Blog Ownership Stuck With The First Google Account? Don't Delete It

(Edit 6/13): This is no longer an issue. Note: deleting the owner account is still a bad idea. But you shouldn't even get that far in frustration, because we now have the ability to transfer blogs from one account to another.

Under Classic Blogger, it was possible to transfer a blog from one administrative account to another, by adding the second account, then deleting the first. Incorrectly done, though, you could end up with a blog with no administrator, and no way to add an administrator. And another trouble ticket for Blogger Support to resolve.

So Blogger changed the possibility, with New Blogger 2006. Under New Blogger, you can add a second (or third, or ...) administrator, but you can't delete the first administrator. That takes care of the possibility of having no administrator. But it creates a second problem (which apparently Blogger doesn't find important) - you can end up with an account that has no need to administer a blog, but having been the first administrator, is stuck with that ability none the less.

Having accepted that fact, one bright person came up with the idea

OK, what if I delete the first account?

A drastic, but seemingly effective way to resolve the problem.

But no, that's not an answer at all. When you delete the original administrative account, the blogs associated with that account disappear. This is stated by Blogger Employee, in Blogger Help Group: Something Is Broken Since switch my blogs aren't on dashboard Help blogstars or Employee.

...the problem appears to be that you deleted the Google Account that these blogs were registered with. Be aware, when you delete your account, your blogs go with it.

In other words, do not delete an account having any blogs associated with it. And keep the account, and email address, current - and do not lose the password.

Removing the owner account from administrative status won't have the same effect as deleting that account - your blogs aren't going to vanish. But it won't force a second administrator to become the new owner, either. And if the second administrator isn't properly setup, you could end up with a blog with no administrator.

This advice comes too late for some. Let's hope that Blogger produces a workaround for the ownership transfer problem very quickly - expecting for any one account to remain as the owner of a given blog, for eternity, makes no sense at all. People do change names, and identities, and blogs do change ownership.

• lost admin after upgrade
  
• Blog Vaporized when I transitioned
  

So, did you just delete your blog? Better get to work, now. And, whether you're reading this too late, or if I caught you in time, tell Blogger that this needs to be changed.

>> Top

Backup Your Blog - Beta

I use, and recommend, HTTrack to mirror your blog. HTTrack is very versatile, and will copy any number of blogs, or other websites, in one job, making the contents of each website accessible as if it was an online access, from any mirrored website.

Unfortunately, HTTrack mirroring may be problematic with Blogger Beta. When I started using HTTrack, I could back up a couple of my blogs in 5 - 10 minutes. I added more blogs to the backup job, and backup time went up to 1/2 hour or so, and used 100M or so of disk space. Still a neglible amount of time and disk space, considering the results.

As I started developing this blog, and especially when I started using labels in my posts, backup time and disk space increased dramatically. The last mirror that I ran was 2 weeks ago - it took 14 hours, and used 3.7G of disk space.

Today, in a comment for Backup Your Blog, I see

Well, i tried to use HTTrack but unfortunately it goes looping and tries to download over 200 MB of content, which my blog never has, as i only have 80+ posts.

I went searching for a solution, and in the HTTrack forum, I found one query, Blogger Beta Problems

i try to mirror my Blogger Beta blog but somehow there are some problems related to this task. If i just mirror it without any additional settings then it starts downloading about 200MB worth of sites, mirroring the index file many times but with different number codes (e.g. index25987.html), also there is a folder 'feeds' which keeps growing during the process, filling up quickly.

followed by

i too am having problems, only since i upgraded to beta blog. now it takes up to 90 minutes, & still is not complete, the no of files updated gets to a certain % then startes to decrease instead of increase & i am getting virtual memory errors.

I don't think that this is, necessarily, a design problem in HTTrack. I did spend some time looking thru the Options in the HTTrack job, and I am fairly certain that there is a setting in there that will be relevant to the problem. Finding that setting, though, could be easier with an HTTrack expert.

I hope that one becomes available soon.

Another Blog Hijack?

Two recent discussions of blogs apparently hijacked by a 301 Redirect, to dothomesearch.info. A third case, earlier, to a different domain.

• Missing blog - http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/ Opened 11/27
  
• Anyone likes a challenge... Opened 11/26
  
• System Doctor 2006 ... huge problem Opened 10/23
  

From a brief Google search:

• Drivecleaner.com Pest
  

Using Background Images

Background images make the blog so much more colourful than plain old solid colour backgrounds. A background image

• Is not clickable.
• Shows up only where no foreground content is present.

(Note): This post has been migrated to (and improved in) The Real Blogger Status: Background Images In Your Blog.

Look at using a background image under the text title, for instance. Note that this is the opposite from replacing the text in the title with a picture. If you put a picture in the title, no background will be visible, unless you intentionally make the picture too small for the title space, or use a transparent .gif file for an image.

We do this using CSS rules. Look in the template for

#header-wrapper {
width:660px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:0px solid $bordercolor;
}

Change that to

#header-wrapper {
width:660px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:0px solid $bordercolor;
background: url(http://whatever.wherever.com/what.gif) no-repeat 0px 0px;
}

The CSS object "header-wrapper" is the Beta standard name for the screen area which will contain the text blog title and blog description. If you have, separately, tweaked your header, any of the above settings may differ. Just add the "background" rule.

If you have a Classic blog, your template may or may not use a CSS rule to define the header. It may or may not use a CSS object "header-wrapper". Be aware of the possibilities. You could, conceivably, have a <div> tag, with all of the rules defined there in the HTML.

<div style="width:660px; margin:0 auto 10px; border:0px solid $bordercolor;"> ... </div>

if so, change that to

<div style="width:660px; margin:0 auto 10px; border:0px solid $bordercolor;background: url(http://whatever.wherever.com/what.gif) no-repeat 0px 0px;"> ... </div>

You can apply a background image to any area in the blog, not just the header.

body {
...
background: url('whatever.wherever.com/what.gif');
...
}

With any large screen area, your image will probably be smaller than the area being covered. You'll probably not use "norepeat", so your background image gets reused, repeatedly, in a checkerboard pattern, over the entire area.

For more information, see the W3Schools tutorial: CSS Background

Migrating A Custom Object In The Classic Template

Most custom objects in your Classic Blogger template are coded in plain old HTML / JavaScript.

Migrating a custom object like that is easy. Just create a new HTML / JavaScript page element, in the Page Layout editor, and copy the code, word for word. Place and size it as you like, and you're done.

But watch out! Some custom code comes in two, or more sections. I've seen some custom code with variable definitions at the top of the template, and the actual HTML at the bottom. Make sure that you find all of the code required! And minimise the stress - test your code before you migrate the production blog!

A single object, say SiteMeter, could be dropped right into a new HTML / JavaScript page element, as is, right from the SiteMeter wizard. Here's a few examples.

OK, I shortened a few lines, with "********", and inserted line breaks, to prevent the old post / sidebar alignment problem.

<!-- Site Meter --><script src="http://s26.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=********" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript><a href="http://s26.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=********" target="_top"><img border="0" alt="Site Meter" src="http://s26.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=********"/>
</a></noscript>
<!-- Copyright (c)2006 Site Meter -->

If I want to get fancy, I use nested tables, and put the SiteMeter and StatCounter code side by side.

<table border="0" align="center"><tr><td><table><tr><td width="33%"><!-- Site Meter --><script src="http://s26.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=********" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript><a href="http://s26.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=********" target="_top"><img border="0" alt="Site Meter" src="http://s26.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=********"/>
</a></noscript>
<!-- Copyright (c)2006 Site Meter --></td><td width="33%"><script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">var sc_project=********; var sc_invisible=0; var sc_partition=16; var sc_security="********"; </script><script language="javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript><a href="http://www.statcounter.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="website hit counter" src="http://c17.statcounter.com/counter.php?
sc_project=********&java=0
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;
security=********&invisible=0"/></a> </noscript><!-- End of StatCounter Code --><br/><a href="http://my.statcounter.com/project/standard/stats.php?
project_id=********&guest=1"
>View My Stats</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></table>

Here's how to make a 3 object page element, in the footer, like the one in Googolians - The Blog.

<table border="0" align="center"><tr><td width="90%"><table><tr>
<td width="33%">(whatever you want, in the left cell)</td>
<td width="33%">(whatever you want, in the centre cell)</td>
<td width="33%">(whatever you want, in the right cell)</td>
</tr></table></td></tr></table>

I know there are other possibilities. Try them. Have fun.

For more information about Tables, see the W3Schools tutorial HTML <table> tag.

Editing Labels

I know that I've said this before, but the Labels feature in Beta Blogger totally rocks. Having said that, though, I will note one problem. There is no way to edit a label, short of editing each post, one by one, and changing the label field. Change the problem label, by retyping it.

That's slow and tedious.

But - that's not the only way to change a label. From the Post Editor menu, that under Classic Blogger just listed the posts, and let you view or edit one, you can now also

• Identify all posts with a given label.
• Select all, or some posts listed.
• Add a new label to posts selected.
• Delete a label from posts selected.

In Blogger Help Group: How Do I? Add and Delete Labels, we see the question

I have three "label" categories on my blog and for some reason I had two of them capitalized and one lower case. Not a big thing, but it was bugging me. I picked the label with the fewest posts in it and went back to write the label in properly, but it kept reverting to the lower case label. I finally figured out to go back to those posts, delete the label (the lower case one that was bugging me) and republish. Luckily I had only one post on that label. I checked the blog and the offending label was gone. Then I went back and edited the post again typing the label correctly and it appeared correctly on the blog. If anybody knows an easier way to do this, it is bound to help somebody.

Actually, using the Post Editor labels list, you could edit any label in a couple minutes, irregardless of how many posts used that label.

1. Identify all posts with the problem label.
2. Add a new temporary label to all posts identified.
3. Identify all posts using the temporary label.
4. Delete the problem label from all posts identified.
5. Add the corrected label to all posts identified.
6. Delete the temporary label from all posts identified.

Sound complicated? Maybe, but it will take maybe a couple minutes to do all of it, with no risk of missing even one post. Each of the above steps involve simple mouse clicks, with minimal typing, and are done once only, in that sequence. If you have lots of posts with a given label, this will automate the process, and do it with way less stress and irritation.

Help! My Blog Is Trapped Inside My Navbar!

This is the same problem as Help! My Dashboard Is Under My Blog!, just another way of viewing the symptom.

Help! My Dashboard Is Under My Blog!

We're seeing this recently, as folks get Internet Explorer V7. It's unique to this specific combination - Blogger Beta and IE V7, and it's another description of Help! My Blog Is Trapped Inside My Navbar!.

And, it's a known issue, which implies that Blogger is working on the problem.

(Edit 12/5): And now, it's a closed issue.

So while Blogger works on the problem, what are our options?

• Bloggers Immediate Recommendation.
• Use a Bookmark / Favourite, and reload the blog.
• Bloggers Long Term Solution.
• Use Firefox.
• Workarounds.
• The Final (And Correct) Solution.

Immediate Procedural Solution
As recommended in Blogger Known Issues, if you want to view a Beta blog in IE V7, right click and select "Open in new window", when selecting any Navbar links.

Use a Bookmark / Favourite
As recommended by several readers (see comments), do the obvious. Setup a bookmark / favourite to (or just type in the address bar) http://beta.blogger.com, or even to the blog, as in http://bloggerstatusforrealbeta.blogspot.com/. Now, you're back. Sometimes, the easiest solutions are right in front of our eyes.

Blogger Needs To Fix Their Templates
We're going to have to be patient, and encourage Blogger to fix the problem properly. I'll bet that this will involve a template fix, and this will present a challenge.

• Blogger has to develop the solution, and make the solution work in all templates, for all browsers.
• Blogger has to issue new editions of all templates.
• Blogger has to issue a template patch, for those who have customised their templates, and don't wish to "Pick New Template".

Use Firefox
And it may be another reason to use Firefox, at least until either Blogger corrects their blog code, or Microsoft fixes their rendering inconsistencies. Those of us who use Firefox only heard of the problem when IE users started complaining.

Workarounds
Some workarounds to this problem, of questionable legitimacy and originality, have been proposed in various forums. I'll try and provide links to articles describing those workarounds, as time permits.

The Final Solution
Microsoft needs to produce a browser that doesn't have non-standard quirks.

Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta - 3

A new post starts out with wide vertical spacing. Look at what we have here, from line to line. Nice and wide vertical spacing. Clean and easy to read. The perfect look for a blog, right?

(Note): This post has been migrated to (and improved in) The Real Blogger Status: Spacing Changes In Layouts Templates #3.

Now, let's throw in a quote.

In the past, and looking at my example shown in Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta, you'd start seeing the problem here. My immediately previous article Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta - 2 suggested an obnoxiously tedious workaround to this problem, which involved surrounding each indent element, such as

<blockquote> ... </blockquote>

with an extra span set to give

<span style="line-height: 1.2;"><blockquote> ... </blockquote></span>

This was fine - it made my blog posts look neat and tidy again - but it had its drawback. It was a major pain in the ass to use - any of my blog posts, of any length, would include 2, 3, or more formatting elements, which I would have to surround each one.

So today, whilst browsing Blogger Help Group: Something Is Broken, I come across Blockquote problem w/ Minima template, with a better workaround.

Go to the Template | Edit HTML tab. In the CSS (top) section of your template code, find the post section. In this section, under the ".post p" heading, find the line that says: line-height:1.6em. Move this line to the ".post" section.

So, let's see what we have in my template.

.post {
margin:.5em 0 1.5em;
border-bottom:1px dotted $bordercolor;
padding-bottom:1.5em;
}

...

.post p {
margin:0 0 .75em;
line-height:1.6em;
}

and change it to

.post {
margin:.5em 0 1.5em;
border-bottom:1px dotted $bordercolor;
padding-bottom:1.5em;
line-height:1.6em;
}

...

.post p {
margin:0 0 .75em;
}

Move the one line of code, in red. Save, and View Blog.

Simple, but still a workaround.

• It's one change / template setup in the blog (remember if you change templates, you'll have to repeat this one change). Not one change / page element in each post, for eternity.
• When installed, you lose spacing differences in indented elements (<blockquote>, <ol>, <ul>).

The blog is neater now, but it's not as readable. Let Blogger know that this needs to be fixed properly.

Which Migration Experience Would You Prefer?

Here are two migration scenarios, brutally simplified.

Unplanned Migration.

1. Accept the migration invitation, and let your account, and blogs, be migrated.
2. After migration, select your blog, select and accept a Beta template, and convert the blog to Beta status.
3. Get email or read blog comment

   Dude, your blog looks like crap.

4. Look at blog.
5. Go into forum, and write

   I just migrated my blog, and now it's broken. What do I do now? HELP.

6. Repeat as necessary.
   • Field complaints from readers.
   • Accept advice from other victims.
   • Patch blog, and test, repeatedly.
7. Vow to never do this again.

Planned Migration.

1. Plan the migration, as outlined in my article Don't Stress Yourself - Convert The Template By Hand Before Converting The Blog.
2. Accept the migration invitation, and let your account, and blogs, be migrated.
3. Select your test blog, select and accept a Beta template, and convert a test blog to Beta status.
4. Carefully test the test blog in multiple browsers, and note that it looks like crap.
5. Go into forum, and write

   I just migrated my test blog, and now it's broken. What do I do now? Please help.

6. Repeat as necessary.
   • Be thankful that your readers aren't affected by the test.
   • Accept advice from other victims.
   • Patch blog, and test, repeatedly.
7. When testing is successful, migrate production blog.
8. Maybe get email or read blog comment

   Dude, your blog looks great. And what is this new feature?

You choose for yourself. I have already made my choice.

Planning The Migration To Beta - Multiple Blogs, Two Stages

It appears that Blogger Support has thought the migration process thru just a bit. There are two key processes involved in migration.

• Account migration - from a Blogger account, to a Google account.
• Template migration - from a Classic template, to a Beta template.

Each of the above processes will go better, if planned properly. Dividing the migration into two steps, if you have multiple blogs, makes it easier to plan.

• Your Blogs are migrated, together, from Blogger to Google authentication.
• Each blog is migrated separately, from a Classic to a Beta template.

Barbara, aka Flounder, makes a very useful migration description in Blogger Help Group: How Do I? Can I Sign for Blogger Beta.

What we do is upgrade them one at a time. I'm working here from a defective memory, but here goes, I will try. I have upgraded 7 so far and have 3 to go. Yes, each one needed work, but at least they didn't all fall apart once they crossed into Beta. They were intact, and I could work on them one at a time starting with my old classic practice blog which is loaded with stuff. It was a good workout getting used to changing it into the new Beta toys. After I felt better about my ability, I started with another one - the easiest one. And so it went. And here are the steps as best I remember.

I made copies of all the templates into NotePad and dated them in the titles, which gave me copies of all the latest Classic templates in my own familiar old NotePad territory. I had recently, in anticipation of the move, copied all the posts in their Edit HTML form. I know, probably didn't need to do all this, but I was headed for the unknown and wanted to be prepared. Later there is opportunity to download copies to your computer. I did that too - ha! added a belt to go along with my suspenders - you never know when something might break! Screen shots of the first page of each blog turned out to be helpful later.

Once your account is switched -
Go to your dashboard. Find the blog you want to start with. Click on 'Template'. Once there look in the row of tabs. There is one labeled 'Customize Design'. If I remember correctly, clicking on that is The Point of No Return that takes that blog into the New World.

Read the paragraph 'Give Your blog a whole new look!'. Click on 'Blogger Layouts Customization' - a page of instructions comes up. Read that then minimize it so if you need to look back at the instructions during the process, they will still be there.

Then click: UPGRADE YOUR TEMPLATE . There is a small window within the large one. Slide the small one up and down to see all 16 templates available. (It's much like looking through a keyhole.) The one like you have will already be selected, but you can change to another one, if you'd like, by clicking in the tiny circle that looks like a hole punched. Then Click: 'Save Template'.

You will then be on the screen where you can add to and arrange the layout of your blog. If you want to go back/revert to your old template look near top of screen and click 'Edit HTML'. In that screen look at bottom left-hand side for options. As you know by now, as everyone is preaching, if you revert you will not have the benefit of the new features.

So, here's the bottom line.

• You migrate all blogs, at once, from Blogger to Google accounts. That's the simple part, where you surrender control to the Blogger migration process.
• Once the account migration is done, you can migrate each blog, separately, from a Classic to a Beta template.

With the template migration isolated from the account migration, you can let the account migration proceed at will. Account migration will be a homogenous process - all Blogger blogs currently use Blogger authentication, and all Blogger blogs will use Google authentication.

Onve the account migration is out of the way, proceed to the template migration. This is a heterogenous process. Each blog has a different template, with some templates containing custom code that won't be retained by the migration process. If you have any concerns about migration of the template, proceed with my two stage template migration process.

There's good news, and bad news, here. The good news? Almost all custom Classic code is plain old HTML / Javascript, and can be migrated by copying the code straight from the Classic template, into another HTML / JavaScript page element. The bad news? Some Classic code involves HTML in two places in the template - you may have to search for variable definitions at the top of the template, to support JavaScript at the bottom. This is where you will definitely benefit from a testing period!

If you consider this to be excessive thinking, consider my hypothetical experiences in Which Migration Experience Would You Prefer?

Don't Stress Yourself - Convert The Template By Hand Before Converting The Blog

I just did a dry run on a Beta migration, and not my blog. This was good.

It gave me a chance to sit back and say to myself

Now, how would I convert this feature?

a few times.

And what I decided made me think.

The Blogger migration process will migrate the blog account - from a Blogger to a Google account. And that will happen for all blogs owned by a given Blogger account, simultaneously.

After the account migration, for all blogs, comes the template migration, each blog, one by one. With any blog of any size and complexity, I will have to have the Classic to Beta migration migrate the posts and comments. No question there.

Anybody who has been posting, or helping, in any of the Blogger Help Group forums has seen this query.

I just finished entering a post into my blog. I previewed it - and it looked fine. Then I published it. And now, my blog looks like crap. What happened to my blog?

Well, what happened is that you didn't test your post enough. The Post Preview wizard simply doesn't provide a valid test, for every blog.

And my guess is that the Beta template migration process won't provide a valid test, for every template, either. There will be template features, on any blog with any complexity, that will have to be tested in a live browser. Preferably, two, or more, live browsers.

Expecting that, after migration, there will likely be template features, in any Classic blog of any complexity or size, that won't be migrated automatically, I'll ask a rhetorical question.

When would you prefer to be testing your new Beta template?

1. Now, while your blog is online and operating (as a Classic)?
2. Or later, after migration, while your blog is down (with missing features to be patched in) (And with complaints from your readers)?

I'll bet you'll answer

#1

in a heartbeat.

Why stress yourself? Having added various features to both Classic and Beta blogs, I'd bet that any Classic template, that originally took more than an hour or two to setup, probably won't migrate as is, with all features intact. I'll waste an evening, to reduce stress and make a more successful migration happen. Start this process before you accept the migration invitation.

1. Before you accept the migration invitation.
   1. Be aware of current migration issues. Learn from other folks mistakes.
   2. Be aware of New Blogger 2006 design deficiencies and limitations. Learn from others disappointments.
   3. Setup a test blog.
   4. Copy the current template, and half a dozen posts with comments, from your current Classic blog.
2. Accept the migration invitation. Let all of your blogs, production and test, be migrated to use your Google account.
3. After you accept the migration invitation.
   1. Migrate the test blog, to a Beta template.
   2. Customise the test blog, adding template features, as necessary.
   3. Test the test blog, with the Beta template, in multiple browsers.
   4. When you have the test blog all working, so it looks like you want your blog to look, then migrate the production Classic blog to a Beta template.
   5. Finally, copy the fully tested Beta template, from the test blog, to your newly migrated production Beta blog.

The bottom line? Some planning, and extra (and redundant) effort, will make for a less stressful migration. Less stress will make for less mistakes. Less mistakes will make for a better experience by your readers. And your readers are The Bottom Line, aren't they?

If you consider this to be excessive thinking, consider my hypothetical experiences in Which Migration Experience Would You Prefer?

No More Previous Posts

The old 10 Previous Posts list is no more. Knowing that a blog was originally designed as a journal, it made sense that any post would link to previous posts only. You can't predict the future. But the limitation of 10 posts always bothered me, as it did many Bloggers. And every month, somebody would ask

• How do I get a list of more than 10 posts?
• How do I get a list of previous posts, in reverse order?
• How do I get a list of the 10 earliest posts?

So now, previous posts is combined with the archives. And you can see a list of all posts, in any one of three styles.

• A collapsible hierarchy.
• A flat list.
• A dropdown menu.

Each of the styles can list the selections in reverse order (oldest first). Each can display by month, by week, or by day. And the first, hierarchy, even has an option to display post titles, ie table of contents, with chapters by date. No more muttering to yourself

Now, I know I wrote that post sometime last month - but what did I call it?

So, as I described it elsewhere, it's not

New Blogger doesn't have a previous posts list.

It's

New Blogger doesn't need a previous posts list.

So How Do I Use This New Feature?
Adding the Previous Posts, in a Classic blog, required you to edit the template. With a New Blogger blog, properly migrated, you simply go to Page Elements, under Template. Then add another page element, a Blog Archive, and configure it as you like.

My Blog Archive is called "Other Articles", and is selected as

• Hierarchy.
• Show Post Titles.
• Archive Frequency: Monthly
• Date: 2006 and Month: January (this is key in the collapse mechanism).

Configure yours as you prefer. Experiment with different possibilities, and find which suits your needs.

Beta WishList

Some items are actual bugs in Beta, others are design deficiencies. They all need to be communicated to Blogger, by the Blogger WishList.

(Note): This article is where I list my personal wishlist items. If this list encourages you to complain to Blogger, about these or other issues, I'm encouraged when you comment here, but you have to use the Blogger WishList, for any real chance of seeing positive results.

The purpose of this post is merely to identify the technical issues, so you can objectively state the facts to Blogger when you recommend changes to them. It's not a substitute for the Blogger Contact or the Blogger WishList forms.

1. With blogs published on Blog*Spot, "www.myblog.blogspot.com" appears to be equivalent to "myblog.blogspot.com". This is nice, but not so essential. But with blogs published to custom domains, "www.mydomain.com" does not appear to be equivalent to "mydomain.com", even with carefully setup DNS references. And AdSense does not work, in this situation.

   Custom Domains: Make "www.customdomain.com" reliably equal to "customdomain.com", in all cases. And end the monolithic error - provide diagnostics.



2. Provide a tool to use before, and during, blog migration.

   Migration Support Tool: Provide an estimate of time required for any blog to be migrated, AND / OR a migration progess indicator.



3. Give us the ability to transfer Beta blogs from one administrator account to another. Don't give the creator of the blog permanent, unrevokable administrative status.

   Blog Ownership: Give us the ability to transfer blog ownership, from one account to another.

   (Edit 6/13): This ability has now been provided.


4. Fix the spacing problems caused by including an indented post component, like <blockquote>, <ol>, <ul>. The workaround required, to make our posts look clean and consistent, is either painfully tedious, or causes reduced readability.

   Text Formatting: Fix the spacing problem caused by inserting an indented text element, like <blockquote> ... </blockquote>, into our post.



5. If we create or edit a post, we get the Post Published screen, which has links to View Blog. How about the ability to view the post just updated? If it's not the most current post, it won't be at the top of the blog. It would be so cool to be able to view the post itself, without having to search thru the blog again.


6. The New Blogger NavBar lacks components found in the Classic NavBar. Are these omissions intentional? If not, how were they overlooked?

Migration Testing

1. Created 2 new gmail accounts, nitecruzr68 and nitecruzr67.
2. Created 2 classic blogs, Migration Test 1 and Migration Test 2.
3. From Nitecruzr, made nitecruzr68 a member of Migration Test 1, and nitecruzr67 a member of Migration Test 2.
4. Created new Beta account Nitecruzr68.
5. Setup new Beta blog, Nitecruzr68, owned by Nitecruzr68.
6. Accepted Migration Test 1 with nitecruzr68@gmail.com, creating new Blogger account Nitecruzr68.
7. Accepted Migration Test 2 with nitecruzr67@gmail.com, creating new Blogger account Nitecruzr67.
8. Setup new classic blog, Nitecruzr67, owned by Nitecruzr67.
9. From Nitecruzr, made Nitecruzr68 admin on Migration Test 1.
10. From Nitecruzr, made Nitecruzr67 admin on Migration Test 2.
11. From Nitecruzr68, removed Nitecruzr from membership of Migration Test 1.
12. From Nitecruzr67, removed Nitecruzr from membership of Migration Test 2.
13. Setup blogrolls linking test set blogs.
    

>>Current test set.

Putting A Post At The Top (A "Welcome" Post) - Beta

Layouts template Blogger blog posts are sequenced as Classic Blogger blog posts - by date, in reversed sequence. This means, again, that the newest post will fall at the top, and every time that you make a new post, it will be visible above any previous posts.

Just like a Classic blog, you can make the posts display in any order that you like - just change the date of each post. This is called a work around. With a blog of any size, and activity, you'll note that it is a very painful one.

In a Layouts blog, though, we have one improvement. You can create a special post, and have it "pinned" to the top of the blog. I created a brief Welcome message, which is at the top of this blog, just below the header, but centered like a post.

When you're in the Layout Editor, select "Add a Page Element". Select an HTML / JavaScript, or a Text, element. You can create content using either Rich Text, or HTML, at your convenience. After you create your new element, you can drag and drop it anywhere in the layout - at the top of the post column, or the sidebar, or even at the bottom of the post column.

Positioning a new page element, using the layout editor, can require some experimentation. When you move the new element over the area where you would like it to be, it may drop centered on, another area of the blog. When it does this, move it ever so gently in the right direction, a couple pixels or so, until it positions properly. When it is positioned where you want it, release it, and it will fall into place, properly positioned and sized.

>> Top