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.

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?

Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta - 2

(Note 11/25): The below content is informational only. The problem in question is not demonstrated, because of the workaround currently in place.

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?

But don't get used to it - what does this look like in Internet Explorer? In my previous post, Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta, I showed the problem. Maybe the advice given by Paul R will help here.

Now, let's throw in a quote.

And now, look at the vertical spacing. It's fine now, until after the unsorted list below. Nice one, Paul.

So, how did this work? Well, in the above example in my previous post, I have

<blockquote>Now, let's throw in a quote.</blockquote>

and in this post I have

<span style="line-height: 1.2;"><blockquote>Now, let's throw in a quote.</blockquote></span>

Look at my other posts, for instance. Enough! I Want To Go Back! and Beta Blogs: My 3 Week Evaluation both exhibit this behaviour.

Other folks who have observed this.

• Problem with the line space of the posts. Observed 10/17.
  
• problem with block quotes Observed 9/22.
  
• Line spacing is not the same... Observed 9/16.
  

(Edit 11/18): And today, we see the new comment (#2, below)

The fix worked for me on Firefox, but not in Internet Explorer.

DOHH! Why should this not surprise me?


(Edit 11/24):See Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta - 3 for an update, making this workaround unnecessary.


(Edit 10/17): From Problem with the line space of the posts., we find possible hope:

As a temporary fix for current posts, I (accidentally) found that if
you add <span style="line-height: 1.4;"> before each blockquote, and </span> after the blockquote, then the line spacing goes back to normal after the quote, as it is supposed to.

Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta

(Note 11/25): The below content is informational only. The problem in question is not demonstrated, because of the workaround currently in place.

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?

Now, let's throw in a quote.

And now, look at the vertical spacing. With enough lines in here, you can see a change in post layout. The vertical spacing becomes much tighter. This looks sloppy. I've also seen this happen when you include <ol> and <ul> post elements. It appears to happen with any indentation element.

But let's try a test, per advice outlined below.

Testing.

Look at my other posts, for instance. Enough! I Want To Go Back! and Beta Blogs: My 3 Week Evaluation both exhibit this behaviour.

Other folks who have observed this.

• Problem with the line space of the posts. Observed 10/17.
  
• problem with block quotes Observed 9/22.
  
• Line spacing is not the same... Observed 9/16.
  

(Edit 11/24):See Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta - 3 for an update, and now you cannot (hopefully) even see the problem.


(Edit 10/17): From Problem with the line space of the posts., we find possible hope:

As a temporary fix for current posts, I (accidentally) found that if
you add <span style="line-height: 1.4;"> before each blockquote, and </span> after the blockquote, then the line spacing goes back to normal after the quote, as it is supposed to.

So I will test this in Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta - 2, and we will see how it works out.

Blogger Beta Problems

Unlike Beta Design Deficiencies, these problems actually prevent use of many Beta blogs. Many complaints are active over these issues.

• Blog Ownership Stuck With The First Google Account? Don't Delete It OPEN 11/30.
  
• Error 405 OPEN 9/24.
  
• Spacing Changes In Blogger Beta OPEN 9/21.
  
• ReferenceError: log is not defined. OPEN 9/18. CLOSED 9/27
• Photo Uploading. OPEN 9/6. Like its predecessor, which afflicts Classic blogs periodically, this problem has many symptoms and many cures.
• Login Problems Possibly the biggest problem with Blogger Beta is the confusion over authentication.
• Lost Blog Some blogs convert successfully, others disappear from existence. Possibly covered in Login Problems.
  
• Template Corruption aka "We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.".

I'll update this list the best I can, but it will probably reflect yours and my observations. Don't depend upon any notices from Blogger - because Blogger doesn't tell us anything, to any degree of reliability.