Backup Page Elements (now called Gadgets): How?

Update: Page Element is now called Gadget.

The upgraded New Blogger (or just plain Blogger) is a big improvement over the old classic Blogger. There is an importance difference you should know between the two:

Backup old classic Blogger templates

Refer to How to backup old classic Blogger template. When you backup the old classic Blogger template, you backup everything that is in it, including any customizations like adding a

visitor counter

Google Adsense products like Google ads (advertisments), search box, referral text or button links

blogrolls which is the name many bloggers use for a list of links to other websites and what the New Blogger calls a Link List, etc.

Backup New Blogger templates PLUS Page Elements

Backing up New Blogger in some ways has been made very much simpler now, especially for those not familiar with things like HTML, CSS, Blogger tags and instructions are at Backup New Blogger template PLUS Page Elements (click BACK button to get back to this page). However, the "backup Page Elements" was not described in details sufficiently, so rather than making an update, I thought it better to publish a separate posts.

Why is it important to backup Page Elements for New Blogger

When you change to a new template, you will often get a warning message that some widgets (Page Elements) will be deleted. If you proceed, you will lose those customizations you did via the Page Elements. However, if had backed up the Page Elements, you can easily put them back again as they will still be in the LAYOUT. This is one small disadvantage of the New Blogger as compared with backing up old classic templates where all the customizations you made are saved and you would not lose anything when you need to put back your back up template.

How to back up Page Elements and what Page Elements can be backed up

Not all Page Elements can be backed up. Some like the Link List, Profile, Archives, cannot be backed up. However, for Profile and Archives, even without backing them up, you can still put them back again even if there were deleted. This is not so for the Link List, which once gone is gone forever. You will have to redo the whole thing from scratch.

Other Page Elements, particularly HTML/Javascript Page Elements can very easily be backed up. All you need to do is to edit the Page Element, copy-paste the content into a Notepad file, save the file in the same folder where you save your backup template. Use a file name that tells you exactly what the Page Element is all about. Make full use of the possibility to use long file names (this wasn't possible in the bad old days).

How to backup "Link List"

You can use the HTML/Javascript to make your "Link List" or what many call "blogroll". Refer to the bottom part of What a grateful blogger did for me without asking. If that is not clear, feel free to leave a comment and I will try to help although now I may be a bit slow in responding because of having too many things to do.