Monday, November 13, 2006

Blogger Upgrade?

Ok, Blogger keeps yelling at me to move to the new upgraded version, which I guess is no longer in Beta. I'm scared! I'm comfortable with the current Blogger and I don't want to mess up my blog. I'll wait until I try to change to a completely different platform to mess things up. Any insight out there in Blogger land?

8 comments:

John B. said...

Moving to Blogger Beta is pretty easy. Initially the main difference is that you will have a username based on a Google account instead of a Blogger account. Otherwise it will look mostly the same. Changing will not affect the look of your blog unless you want it to.

Blogger Beta makes template editing much easier, since it is no longer necessary to fiddle with the HTML, unless you want to. You can keep the same template if you prefer. If you switch to the new template system, the template will need to be reconstructed, so I would save a backup copy first.

One advantage is that Beta has a category/labelling system. You have to switch to the new template system to use it, but it works pretty well.

I have not switched my blog to Beta because my Blogger account is tied to a group blog, and group blogs are not allowed to switch now. But I did create a Beta test blog with my Google account and the new system seems to work pretty well. You could always test the waters first with a temporary test blog. Most of the recent Blogger problems have not affected the Beta servers; I am not sure if that will continue to be the case once most blogs are switched over.

Patrick B. said...

John,

You rule. Thanks for the info. If I have time this week, I'll explore the new version with a test site. It's time for a minor tweak with some fonts and colors, so I need to edit my template anyway. I'll add the tags for the categories too. Thanks!

LauraHinNJ said...

You can't go back, Patrick!

I don't see what the benefit is, other than it doesn't seem to crash when the reg. Blogger does.

I can't do it either, not that I want to, because of a group blog.

Maybe have a look also at one of the forums on Blogger to read what other people have to say about it.

Anonymous said...

Well, for better or worse, I did it. More on a whim than for any particular insight into the benefit of doing or not doing it.

I haven't encountered any negative side-effects, yet. Aside from a few moments of terror at losing all my formatting/links/posts/photos. All seems to have migrated safely.

I'll let you know if anything untoward happens to my blog, though.

Paul

dguzman said...

I'm scared too, Patrick! I'm glad someone else is discussing this--I think Birdchick's on the new blogger, and weird popups come up (the "non-secure items" ones) when a comment is entered.

I also noticed these "label" words on each of Birdchick's entries. I mean, my blog isn't really label-worthy, I think--seems weird to me.

Plus I'm a chicken. I'm going to stick with regular blogger as long as I can. I'm just not good with change!

Patrick B. said...

Delia,

I've noticed that "non-secure" pop up on others' blogs. I thought it was something with my work browser. I guess not! That is really annoying. I'll hold off for now, but I'll experiment per John's suggestions.

John B. said...

If you switch, just make sure to back up your blog first - especially the template. There is a free piece of software called HTTrack Website Copier that can do the backups automatically. It will ensure that all of your text and photos are saved.

Ashish Agarwal said...

Really scared of this move. I have edited the HTML of the template extensively, and I am wondering if I keep the old template, is the only difference going to be that login name will change ?
Am not able to get this information so far.