Thursday, April 22, 2010

Journal - Blogger Woes

Well, I’m not having much luck with this. As I mentioned before, to put hyperlinks in a post, I use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl-shift-a, but last Friday it stopped working. Since then I’ve discovered that other shortcuts are acting funny too. Ctrl-b for bold and ctrl-I for italics are not working right either. I've posted questions in the Blogger help forum three different times but no one has answered.

I can’t really figure out if this is a problem with Blogger or with Internet Explorer, but I’m kind of leaning toward the latter. I’ve tried some different settings in Blogger with no success. I've tried some settings in IE, also with no success. I tried upgrading IE to version 8 to see if that might help, but my computer wouldn’t take the upgrade. My computer is about 8 years old and doesn’t always work real well. Some people would call it an “oldie but a goodie.” Others might call it a “piece of crap.” I’m still undecided as to which group I am in.

Anyway, after that I tried rolling back to IE version 6. I was able to do that easily enough, but it didn’t solve the problem so I reverted back to version 7.

After that I tried using system restore to revert my settings back to a previous time when everything was working. I knew the problem had begun last Friday approximately, so I was going to roll everything back to last Wednesday or so. Well, when I got into the system restore utility, the oldest restore point available was last Thursday at 8:52 pm. That restore point was labeled as the time when Windows sent through an automatic update for Internet Explorer and every restore point before that had been removed. Coincidence?

So, I’m left with a few options. Like Ro said, I could type out the html code by hand everytime I want a hyperlink. I’m semi-familiar with html tags from my eBay days and I could do that, but honestly, it’s a really big hassle and I’m not sure I want to go to that much trouble. I’m planning on having a lot of links in my book reviews and typing out all that code would take forever.

My second option is to switch from IE to Mozilla Firefox, which is what Joni uses. I tested that, and the hyperlinks work okay, but it makes the code visible in the compose screen and I don't like that either. I could probably live with it though. I tried a couple of other browsers, the new Google Chrome and Opera, but neither of those work with a screen reader apparently.

A third option is to switch to a new blog host. I’ve been checking out WordPress and I kind of like what they have to offer. One of the first things I found at WordPress, is the built-in stat counter. It automatically keeps track of the hits on each page of your blog, tells you which search engines are sending you the most traffic and lots of other stuff. There’s a whole page of statistics. Why Blogger doesn't do that is a mystery to me. In Blogger you have to use a third party counter. I tried that with no success.

Next, I looked at the Wordpress widgets. They have some that sound very useful. Some of them are powered by the built-in stat counter. You can display your most popular blog post titles and things like that. There’s one large problem, however. The only way to put the widgets on your blog, is to click and drag them into place on the sidebar. There's no "add this widget" link like Blogger has. My heart sank when I discovered that. I sent them an email to let them know why that was a problem, and asked them what kinds of accessibility options they have for blind and low-vision users. That was late last night, so I haven’t heard back from them yet. I hope they answer.

Well, there’s a couple of other things I’ve been working on this week, but this post is long enough. I’ll tell you about Audible’s affiliate program, and Statcounter.com next time, okay?

See you later!

Luke 18:1-8 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary., "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' “ And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

5 comments:

  1. Sorry you're having so much trouble. At least it keeps you busy, Mr. Stubborn pants.And what good will you become without a challenge in front of you?

    I dare to glimpse. :P

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  2. Hmmm wonder what's going on? None of the Blogger shortcuts work with Safari, or either they don't work with Voiceover, not sure. So I don't use any of them. I'm able to use the "insert link" thingy, but really typing in the code won't take long once you know it. If you convert over to word press, I'm pretty sure you'll lose all your comments, but I'm not sure. I was able to get stat counter to work, I wonder what problems you're having?

    Ick, technical problems are such a pain. My latest woe is that when I wake my computer from sleep, Voiceover sometimes doesn't want to start, so that gives me a little heart attack almost every morning ;)

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  3. Kind of a no-brainer, use Firefox.

    You said it shows in the compose but does it show after you hit POST?

    Also, maybe it was the IE update that threw it into a tailspin? Maybe?

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  4. I was a little confused about the code showing up in the edit area too. When I insert a link, the code shows up as I'm writing the post, but disappears when I post it. I know a Jaws user with a Blogger blog and she uses Firefox, and has to enter the code for links, as the gadget doesn't work. Not sure how it would work with your reader. It's just weird how there were suddenly changes. Hmmmm.

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  5. shhhh don't tell him. I like to see him challenged and his brain work overtime.*smile*

    If I gave him all the answers, he'd be less inclined to figure things out for himself.

    A wise person once said to me, "turn around is fair play." and I tend to believe that. lol

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