Been playing around with Blogger Beta. So far: not so bad. That said, I am relatively happy with the Beta. It has been working well for me so far, at least from my end of the spectrum. Have yet to hear from anyone who is having trouble viewing or visiting my blog.
While I'm not going to try to be comprehensive, here are some feature's and bugs I have noticed. Since Blogger Beta is just that, Beta, I will add that anything I might comment on here is subject to change at Blogger's discretion.
Accounts:
When you upgrade to Blogger Beta, you will be asked to enter your Google Account info. If you do not have a Google Account, you will be asked to create one. It's easy and free. How do you know if you already have a Google account? If you use Gmail, Google Personalized Homepage, Google Reader, Adwords, Google Groups, Google Alerts or any other Google service that requires you to log in - you have a Google Account. Google is trying to connect the dots between Blogger accounts and Google accounts. If you have more than one Google Account, you may choose which one you want to associate with your Blogger Account, or you may create a new Google Account. If you have more than one Google or Blogger account, there is info elsewhere on the web about how to merge accounts.
How to know the difference between a Blogger account and Google account? A Google username is formatted as an email address, a Blogger one is not unless you used an e-mail address as your username when you set up the account.
Page Elements Template Editor:
Sure to be the most exciting and talked-about new feature. This is a much simpler way for novice bloggers and those who don't know HTML to edit their template. If you have used the Google Personalized Home Page, the feeling is similar. The ability to add, edit and rearrange template elements (i.e. the header, link list, profile, archives etc.) with simple drag and click. The edit function opens a new window and allows you to make changes simply.
Caveat: when you upgrade an existing blog to Beta, if you want to use the new Template features you must upgrade your template. In doing so you will lose your existing template and *all* your editing of it. In other words, starting from scratch. You can continue, at this point to use your existing template and continue managing it the old way: HTML. Don't know if eventually Blogger will require everyone to upgrade their template so they don't have to support both, but if so I imagine it's still a long way off.
Font and Color editing is somewhat limited, but fairly useful. Helpful: for instance, when I wanted to change the color of my title text, I was given some color suggestions based on the color scheme of my template. Unhelpful: there still are only 6 available fonts. Also, in at least one template, changing the font affected the text of the entire blog; but with other templates I was able to edit the font for each individual element.
Adding elements seems to be buggy. Sometimes when I try to add an element I get an error message and am unable to add it, but then if I reload the page the element appears just as I formatted it.
HTML editing is not yet available for the template as a whole, a sure frustration for those who like to have more control over their template using HTML. The ability to fully edit HTML is assumed to be introduced as the Beta rollout progresses.
However, HTML editing is available for some of the individual template elements. I added an element of text to my template and was able to use HTML to edit the font, appearance and color of the text.
I have noticed the fonts and colors editing options seemed to vary somewhat depending on the template I used.
Also, it seems the template editor is good about automatically saving changes. Several times I have made changes I have forgotten to save, and yet the changes have been remembered. Don't know if this is a bug or a feature, and I wouldn't rely on it, but it is helpful.
Edit Posts Page:
You not have the ability to sort your posts by All, Drafts or Posted. Also it seems there is no longer the 300 post limit on the Edit page, since I have about 309 and they all show now.
Site Feeds:
The ability to set the amount of text that appears on your blog's feed is something I have heard talked about a lot. This is now possible in Blogger Beta. You can select None, Short (paragraph), and Full (full post text). Using the Advanced mode, you can also set the feed text amount individually for each feed: Blog Posts Feed, Blog Comments Feed, and Per-Post Comments Feed.
Permissions:
Allows team blogs as before, but also has some new features. The ability to set who is able to view your blog (i.e. MySpace) is one new feature. Your choices are Anyone, Blog Authors Only, or People I Choose (who you send e-mail invites to).
Labels:
Finally it's here - the ability to *categorize* posts. Blogger calls it *labels*, but same dif.
Archives:
The ability to set your archive to be a Straight list, a Hierarchal list, or a Dropdown Menu - all without having to tinker with your code!
Spell-check:
This sometimes well-used feature is much quicker, and rather than opening a spell-check window, it just highlights any possible spelling errors. Then you right-click to see a list of spelling suggestions to choose from, or you can just retype to correct errors. When you are done with spell-check, you click a *button* that appears below your formatting buttons that says "Done Spellchecking".
One problem, right-click also activates my context menu, which sometimes covers up the spelling list. Also, the old spell-check could *learn* words that it didn't know. I have yet to discover this feature in the Blogger Beta spell-check.
These are just my initial observations. I will post more info as I come across features or bugs.
While I'm not going to try to be comprehensive, here are some feature's and bugs I have noticed. Since Blogger Beta is just that, Beta, I will add that anything I might comment on here is subject to change at Blogger's discretion.
Accounts:
When you upgrade to Blogger Beta, you will be asked to enter your Google Account info. If you do not have a Google Account, you will be asked to create one. It's easy and free. How do you know if you already have a Google account? If you use Gmail, Google Personalized Homepage, Google Reader, Adwords, Google Groups, Google Alerts or any other Google service that requires you to log in - you have a Google Account. Google is trying to connect the dots between Blogger accounts and Google accounts. If you have more than one Google Account, you may choose which one you want to associate with your Blogger Account, or you may create a new Google Account. If you have more than one Google or Blogger account, there is info elsewhere on the web about how to merge accounts.
How to know the difference between a Blogger account and Google account? A Google username is formatted as an email address, a Blogger one is not unless you used an e-mail address as your username when you set up the account.
Page Elements Template Editor:
Sure to be the most exciting and talked-about new feature. This is a much simpler way for novice bloggers and those who don't know HTML to edit their template. If you have used the Google Personalized Home Page, the feeling is similar. The ability to add, edit and rearrange template elements (i.e. the header, link list, profile, archives etc.) with simple drag and click. The edit function opens a new window and allows you to make changes simply.
Caveat: when you upgrade an existing blog to Beta, if you want to use the new Template features you must upgrade your template. In doing so you will lose your existing template and *all* your editing of it. In other words, starting from scratch. You can continue, at this point to use your existing template and continue managing it the old way: HTML. Don't know if eventually Blogger will require everyone to upgrade their template so they don't have to support both, but if so I imagine it's still a long way off.
Font and Color editing is somewhat limited, but fairly useful. Helpful: for instance, when I wanted to change the color of my title text, I was given some color suggestions based on the color scheme of my template. Unhelpful: there still are only 6 available fonts. Also, in at least one template, changing the font affected the text of the entire blog; but with other templates I was able to edit the font for each individual element.
Adding elements seems to be buggy. Sometimes when I try to add an element I get an error message and am unable to add it, but then if I reload the page the element appears just as I formatted it.
HTML editing is not yet available for the template as a whole, a sure frustration for those who like to have more control over their template using HTML. The ability to fully edit HTML is assumed to be introduced as the Beta rollout progresses.
However, HTML editing is available for some of the individual template elements. I added an element of text to my template and was able to use HTML to edit the font, appearance and color of the text.
I have noticed the fonts and colors editing options seemed to vary somewhat depending on the template I used.
Also, it seems the template editor is good about automatically saving changes. Several times I have made changes I have forgotten to save, and yet the changes have been remembered. Don't know if this is a bug or a feature, and I wouldn't rely on it, but it is helpful.
Edit Posts Page:
You not have the ability to sort your posts by All, Drafts or Posted. Also it seems there is no longer the 300 post limit on the Edit page, since I have about 309 and they all show now.
Site Feeds:
The ability to set the amount of text that appears on your blog's feed is something I have heard talked about a lot. This is now possible in Blogger Beta. You can select None, Short (paragraph), and Full (full post text). Using the Advanced mode, you can also set the feed text amount individually for each feed: Blog Posts Feed, Blog Comments Feed, and Per-Post Comments Feed.
Permissions:
Allows team blogs as before, but also has some new features. The ability to set who is able to view your blog (i.e. MySpace) is one new feature. Your choices are Anyone, Blog Authors Only, or People I Choose (who you send e-mail invites to).
Labels:
Finally it's here - the ability to *categorize* posts. Blogger calls it *labels*, but same dif.
Archives:
The ability to set your archive to be a Straight list, a Hierarchal list, or a Dropdown Menu - all without having to tinker with your code!
Spell-check:
This sometimes well-used feature is much quicker, and rather than opening a spell-check window, it just highlights any possible spelling errors. Then you right-click to see a list of spelling suggestions to choose from, or you can just retype to correct errors. When you are done with spell-check, you click a *button* that appears below your formatting buttons that says "Done Spellchecking".
One problem, right-click also activates my context menu, which sometimes covers up the spelling list. Also, the old spell-check could *learn* words that it didn't know. I have yet to discover this feature in the Blogger Beta spell-check.
These are just my initial observations. I will post more info as I come across features or bugs.
wow, you are quite the techy, way over my head. hope all is well.
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