Google Blogger
:Brand New Features
Google Blogger
Google’s Blogger has recently came out with some cool new features available at the special Blogger Draft site. Some of the features are highlighted below:
- A Brand New Post Editor. The new post editor has a very different image handling. Google says, “When you upload an image to the new post editor it will appear as a thumbnail in the image dialog box. That way, you can upload several images at once, and then add them into your post at your convenience.†Also, now the HTML editing mode has a couple of new improvements; breaks won’t be added automatically, and there will be a clearer formatting with new lines for generated HTML.
- Direct Integration with Google Webmaster tools. You can now follow a dashboard link reading Webmaster Tools. Automatically, all your Blogspot blogs will be added to the webmaster tools suite, though they still remain to be verified.
- The ability to put the comments form embedded below the post. Google’s Blogger comments functionality had very low usability for a couple of reasons – one of them was that it took you to a separate page when you wanted to comment. To enable this change bringing better integration, simply switch to Settings -> Comments, and in the Comment Form Placement segment check the “Embedded below post†box. Once you are done click Save Settings to keep the setting permanently.
- Exporting and importing your blog. Google recently announced that you can now export all of your blog posts into a single (Atom-formatted) XML file to allow for a backup… or perhaps, to allow to move to another blogging system (e.g. wordpress), or do something else with the data. Reversely, you can also import that file back into your system. To give this a try switch to the Settings page for your blog; you’ll find the links “Import blog†and “Export blog†on top. Exporting will trigger a download named e.g. “blog-02-23-2008.xmlâ€
- Star ratings: This feature will let your visitors vote from one to five stars. You will then be able to see the average rating for each post on your blog. You can find this feature at your Layouts page; click Edit at your Blog Posts element, and check the Show Star Ratings box.
These features are also further detailed in the Blogger in Draft blog. If you don’t want to always visit the special draft.blogger.com URL, you can now also make the Draft mode your default mode; look for the checkbox reading “Make Blogger in Draft my default dashboard†at the top of your dashboard.
