Wednesday, November 18, 2009

MOGeek: How I fixed my SIDEBAR dropping below the posts.

So last night I was minding my own business, playing with myself my blog, when the Main Page with list of my posts went HAYWIRE and the sidebar and gadgets dropped beneath the posts.

Weird thing was, when you clicked into a post, the sidebar was fine.

What I know about HTML could fit in a sock, and the thing that sock-full of knowledge would be most useful for is beating my computer. But I don't give up easily, so I checked the coding and tweaked and prodded and finally, cursed at my computer and spent twenty minutes throwing beans at it.

Later, I checked the Blogger help pages. I did everything they said to do, and nothing happened. I realised it was probably a Page Break issue, but couldn't fix it even with the HTML fixes on the blogger help pages.

HERE'S HOW I FOUND THE PROBLEM:
I narrowed down the possible problems to three posts and a gadget - the last things I had been working on. The sidebar and gadget HTML looked fine. Only one blog entry was behind a page break. Bingo.

HERE'S THE SOLUTION:

I know it may sound painful and/or tedious, but this is the best way to do it and it will fix the problem in a flash.

1: First, copy everything in the blog post you think is causing problems and paste it into NOTEPAD. Making a copy of the post text will save you if you accidentally delete anything or have to try again. It is important to use Notepad because it is a basic text reader/writer and so it doesn't put in formatting that can screw with your blog post. Microsoft works or other rich text "advanced" word processing programs will cause more problems.

2: Now that your post is saved, press the edit pencil to edit your blog post.

3: Make sure your editor is in the "Compose" section, not "Edit HTML".

4: Select all text and press the "Remove formatting" button. You can find it in the right-hand corner of the editing bar. It looks like a T with a red X beside it.

5: Re-publish your post with the "Publish Post" button.

6: Check Main Page.

Voila! Your sidebar should be back to normal. Unfortunately, your post will have lost all bolding, italics and if it contained pictures, they will be in the wrong places, but that's fixable. Oh, and I was able to put the page break in when I was finished and it didn't hurt my sidebar at all!

Now tell me, wasn't it worth the time?

Happy blogging!

45 comments:

  1. Thanks for trying to help, DarkUFO :D

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  2. not working on my blog. theindonesianpalaces.blogspot.com. but thanks

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  3. Thank you so much! That was extremely helpful.

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  4. I tried everything as per the instruction.

    I cannot fix it, please help me i am in big trouble, i have 3 sites using herbret blogger template, since last 5-6 days on all my sites my right sidebar pushed at the bottom, after all blog post, i tried but cannot find the fix. please help....

    1. www.sugarinds.blogspot.com
    2. www.latestcarblog.blogspot.com
    3. www.heartsafetytips.blogspot.com

    Thanks

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  5. @Big B: Your stuff looks fine. If you're advertising here, I must say: I'm all for both whoring and sugar, but this is not what I meant when I said that...

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  6. My problem has been solved, u can remove my comment if u think i was spamming.

    regrds

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  7. Worked for me, never would have figured out it was a problem with one of my posts so thanks for sharing this fix :)

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  8. THIS bit of html bloggy genius just saved me from having to start another blog from scratch! God BLESS you!!!!!

    Alix @ Casa Hice

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  9. You are amazing! I've spent hours trying to figure out my little glitch and your instructions were the key. Thank you so much!

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  10. OH MY GOSH THANK YOU!!!!!!!

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  11. THANKS!!!!! I have been frustrated for this problem for so long.... REALLY THANKS!!!

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  12. yo, you have lifted a lot of stress from my shoulders, I salute you!

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  13. Thanks Naked Girl!!
    I always use Notepad when copying and pasting things to my blog to prevent problems. For some reason I still ended up with line breaks. Thanks for yor post. You sure made my life a lot easier!!

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  14. Y'all are lovely. So glad I could help :)

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  15. Thank you SO much! This helped me a ton... I was going crazy trying to figure it out. No one has been able to fix this problem until now.

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  16. I can't find the 'remove formatting' button... Could it have to do with the fact that I am in the Middle East and the browser options are slightly different? Ugh... I thought your post would be the answer for me!

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  17. Nevermind, I found the button; mine looks like an eraser. But I did it to the wrong post and now I've lost my pictures :( I tried the copy it into and back from Notepad thing and the pictures are still gone...

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  19. Thanks heaps ...Perfect it fix my problem!..

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  20. This did not fix my problem at all unfortunately. I was so excited. For some reason. I deleted my post that has over 100 comments on it. And when I did that the sidebar went up. Then I tried to do a new post and the sidebar went back down again. So it definetly has to do with doing a new post. Even if it has nothing in it, for a new post the sidebar slides back down. The only way you can see it normal is when you go to comments. Is there anything else I can do?

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  21. waaaaa!! thanx alot!! you've save my blog!

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  22. Thank you!! This worked for me!!

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  23. this has been a night mare and you have saved me, btw love your blog too!

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  24. i can't figure mine out yet, it happened around the same time i switched to one of the new blogger templates

    i don;t know what to do :(

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  25. someone.... please.... help

    getyouroj2007.blogspot.com

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  26. i have the same problem jason i too switched to one of the new blogger templates.. ugh i have tried everything

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  27. Thank you so much, this post solved all of my problems :D
    I've been tearing my hair out with my blog and now the problem is gone!

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  28. Hey there! Just wanted to say thanks. I usually get too impatient to read through guidance on fixing formatting issues and you totally helped me, simply.

    Carin

    www.nowstayopen.com

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  29. Thank you! Saved my sanity tonight....

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  30. This just saved my butt today! Thanks for posting the info!!! :) PHEW! I can breathe a sigh of relief now.

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  31. OMG! Thank You soo much for posting this....I went back and fixed my last post and my sidebar is mysteriously back where it belongs.Now I just have to go fix everything I messed up before finding this info. Thanks!

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  33. Thankyou!:) My blog's fixed. The post with the page break did it.
    Is there any chance you know why it happens?

    Anyway, Thanks again :)

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  34. Great one my friend. It works on my blog.
    www.theparadiseplaces1.blogspot.com

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  35. I have have been trying your tips but I am having problems isolating the exact post that is causing the problems. Any advice you have would be great. Currently using Firefox but noticing the problem is also visible on IE.

    http://bigthoughtsfromasmallmind.blogspot.com/

    Thanks in advance.

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  36. Please ignore my comment. Finally figured out which post was causing the problems. Used your tips to resolve the issue. Thanks.

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  37. Thanks! Your suggestion totally worked!!

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  38. THANK YOU!!! I know next to nothing about HTML. My husband just asked me how I fixed our blog and I said, "I have no idea. I just followed directions and it worked." Thanks for taking the time to post this.

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