New Blogger Dashboard Format To Be Compulsory
Every time I change to the new format of Blogger, I can't find my A&& with both hands. I mean it isn't intuitive to me at all. I mess with it for a moment or two and then promptly change back to the old dashboard where all the things I need are easily at my fingertips without all the drama of looking for needles in haystacks.
That has been augmented by the fact that in order to set the settings on that danged word verification on comments puzzle, the only place it could be disabled is using the old dashboard. So tell me again why they are now going to make the new one mandatory....... Or to use Rick's word Compulsory, meaning the old dashboard is going away............ Again Rick's words ring out
That’s a polite way, I guess, of saying to those resisting this change that “you’re times up”!
Argh.......... That means I am really going to have to buck under and see if I can use this unfriendly piece of dung...... Now keep in mind they think it is worth staking their entire blogger reputation on, so it just can't be that bad.........
So, I go in and make the change by clicking on the big headline at the top of the page...... Give up everything you are familiar with here!!!
And immediately I remember what has perplexed me about this new dashboard..... There is no menu strip across the top of the page. I roll the mouse wheel and scroll to the bottom and the menu strip is gone......... It just has vanished.......
Then as I scroll down thru the blogs I read, I realize that I can only see about one blog at a time, so I change my print size to a smaller format. This causes me to have to use the bottom of my trifocals to read things.... I have 20/400 eyesight in one eye..... And then the only small menu that I did have has scrolled off of the page. I order to get it back its scroll again all the way back to the top....
So I have messed with this new dashboard all day, and have finally decided that I am starting out on the reading list page and it is missing the menu options.......... But up at the top next to where it says view blog is a little arrow that points down. Clicking on it makes the menu show up and if you go to overview, then all the menu items are down the page on the left.........
But now I can't get back to the reading list page! Its not on the menu.........Oh I can hit a back arrow and go back but shouldn't I be able to go forward to the reading list?
Now I am using Google Chrome, but it is for linux since that is my operating system, and perhaps that is my trouble, but I don't know that for sure. I will get out the laptop and use windows 7 to see if it is different.
But in my opinion, the new blogger interface is beyond difficult to navigate..... Do you know how to get to the reader page from the main overview menu?? Leave me a comment................ Please!!
Retired Rod
Wished I could help you out, but..... As much as I enjoy change in many things I'm afraid these kinds of Google changes I do not. I've been complaining about that for a long time firmly believing 'newer is not always better.' Google has provided all of us with some great stuff but they have also provided us with many new headaches as well & I don't have the patience for those types of headaches anymore. Just because it is Google does not make it perfect!! I believe they have over designed & over programmed some of their stuff & for sure their target market is the younger whiz bang kids. Makes good business sense for Google to do that though. Those whiz bangers are far going to be around a lot longer than we old timers, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I did change to the new Blogger format quite awhile ago & am fine with it now but it was not always so in the beginning!! The original Blogger format was much more user friendly for sure. I do not use it for writing my blog though. It's 'Live Writer' all the way for me:))
ReplyDeleteI think I will will wait until they absolutely shove it down my throat. Then will just have to see what I can do. be safe out there. Sam & Donna..
ReplyDeleteIf I'm understanding your question, you're asking how to get back to the main page with the reading list from the overview page? If so...up at the top over to the left is the orange button with the "blogger B" in it. Clicking on that will bring you back to the original page with the reading list. That will work from any of the pages that you get to from the drop down.
ReplyDeleteRod,
ReplyDeleteI work on computers and networks for a living. When I first saw the new layout awhile ago I went back to the old one. It's like they had a meeting, while drunk and decided to make it convoluted. Maybe they figure since it's free it shouldn't be easy to use.
Microsoft has gone the same route, Windows 8 is going to be tiled like their metro cell phone GUI. 99% of the world running Windows doesn't have touch capapbility, insane in the membrane... but they want to force everybody to change. If they leave it this way Windows 8 will be skipped by many just like Windows ME was, but for different reasons.
Good luck, I'll look around the dashboard and see if I can answer your questions soon or maybe Rick will chime in since he has had time with it.
Erik
Rod, I laughed out lot when I read your comment "see if I can use this unfriendly piece of dung"! That sums up perfectly what many have said about the new dashboard design. I've been using it for a few months now and have learned to successfully navigate my way around it but there are still many questions I have that make me wonder if this new format is really ready for 'prime time'!
ReplyDeleteYou've raised one of the issues I have and that's the puzzling 'word verification' problem. Not only does Google introduce this new bizarre double word verification puzzle, but they do not include anyway in the new format for us to disable it - like you said, we still must go back to the old format to do that. So, what happens next month when the new format is not available.
Word verification isn't the only problem like that either - there are a few others that only the 'old dashboard' deals with.
Strange indeed.
Boy I hear you... I was searching for some info on the new interface and happened across your posting ~ I share you feelings exactly. I've been helping newbies navigate Blogger for years and now it's all gone ~ a slew of helpful tutorials are now worthless. My only hope is that by some miracle I can figure this new interface out but it feels just as foreign as you expressed so my last prayer is that some sense comes to Blogger before it's too late.
ReplyDeleteSharon
Oh no! Not compulsory! Three problems: 1) I could not find out why periodically the line that included box for posting title and the "Publish" button would not appear. Couldn't find a way to bring that line back. I would finally just quit and come back another day, literally. It mattered not whether I arrived at the new post screen via the little pencil icon or the arrow and drop down menu.
ReplyDelete2)When I chose photos from my computer, they would show up. But when I selected one, added it to the post in compose mode, then hit the image icon to add another photo, all the photos except the one I already added did not show up. Their filenames would show up when I dragged the curser across where they had been, but no thumbnails would show up. If I clicked on the filename I could add the photo to the post, but arghhhh!
3) I could not access my Adsense account from new dashboard. Any route I tried just invited me to set up an account. Not that I really have an income stream coming in. But it has been a wacky source of entertainment.
Another whiny observation. I am already posting one-handed. Since a 2011 stroke, sensory overload is a reality. The visual arrangement of the old dashboard helped. The bold box for composing a post took little energy. That white box on a barely contrasting background seems to require more mental effort. The new design sucks away my energy.
I finally found out how to switch back to the old dashboard. The problems mentioned above were no problem with old dash, but for how long will it be available? Moaning, gnashing of teeth and building up to an elder tantrum going on here.
This is an interesting comment because it comes months after the new dashboard has become mandatory.. But at the end he says that he has found out a way to switch back to the old dashboard..... Really? Now that's gonna perplex me until I determine if that is really true........
DeleteWell I made it till September 20th when I was finally forced to change.
ReplyDeleteEvery notice how when Google makes an "improvement" they force you to use it even if you dont want to change?