Thursday, 3 January 2008

Blogger: keep Post Options permanently open






The last round of major changes in Blogger in Dec 2007 not only broke the Magical Sheep Technorati tagger script (the script's since been fixed), but also did something else which personally I find rather annoying: it closed the Post Options section whenever I switched between the Edit Html and Compose views.

What's the Post Options section? It's the bit at the end of the main posting box, with the grey background which I've outlined in red below:


When closed, it looks like this:


In other words, you have to click the Post Options link to display the handy tagging box again, plus the options for allowing or not allowing reader comments and backlinks on a particular post (and the Keep Current Date/Time box, if you have that userscript).

Having my tags hidden whenever I switch modes was a nuisance as I had to keep clicking the Post Options link in order to re-display the tags, then next time I switched, poooof, they'd vanish again, I'd have to open it again, etc.

So how can you keep that section open all the time, even when you switch modes?

Well the ever clever Kirk has come to the rescue yet again. He's fixed the Magical Sheep Technorati tagging user script to make sure that the Post Options section stays permanently open - install the updated userscript and you won't be able close that section even if you want to, but frankly why should anyone want to? Can't understand why Team Blogger chose to make that change in the first place. There's no point in hiding that section. It doesn't clutter screen real estate, those are useful options, and most newbies have no idea that you can click on the Post Options link and it will open up. That section should always be open, in the opinion of the Magical Sheep.

So open it will now be, and open it will stay, if you install the updated version of the tagging userscript, which you can get from any of the following links (if you already have the script just install the update over your existing version, no need to remove anything first):
Beginners can find out more about the tagger script generally, what it does, how to install it, and indeed what are Technorati tags and why you'd want to use them.

Even if you don't want to use Technorati tags, you can install the script just to keep the Post Options section permanently open, if you wish; you don't have to use the tags.

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