Changes, changes

Blogger has changed its design template and Cutest Blog on the Block has apparently discontinued the skin that I loved. Sigh. Then nothing would work without upgrading my Internet Explorer. With a lot of blogs, that's a lot of changes for this old lady.

New editor in blogger

For several days I tried "new editor" in the basic posting template at blogger. Didn't like it. When I copied and pasted text from another source, I couldn't control the paragraphs; I couldn't see what I was editing; there was no spell check, had to use IE's; sometimes in the window things ran off the margin. Really, I could see no advantage. Still haven't seen a correction to the label problem (2000 limit) and I've read through the discussions at the blogger.com forums. Some people seem to be in worse shape than I. So I continue to use the labels I have and hope someone fixes this problem. If you don't have an "Anita Dunn" label there's really no work-around.

Beyond my tech skills

I took on one of those handy-dandy, newer blogger templates awhile back, and recently decided to update my photo. I have searched that template high and low, and can only find a command "remove photo." There's no preview on that page, so if I remove it, is there a way to add a new one? A neighbor took a photo of me at a party Saturday night and e-mailed it. I cropped it, and dropped it into an "oil paint" thingy (great for removing wrinkles, eye bags, etc. for a paint by number look). I could write to blogger.com but I usually get an automated reply. Oh wait! I just had an idea. If I go to one of my other blogs, one that hasn't been gussied up with new fangled widgets and gidgets, maybe I can add it there. They all use the same photo central. If this photo magically appears in the upper left hand corner, you know there's a reason to hang on to the oldies but goodies.

Update: Didn't work that way, but when you click on Remove Photo, it then supplies the option to browse your photo cache or the internet for the appropriate photo. I don't think these instructions as intuitive, but then, not as bad as Microsoft's START command to turn off your computer.

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Checking out the new blogger features

Today I was browsing the blogger.com blog and discovered, or rediscovered, some features. I'm trying out the new template format that doesn't require knowing any html to change your template. I tried it first on the blog with the fewest entries, Growth Industry, since I wasn't sure the changes and revisions would hold. I also learned that because of the objections of people who use blogger.com for their blogs, the comments by non-blogger users has been changed. I think everyone hated it. Works much faster than writing your congress representative!

Me? If people have revised their template to include videos, pod-casts, flickr and ads, my computer locks up, or I can jog around the block while it loads. I am restricted to leaving comments at the more simple designs. But my main blog (this one) is pretty busy too, mainly with links to things I like, such as library databases, on-line newspapers and magazines, and political blogs. Also, it is always a shock to see what my blogs look like on another screen, since on mine I have only a very tiny, discreet border.

My first document in Zoho.  I stopped by Aunt Lora's blog, from which I clicked on a blog by a father of an autistic child from which I got to Zoho.  It is an online word processor that I can access from anywhere--I think. 

Ooh.  I like the background color feature and the type font.

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OK. Now I'm back in the blogger.com posting template. I'm not exactly sure when or where I would use this Zoho. I always type in the "edit html" feature of blogger, except occasionally I switch to "compose" when I want to add some color or change the font. I can get into blogger.com from any computer. Does anyone know why I need Zoho Writer? I haven't tried the other features. Maybe I'm not techie enough to know what a jewel it is--the reviewers raved about it. Easy sign up.