhaul to Blogger since December 2006 (aka "New Blogger 2006"), the Blogger interface has been updated with lots of shiny features. Currently, the new features are visible only in Draft Blogger.
The first change you will notice when you edit your post. In "Compose" mode, you get a shiny new toolbar - similar to what you'll see in GooglePages. Almost the same buttons, almost in the same order. The two attachment buttons - for Photo and Video - have been combined into one labeled "Image", and moved to the left. Full Justification is gone. And spell check is gone (no major loss there IMHO). But most others are there, and in the same left to right order.
The major change that you will see is in "Edit HTML" mode. The toolbar there is gone.
And it's the same crappy small editing window. The one change that we've been waiting for - still somewhere in the distance.
In Blogger In Draft: New Feature: New Post Editor, we see... there are a handful of other features from the current post editor that are on our to-do list for the new editor. If you rely on any of these, you may not want to use the new editor for everything just yet.
Yet, there are improvements.- The well known vertical spacing problem, caused by the "Convert line breaks" setting and use of "Edit HTML" mode, has been eliminated by a more robustly designed post editor, and a new setting which applies in "Edit HTML" mode. The new setting will be found in "Post Options", which makes it settable per post, rather than per blog. Line break sensitive objects in the blog, like lists, preformatted blocks, and scripts, won't be broken any more by extraneous line breaks.
- The ability to display typed HTML, literally, as HTML, without having to labourously convert each "<" and ">" to "<" and ">", before publishing.
- An improved picture insertion procedure, with each picture being inserted where the cursor is, rather than at the top of the post.
For a more comprehensive, and optimistic, evaluation, see Roberto's Testing Blogger-in-Draft: Post Editor - Compose Mode.
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