Where has the Edit Posts link gone?
Picture by RichTea From Wikimedia Commons |
The new look has organised things in a slightly different way to the older (ie pre-September 2011) version of Blogger, and some functions are a little harder to find.
The Edit Posts link has been replaced by a list showing you all posts, and Edit links under each post in this list. These are the tools you need to use to change a post once it's already been published, for example to fix spelling errors, or add new information.
How to change a post that is already published:
Log in to blogger at http://www.blogger.com, using the Google account that wrote the post, or one that is an administrator for the blog
If you made the blog, then you are automatically the administrator for it to start with - so just use your normal Blogger account.
You can now see the Blogger Dashboard. If you are using the new interface it looks like this:
The section in the middle lists all the blogs that your account has access to.
Most people reading this article will only have one blog - at the moment - but it's worth understanding how extra ones look.
Each blog has one line in this section. In the middle of the screen, beside the blog name, there are four icons (small pictures):
- A pencil (for write a new post)
- A stack of "papers" (for viewing your existing posts), which is right next to a drop-down arrow (for getting to the other blog -options)
- A button labelled "View Blog" (no prizes for guessing what it does!)
Click on the stack of papers: this opens a list of all your posts.
In the list, hover your mouse over the title of the post you want to edit. The link will highlight (slightly) and you will see some links under the post-title. The links are
- Edit
- View
- Share (this one only shows up if you've linked Google+ and the blog)
- Delete.
Click Edit: this takes you to the post editor. Make the changes you want, Press the Update button at the top of the screen to save them. Job Done!
The quickedit pencil - a fast alternative
Depending on how your Post Template is set up, you may see a Quick Edit Pencil icon when you are reading a post. If it is turned on, it will be either below the post-title, or at the bottom of the post above or below the contents. Clicking this icon takes you directly to the post-editor.
You will only see the icon if it's turned on for your blog (in Layout > Blog Posts, edit), and if you are logged in to Blogger using an account that is allowed to change the posts.
Your readers will never see it.
Saving changes while you edit the post:
Because you are working on a post that is already published, the "autosave" feature will not work. So if you are going to make a lot of changes, you may want to copy the post to a private or test blog. There you can publish the post (ie save it properly) as often as you want, and no one will see the messy in-between-old-and-new stages.
When you are finished, click the Publish button (near the top-centre of the screen)
What your readers see
Until you click Publish, the post that your readers see is the same as it originally was - no matter what changes you have made in the post editor.
If there is a post that you urgently need to "take down", then click the Revert to draft button (at the top of the screen, next to publish). This makes the post unavailable until you next click publish: in the meantime, anyone who tries to see it using a link will see this message:
Page not found Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog YOUR BLOG TITLE does not exist.
Making changes to a post that you didn't write
The short answer is that you are not able to do this - you need to ask the post-author or blog-administrator do it for you.
However if the blog-post has copyright material, there may be some actions you can take. And if you believe it breaks's Blogger's rules, you can report a terms of service violation.
Related Articles:
Blogger, blogs and bloggers: Posts, pages and screens. Basic Blogger concepts.
How to move a post from one blog to another
Understanding Google accounts
Giving someone author access to your blog.
Planning changes to your blog - in private
Making a new administrator for a blog
Copyright, blogs and bloggers