Comments that SUCK Less! A Hack for Blogger Users
I think I may have found the Holy Grail for setting up Blogger comments. I know it’s not exactly inline comments but in my opinion this setup offers the best compromise for Blogger users.
Background:
Not long ago I complained about how much Blogger comments suck and that it was the last straw for me deciding to move over to Wordpress. I’m still considering that move but in the mean time I stumbled across a fix that at least makes Blogger comments more livable usable.
It all started when readers Andy Beard and Blog Blonde brought to my attention a problem that they were experiencing with my comments. Andy told me the pop-up window was too small to write in and Kuanyin said that she couldn’t open the pop-up on her browser.The fix that I’m going to show here involves forcing the comment box to open automatically in a new maximized window so that:
- There is plenty of room for commenters to work in,
- Your browser will not attempt to close it because it no longer acts as a pop-up, and
- It doesn’t look like the optional comment window Blogger offers that is extremely ugly.
The fix is very simple and involves making minor changes to your template. I haven’t tested this method with Classic Blogger so at this time I’m stating this fix is for New Blogger users only (until proven otherwise).
Remember, as always be sure to backup your template by downloading it to your desktop before making any changes.
Ok, here goes… in your dashboard under the “Template“, “Edit HTML” menus, click on the “Expand Widget Templates” box and search for this code in your template:
expr:onclick=’data:post.addCommentOnclick’
Change that code to this:
expr:onclick=’data:post.comments’ target=’_blank’
So what’s going on here Bloke?
When I first tried this by just adding the target=’_blank’ code to make it open in a new window, it didn’t work. It was still opening in a small pop-up window, so I had to change the comments data tag to make it work.
One more thing before you go. In your dashboard go into your “Settings” menu and click on “Comments“. Scroll down the page and look for “Show comments in a popup window?”. Click on “Yes“.
And that’s it. Enjoy!
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That a great, I wish blogger would update the comments area.
I have one question though, How do you get the comments with the different colors. Commenter’s are tan and your are blue? If you don’t mind sharing.
This is a great tip. I think I want to try this. I’m not a fan of how Blogger handles comments, but I don’t know enough yet about how to tweak to my liking. This tip helps!
Here you go Curtis: Making Your Blog Comments More Colourful!
And ditto on the Blogger Comments complaint. Cheers!
I’m glad that you like it Kathy and thanks for saying so.
…BB
Me likie! I just added the color code. (Curtis, thanks for asking the question).
My comments are sucking less already!
Woohoo! Another happy customer
Another beautiful enhancement from the Blog Bloke! Although I understand your reasons for wanting to move to WordPress, I hope that you stay on Blogger if only to discover/pass along more great fixes like this.
For example, your method of getting GoDaddy to play nice with Blogger Custom Domains is, to my knowledge, the ONLY way out there that actually works.
As always, I love the blog and check in every day!
Welcome back from your honeymoon Jason and many blessings to you and your beautiful new wife Courtney.
By the way Jason, I’m considering starting a brand new blog on Wordpress and keeping this one on Blogger so you might get that wish after all. I haven’t made up my mind yet and you never know what the Bloke is up to :).
Cheers!
Thanks BB
You’re welcome Curtis.
Can’t get this to work. I get the dreaded ‘your template couldn’t be saved as it is not parsed correctly’ red message.
That just means there is a syntax error in your HTML code. Make certain that you copy the code exactly as shown and that you are a New Blogger user.
Dec 30th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
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