Learning To Blog Article #1: Step-By-Step Guide To Backup Your Blogger Template. Backup Your Blogger Post And Comments. Backup Your Blogger Widgets

As a new Blogger I was overwhelmed and frustrated with the process of setting up my Blog. I had no clue what I was doing and I had so many questions. How do I setup the RSS feeds, How do I change templates, add widgets, and create banners? Through trial and error, searching instructional articles and totally crashing my own Blog, I was able to learn. I plan to write a series of articles for the new Blogger out there facing the same hurdles. Hopefully, the articles I write will be of use, easy to follow, and clear some of the confusion you are facing. To Begin: I am going to assume that you have created a Blogger account, chosen your title, template, and familiarized yourself with the dashboard. *Note: Blogger has no limit on the number of blogs you create. I highly urge you to create a second blog and name it “Temp” to avoid making the same mistakes I did. Creating a 2nd blog allows you to make changes and see how they appear prior to implementing them on your original. I totally crashed my blog and lost all data, widgets and posts simply because I was bored with my template and wanted a new one! 1. Creating the 2nd template is easy. Sign in to your blogger account. From the main dashboard (same place you view your profile), there is a link to create a new blog. Follow this and create your 2nd blog the same way you did the 1st one. 2. Backup your template. From within the dashboard, choose the blog you wish to backup and select "Layout", then "Edit HTML", then "Download Full Template". The "Save File" menu will then open and simply save your template to your computer. NOTE: Backing up your template does not back up the posts you have written, nor does it backup your widgets.         3. Export And Import Your Blog Posts And Comments: This step is vital and why I totally crashed my blog, lost my posts, comments and widgets. I backed up my template thinking all was good and was not aware as a new blogger that I had to also backup my comments/post and my widgets. From the dashboard of your blog, click on the "Settings" tab, then the "Export Blog" link. The "Save" dialog box will open, then simply save the export file to your hard-drive. (Be sure to name it post / comments backup or something in that line so that it won't be confused with your template backup. They are both XML files. This step will backup your post and comments. It does not backup your widgets.   4.Backup Your Blogger Widgets: From within your dashboard, choose the “Layout” tab (this defaults you to your “page elements” “widgets” or “Gadgets”). Backing up your “widgets” is a little more difficult because each will need to be backed up individually. Select “Edit” to open each widget, then copy and paste the HTML code from each one into “Notepad”. Be sure to save the document as a “.txt” file. I am here to help, please feel free to comment and ask any questions you may have.