Blogger is a very flexible platform for blogs. You can modify the template and your blog in many different ways. Encouraged by this many Bloggers routinely ask for the extreme. They want more and more hacks to easily do many things which are not offered in the standard templates.
For the idiomatically challenged :-) No can do (NCD) means that the speaker can't do whatever it is that has been asked of him or her.
There are some boundaries to this platform and this is an attempt to list them. This is to encourage new hackers who may wish to build new hacks. As far as I know I have tried to list only those for which hacks are not available as yet...........
MAKE A PING LIST
In Wordpress blogs you have to set up a ping list of search engines to ping after publishing a post. In Blogger Settings------>Basic----->Let search engines find your blog?---->Select Yes "Yes" to include your blog in Google Blog Search and ping Weblogs.com. If you want to ping multiple search engines in one go you have to choose an online multipinging site.
ADD WIDGET INSIDE A POST
The Blog Posts widget is itself a widget or a page element. Hence you cannot add any widget inside it. You can add widgets to the posts column above or below the posts but not inside it. As an example you can add a banner link or a permanent sticky message just above your blog post as you can see in this blog.
ADD POSTS IN TWO DIFFERENT BLOG COLUMNS
There is only one Blog Posts widget and it cannot be divided over two columns. If you want to give your blog a 'newspaper' look you will have to put your posts text within table columns made in the post editor.
MOST RECENTLY COMMENTED POST AT THE TOP
The default order for the blog posts is the latest at the top with earlier posts being pushed down the column. To change the order of blog posts you can change the dates of the posts. However once ordered their position is fixed and cannot be moved by someone commenting on them. Instead you can show the most recent comments in a widget in the sidebar.
DASHBOARD CANNOT BE CUSTOMIZED
The Blogger Dashboard is the page which opens when you login at Blogger.com. Since this is the property of Blogger you cannot change design of this page to match your blog design.
ORDER OF BLOGS ON DASHBOARD
Your blogs are ordered on the Blogger Dashboard with the latest modified being the first in the list. You cannot change this list.
CUSTOMIZE PROFILE PAGE
It is not possible to change the template or appearance of the profile page.
PROFILE VISITOR STATS
It is not possible to see further details of who has visited the profile page except the number. It is not possible to reset this number.
SHOW ANIMATION IN BLOGGER HOSTED FILES
When you upload images to Blogger they are stored at Picasa. Since at present Picasa does not support animation you will not see it. Instead upload the animation gif file to Photobucket.com and put its link in your post.
NO SPECIAL PASSWORD AUTHENTICATION
You cannot have a special password for your blog members and login system. For private blogs you have to invite them via Settings----->Permissions.
BLOGGER DOES NOT CREATE THUMBNAILS
When you upload pictures you are given three choices : small, medium and large. There is no thumbnail size (96x96 pixels). To create thumbnail albums in Blogger you have to resize images on your PC and then upload them to blog.
CUSTOMIZE COMMENTS PAGE
There is no template or customization for the comments page which pops up when you click the COMMENTS link below your posts on the Main Page.
CHANGE ORDER OF COMMENTS
Comments appear below your post on the Post Pages with the latest comment being the last. There is no way to change this order.
EDIT ROBOTS.TXT FILE
At present Blogger does not offer any method to edit the default robots.txt file. This is different from the ROBOTS metatag at the top of your template which can be edited.
KEEP BIRTH DATE WITHOUT ASTROLOGY SIGN IN PROFILE
To prevent the astrological sign from appearing in your profile you have to delete your birth date on the Edit Profile page and save it.
LIST POSTS ALPHABETICALLY
Posts are ordered according to their dates. You cannot list them alphabetically. This is because a blog is basically an online diary.
SIMPLER PERMALINKS
Blogger post permalinks have the month and year of publication within them. Simpler permalinks like http://www.myblog.blogspot.com/myfirstpost.html are not possible.
SINGLE DELETE ALL POSTS WITH ONE CLICK
You cannot delete all your posts by clicking a single button. You have to delete each post individually. This is a safety mechanism to prevent accidental delete of all posts simultaneously.
MASS IMPORT OF POSTS
There is no import or export function in Blogger as of date.
MULTIPLE PROFILES ON SAME ACCOUNT
You have to create a different account and transfer your other blog there OR delete the profile widget and put another Html widget with alternate profile information.
CLAIM UNUSED BLOG URLs
Blogger does not reassign Blogger URLs even if they are unused. You have to find a method of contacting blog owner and persuade him/her to transfer blog to you.
UPLOAD PICTURE TO ANY POSITION IN POST
When pictures are uploaded to Blogger they land up at the top of the post. After that you have to relocate them in your post to where you want them using drag and drop.
UPLOAD FILES TO BLOGGER
You can only upload images and videos to Blogger at present. All other files have to be uploaded to a free host and then put their links in your blog.
SINGLE CLICK CHANGE POST ORDER
You cannot change post order with a single click. You have to change their dates to change their order.
ALLOW EVERYONE TO BE BLOG AUTHOR
To allow someone to post to your blog you have to know their email address so you can invite them via Settings---->Permissions. You cannot allow every viewer to post but you can allow anyone to comment.
ADD PAGES LIKE WORDPRESS
In Blogger you can add pages only by creating another post. You can change its appearance by allowing the appearance of some widgets using conditional tags. To add other pages create them at Google Page Creator and put their link in your blog.
ADD CLASSIC TEMPLATE TO LAYOUTS
You will get an error message if you attempt to paste and save a Classic template in a Layout blog. If you want your blog to have a Classic template first you have to Revert to Classic Template.
LOAD WIDGETS IN A CLASSIC TEMPLATE
To load widgets you have to have a Layout template.
LOAD WIDGETS ALONG WITH THEIR DATA
When you load a new layout template the widget contents are not transferred along with it. You have to backup your widgets data first.
If you can find any hacks for the above do let me know in your comments to this post.
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