I find myself typing this out in comments often enough lately that it feels post-worthy. Here are some simple ways to back up your Blogger layout and entries.
1. Copy and paste your template into a text file, and save it on your hard drive somewhere. That will preserve your layout, sidebar, header and such so you won't have to start from scratch if it disappears for some unknown reason.
When you change your template (add links, change colors, whatever), save another copy of your template.
If you need to use your backup, just copy your backup file and paste it into Blogger's template field.
2. Use Blogger's dashboard to save copies of your posts automatically.
Go to Settings
Select the Email tab
Enter a BlogSend Address (i.e., your email address)
Blogger will automatically send a copy of your entry to that address each time you post. It's just text, but it's better than nothing. I use an extra email address just for this to keep life simple.
Please note: this will only back up posts published after you set up your BlogSend address, i.e., new posts.
3. Save your monthly archives each month as html files.
E.g., open the page for July 2006 from your blog's archive.
Go to the File menu of your web browser
Select 'Save as...' or 'Save page as...'
Name the file,
Select a destination for it on your hard drive,
And save it.
This should preserve a copy of the month's entries on your blog as it looked (including graphics) when you saved it. If you archive weekly, then just follow the same steps each week.
Alternatively (or in addition to #3 depending on your needs), you could:
4. Save your monthly archives each month as text files.
E.g., open the page for July 2006 from your blog's archive.
Select and copy all of the entries on the page
Open the word processing software of your choice
Paste the selection into a new document
Go to the File menu of your word processor
Select 'Save as...'
Name the file,
Select a destination for it on your hard drive,
And save it.
One year ago at TTaT: Hamlet was my undoing
tags: blogger+backup+tips, tips, blog+backup
Great info! I'll have to update the copy of my template I've saved tuough!
ReplyDeleteYou might know this: any idea how I bring my favourite/most viewed posts in the sidebar!?
fitèna
Fitena: I'm glad you found it helpful.
ReplyDeleteAs for favorites, I just did my list by hand, adding links the same way you'd add links to anything to your sidebar. There might be a code hack that would list most viewed posts, but I haven't look for one.
Kevin: the auto-email, I assume. You should still be able to back up your entries from your archive pages the way I've listed.
As for your template, you could always select 'view source' from your browser and save a copy of that to preserve link and layout info. (It'll also have the entries from that page, but you can sift out the bits that aren't part of the basic page code.)
Yeah, I should do this. Thanks for the tips!
ReplyDeleteThank you! No. 3 I'll definitely do right away - the others too, in good time...
ReplyDeleteBTW, a lot of the time I try to upload photos, blogger says ok and everything's fine --- except there's no photo uploaded.. Any ideas why this may be? If I try it like ten times it will eventually upload, but it's rather dull..
Scholiast: You're welcome. It can be a little daunting at first, but it really doesn't take all that long to do.
ReplyDeleteAs for the blogger pic upload, I'm not sure. File size maybe? You could try resizing your pics smaller and at lower resolution so they won't take as long to load. That might help.
Sometimes Blogger is just wonky no matter what you do though... :[