Doug Loudenback
08-29-2009, 04:35 AM
This announces major changes to my Okc History blog at Doug Dawgz Blog (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/) and those changes are described here: Doug Dawgz Blog: Changes in Doug Dawgz Blog (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/08/changes-in-doug-dawgz-blog.html).
For the past 4 or so days, I've been working on changes to my blog. I already knew that it lacked features that I'd like to include, but I was very cautious about making changes since I've been guided by the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and its corollary, "If you do, some really bad **** could occur."
Access to the potentially better features required abandoning the so-so Blogger software template that I've used since July 2006 and switching to a "new" Blogger template with more bells and whistles. Doing that worried me, particularly given Blogger's warnings, "Be sure to save this, and that, make backups, etc.," rather like the RX commercials which we now regularly see that say such things as, "Side effects of this drug have been reported to be death and/or permanent loss of use of your ..."
Anyway, after a conversation with Steve Lackmeyer last Tuesday, I decided to take the plunge. Generally, he told me that my blog was not user friendly as far as user searches were concerned. He was right about that. So, over the past 4 or so days, I've managed to successfully make template changes and, so far, I haven't lost the use of my ... and I haven't died yet. So, life is good.
The blog changes are described here: Doug Dawgz Blog: Changes in Doug Dawgz Blog (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/08/changes-in-doug-dawgz-blog.html)
I've tried to keep the "look and feel" of the layout as close to what it was as I could but that took quite a bit of doing to tweak the new Blogger template which, in several ways, didn't suit me at all. But, tweaking I managed to do and, so far, so good.
Blog posts are now truncated when entering the blog, i.e., only an introductory part is shown unless one clicks the "... Click here to read the full article and any comments..." link at the bottom of particular posts. Enough is present in that introductory part to let you know what the post is about and if you actually want to see the whole lengthy article. This makes it possible for several article "pages" to be shown by default and pages should load more quickly without the excess baggage.
But, I think, the very best part in upgrading the template is the much much better Search capabilities which are integrated with the new template. Those changes are described in the blog at Doug Dawgz Blog: Changes in Doug Dawgz Blog (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/08/changes-in-doug-dawgz-blog.html) and those changes are, to me, quite impressive.
I'm sure that it still needs tweaking. But, at least, in making the changes, I didn't lose the use of my ... and I am still alive.
Now that I've started doing what Steve recommended, perhaps HE will soon get his own Okc History blog, http://www.okchistory.com/, back on line.
For the past 4 or so days, I've been working on changes to my blog. I already knew that it lacked features that I'd like to include, but I was very cautious about making changes since I've been guided by the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and its corollary, "If you do, some really bad **** could occur."
Access to the potentially better features required abandoning the so-so Blogger software template that I've used since July 2006 and switching to a "new" Blogger template with more bells and whistles. Doing that worried me, particularly given Blogger's warnings, "Be sure to save this, and that, make backups, etc.," rather like the RX commercials which we now regularly see that say such things as, "Side effects of this drug have been reported to be death and/or permanent loss of use of your ..."
Anyway, after a conversation with Steve Lackmeyer last Tuesday, I decided to take the plunge. Generally, he told me that my blog was not user friendly as far as user searches were concerned. He was right about that. So, over the past 4 or so days, I've managed to successfully make template changes and, so far, I haven't lost the use of my ... and I haven't died yet. So, life is good.
The blog changes are described here: Doug Dawgz Blog: Changes in Doug Dawgz Blog (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/08/changes-in-doug-dawgz-blog.html)
I've tried to keep the "look and feel" of the layout as close to what it was as I could but that took quite a bit of doing to tweak the new Blogger template which, in several ways, didn't suit me at all. But, tweaking I managed to do and, so far, so good.
Blog posts are now truncated when entering the blog, i.e., only an introductory part is shown unless one clicks the "... Click here to read the full article and any comments..." link at the bottom of particular posts. Enough is present in that introductory part to let you know what the post is about and if you actually want to see the whole lengthy article. This makes it possible for several article "pages" to be shown by default and pages should load more quickly without the excess baggage.
But, I think, the very best part in upgrading the template is the much much better Search capabilities which are integrated with the new template. Those changes are described in the blog at Doug Dawgz Blog: Changes in Doug Dawgz Blog (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2009/08/changes-in-doug-dawgz-blog.html) and those changes are, to me, quite impressive.
I'm sure that it still needs tweaking. But, at least, in making the changes, I didn't lose the use of my ... and I am still alive.
Now that I've started doing what Steve recommended, perhaps HE will soon get his own Okc History blog, http://www.okchistory.com/, back on line.