Friday, April 6, 2012

Blogger About to Change

Google's Blogger software for creating blogs (like mine) is about to change their format. Sometime in April everyone will be forced onto the new system. That's the problem of software--when the developers decide to "improve" things, you have no choice except to figure out how to cope with the new system.  Here's a bit about it--
http://buzz.blogger.com/2012/04/moving-to-new-blogger-interface.html

I've been using it for several months for the Loretta Spears Blog and find it harder to use than the old system, but that has no effect on the developers.  As long as they like it better, the rest of us have to fall in line or move our blogs to a new template like WordPress (which I also don't like).  So I bit the bullet and switched one blog over at Christmas.  It is not as easy to read (but all developers are under 35 and don't have eye problems) and the functions are spread out all over and hard to find initially.   It also wants us to use Google Plus (which I could care less about) and works as a blog reader (I prefer Google Reader so I ignore all the postings it automatically generates).  I would prefer that they fix widgets I could use (like Google Translate) that are currently broken.  The Loretta Spears Blog has a great deal of traffic from Europe, South Africa, South America and Russia, so a translation system would be a nice feature.  None of the available ones work with Blogger right now, though.

Warning:  once you click on Learn More on your old blog, you are switched to the new system and there's no going back, at least that I can find.  Not that this matters--we all are going to be switched automatically sometime this month anyway.  Consider this fair warning.  It'll take you a few days to get oriented, so get some postings ready to go under the old system, then make the switch and learn how to do this.  I did.  I didn't like it but it didn't kill me, either.

I could cheerfully yell at some Blogger developers, though.


Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

4 comments:

Needle Nicely said...

Thanks for the heads up--the odor you are smelling is my brain jumping into overdrive trying to come up with some topics that are timeless to hold in readiness!

Mary Agnes

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

MA, all your articles about show ownership are interesting to me. How about something that describes hurricane prep for your goods? Those of us who are near rivers and lakes could take pointers from you.

LIZ said...

Thanks for the warning Jane! I'd better get busy & update my blog. Not something I relish doing.

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

I know, Liz. It's not a fun thing to do but eventually I found everything I needed to find to do the things I do a lot. Some of the names have changed and you do have to hunt, but you get used to it. I just wish there were options for the stark white background on the behind the scenes pages. Visitors won't see any difference (at least I hope not!) but blog owners have a lot to get used to.