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AT PRESENT, ALL USES OF "READ MORE" ON THIS BLOG ARE DYSFUNCTIONAL, SO THE FULL POSTS ARE SHOWING FOR NOW!

MFBQ

Most Frequent Blogger Questions



USEFUL BEGINNER'S LIST (30 Posts)


This blog outgrew the original intended 20 Questions & Answers and is now approximately 210 Q&A. I never did figure out which were the 20 most important ones.


I don't know more than I know--sometimes I know even less!
Click to see the incredible list,

All The Things I Don't Know!


If some portion of this blog is unreadable in Firefox, Internet Explorer, or whatever, tell it to go to hell then try another browser!!!

BLOGGER SUPPORT
http://help.blogger.com/?page=contact


BLOGGER PROBLEM REPORT FORM http://help.blogger.com/?page=troubleshooter.cs&problem=&contact_type=bug_with_blogger_beta&Submit=Submit

The Blogger Wishlist feature no longer exists.

Blogger hasn't said why or if it'll ever return.

Tell BLOGGER WISHLIST about a feature you'd like to see in Blogger!


EMERGENCY STEPS

Kick-starting The Blog
1. Refresh (F5) or Ctrl-F5
2. Clear cache (delete temporary Internet files) and cookies in Tools-Internet Options.
3. Add a question mark to the end of your blog's internet address in the address box and see if it will show the latest update. (Can also be done with other people's url's in the address window.)
4. Republish (if in classic Blogger)
5. Reboot
6. Log out and log back in again (may change to an untroubled server)
7. Change or reload the browser (IE, Firefox, others)
8. Try a different computer, or see if you can duplicate the problem or avoid it in a post in another blog (make a test blog, whether in the same account or a second account, that's not public so nobody will see you screwing around!)

---Not necessary to do all of these at once!---

Blogger may make problems for some computers about accepting cookies, especially when you are using the new versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers. Difficulties with accepting scripts may be caused by security systems, antivirus programs, firewalls, and some add-ons. Check all your settings.

You may need to change your browser settings, or to list www.blogger.com and blogger.com as "trusted sites" in your Internet Options-Security so that scripting can occur.

USEFUL BLOGGER HELP FILE

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41971&topic=8914

[For Newbies or anyone else who gets lost in the rain in Juarez.]

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Have Two or More Blogger Profiles

Make Your Own

Placing direct information and a photo into the sidebar to replace the Blogger "About Me" Profile OR because you want more or different info/pictures in your profile! You may desire to put hyperlinks or other items there which you cannot place in the official Profile.

For different reasons, some people even want to be able to have a different Profile on different blogs on the same account. This is a workaround to achieve that goal.

By placing the code for an image and your own personal info directly into the sidebar or page element, AND by suppressing the Blogger Profile, you can work around the problem. You'd have to eliminate the Blogger Profile entirely (mark it as NOT to be shared, either in Edit Profile or in the Profile page element).

[Remember, these profile substitutes will only appear on your blog while the original official Profile will still be what's available to persons where you leave comments on other blogs!]

Also see Profile Visits.

[More below, with screenshot...]



First thing is to find a photo. My Blogger Profile pic is 88x68 pixels, but of course that's only how it shows in the sidebar. The photo size I submitted was 320x240 pixels. I don't currently know how much larger you can go, but I've seen some that were very large in other Profiles. Obviously, what we'll need in the sidebar is one of those pics such as Blogger pics turn out that are shown larger when clicked on.

For the test photo I use further down the page, I started with a medium photo in a photo program where I could copy it and resize the copy. Thus I had a thumbnail and a larger pic, as so many of us are used to.

My thumbnail here is larger (123x92)than the profile photo I actually use, but it fits in the sidebar, and that was my only goal. So I took the two photos and fitted them into the formula as below.

Once the images are hosted online, you can copy the code and place it in the sidebar, probably looking something like this:

<a href="PhotoUrl"> <img src="smallPhotoUrl" />
</a>


Below is the actual code for the fabricated Profile I made up in a practice blog (shown further down the page). The code should be entered in an html/javascript page element in New Blogger or in the sidebar section of the template if you are still using a Classic template.


<center><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AVxLoZ0mR_0/Rc6Xl8IUJzI/AAAAAAAAALA/
BwKtMwuI4ek/s1600-h/Picture+17.jpg"> <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEqSABK9qbnoWe85CNI7_3Tmm2W03LckaXYS5Y25AX-gvh-gxWVfwBjvhSKRKxuyoMnyBrTipOk6t6lfFPbLU-iEIBtgn65v8u6lQGoLgT3QNw9wroOXqamloC-HoMbY1s29V/s1600/picture17-small.jpg"/> </a>
<br/>
<b>Clower McFlowers, <br/>
Chigger, Texas, USA <br/><br/></b></center>

Clower is a mean bastard, but he's our mean bastard! I can put whatever other info I want to include here. Might even insist that my name is Mortimer Snerd. Can't never tell. I was born in Montana. On horseback. In the rain. Yeah, that's it. And I'm a negro, too.

Below is the screen shot.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Can I Print My Blog To Paper?

You can print your entire blog, including posts and comments, to paper if you wish. I never have done it and have no familiarity, so I'm sending you to NITECRUZR, my next-door Expert.

Can I Save My Blog?

The Export/Import Feature
You can save all, including photos, comments and posts, but excluding the template or Gadgets, by Exporting. This could also be viewed as a different form of BACKUP. I've only done this export/import 4 times so far, but it seemed pretty easy by just following the instructions under Settings --> Blog Tools.

The shorter blogs copied very quickly, though the long one (more than 1800 posts) seemed to take a long time, then I decided it was hung up on a screen that showed a motion that meant the blog was still copying. I finally killed it, but then it turned out that the blog had fully copied--for all I know, it was possibly almost as quick as the short ones (180 posts) had been!

NOTE: In one case, I Exported twice by accident and ended up with two copies of every post on that Destination Blog. I therefore conclude that the Export does not Overwrite what's already there. So if we make 3 or 4 "backups" over a period of time to the same Destination Blog, we'll have 2, 3, or even 4 copies of the various posts, depending on how long they've been on the original blog. This is neither harmful nor desirable; if it happens, just be aware that you'll just have to do some housekeeping some day in the future if you decide to use that Destination Blog.

This is supposed to work between Blogger and these other platforms--export and import blog content between Blogger, LiveJournal, MovableType, and WordPress.

I used the option that allowed all the posts to be published as they're copied, but apparently you can also NOT do that and later publish them selectively (one by one?).

CLICK HERE FOR SCREENSHOT YOU'D SEE AFTER CLICKING THE "EXPORT" BUTTON.

Just remember that the idea is to
  1. Open the source blog and go to Settings --> Blog Tools --> Export Blog.
  2. You will export the blog posts that you wish to copy to another location such as your own hard-drive, not to a second blog (yet).
  3. Now open the destination blog, which may be empty or not.
  4. Go to Settings --> Blog Tools --> Import Blog of the destination blog.
  5. You will now use Blog Tools to finally Import the posts that were copied above.
More carefully-considered detail can be found at this informative post by Roberto.

ALSO SEE BLOGGER'S ARTICLE.

[More below...screenshot of Blog Tools]



Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Body (Or Background) Color

The background color for your blog is not located with the other color changes in "Fonts and Colors". Oddly enough, to change the blog's background color requires going into the template--you'd think it would be among the other clickable changes. Some new bloggers may not like the idea of revising the template code, but eventually you will want something bad enough to dare! When the time comes for this change, look for a section resembling this below (from one of my other blogs):

[More below...]



body {
background:oldlace; url("http://www.blogblog.com/harbor/rocks.jpg") no-repeat right bottom;
background-attachment:fixed;
margin:0;
padding:0;
font:x-small Georgia, Serif;
color:$textcolor;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
}

or, similarly, this (from the code for this blog):

body {
background:#123;
margin:0;
text-align:center;
line-height: 1.5em;
font: x-small Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Sans-serif;
color:$mainTextColor;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
}

It's the "body" where you want to make the change or else create the color. Find or alter the color statement--whether you use a number or name doesn't matter. If you have to add the "background: color;", just be sure it's inside the brackets like you see in the two examples above.


See also my post about Fonts And Colors

END.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Blogger Has N0 Email or Phone Support!

WELL, DON'T GET BROKE UP ABOUT IT!
Blogger does not provide email-based support beyond the automated messages or give out telephone numbers. Not at Blogger Help Group (BHG) or much of anywhere else.

[There is a fax number at Google's page about digital copyright and infringement. I assume if you fax them about off-subject concerns that those faxes may end up in the trash.]

BHG is almost exclusively a forum where people ask questions about Blogger--then other, more experienced, "amateurs" try to answer them. Though a Blogger Employee may join the forum from time to time, it is not their 24-7 job to answer questions at BHG! Like you, I wish it was, but it isn't that way. Documents and other written help already exist at Blogger Help Group, so that's in addition to asking a question and hopefully getting answers from more experienced Bloggers. But that's it, as of this date.

[More below...]



I won't pretend that I can make it make sense to you. The bottom line is that IT IS THEIR FOOTBALL and if we don't like it, we can leave. They are never that rude when they make statements about their policies, but that's what it boils down to. They've obviously got the money, but they don't have enough time to piddle with each and every individual blogger.


On this page of Blogger Help, it says:

Need to contact our support team? We provide email support for the issues listed below. While we do read each email, you'll only hear from us (generally within three business days) if we need more information to resolve your issue. The following articles will help you determine if you need to contact us:

Login and Access Issues
Report Abuse
Bugs

For all other issues, please search the Help Center or ask for help in the Help Forum.

As you see, they think they DO provide email support, but since they generally won't answer your damn email, I would still say that they DO NOT.

You can read another post about Blogger's support system at Nitecruzr's post on the subject

Friday, February 13, 2009

Search for Blog Topics In Your Own Language

How can users of NEXT BLOG solve the language problem? Many people only speak their own language and, while that is unfortunate, Next Blog is just wasting our time if it keeps sending us to what amounts to "foreign" language blogs to us!

We should use the Google Blog Search for exploration instead of Next Blog.

  1. At the top of the page is the "Search" box.
  2. To the far right of "Search", you'll find "Advanced Blog Search Preferences".
  3. Click on "Advanced" and a menu will pop up.
  4. Go nearly to the bottom of the new menu and locate "Language".
  5. Click the drop-down menu and select your language.
  6. If you have now chosen a topic,
  7. Go back to the top, on the far right, and click on the Search button.


Change Format Of Date Header

Reset format of the date header
At the top of all posts!

  1. Go to your Dashboard.
  2. Click Basic Settings.
  3. Click Formatting.
  4. Find Date Header Format.
  5. Open the dropdown menu and choose one.
  6. Click on "Save Settings" at the bottom of the page.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

How To Post Photos

The most direct way to get photos on your post is to use Blogger's picture icon:

1. Go to your Post Editor.
2. Click on Blogger's picture icon.
3. When you see "browse", click on that.
4. when it takes you to your own computer, locate the photo you want to use.
5. Click Upload.
6. Click on Done.
7. If you uploaded to a post different from where it's intended to go, possibly even on a different blog, Copy the html code.
8. Paste the code into the right post.


There are alternate free photo hosts such as Picasa, Photobucket, Flickr, etc. With some of them, costs may ensue if you exceed their limits. Try any of them, though, as alternatives when your photo host is troublesome. One may work when another one does not.

There are several useful screenshots below!

[More below...Screenshots]



First is a screenshot of the top part of this post in the Post Editor. It shows the Blogger picture icon, the tiny rectangle that's blue in the top half, and primarily green in the bottom half.]

Click to Enlarge

[Below are screen shots of the photo download process.]

Click to Enlarge



Click to Enlarge

New images always load into a post at the top. If you view the image in Compose mode, you can Drag and Drop it to other locations; if you are viewing it in Edit Html mode, use Cut and Paste to relocate it.

END.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Blogsend--Email Notification for 10 or Less

If you have a list of 10 or fewer people that you'd like to send email notifications of each time you publish a new post, here's how.
  1. Go to your Dashboard.
  2. Click on Settings.
  3. Click on Email.
  4. Enter email addresses, ten or less, separated by commas.
  5. Be sure to Save Settings at bottom of page.
Each "notification" is actually a copy of the entire post. For email notification of a larger group or that has the option to include less of the post, see my post, Subscription List.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Move Items Above Or Below Post


  1. Go to Layout page.

  2. Click on the "Edit" in the lower right hand corner of "Blog Posts".

  3. A window will open.

  4. Go down to the lower part of it that says "Arrange Items".

  5. See if you can "drag and drop" the items into new locations.

  6. If they stay in place, "Save" the change in the lower right corner.


  7. That IS how it's supposed to work, though I have occasionally not been able to get it to work very well for me.

[More below...screenshots of the "Configure Blog Posts" page.]



Click each screenshot for larger image!


Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Most Erotic Blog Post Ever!

This isn't really the most erotic blog post ever; I just thought I'd see who was awake this sleepy evening. If this isn't February 3, I guess you weren't.