How to Fix Your Blogger Theme Problems by Removing Gadgets

Technical Issues of My Own Creation

I lost a day due to a mysterious self-created template issue. 

I'm glad to be back. I'm glad to have solved the issue. 

I was prepared to switch themes, but I like some features of this one.

My problems occurred because of the nature of Google Blogger, and my lack of familiarity with it. 

No, the fix is not to switch to WordPress.

As an old WordPress user, I can volunteer that WordPress has its share of problems, too. I must say I'm getting much better with understanding how everything fits together in Blogger. Having come from the WordPress, Blogger is quite alien. 

I feel for those users who have no technical background. 

Technical problems must seem disastrous when they occur to non-technical people.  On this blog, I use a 3rd-party template. 

One of the features I like about the template are the "hot posts" section. The hot-posts section was failing to load to completion. 

I had made many changes the night before I noticed the problem, and so I could not just undo the last thing I tried. 

Google Blogger can be distilled into two xml files.  One contains your content, and the other is your template. 

Backup Your Data

 So, if you are a google blogger you'll want to backup your content occasionally by exporting the content into an xml file. You can do the same for your current modified theme. (Does anyone NOT modify their theme?) Anyway, the combination of the two xml files will allow you to reconstruct your website on another Google blog if you so desire. Meanwhile, back to the problem at hand. 

Beware of Gadgets!

When you buy a third-party theme and upload it Google, there are gadgets, small sections of the layout that declare variables, or are Link Lists, or set parameters for other portions of the theme. These items do not play well with the gadgets from other theme providers.

If you are trying out new themes, you may find, as I did, that the new theme doesn't look the same as it did on the website from which you made your purchase. These gadgets do not play well together.

Your new theme may not work at all!

Your new theme may not work at all if you upload it on top of what you already have. If you upload the newly purchased them to a fresh Google blog, voila!, there it is, just as advertised. In my case, I had to go very thoroughly go through every element on the layout screen. Once I had cleaned up the layout, my hot-posts were working again. 

I'm getting to be a pro at switching Google Themes.

While this was tedious, I am now very confident that I can switch themes in the future. In fact, in an effort to identify the problem with my existing theme, I identified many themes that I might switch to in the future.

So, this was not I intended to write about. In fact, I am busy working on another website, but this fulfills my New Year's Resolution. As they say, you are what you do, and if you aren't blogging or creating new web content, "Are you really a blogger at all?"

Take care,

Dan