| There are many well-designed and professional | | | | the new template on your computer. When you |
| looking templates available for Google Blogger, all | | | | select it, click OK, then when back in Blogger, |
| very tempting for the everyday blogger to | | | | select Upload. The new template will be |
| import. Most of these are tested for Blogger and | | | | transferred to Blogger. |
| work fine, but Google has made the importation | | | | 7. After the refresh, you will see a list of widgets |
| of these a sometimes buggy and more tedious | | | | on the left that will be deleted, such as 'html1' and |
| process than it used to be. Here are a dozen | | | | 'blog1'. If you proceed from here, you will likely |
| simple steps to make these other templates | | | | get the infamous 'Bk-#' error screen with an error |
| work while backing up your current blogsite. | | | | code. You must first debug the new template. |
| 1. To change to a new template, you must first | | | | 8. Use 'Ctrl-F' to Find, and search for 'widget id'. |
| have the new one downloaded onto your local | | | | 9. When you find one, click Close, then edit the |
| computer, and it will normally be in XML format, | | | | resulting widget's name that you see by |
| but sometimes is simply in a TXT file. | | | | incrementing the number, such as 'html1' should be |
| 2. After logging in at Blogger, select Customize | | | | changed to 'html2', 'text1' becomes 'text2', and so |
| your blog. | | | | on. There may be two or more of each of these, |
| 3. First backup the existing template: select | | | | change them all. Don't miss changing 'blog1' to |
| Layout, Edit HTML and Download Template. | | | | 'blog2', this is almost always present. Then use |
| Change the name to something you recognize, | | | | Ctrl-F again for the next instance of 'widget id'. |
| like 'Temp-MyBlog-010309', then save it. This | | | | 10. When you've edited them all (and be careful to |
| takes a few seconds, the file will be small, usually | | | | not cycle through them twice), click Save |
| 50-100k. This will not save the posts, that's next. | | | | Template. After the screen refreshes, you have |
| 4. Next, backup your posts. You won't have to | | | | a new list of widgets that will be deleted, but now |
| reload them, it's just a good idea to back them up | | | | it's OK, none will be from the new template. |
| before major changes. Select Settings, then | | | | 11. Click Confirm and Save. This should work |
| Export Blog (the Basic tab). This exports the | | | | without errors now, and you can select either |
| posts themselves. Again save the file as | | | | Preview or View Blog and see the results. |
| something you remember, like | | | | 12. You can now copy your widgets back (one at |
| 'Exp-MyBlog-010309'. | | | | a time) that were deleted during the importation |
| 5. You need to back up or copy each of your | | | | process. Even if you have many, it should take |
| widgets, the HTML code. Make sure you use a | | | | less than an hour. |
| text editor like Notepad. I put them all in one file | | | | Since you've properly backed up the previous |
| with labels for each and a separator line, which | | | | template, if there's a problem with the new one |
| makes it easy to copy them back into the new | | | | or you don't like it, you can change back to the |
| template. Unfortunately, copy and paste is the | | | | original by using the upload process again, and |
| only method you can use here, one at a time, so | | | | select the original template backup name. You will |
| it can be tedious with a crowded interface with | | | | have to copy back the original widgets again, but |
| lots of sidebar gadgets. | | | | at least you won't lose anything. |
| 6. Now you're ready for the new template. | | | | Build a test blog first, then don't be afraid to try a |
| Return to Edit HTML, and select Browse to find | | | | new template to refresh your blog! |
