About this site -- Originally created as a sort of addition to the Blogger help forums, the intention was to provide answers to some frequently asked questions, and annoying problems. I wonder if anyone still comes here?
About me -- My name is michael paige, and for the next 30 seconds I will be your host.
Archives -- As long as Blogger is working properly these might just work.
Site notes
This page doesn't validate as XHTML 1.0, so don't even try it. Go test your own page. It will however, look much sweeter in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device. It was created using techniques detailed at glish.com/css/.
Sunday, May 06, 2001
changing the date format of the archive links
Normally the date links look like this: 02/01/2001 - 02/29/2001. And that isn't always what everybody wants. Many people want the dates to look like 'February 2001', or something similar. The best place to start is at the ever helpful Phil Ringnalda's site.
There are 2 Blogger tags for use related to names. They are <$BlogItemAuthor$> and <$BlogItemAuthorNickname$>. Filling in the information related to these tags in your profile will allow you to use either tag in your template.
From Blogger's edit window, click the 'Team' button, click on your name, click the 'Edit My Profile' link, and enter your First name, your Last name and your Nickname. Click save profile. Click the Template button, scroll down to find 'posted by <$BlogItemAuthor$>'. You can now change this to 'posted by <$BlogItemAuthorNickname$>' and this will make your nickname show up in your blog instead of your name. Click the button. You will be redirected back to the 'Posts' page. When you get there, click the orange button.
fixing bad posts
If your blog seems messed up (suddenly everything is bold or everything is a link), or you need to delete a post, or you've made a mistake in your post, and the edit link doesn't seem to be working, this is probably what's happening and how you fix it.
Most likely a tag wasn't closed properly, and this has disabled the [edit] link. There is a black bar in the center of the Blogger edit window. On the left hand side is a link that reads 'enter safe mode'. click it, and you should now be able to edit, or delete the post that is giving you the problem. Again, you will most likely be looking for a tag that isn't closed properly. Once you're done, click the 'Post & Publish 'button, and then the 'turn off safe mode' link to return to normal edit mode.
setting the number of posts displayed on your page
The number of posts that appear on your blog page has nothing to do with your archive frequency. The two are unrelated. You can set your blog to show a certain number of days posts (e.g. 5 days) or just a certain number of posts (e.g. 10 latest posts). So don't expect posts to be removed from your page just because you have archives set to weekly. This is how you set how many posts will show up on your page.
Go into your blog and click the 'Settings' button in the Blogger toolbar at the top of the page. When you get there, look for the section titled 'Formatting'. It is the section below 'Basics'. The very first line in the Formatting section says 'Show' followed by 2 input boxes. One of them is a drop down list with 2 options, 'latest posts' and 'days posts'. Pick one. In the first box type in an appropriate number based on the option you chose. At the bottom of the page is a button that reads . Click it. You will be redirected back to the 'Posts' page. When you get there, click the orange button.
some archive links missing
Occasionally, some of your archive links may fail to show up. This is what you do to fix it.
First, from Blogger's edit window, click the 'Archive' button on the toolbar. If all of your archives are listed there, click the button and that should clear things up. If it doesn't, there may be something wrong with your archive template.
If they aren't all listed, click the link for archive settings, and change your archive frequency to no archive, and click (don't worry, it won't delete your archived posts); then change the archive frequency to monthly if it was weekly, or weekly if it was monthly, and click 'enter' again. Finally, change archive frequency back to what it was to originally, and click 'enter'. The missing weeks or months should be back in the list. Now click 'republish all' and they should be back on your site.
archives links not working
The Templates from the 'choose a new template' feature no longer work properly when it comes to archives. You can get original working blogger templates from the ever-helpful Phil Ringnalda's site:
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This is a do-it-yourself how-to for adding the proper code to your template and getting your archive links working.
You will need to modify both the Blog Template AND the Archive Template.
Whether you want your archive links on your main page, or on a seperate page, you'll find the proper code to make it work.
- To set up archive links on the same page -
main template: Using the 'Chroma' template as an example, this would be placed below the <$BlogDescription$> tag and the 2 <br> tags.
You may find what looks like similar text near the bottom of the template, enclosed in <div> </div> tags. Delete the text and the tags.
If you want to get this to work on a website other than BlogSpot, you will need to change the 'HOME' link to the URL for your blog. The easiest way to do this is to replace the "/" with "<$BlogURL$>" instead.
And if your archives are in a directory other than "archives", you will need to change "archives/<$BlogArchiveFileName>" to reflect that.
archive template: This should be the ONLY thing in this archive template. Nothing else. Got it?
Also see Phil's Blogger Archive Scripts for scripts that will dress up the way your archives look.
- To set up archive links on a seperate index page -
main template: Using the 'Simple' template as an example
archive template: Make sure that the following exists somewhere in your archive template.
permalink stuff: In case you are having trouble with permalinks, I've included the code for that as well.
Sunday, March 25, 2001
archives not showing up
Note: This is an old fix for this problem and is no longer valid. It is here for archiving purposes only and shouldn't be used.
1. Copy the HTML from your template into a text editor or some place where you can copy it again later.
2. Change your template to one of the default templates. Pick one that is similar to the one you want to use. If the archive links are included on your main page then i suggest using 'Chroma'. If your archives use an archive index page, then i suggest setting the template to 'Simple'.
3. When Blogger brings up the screen that says your changes have been made, click the link on that page that says 'edit view'. When you get back to the edit posts window click the ORANGE button.
4. When it's through publishing, click the 'view web page' link on the left side of the black bar, and confirm that the new template has the Archive links in it.
5. Now go back to edit your Template. Delete any HTML in the edit window. Copy your original template HTML back into the edit window and hit 'Save Changes'.
6. When you are back on the edit posts page click the ORANGE 'Publish' button again.
7. When it's through publishing, click the 'view web page' link again. Hopefully, your Archive links should be back now.
BlogSpot users take note: DO NOT REPUBLISH YOUR ARCHIVES!!! This is what seems to be messing things up in BlogSpot. You shouldn't ever have to republish your archives while you're on BlogSpot. Even if you change your template.
