It seems like it has been a while since the last overhaul. I was very comfortable with the old Blogger, so that made me a little leary with the switch.
I started using the new interface a week ago. For the most part I haven't found much of a difference. Most of the changes are minor and fairly intuitive.
There is one new feature that I really like. In the past when you clicked on "Publish" or "Schedule" the change was immediate. My problem was when scheduling a post I'd forget to put in the new date. The default was the current date and when I thought I was scheduling a post for the next day, it instead went live. Then I'd have to quickly delete the post and start over.
Now when you publish, you first get a warning message like this...
.... which allows you to double-check the date and time. Awesome!
On the flip side, there are a couple changes with pictures that I do not like at all.
First, you can no longer drag a picture into the post. I loved that feature, especially when I was writing my Five Random Cubs Cards posts. With the new Blogger there are several more clicks I have to go through to insert pictures. In my mind, if something takes more clicks than before, you have not improved the product.
Let me use a picture of a Cubs card to show the other change I don't like.
I went through the insert a picture steps to bring up this card of Billy Williams. Blogger now puts the pictures in at their original size. That is not good because pictures are typically to big for that. The old Blogger's default was "Medium" sized. Now I have to take three more clicks on each picture to get them to medium-sized.
Again, when you add clicks to a process, you are not improving it.
Anyone else got any thoughts on the new Blogger?
I'm not a big fan of the change. The old Blogger is perfectly fine, and apparently the new Blogger isn't better in every way, exactly.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan. Being a arthritis sufferer, it's often hard to to the minimum things just to post.
ReplyDeleteI'll deal with it, hope it doesn't make it harder to work on posts.
My biggest complaint is adding labels to my posts. It was a lot easier before. My favorite thing about the new version is the ability to make pictures tiny enough to add four (maybe more?) on one line. Before I was only able to put three cards per line on my posts. Overall, I wish they'd give us the option to use the legacy version on a permanent basis.
ReplyDeleteYeah the labels are a huge pain now. I even reported the issue when mine weren't saving. Doesn't seem like it got fixed.
DeleteSome of my labels were capitalized and some were not, but at least they were alphabetized. Now I have two sets of alphabetized labels, those that are capitalized, which are followed by those which are not. Ugh.
DeleteThe default picture setting is a big complaint for me, too.
I actually had trouble posting multiple cards on one line. So I switched back to the older version. I'll go back and try again. Must have been operator error.
DeleteI started having issues today with posting multiple images on the same line. Not sure what Blogger's deal is. One day things work fine. Next day it doesn't.
DeleteThe most important change these clowns at Google could make is to turn off autosave. I have lost many a post because while typing, my cursor goes haywire and highlights all the text, so that the very next character I type deletes everything entered so far.
ReplyDeleteIMMEDIATELY, autosave decides to do its thing, so there's no chance for me to cancel.
ON my non-card blog I made a post about some of my thoughts: https://klandersen.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-new-blogger-experience-updates-to.html
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I noticed was it defaulted to the HTML view and I didn't notice at first how to change to the "compose" view style. And the "Save" at first was a plus sign in a red circle lower right which at first I thought it was a continue scrolling icon. They have since change the "new post" link to a button on the left hand tool bar.
I am not a fan of the new way they handle labels. I don't like the checklist card style checklist they came up with you can't see how close you are to the space limit. It also looked like some of my labels were deleted? So for my last July posts on all my blogs I didn't put many labels if any.
Somewhat related to the label thing is the scheduling the publishing time/date. My first use of the new format I didn't know how to change it at first and then didn't know how to keep it "saved". The save button wasn't obvious at first.
Like you I do like the confirm publishing pop-up step. There were many times on the old blogger when I almost published pre-maturely and sometimes when I did (not very often though).
I don't like the new image size adding either. When I first tried adding an image I wasn't sure if I could change the size of the thing. OH and I don't like when adding multiple images it no longer seems to remember your recently added images in the "load from computer" window, it will add them to the image storage for the blog if you uploaded several images. I used to be able to add all the images from my computer to the "upload" pop-up add the first image to the post, then when I went back to add an image it was defaulted to show the uploaded images (in sort of a holding pattern as it was) but now that is blank. Like I said if you uploaded several images all the images are uploaded to the storage space at blogger so if you select to add an image from "this blog" they will be at the bottom of that grouping of images.
Oh what Jim said about autosave yeah there have been times where that has happened to me. Where something is deleted by accident and autosave kicks in and the data is lost. OK OK perhaps a reason to work in "Word" or some other word processing/text editing program/app before applying it to the Blogger compose a post.
What is up with the extra step for visiting a blog on your "Reading List"? It opens a new tab with two links one to go onto the blog you want to read and a link that is supposed to send you back to your blogger dashboard but that second link is broken and doesn't do anything.
The view blog button seems to be too far down the left tool bar.
Maybe I was just used to the old format but for me many of the new ways to do things are counterintuitive to me.
The new is designed for not so many images. It is bad for me, especially my dozen new blogs that each have a thousand or two cards each. Totally sucks. I may have to find a new blog host.
ReplyDeleteI agree that inserting images is much more clunky, they have added more clicks to the same process, and you can basically only upload one image at a time right when you want to use it.
ReplyDeleteThe option to lock in that a link opens in a new page always has been removed, you have to click the box every time.
For some odd reason, my labels are listed alphabetically, but in two separate parts - the order starts over halfway down the list.
Save is a sub-click of Preview instead of its own button.
I suppose we should submit all these suggestions to Google...
I hate it, most of the reasons are listed above. I reverted back to the old blogger and will use it for as long as I can.
ReplyDeleteThe new Blogger sucks extra-hard. I used Wordpress for a time about 8 years ago and hated it. I don't really want to go back to Wordpress, but I might. The new Blogger is that bad.
ReplyDeletehate it! I'm almost in tears as I am trying to move lots of pictures around the "story". I document our family stuff (for our own records and extended family to see) and travels. Always upload lots of pictures first and then document in writing, moving pictures as I go. The new format is not user friendly! Before, I could move a picture by clicking and dragging. It doesn't center after I move the picture (I can't drag it either, just have to let the picture scroll). So, I have to figure out how to center it every time by clicking a few more times, than I have to resize every picture to Large. I have been reverting to the old but now that option is gone for me. Hopefully it will get easier as I use it more, but I'm doubting it.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely hate the new interface. I'm a visual person and use lots of pictures, but getting an image to site in the text and have it wrap properly is now impossible. It's like chasing a greased pig around the page. Curses on the folks who had the gall to release this thing way before it was ready.
ReplyDeleteI hate it! Some things are ok, but I also dislike it taking longer to resize each photo. The thing I loathe the most, and I mean I really hate this, is that when I'm working on a post, the sidebar on the right lays over my post so that I do not have a scroll bar to scroll up and down through my post. It takes forever to use my mouse roller to go all the way to the top, and if I hit "enter" anywhere, it takes me to the bottom. I often have a lot of pictures loaded, then I go through and write, and I'm really getting frustrated! Why did they create the "publish" and "labels" as a overlaying sidebar that has a scroll bar but did not provide a scroll bar for the actual blog draft???? Furthermore, the sidebar takes up so much space that they now have a horizontal scroll to access all the blog options at the top. Is there any way to get rid of that option to the right and be able to properly scroll up and down on my draft?
ReplyDelete