Monday, 3 August 2020

Blogger interface upgrade

Changes afoot

Blogger changes augur well for the future. Along with Google sites which were upgraded several years ago to provide a simpler interface, Google has now committed to improving Blogger. Many alterations have been made to the early beta version with user feedback critical to improvements.

For those still uncertain about moving to the new interface here are a few screen shots to reveal where previous functions are now located.

Editing a blog post

The toolbar has been redesigned with several additions. 
  • The HTML view is found under the first icon, the pencil, it also includes undo options
  • New under the Link icon is the ability to create a bookmark on the page.
  • Photos can now be added from one's Google photos as well as those previously used on Blogger
  • A wide range of input language options are under the globe icon, along with left to right and right to left input options

editing toolbar
Editing toolbar

The Save button is now located under the Preview drop down.

Editing Pictures

Blogger is not a picture editing tool so it is a good idea to have edited your pictures before they are added to your blog. Once a picture is inserted, highlight the picture to reveal the picture toolbar which provides easy alignment, resize options, caption, title and alt text options.

Picture toolbar options

Adding labels

The post settings are unchanged on the left of the edit screen. 

Customising the Theme

Do you prefer to choose the font and colours along with many other elements to personalise your blog? Choose Theme from the sidebar, then Customise to see the wide range of options available.

This blog is based on the Simple theme, most customisation options are still available in a sidebar menu. This screenshot from another blog shows the customise button from the Notable theme. This will take the blog owner to the Theme Designer options.



Notice also the New Post button which has been moved back to the top of the page following user feedback given to Google.


Scroll under each option to reveal a wealth of ways in which you can personalise your Blogger theme.
If you make changes to any element of the theme, the disk icon to save those changes is located in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

If  you have any questions about the new Blogger interface, add them in the comments where I will respond to queries. Do look and try the new interface before the permanent changeover occurs.

Other input options

Now we need a decent iOS app for Blogger - how about it Google? The Blogger app for Android has basic options and was updated in June 2020. The best iOS app I have used is BlogTouch. 

If you write your posts in Word or some other text based program, paste as plain text or be sure to  remove the formatting for quicker loading pages. Use Blogger's headings and subheadings for a consistent look across all posts.

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info

4 comments:

  1. Hi Carmel - thanks so much for this. Can I ask a question? I'm feeling a bit slow today. You know how you say we can now create a bookmark on the page....can you explain that for me by giving me an example of how it would work please? Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Hi Alex - As I understand it that function is rather limited as it only creates the anchor/bookmark link after the post is published, see example here https://www.carmelgalvin.info/# Maybe I've got it wrong! Still asking questions about it in the Help community....https://support.google.com/blogger/thread/66660075?hl=en

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  2. Dear Carmal - thanks for this. I am now wrestling with putting titles under images. I will visit that Help community as suggested. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Toggle caption button lets you add a title under your image. Click on the image and the image toolbar appears below. The Toggle caption button is the 2 uneven lines next to the + sign.

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