342. FAQ and answers

Dynamic view

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:07:00 +0000

Q: Is there any way I can get my old template back and get rid of this new "dynamic view" ?
A: I just went to the template designer again after trying it briefly, and there was a link in the top right, something like 'revert to last pre-dynamic template' (I forget the exact wording). I did that and everything was restored.

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=19e461250d0a91c1&hl=en

Stop following

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:29:00 +0000

Q: I can't find a way to stop following a blog on my Dashboard. I went to the blue manage button, and looked at the list, but there is NO link to stop following. I went to the website to see if there was somewhere I could click, and I, once again, didn't see anything.

A: I had the same problem. I think I have found a solution. Go to your Google Account settings and click on your Google Reader account. It's under "My Products." Don't click "settings" - just Reader. On the left sidebar, you will find something that says "Blogs I'm Following." Click that. Highlighted in yellow at the top of that page is something that says "

The blogs you follow in Blogger have been added as subscriptions in Google Reader. You can manage the blogs you follow using the Blogger Dashboard." The words Blogger Dashboard should be blue, indicating a click-able link. Click that.

When I was signed into my Google account and clicked that link, it sent me straight to a page with all the blogs I am following, and then I could just pick the one I wanted to drop, click on the "settings" button right beside it, and another window popped up with several options, including "stop following this blog." And viola, it was done.

But I could not for the life of me find this on my Blogger dashboard. I found it purely by accident during an episode of intense cursing while trying to find some way to just get rid of one silly blog I was no longer interested in following. I hope this helps.

source:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?fid=0adbd4e34c3ee6490004af4d9d03b3cc&hl=en

Add friends

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Q: How can I [add] friends?
A: Blogger is not really a social blogging platform like FaceBook. We don't "add" friends to our blog.
You can "follow" a blog if you wish and you can place a follower gadget in the side bar to "allow" others to follow your blog. If you feel extra generous, you can also add a subscribe gadget in your side bar to allow your viewers to subscribe to your blog. It is listed as feed and subscription links (under gadget>>basic). All viewers need to do is click on these icons and choose the way they wish to receive feeds from your blog. This will activate an email to them every time you make a new post.

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?fid=5ad6bdf186c3d64a0004abcbfbf7428b&hl=en

Dashboard

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:20:00 +0000

Q: I have 4 blogs only 3 show up on my dashboard. Why?
A: It also took me a while to figure out my dashboard.

3 buttons:

hide,

always show and

show all.

Hide You click on this button next to your blog name in order to hide it temporarily on your dashboard. This is very useful when you have a large number of blogs like me (71 blogs) and do not have time to work on all of them.

show all You click on this button to see all your blogs on screen, including deleted ones, so that you can click on [always show].

Always show You click [always show] to select those blogs you want to see on your dashboard every day.

Now let's go back to your problem. The solution is simple.

On your dashboard:

1. click on show all

2. click always show next to the blog name that did not come up before.

Now all your 4 blogs should always appear on your dashboard.

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=07b3e94fb3506716&hl=en

Move post area slightly left

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:27:00 +0000

Q: How do I move my posts slightly left?
A: Please try this:

design>template designer>adjust widths

Scroll down to preview. If you are happy with the results, click [apply to blog] to save changes. If not, you can abort at any time by clicking [view blog]. Do not save changes you are not happy with. You can only go forward with more changes and not reverse.

click to enlarge

*********************************************************************************************

Extra info

design>template designer>templates,background, adjust widths,layout, advanced

The permutations are unlimited under the template designer tab. No one has been to every corner of the template designer yet. You will have to do the research yourself by using a test blog. Also, not every template has exactly the same features offered. Some times you may need to change the whole template in order to get a special feature that you want:

On Blogger, we have 27 different templates under design>>template designer

Simple              7
Picture window 3
Awesome inc    6
Watermark        4
Ethereal            3
Travel                4

You can change the background, layout, adjust widths, advanced, etc to give you a unique template, different from everyone else. To save all your changes, click "apply to blog".

*********************************************************************************************

Use a test blog

I would suggest starting a test blog and use that for finding your way around your own blog:

On your dashboard, click [create a blog]. One Google account is good for 100 blogs

Here are my own test blogs:

http://davidchin8888.blogspot.com/

http://davidchin88888.blogspot.com/

Blogging is really a personal journey of discovery. If we only have the help forum, the learning process will become too slow. We will be spending too much time asking questions and waiting for answers on the help forum. This is a slow way of learning. A quicker method is by using a test blog to try out ideas for ourselves. This is especially useful when we go into the the design tab to change the template in 1001 ways and we do not wish to screw up our main blog permanently. A test blog is very expendable. Please try using one or two test blogs. I know what I know today because I use test blogs, several of them.

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=65babd4c057bff48&hl=en

Photos gone!

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:02:00 +0000

This week many bloggers complained that their photos were not showing up on their blog. They see a back triangle like a no-entry sign or a square as shown here. It is still a puzzle why this is happening. Some bloggers point the finger at Google+ because soon after they signed up for it, their photos disappeared from their blogs. We are still investigating whether this is related to Google+.

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=25f919f486c86356&hl=en

Video codes

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 02:21:00 +0000

Trolls

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 23:30:00 +0000

Q: What is a troll?

A: A troll is a person who joins a forum simply because he feels bored. He does not follow proper etiquette or normal behaviour. His presence is disruptive and unwelcome in most cases.

Wikipedia: In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[4]

attaching an image

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:24:00 +0000

Q: How do I add an image to my post on the help forum?

click to enlarge

To add an image, click the down arrow as shown in the picture above.
You will see the following choices:
help articles
help forum
web
images
blogs
URL

Select [images]
type the word [images] inside the box
Click [search]
select [add]
This image will become an attachment to your posting.

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=19e18d6b81c78cc1&hl=en

Helpers are not mind readers!

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:50:00 +0000

Q: How do you deal with questions that don't offer details? It's difficult to guess what some of people are actually asking when they don't give details nor fill out the questions required of them.

A: This is exactly what helpers have to be prepared to deal with, on this help forum. A majority of the questions here are post by first time visitors. It is our job, as helpers, to try to educate all the new comers, in the best way that we know. I find [silent treatment] is a good strategy. It makes them think, why is there no response from any one. I find this method is very effective when used against thread hijackers, just ignore them when they are rude or trying to jump queue by using swear words, all capital letters (make noise), duplicate questions or some other tricks. I have seen them all.

Soon people will realize that helpers are not mind readers. They need to have specific data: URL, browser, location. A longer description of the problem never hurts. Many askers do not realize that helpers are unpaid volunteers. We are just bloggers who are trying to help a fellow blogger because Google does not operate a help desk; no email address and no telephone number available any where.

source:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=4482ec4707067acb&hl=en&fid=4482ec4707067acb0004a9f570fd4968

Stay signed in

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 01:53:00 +0000

Q: I have had a blog for 6 years. Why do I regularly have to sign in again?
Fix it!
A:

(click to enlarge)

There is nothing for us to fix. The fixing is done by you!
On your computer, when you log in, your browser will show a small box for you to check [stay signed in] or [remember me on this computer]. You need to tick that box, otherwise your computer will assume that you are some hacker trying to break into your documents:

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=481f8bb0d81a9c05&hl=en

Blog for money

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:51:00 +0000

Q: How do I make money from my blog?
A: Here is a video:
http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/static.py?page=ts.cs&ts=1233381

Template designer

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:52:00 +0000

Q: I can't seem to find a place where I can easily change the font style of my blog description. How?
A: To change font under Advanced tab in template designer, you have to specify exactly which text you wish the font to change. It is not possible to change the font for every text all at once. Select one of these: Page, blog title, blog description, tabs text, date header, post title, gadget tile, gadget text, etc

*********************************************.
The answer to your question

design>template designer>advanced>blog description>font

Pick a font style

Click [apply to blog] to save changes

******************************************
design>template designer>templates

The permutations are unlimited under the template designer. No one has been to every corner of the template designer yet. Also, not every choice of template has the same features offered. Some times you may need to change the whole template, just to get a special feature you want:

On Blogger, we have 27 different templates under design>>template designer

Simple              7
Picture window 3
Awesome inc    6
Watermark        4
Ethereal            3
Travel                4

You can change the background, layout, adjust widths, advanced, etc to give you a unique template, different from everyone else. To save all your changes, click "apply to blog".

**************************************************

Use a test blog

I would suggest starting a test blog and use that for finding your way around your blog:

On your dashboard, click [create a blog]. One Google account is good for 100 blogs

Here are my own test blogs:

http://davidchin8888.blogspot.com/

http://davidchin88888.blogspot.com/

Blogging is really a personal journey of discovery. If we only have the help forum, the learning process will become too slow. We will be spending too much time asking questions and waiting for answers on the help forum. This is a slow way of learning. A quicker method is by using a test blog to try out ideas for ourselves. This is especially useful when we go into the the design tab to change the template in 1001 ways and we do not wish to screw up our main blog permanently. A test blog is very expendable. Please try using one or two test blogs. I know what I know now because I use test blogs, several of them.

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=306e5795ccec1201&hl=en&fid=306e5795ccec12010004a9dd23d18f2c

Water mark

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:56:00 +0000

click to enlarge

To add a water mark to your photos uploaded to the web:

On Picasa:
tools>options>web albums
Insert your name or your URL inside the box.
Click [ok]

From now onwards, all photos that you upload to your blog will carry this water mark.

Google help forums

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:23:00 +0000

Q: How many help forums are there?
A: Here is a full list: http://www.google.com/support/forum?hl=en

Stub blog

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:54:00 +0000

Q: i've changed the name of my blog and i want to know if is possible to redirect the old name to the new, how can i??
A: You cannot redirect a blog; but you can redirect all your followers.
Do not change the URL.

1. Create a new blog with the preferred address.

2. Export your blog to the new address (settings>basic>blog tools>export blog).

3. Convert the original blog into a stub blog:

Write a post with a message for your followers.

Remove all other posts, gadgets and your personal details.

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=5b945040bf3b5101&hl=en&fid=5b945040bf3b51010004a9b480175bf4

Legacy claims

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:02:00 +0000

click to enlarge

All legacy claims expired on 1st August 2011

Blog removed as spam

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:35:00 +0000

click to enlarge

If you see this screen, it means that the Google robots have got your blog. There is no need to get emotional, just use the link provided for getting back your blog. Click on: 'I can't find my blog on the web, where is it?' It will take you to this screen:
http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=87065

There should be a link in your dashboard to request for restoration.

For more detailed information regarding spam blogs:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=2bd8ad2932edafa2&hl=en

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=34d02b654390d03a&hl=en

Terms Of Service

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:49:00 +0000

Q: What are Blogger's terms of service (TOS)?
A: http://www.blogger.com/terms.g

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=4192a8e4292f8cfd&hl=en&fid=4192a8e4292f8cfd0004a996c2968191

Formatting, Tx

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:49:00 +0000

(click to enlarge)

Edit your post

Select all the text (highlight)

Click on Tx (second last icon on the tool bar)

All default formatting will be removed.

Reformat your post, using [backspace] and [delete] keys

Publish post

reference: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?fid=433426282d63f36f0004a8dcf734bf20&hl=en

53,000 followers

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 21:33:00 +0000

dog

Allie

This blog has over 53,000 followers! http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
I do not understand why there are so many followers. I will try to find out the real reason for the popularity of this blog. I came across this blog on the help forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?fid=760ba80bbbadaee80004a98b1761e0a1&hl=en

Update:
Here are some useful tips given by Allie the author:

Do you have any advice for new bloggers?
There really aren't any special secrets to being successful with blogging. Be nice. Try hard. If someone offers you a million dollars, say yes. Aside from that, the best advice I can give you is to just focus on what you can give to your readers.

People can't be tricked into liking something, so promotional tactics aren't going to automatically make you successful. In fact, I think promotional tactics often do just the opposite. Commonly recommended tactics like hosting blog give-aways, frequent guest-posting and/or link-trading, and posting links to your site all over the place can drastically dilute the quality of your content and make you seem very desperate. As for content, always try to view what you create from a reader's perspective - is it something you'd be interested in reading if you didn't know anything about yourself? Are your stories moving along or getting bogged down in details? Do your stories have a climactic moment or a payoff after the buildup?

Try to find ways to make your stories and experiences relatable to others. Use Google to research storytelling and test your stories out on friends and family. Spend a lot of time reading the work of people whose writing you enjoy and try to pin down what it is you enjoy about it. You can learn a lot by analyzing your own preferences. Become a sponge for information and constructive criticism. Always strive to improve and work really, really, really hard.

Also, paragraphs. Paragraphs are super important. Huge, unbroken walls of text are going to cause your readers' attention spans to shrivel up like an injured starfish.

And spelling. If you write like you're sitting there blithely hammering away at the keyboard with your fists, you will come off sounding like a troglodyte. It is terribly inconsiderate to expect your readers to wade through a wall of text speak and grammatically unsound ramblings.

If you're looking for shortcuts, you're doing it wrong. It might seem like this is an easy job or a quick way to make money, but it is absolutely not either of those things. It's nice to be able to set my own hours, but I probably end up working more hours than I would otherwise. It's enjoyable work and there are certainly much more grueling professions, but it is definitely not easy.

But if you really love what you're doing and you work very hard to make it entertaining and enjoyable, you'll do great.

[Blog this] button

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:36:00 +0000

There are various ways to upload a photo to your blog:
1. Blog this on Picasa
I used the [blog this] button to add this photo here.

photo 1

On Picasa there is a [blog this] button. First I select a photo and put that in the tray. Then I press [blog this]. A new window opens, allowing me to select the blog where I want to upload this photo.

photo 2

(click to enlarge)

Every thing is self explanatory. Just follow the prompts and your photo is uploaded to your blog. It will appear in a new post on top of all the other posts. I edited this post later, by adding text and photo 2 which is a screen capture (grab). I saved photo 2 to my desk top and uploaded it from there to this blog to use as an illustration.

2. Direct upload from your desk top
Place the cursor at a suitable spot inside the post editor and click:
the photo icon on the tool bar,
[choose files], select [desktop] and select photo 2,
click [open] and [add selected].
Photo 2 will appear inside your post editor.
Publish post

3. Picasa web album
Upload all your blog photos to Picasa web album in batches of 25, using the [Upload button] on Picasa. It is the first button with the green arrow. I used this to upload large numbers of images to Picasa Web Album. It took about 8 seconds per image. From there, it is a breeze to post them to your blog.

Whenever you require a photo, you just transfer that photo from PWA to your blog: On your post editor, click the photo icon on the tool bar as before.
Select [from Picasa Web Album]
Select album, select photos, [add selected].
The transfer is made instantly, no waiting and no limit on the number of photos selected.
Publish post.

Template background colour

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:11:00 +0000

Q: How do I add a solid background to the blog title and description?
A: Remove your header image and choose a light colour background:

design>template designer>backgrounds

The permutations are unlimited. No one has been to every corner of the template designer yet. Also, not every choice of template has the same features offered.

You can even decide to change the whole template, just to get some special feature:

design>template designer>templates

I would suggest starting a test blog and use that for finding your way around your blog:

On your dashboard, click [create a blog]. One Google account is good for 100 blogs

Here are my own test blogs:

http://davidchin8888.blogspot.com/

http://davidchin88888.blogspot.com/

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=42da481cd8273292&hl=en&fid=42da481cd82732920004a96f860248e3

Google

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:10:00 +0000

Q: Do I need permission to use the word Google as part of my blog name?
A: This link has some details: http://www.google.com/permissions/

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=5b8f6d97e1a01a1d&hl=en

Layout tab

noreply@blogger.com (David Chin) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:05:00 +0000

Q: I have lost my layout tab and i cant seem to get it back even after I have put up a new template.
A: There are two [layout] tabs:

The old [layout] tab has been replaced by the [design] tab:

template (2004)>customize>layout>design (2010)

The new [layout] tab is here:

Design>template designer>template,background, adjust widths, layout, advanced

source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=1f6471854f0f981e&hl=en&fid=1f6471854f0f981e0004a92e32299484