#navbar-iframe {height:0px;visibility:hidden;display:none}

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.]

Friday, June 19, 2009

The Last Post: Note to Followers

I'm Bugging Out!

This is the last of 228 posts.

I never did like the Followers Gadget. The Followers (you and a few others) might have been very nice, but not via the clammy tentacles of Blogger's bug-eyed "friends" toy! All my "old friends" can testify that I'm pretty anti-social.

So now that I'm abandoning MFBQ, I just thought I'd mention that this blog will still be here, but there will be no new posts after this one. It is hard to say this because I've become so addicted to writing the blog. But I was meant for other things. I might make noise from time to time over at The Rat Squeaks.

Last one out, turn off the light!

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Remove Blogs You Follow from Dashboard's "Reading List"

How to remove titles from "Blogs I'm Following" in the "Reading List" below the Dashboard list of your own blogs:

  1. Go to bottom of page under your blog titles that you're following.
  2. Next to "Add" is "Manage"--click it.
  3. You'll see a page called "Manage blogs I'm following".
  4. On the far right side of each title is the word "Settings"--click it.
  5. On the far right side of the new page you'll see "Stop following this site"--click it.
  6. You will be asked "Are you sure?" in a small pop-up window.
  7. Click on "Stop following" to confirm that you are sure!
  8. After a few seconds, it shows your original list minus the blog you just removed from the list.
  9. FINISHED!

Thursday, June 04, 2009

WYSIWYG Instead of Preview

Many Bloggers are unhappy about the Blogger notion of Preview. They do not like either the one in the template or the one in the html editor. Many are dissatisfied with the Compose mode of the Blogger Editor being only an approximation of the appearance of the published post. There is no "What You See Is What You Get", they think. So how does one wiggle past this problem?

My solution is to create a private "practice blog" where the template is exactly the same as in The Real Blog. All the Styles created in the CSS section will be identical and the "published" posts in The Fake Blog will look EXACTLY like they will look in The Real Blog.

This will leave you free to start with a rough draft (but one that you can Publish right away and see how it looks!), to make various revisions, and, lastly, achieve the polished post. All this work can occur in the private blog and no one will have access to see that post while you're fumbling around with it in The Fake Blog. When you copy it later and paste it into The Real Blog, you can Publish it for real and be back in the normal public view.

WARNING: Name your practice blog so that it can't be confused with The Real Blog at any time! Avoid having both blogs open at the same time.

Create A Practice Blog
Assuming there is a recent download of the template for The Real Blog on your hard drive, follow these steps:
  1. Create The Fake Blog, using any Blogger template.
  2. Create a quick phony First Post and proceed if post and blog look okay.
  3. Click "Customize" or otherwise get to the Dashboard.
  4. Click "Layout".
  5. Click "Edit Html".
  6. Follow the instructions about uploading a copy of the template from your hard drive to The Fake Blog.
  7. Click "Browse" unless you actually have the full file-name at your fingertips.
  8. After you browse for it, double-click it.
  9. Then click "Upload".
  10. There will be a warning about losing widgets and you'll be asked if that's okay; answer Yes.
  11. It will both delete the contents of all the Widgets except Archive and Profile (which may have to be re-added to the page elements, but will be intact) and it will Save the new template.
  12. YOU ARE NOW READY TO WRITE YOUR FIRST POST IN THE PRACTICE BLOG. When it is close enough to being perfect, copy all the code in the Blogger Editor and paste it into a new post in The Real Blog.


Remember this is a Practice blog for Posts and it doesn't matter if the Widgets or the Gidgets get deleted! Here again, it's important to not be confused about which blog you have open in front of you! If later you want to work like crazy to re-create all the Page Elements, that's up to you. I just figure the sidebar is generally very monolithic, very unchanging once you like it. The WYSIWYG for it is less important than for the posts, that's my view. (And there is a Preview button on the Layout page that lets you view the rearranged gadgets before you Save.)