1. You try to open a web page, and it takes forever to load
2. You try to log in to Blogger, Gmail, etc and is unable to do so
3. You try to publish a post or upload a photo, but is unable to do so
4. You uploaded a photo, and it said done, but you check and it is not there
5. You have more than 1 email account, Blogger account, del.icio.us account or any any other services. You are logged into one, then you want to log into the other, and you have to first log out and re-login. You find that inconvenient, and you want to be logged into more than one account of the same service at the same time
6. You are in the Layout page and you can't see "Add a Page Element", etc. (see update at the bottom of the page)
(There are more, will add it as it comes back to my memory)
Well, I have found many times that by simply changing web browser, or having more than one browser opened at the same time, I succeed where I failed before. Recently for example, I tried uploading a picture to a Blogger post and it said done, but when I checked the post, the picture was not there. This happened a few times. I changed to FireFox, logged in, upload the picture and succeeded the first time. (Happened again while I was preparing this post). See post What to do when you can't post, upload photos, etc,.
And if you have more than one browser opened at the same time, you can be logged into one Gmail account, for example, and with the other browser, you can be logged into a different Gmail account. I have Gmail account for private use and Gmail account to put on my blog for visitors to contact me, etc.
There are still many who are still using only Internet Explorer, and if this is the case there are even more reasons you should get FireFox. Blogger is optimised for FireFox. And the tabbed browsing is just fantastic. Once you have tried it, you will never want to go back to Internet Explorer again. Then there is a very effective built-in pop-up blocker built-in. Even if you already have FireFox installed, you should get the Google Toolbar. With this, you can conveniently do spell checking within the Blogger post editor as well as other online forms. This is more convenient than using the spell checker built into the Blogger post editor. (See "How to do spellcheck for your Blogger post") With the tool bar, you can check the PageRank of your blog as well as any other websites you visit. With the Google search box built into the toolbar, you can search just the current web page or the whole web. There are many other advantages of having a Google toolbar with your FireFox.
I have 3 browsers on my computer, Internet Explorer, FireFox and Opera and I find that very convenient. But Opera is still not fully support by Blogger yet, although I still use it. I find FireFox much better, especially for those using Blogger. For example, compare the toolbar of the post editor in FireFox and Opera. Here is a screenshot of the toolbar in FireFox (click on the screenshot to enlarge it)
and here is a screenshot of the toolbar in Opera (click on the screenshot to enlarge it)
Note that there are much less features in the toolbar, and especially notice that the EDIT HTML tab and the COMPOSE tab are missing in Opera. That means, in opera, you post editor will only be in the EDIT HTML mode, which is OK if you are familiar with HTML. (Update: This appear to be an on-off thing. At other tiem I was able to see the tool bar and the tabs)Another thing. If you are a member of the Google Blogger Help group, and you reply to a post, this will be the window for you to post your reply in Opera
Now compare it with the reply window in FireFox:
Update: I faced the same problems that other posters complained about, and the solution that I had always put forth (changing browsers) didn't work at first. I tried uploading in IE. It said DONE, but no picture, no error message. I tried FireFox, clicking on the upload photo icon didn't turn up the pop-up for the upload. I tried Opera, the post editor toolbar (together with the photo upload icon) can't be seen. I tried signing out, and signing in again. No go. I went to take a short nap. I tried IE, FireFox. Still no go. Finally I opened up Opera, and this time, the toolbar plus the icon was visible. I upload the picture, it was success at the first try. BTW if you want to download FireFox (with the very useful Google toolbar) you can get it here: FireFox Alert or direct from this page by clicking on the link "Get FireFox with Google Toolbar for better browsing" at the top of the right sidebar. For Opera, it is here: Opera Download
UPDATE: 28th September 06
Just a moment ago, I tried to log into my Gmail account. The only browser I succeeded in doing this was Internet Explorer. The other two, FireFox and Opera returned error messages. However, don't interpret this as Internet Explorer being the superior browser. Everything depend on the situation at that particular point of time and the situation.
UPDATE 24 November 2006: While this post is specifically addressing the issue of difficulties of publishing a post, it can be used to overcome many other problems. A problem that I just met. I was trying to get https://google.com/adsense/ opened in
FireFox, I waited and waited. When I could not wait anymore, I opened another browser Internet Explorer. The page opened and I logged in in seconds and read my reports. At the time of writing this update, FireFox is still trying to open the AdSense login page. I am not saying FireFox is no good, but it is a big advantage to have more than one browser in your computer (click BACK button to get back to this page). Changing browsers does often help in various difficult situation.
Note: If you are one of the 80% of surfers who use only Internet Explorer, you can download FireFox directly from this page by clicking on the link "Get FireFox with Google Toolbar for better browsing" at the top of the right sidebar.
Update April 26, 2007: A member of Google Blogger Help group had problem seeing "Add a Page Element" in the Layout (see thread Add Page Element Missing. I suggested try using a different browser, and here is her response:
"Spot on!
I was using Firefox.
So on your suggestion I switched to IE6 and have the 'add a page
element' showing as it should.
Thank you, environman. You're my super-hero!"
Update April 26, 2007: Since a while ago, when I experienced some difficulties with Opera while using Blogger, I have installed and used Flock, another web browser. I have been pretty satisfied with it. So now, I have 4 browsers in my computer.
Update 23 July 2007: For a further reason why you should have many browsers in your computer (click BACK button to get back to this page), see How to make a clickable link. Read the section on "Make tool tips appear for hyperlinks".
Books from Amazon
Book: Blogging for Dummies
The Rational Guide to Google Blogger (Technical accuracy is assured by Biz Stone, Former Senior Specialist on the Google Blogger Team)
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