Turn Your BlogInto One Long Web Page

When I first wrote this post,
I started with a faulty assumption.

I assumed that what I wanted to do
was to stop blogger from archiving
my posts.

Why? Why put an end to archiving?

I thought archiving was bad because
it stopped all my posts from appearing
together on one page.

Now I know better. I now know that
archiving and the number of posts
per page are separate issues.

Repeat. These two things are
separate issues:

1. The archiving of posts
2. The number of posts that
   appear on your main page

Had I understood this earlier,
I would have done things
differently.

Since I thought the issue was
archiving, I decided to turn off
archiving.

Seems that Google's blogger defaults
to archiving your blog posts on
a monthly basis. At first, I thought
this was bad.

I didn't want this because my blog
posts are typically fairly timeless.

I don't use my blog to talk about politics
or anything that is topical, so why should
I archive my posts? That was my thinking.

To me, archiving implied that my posts become
less relevant over time. In my case, I didn't
think this was true.

Turning Off Blog Archiving

Here are the 6 steps I took to turn off archiving
of posts:

1. Click on View Blog
2. Click on Customize in the
   upper right-hand corner
3. Click on Settings
4. Click on Archiving
5. Choose No Archive from the drop
   down menu
6. Choose Save Settings to make
   your choice go into effect.

After following the above 6 steps, I
thought my blog would turn into one
long web page with the most recent
post at the top. That's what I thought.

I was wrong. After turning monthly
archiving back on, I looked for the
true solution.

Turns out that Blogger allows you to
set the number of posts on the main
page.

Blog Visitors Have Trouble
Navigating a Web Site

I prefer to have as many posts on the
home page as possible because many many
web visitors have trouble navigating a
web site.

This is what I find when I talk to
people.

So many people miss so many things
when navigating a site.

Better to cater to these visitors by
keeping your site dead simple. Keep
them rather than loose them or confuse
them. That's my motto.

Getting All Blog Posts
on the Same Page

Here's what I actually did to get all
my posts on to the home page of my
blog:

1. Click on View Blog
2. Click on Customize in the
   upper right-hand corner
3. Click on Settings
4. Click on Formatting
5. Find Show at the top of
   the page
6. Choose 500 posts to get
   as many posts as possible on to the
   home page of your blog

The choice of 500 posts is quite
deliberate. This is the maximum number
of posts that Blogger allows on one page.

I now have monthly archiving turned back
on because it can only help. It's just
another way for web visitors to navigate
my posts.

This is a good thing.

I also now allow Blogger to put up to 500
posts on my Blog home page. This is also
a good thing, I feel.

Since my blog is not a topical one, and
since most web visitors benefit from a
website that is laid out in a simple
fashion, I now try to keep as many posts
as possible on one page.

Most web visitors know how to scroll.
That's a fact.

What's surprising is how many people
find it clumsy to find and click on
links.

Many many people are still not very
good at this.

So, I blog with this in mind. I blog
with link-challenged people in my heart
and in my thoughts.

Ed Abbott

Moving Blogs and Consolidating Blogs

I just moved my blog to a new
blog. Thought I'd share the steps.

The first step is to export the
blog. See the previous post
to learn how to do this.

The next step is to create a new
blog. Under Google's blogger, you
can have more than one blog.

After this, you import your saved
blog at the new blog site.

Here are the steps for importing a blog:

1. Click on Dashboard
2. Click on View Blog
3. Click on Customize
4. Click on Settings
5. Clion on Import Blog

The last step, Import Blog,
brings up a file dialog. Use this
file dialog to find your saved blog
on your hard drive.

What about consolidating blogs? For
example, what if you want 3 blogs to
become 1 single blog?

First, a disclaimer. I've not tried
this. However, it seems obvious to me
that you would follow the following steps.

I'll use consolidating 3-blogs-into-1-blog
as my example:

1. Export all 3 blogs
2. Click on Dashboard
3. Click on Create a Blog
4. Import all 3 blogs into the new blog

To make sure that the above steps are
safe steps, be sure to keep all your
old blogs until you are absolutely sure
that your new blog is just what you want
it to be.

In other words, don't delete the old blogs
until you are sure you have successfully
consolidated the old blogs into a new blog.

Actually, that's a good general principle.
Any time you do computer work, try to give
yourself a fallback position. Saving the
old blogs is your fallback position.

Let yourself err. Give yourself a fallback
position whenever possible.

Ed Abbott

How to Save a Blog to Your Hard Drive

How do you save your blog?

Simple.

Do the following steps:

1. Click on Dashboard
2. Click on View Blog
3. Click on Customize
4. Click on Settings
5. Clion on Export Blog

The last step, clicking on
Export Blog, brings up a file
dialog.

The file dialog will ask you where
on your hard drive you wish to save
your blog .

After saving your blog, you can reverse
the process by clicking on Import Blog.

Why would you want to import your blog?

You may wish to move your blog to another
blogging site on the web or you may wish
to consolidate two blogs into one blog.

I'll write about the consolidation process
next.

Ed Abbott
www.WebSiteRepairGuy.com

How to Edit a Post

OK. Just discovered the easy way
to edit a post.

I wanted to be able to edit blog
posts on Google's Blogger. That's
where my blog is.

It's so easy! Why have I been doing
this the hard way?

At the bottom of each post is a pencil
icon. Where? Just to the right of the
timestamp.

Look for the timestamp at the bottom of
the post that shows you the date and
time that the article was posted.

Next, let your eye go to the right of the
timestamp. That's where you will find
the pencil icon.

Click on the pencil icon. If you do so,
you will find yourself editing the post.

Editing posts is simple once you find the
pencil that is under every post.

Of course, you need to be logged in to Blogger
to make edits and changes to your blog.

Not only do you need to be logged into to
blogger to make ediing changes to your blog,
you also need to be logged into to see the
pencil.

The pencil icon (pencil image) is invisable
if you are logged out of blogger.


Ed Abbott

How to Remove Blogger Comments

OK. This is a new blog.

It is here to help you fix
blogger goof-ups. Also, it
is here to help you learn how
to make blogger behave and do
the things you want it to do.

How do you remove comments?

Easy. There's a little trash
can icon at the bottom of each
comment. The icon is right next
to the timestamp just below each
comment.

Below each comment is a timestamp.
Look for the timestamp and then
look for the trash icon just to the
right of the timestamp.

Find the trash can, click the trash
can. That's all you need to do.

Why am I writing about this?

Well, it took me a while to discover
how to remove a blogger comment. So,
if it took me a while, maybe it takes
other people time to discover this too.

Please don't hesitate to post here if
you wish to get blogger to behave itself
and do what you want it to do.

I may not be able to answer the question,
but someone else might.

Also, blogger has a help link that you you
can click on. See the top of your screen
when you are logged into blogger. The
link, help, is found way up at the
top.

On my screeen, it goes Dashboard,
My Account, and Help. That's
the order in which the major links at the
top of the page appear.

Click on help and then do a search
on the help topic of your choice.

Blogger help is excellent! I found my answer
to my question, "How do you delete a comment?"
there.

I learned how to delete a comment by clicking on
help.

Ed Abbott