Sometimes, we need to remove a page or post from a blog - but prefer to not delete it.
There are various reasons for not wanting to delete a page / post immediately or permanently - maybe when removing a post for problem diagnosis, or to change the URL to match the publish date. Reverting to draft status is easily reversed, and has no permanent side effects.
When you want to quickly - but not permanently - remove a page or post, you can revert to draft status.
Reverting to draft status is convenient, safe, and simple.
You can revert a page or post using Page / Post Editor, or the Pages / Posts dashboard page.
- Revert, using the Pages / Posts dashboard pages.
- Revert, using the Page Editor / Post Editor.
Revert, using the Pages / Posts dashboard pages.
The Pages / Posts dashboard page is a menu. Simply select one or more pages or posts, then click "Revert to draft". Click on "Yes" to verify. and you're done.
Hit "Revert to draft", after selecting a page or post.
Revert, using the Page Editor / Post Editor.
Any time that you are editing a previously published page or post, click "Revert to draft". And you're done.
Hit "Revert to draft", when in page / post editor.
And when you're done, you're done.
Once a post is newly draft, it's offline. Page / post content in cache on your readers's computers will be readable until it expires. New readers, on the other hand, will see a "404" immediately.
You can recover the post with the URL - or rename to a new URL.
If you revert to draft - then later, re publish without changing the title, you will get the same post, with the same URL, back. If you change the title with the post in draft status, you get the same post content, under a new URL, when you re publish.
If you do the latter by mistake - then discover the mistake later, you can recover the mistake by merging the new and previous URLs. Just add a custom redirect from the new to old URL (or vice versa).
Review / Recover The Draft Inventory, With One Mouse Click
Any time that you need, review the inventory of Draft posts. Just click on "Draft" under "Posts". You can Edit then Publish - or just Publish, immediately.
Check out the current Draft posts complement, from Pages or Posts - Draft. Then recover one or more.
Just select one or more posts, then "Publish".
Or edit a page or post, then Publish.
Either way, you can recover any pages or posts, reverted, easily enough - as long as you revert them, instead of deleting them.
Just understand the possibilities.
Reverting a #Blogger blog post to draft status is a quick, yet reversible, way to take a post offline. The URL will be recovered, automatically - as long as you do not change the title.
Recently, we've been seeing a few reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, suggesting more problems with Post Editor, in Draft mode.I keep getting an error, when editing my posts.An error occurred while trying to save or publish your post. Please try again.
I am editing Draft posts, some of which are fairly large.
This blog owner is discussing yet another facet of the Post Editor feature, AutoSave.
Early AutoSave Experience
Long ago, people would report a different problem, when composing posts.When I compose my post, my typing is way ahead of what is displayed.
Blog owners, long ago, discovered that AutoSave, which applied to posts being composed before publishing, made their computers slow down. This made their on screen post content show noticeable delay, from their typing.
With newer and more powerful computers, and people who still type at the same speed, Post Editor slow down has become a thing of the past - but at a price.
With highway traffic engineering, a well known problem involves the regional effects of upgrading a local arterial street, to handle more traffic. This might improve traffic in your neighbourhood, but at the expense of another highway in the next city.
Similarly, upgrading the speed of your computer improves your Post Editor typing problem, but puts more load on the networks and Blogger servers. Thus we see the symptom, reported above.An error occurred while trying to save or publish your post. Please try again.
Pre AutoSave Experience
As you compose a post, what you type is saved on your computer - and displayed in Post Editor. This lets you see what you are typing, in a "what you see is what you get" display. If you hit "Save", periodically, what you have typed gets saved to the Blogger servers.
Originally, many blog authors did not think to Save, when composing a post. Some would just type - then eventually Publish, when convenient. This technique created two problems.- The longer an author waited before Publishing, or Saving, the greater the chance that something would happen with the computer being used, causing loss of what was being typed. And the greater the catatrophe from the loss.
- The longer the author waited before Publishing or Saving, the more work would be done by the Blogger servers, when the author finally did Save, then Publish.
Blogger added AutoSave to Post Editor, so the effects of Publishing massive amounts of unsaved post content would not affect Blogger resources so abruptly - and so less people would see their hard effort go down the drain.
Current AutoSave Experience
One known problem with AutoSave is that it generates load on the local computer, on the networks connecting to Blogger, and on the Blogger networks and servers - thus the slow typing problem, long ago.
Another problem is that it saves automatically (hence the name) - and for some people, who may have just cleared the contents of a post, AutoSave saving an empty post tends to cause a problem. The longer people work on pages or posts, without publishing, the greater the chance that this disaster may happen.
Unfortunately, having a more stable publishing process, thanks to the reverse effect of AutoSave, will just encourage people to take longer before Publishing or Saving. Thus the complaint.I was working on my new post for weeks. Right in the middle of highlighting a section for deletion, AutoSave kicked in, highlighted the whole post, deleted the highlighted section, and saved an empty post. How do I get my post back?
And for this unhappy author, there can be no helpful answer.
Future AutoSave Prognoses
For a while, I've been suggesting that when possible, you should publish a post immediately, then continue editing your post after publishing - since AutoSave only affects post editing, before the initial Publish. Recently, I discovered that it may be possible to use Google Docs as a Content Management System, for long term post development.
A third possibility is that you compose your unpublished posts in HTML mode, instead of Compose mode. The effects of AutoSave, in HTML mode, are not as objectionable. Some of my posts, I might develop for a week or two before Publishing, using HTML mode. If you use this technique, and you include anchor links in your posts, beware of switching back and forth between Compose and HTML.
A fourth alternative, use of Microsoft Word instead of Google Docs, is known to cause problems with auto pagination and with various posts newsfeed accessories. We do not recommend use of Microsoft Word.
However you develop a post, the longer you wait before Publishing, the greater the chance that AutoSave will make you unhappy - either by sudden destruction of your post - or by contributing to the latest symptom.An error occurred while trying to save or publish your post. Please try again.
Publish sooner, develop offline, or become a victim.
