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.

How to backup your New Blogger template and edit the template

If you intend to do any editing of the template of your New Blogger template, a wise thing to do is first backup your current template PLUS edit your Page Elements one by one, pasting the content into Notepad files and saving them together with your backup template. This has been made very easy for you. Just sign into the Dashboard, and in the section for the relevant blog, click LAYOUT, then click the TEMPLATE tab. Click the EDIT HTML sub-tab below that. This will open your template editor window where you can make changes to your template, but before you make any changes to the template, it is always wise to BACKUP the template first.

To backup the template, click the "Download full template" link and save the backup template into a suitable folder with a filename like blognameDate (substitude blogname with the name of your blog, plus any information that will help you pick out the template you want such as information on changes you plan to make, etc.) or other system of naming which will enable you to identify the backup template easily.

If you have been adding Page Elements, you should also edit the Page Elements one by one and copy its content into Notepad files, save them into the same folder that you save your backup template. This is because when you upload your backup template, there is a possibility that some Page Elements will not be saved. If you have backed up these Page Elements, all you need to do is to put them back.

Backing up Page Elements have been described in more details in Back New Blogger Page Elements (click BACK button to get back to this page).

After you have done that, you can edit the template in the template editor window with peace of mind, knowing if you mess it up, you can just upload your backup template plus put back in any Page Elements that got deleted in the process, and you will be back to your former state.

Regarding editing of the template, how you do it will depend on what you want to do. The simplest would be to edit the template without expanding the widget templates. The template will be easiest to read as it leave out a lot of parts of the template. However, sometimes this is not good enough, you will have to tick the "Expand widget template" to get access to the rest of the template. Whichever way you do will depend on what you want done. Follow the instruction.

Changing Templates

Backup Template

The first rule about changing templates is FIRST backup your current template. This is very easy to do in the New Blogger. Click the TEMPLATE > EDIT HTML tabs then click the "Download Full Template" link as shown in the screenshot below:



Save it in a suitable folder and use a filename like DummiesGuideToGoogleBlogger21jan07. So if anything happens, you can always go back to your previous template by first selecting the template you have downloaded by clicking the "Choose" button below the "Download Full Template" link, then clicking "Upload".

Changing Template

To change to a standard New Blogger template, click the TEMPLATE > PICK NEW TEMPLATE tabs, select a template you like by ticking the radio button against your choice. If you wish, you can preview it first (note that you can only do this if you have at least one post published). If satisfied, click "Save Template" (see screenshot below):



(TO BE CONTINUES)