Redesign

After battling many months of personal resistance, I finally decided to re-structure my blog from the older "template" format, to what Blogger calls a "layout" format. Despite my initial hesitation, layouts have made my life as a blogger infinitely more convenient.

My primary reservation was that I would lose all the template modifications made over the years. Previous to the switch, modifications often required me to manually change the HTML code, often through a tedious and frustrating process of trial and error. I was never formally trained in HTML, so not only was it difficult to find the proper code sequences, the smallest typo could make the entire template malfunction. After I finally created a workable template through sheer force of will, I hated to lose my template and begin again.

Ironically, layouts provided an easy fix to the very issue holding me back all these months. They allow me to re-create everything and more, and they do it without all the confusing manipulations to the HTML code.

The layout format does everything I ever needed before, and adds new dynamic features. For example, prior to the change, my blog featured a static list of fellow bloggers. If a link stopped working or changed, I had to re-write the code manually. Now Blogger creates the list for me, and also provides a real-time display whenever the other blogs are updated. I'm just now beginning to experiment with many of the other interesting features.