How To Add Disqus Comment System to Blogger

DISQUS is a comments platform that helps you build an active community from your website's audience. It has awesome features, powerful tools, and it's easy to install.Before this I have explain how to add IntenseDebate comment system to blogger blog and now I am going to explain how to add Disqus comment system to your blogger blog.There are lot of good features with Disqus comment system when we

How To Add IntenseDebate Comment System to Blogger

IntenseDebate is one of the most popular a feature-rich comment system for WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and many other blogging/CMS platforms.In this tutorial I am going to explain how to add IntenseDebate comment system to Blogger blog.With IntenseDebate,you can do many things than your default comment system.These are some main features of IntenseDebate comments.IntenseDebate features:Comment

Spam Comments Moderation In Blogger/BlogSpot Blogs

Being closely associated with Google, Blogger has always been focusing on improving the SEO attributes of its blogs. Working in the same direction, the recent development is the integration of Google's Spam filtering technology into Blogger. For you, it's just another new tab in your Blogger Dashboard: Comments...

NOTE: This feature has not yet been added in all the blogs. So, if the tab is currently absent from your dashboard, then do not worry - it will be added soon.



If the tab is already present in your blogs Dashboard, click on it. Now if you have activated "Comment Moderation" in your Blog Settings ( -> Comments), then you will see three sections under the tab "Comments", like this:



NOTE 2: To better manage your blog-comments, moderate them directly from your email.

And if you haven't activated "Comment Moderation" in your blog, then you will see only two options under the tab Comments, viz. Published and Spam.



Now, this "Comments" section not only allows you to manage all your comments from one place, but the "SPAM" sub-section is the main advantage and purpose of adding this new section to the dashboard.

According to Blogger;

Blogger now filters comments that are likely spam comments to a Spam Inbox, much like the spam folder in your email. When someone leaves a comment on your blog, it will be reviewed against our spam detector, and comments that are identified as possible spam will be sent to your blog’s Spam Inbox, found at Comments | Spam.

You can help improve our ability to automatically detect spam comments by checking your Spam Inbox and deleting spam comments and marking real comments that may have been flagged as spam as Not Spam.

NOTE 2: Spam filtering currently only applies to new comments.

So, log in to Blogger and see if you already have the new tab or not. And moreover, you can report any issues with the new spam system by clicking on the “Report spam filtering issues” link on the bottom of the Comments | Spam page, or by visiting this Help Forum page.

Image Credits: Message Defense

New Comments System on Blogger : Spam Filtering | Comments "Inbox"

Commenting is one of the most important parts of blogging. it’s what makes blogging a conversation. Now Blogger has introduced 2 new improvements to Blogger’s comments system: Spam filtering(Spam Inbox) and the ability to view all comments on your blog in one place(Comments Inbox).Comment InboxThe Published sub-tab(under Comments tab) provides a similar view as your email inbox. You can see all

How to set comment option for individual post

"Is there a way to not have comments for a post in the body of the blog or post? I would like to have a "comment" page that readers can go to and comment there, but not on the post itself."

You can easily set any individual post to either allow or don't allow comments. You will have to first go to Dashboard, click SETTINGS > COMMENTS and set the blog to show comments:

Comments (.) Show ( ) Hide

All you need to do now when publishing a post is to click POST OPTION at the bottom left corner of the post editor and select one of the 3 options:

( ) Allow
( ) Don't allow, show existing
( ) Don't allow, hide existing

Related posts:
How to remove "nofollow" attribute for comments

How to enable comments for pages

"I have created new pages and would like people to be able to leave comments"

To enable comments, go to Dashboard, click EDIT POSTS, then EDIT PAGES and you will see the pages you have added to your blog:



Click EDIT for the page which you want to enable comments, then at the bottom left corner of the resulting "page editor", click POST OPTIONS and in the options under READERS COMMENTS:



tick (.) Allow to allow readers comments, then click PUBLISH.

How to delete own comments in other blogger's posts

A previous post described How to delete comments and another post was about a delete comment utility. However, "But I was thinking more in lines of my comment in another person's blog"

That is not difficult. All that is needed is that you be logged into your Blogger account when you surf over to the post where you have left comment you want to delete. You will then see a trash can icon at the bottom corner of your comment like in the screen shot below:



All you need to do is to click the trashcan icon, confirm the deletion, and your comment will be (partially) deleted, leaving behind this:



Related posts:
Delete comment utility
How to delete comments
How to delete comments Part 2

Recomendation for comments - no captcha

A few years back, most bloggers have to deal with unwanted spam comments, especially if they had not enabled comments moderation. Because of such widespread spam comments, most bloggers enabled captcha (word verification) for comments in which case commentators would first have to complete the word like the one you see in the screen shot below:



If you allow comments for your posts and moderate your comments, I would highly recommend you do not enable captcha (word verification) for the following reasons:

Ever since all blogging platforms including Blogger add the "nofollow" attribute to hyperlinks in comments, the incentive for spammers to post spam comments have been greatly reduced and I have found that spam comments have reduced to almost zero.

Having to complete word verification is a great inconvenience, especially for the visually impaired who have to click on the universal handicap icon in order for the alphabets in the captcha to be read out in audio form. I have tested clicking on that icon and the resulting machine voice is practically indecipherable. I have captured it on a video. Play the video below and see if you can make out what the voice is trying to say:



In my opinion, captcha is a torture. Why subject your readers to torture when the original reasons for enabling captcha, spam comments, is no longer a problem.

Update: Looks like a few bloggers have a different experience from mine in that they get lots of spam comments. I will like to hear about your experience. Please leave a comment.

Delete comments utility

To delete comments, one have to be logged in while viewing the blog post whereupon there will be a trashcan icon beside the comment. To delete the comment, all you need to do is to click on the trashcan icon

However sometimes the trashcan icon is missing even when you are logged in which makes the task of deleting the comment impossible. To address this issue, I have published 2 posts, namely How to delete comments and How to delete comments Part 2.

Today I found a Delete Blogger comment utility and tested it (obviously while I am not logged in because I don't really want to delete any comments). I found out that the utility will download all the comments together with all the accompanying trashcan icons while logged out. I tested clicking on one of the trashcan icon while logged out and what happened was a Blogger log in page appeared with boxes to enter the username and password like the screenshot below:



So bloggers, if you have any difficulties, try this Delete Blogger comment utility.

Related comments:
How to delete comments
How to delete comments Part 2
How to delete own comments in other people's blog

Show Recent Comments

It's very usefull to Show Recent Comments on main blog page. We can know who have given comments on aur articles without open it one by one. At this time I will show you how to show recent comments on our main page blog. It's very easy

1. Login to blogger then go to "Layout"
2. Then copy this code :

<script style="text/javascript" src="http://kendhin.890m.com/comments.js"></script><script style="text/javascript">var a_rc=8;var m_rc=false;var n_rc=true;var o_rc=40;</script><script src="http://trick-blog.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments"> </script>

- The 8 number is the sum of comments that will show up.
- Change trick-blog.blogspot.com with your blog's name.

3. You can show it in page elements. Just click on "add page elements --> HTML/Javascript" Then insert the script in it.

Or you can plug it in the "Tab View"

Show Recent Comments

It's very usefull to Show Recent Comments on main blog page. We can know who have given comments on aur articles without open it one by one. At this time I will show you how to show recent comments on our main page blog. It's very easy

1. Login to blogger then go to "Layout"
2. Then copy this code :

<script style="text/javascript" src="http://kendhin.890m.com/comments.js"></script><script style="text/javascript">var a_rc=8;var m_rc=false;var n_rc=true;var o_rc=40;</script><script src="http://trick-blog.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments"> </script>

- The 8 number is the sum of comments that will show up.
- Change trick-blog.blogspot.com with your blog's name.

3. You can show it in page elements. Just click on "add page elements --> HTML/Javascript" Then insert the script in it.

Or you can plug it in the "Tab View"

Blogger Under Posting Comment box

Now, blogger(blogspot) have developed their comment box. Last time ago, if we want to post a comment there should be only a link under our posting, and we have to click the link send a comment, it's not interesting. But now we can find a comment box under our post exactly. It's original from blogger, it's not like haloscan or intensedebate. But it's truely from blogger/blogspot. You can see it under this post.

Here is the trick to create comment box under your post.

1. Login to http://draft.blogger.com
2. Go to Setting-->Comments. then change "Comment Form Placement" to be "Embedded below post" (look at the image below)



3. Then "Save Setting"
Try to see your blog and klik on your titile post. if there is a embadded commnet box below your post just stop this step here. But if there is no comments box, just follow the next steps here.

4. Go to "Layout-->Edit HTML"
5. Check the "Expand widget templates" box.
6. Find this code :

<p class='comment-footer'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'>
<data:postCommentMsg/></a>
</p>
</b:if>

7. Then replace it with this code :

<p class='comment-footer'>
<b:if cond='data:post.embedCommentForm'>
<b:include data='post' name='comment-form'/>
<b:else/> <b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'>
<data:postCommentMsg/></a>
</b:if> </b:if> </p> </b:if>

8. Save your Template.

I've deleted my last comment box (haloscan). so now I lost all of my comments before. I do it to get this comment box.

Blogger Under Posting Comment box

Now, blogger(blogspot) have developed their comment box. Last time ago, if we want to post a comment there should be only a link under our posting, and we have to click the link send a comment, it's not interesting. But now we can find a comment box under our post exactly. It's original from blogger, it's not like haloscan or intensedebate. But it's truely from blogger/blogspot. You can see it under this post.

Here is the trick to create comment box under your post.

1. Login to http://draft.blogger.com
2. Go to Setting-->Comments. then change "Comment Form Placement" to be "Embedded below post" (look at the image below)



3. Then "Save Setting"
Try to see your blog and klik on your titile post. if there is a embadded commnet box below your post just stop this step here. But if there is no comments box, just follow the next steps here.

4. Go to "Layout-->Edit HTML"
5. Check the "Expand widget templates" box.
6. Find this code :

<p class='comment-footer'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'>
<data:postCommentMsg/></a>
</p>
</b:if>

7. Then replace it with this code :

<p class='comment-footer'>
<b:if cond='data:post.embedCommentForm'>
<b:include data='post' name='comment-form'/>
<b:else/> <b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'>
<data:postCommentMsg/></a>
</b:if> </b:if> </p> </b:if>

8. Save your Template.

I've deleted my last comment box (haloscan). so now I lost all of my comments before. I do it to get this comment box.

Why your comments and emails are not getting prompt response: Apologies

Dear blogs readers of this blog and the following blogs:

Blogger for Dummies
Tips and Tricks for Blogger or "Son of Blogger Tips and Tricks"
(slotted for conversion to custom domain taking long time because I want to make sure both URLs, one with www and one without www, goes to same website. Now you don't need to worry. All you need to do is to register for a domain direct from your Google Blogger post editor via Google Apps and that is automatically done for you. I did it for another blog)
Dummies Guide to Google Blogger
(intended "online book" which took long time to get off because I did not have the structure for it)
Testing Blogger Beta (now New Blogger).

Some of you may have left comments or contacted me via email, but have not been getting prompt response. I apologize profusely. I cannot help it. There were various things which kept me very busy.

One of them was my country's recent extraordinary General Election in which the corrupt, unfair and deaf government which ruled our county for decades through divide and rule racial politics, very unfair electoral system with what many considered a biased Election Commission, gerrymandering, unethical election tactics, very tight control over the mainstream mass media, etc. We had to chip in to help bring changes to our country and bloggers, the Internet, NGOs (non-Government Organizations), many citizens' initiative and online independent newspapers played a crucial role. They lost control of many states and only managed to cling on to Federal power by a wafer thin majority of votes. Many think they would have lost that as well if not for stuff like postal votes. My two blogs contributed a tiny part:

Blog for Positive Changes in Malaysia
Digital Candlelight Vigil
(reluctant "protest" blogger)

I also had to help a bit (not as much as I should) in preparation for the election, campaigning and also acted as polling and counting agents on election day itself.

Another reason was I got an unsolicited email from the publisher of "for Dummies" books and was asked if I might be interested in authoring such a book. Of course I was, but I explained my situation and requested for extension of dateline for submission of proposal which was kindly granted. I was advised to purchase some "for Dummies" books to get familiarized with their format. I invested in a Blogging for Dummies book by Brad Hill (that obsolete book was still on sale in book shops and Amazon at time of publishing). I found some inaccuracies and obsolescence and emailed them. I was told I bought an older version and there was a new version, Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley

I have also other tasks to do, including updating my blogs, responding to comments and emails, etc.

I sacrificed precious time to draft out a proposed Table of Content and just to make sure the format was in the format they wanted, I sent to them as an interim proposed Table of Content hoping for feedback so when I send them the final proposed Table of Content, it would be in the format they wanted. They also asked for statistics for traffic to my blogs which I sent to them in a separate email. Now even before the extended dateline, I was told that they had already selected an author. I requested for reasons, not PR (public relations) and was told my proposed Table of Content was good and in the format they wanted. However, I was rejected because of my correspondence style (too many emails).

Now I have already told them that while I have published research papers, I have never authored a book nor have had contact with any book publishers before. So after investing money in their "for Dummies" books, putting in hard work, sacrificing precious time which I could ill afford, I though they should at least have the decency to wait till the extended dateline plus let me know that they do not want too many emails so I have a chance to correct myself. It was not based on my proposal nor my knowledge or abilities which they said were impressive. Plus if I had bought an obsolete "for Dummies" book, I should have been offered a replacement, but no, none was offered. I obviously felt cheated and unfairly treated.

Anyway, I have long have the opinion that printed books for topics which are frequently changing like Google Blogger, especially after they have upgraded to a much improved blogging platform, are headed in the direction of the dinosaurs and an online book may be a better option as they are easily updated and new chapters added as new features became available. I am thus planning to publish an online version of Blogger for Dummies using the Table of content as the framework. However, just to make sure that is not infringing their "for Dummies" trademark, I have contacted them and am awaiting their response. If I have a chance, I would also like to get some opinion or opinions of intellectual properties professionals.

Whether this online version of Blogger for Dummies gets off the starting block will depend on the above plus also availability of time as I don't expect to get much returns on this effort plus will have to put in much efforts and time to make it a good, easy to follow and understand online book. Anyway, let us see what the future holds

Widget to Put Comment Box Under Posting

Sometimes ago I have posted an articel about "How to Create Commnet Box Under Posting" it use haloscan comment box. It working well for some bloger and bad for some bloger too. If you failed or dislike using haloscan comment box, may be this will be alternatifvfor you. This comment box is created by intensedebate.com, this comment box can be use as a widget, and to apply this widget is very simple, and to remove this is more simple it just like when you remove Page Element from your blog. Ok, if you interest to try this widget I’ll show you how to put it.

1. Login to Blogger.com the chose "Layout --> Edit HTML", click on the link "Download Full Template" to backup your template first

2. Then go to intensedebate.com site sgn up, the login and go to "dashboard"

3. On the up right you will see "add blog" button, click the button

4. Then you will see a box to insert your blog url, fill it then press the button .

5. Then you will see a page like this:

6. For easy, chose"Widget (Recomended)".

7. There are some choice on the "Replace Comment System". Chose "On post without comments" if you want the comment box show under no comment articel (your previouse comment still exist). If you want the comment box exist on every posting chose "On all blog post" (You will lose your previouse comments, but it can be restored).

8. The click "Complete Installation" button.

9. You will see the page like this :

10. Chose your blog then click "ADD WIDGET" button.

Finish...

Widget to Put Comment Box Under Posting

Sometimes ago I have posted an articel about "How to Create Commnet Box Under Posting" it use haloscan comment box. It working well for some bloger and bad for some bloger too. If you failed or dislike using haloscan comment box, may be this will be alternatifvfor you. This comment box is created by intensedebate.com, this comment box can be use as a widget, and to apply this widget is very simple, and to remove this is more simple it just like when you remove Page Element from your blog. Ok, if you interest to try this widget I’ll show you how to put it.

1. Login to Blogger.com the chose "Layout --> Edit HTML", click on the link "Download Full Template" to backup your template first

2. Then go to intensedebate.com site sgn up, the login and go to "dashboard"

3. On the up right you will see "add blog" button, click the button

4. Then you will see a box to insert your blog url, fill it then press the button .

5. Then you will see a page like this:

6. For easy, chose"Widget (Recomended)".

7. There are some choice on the "Replace Comment System". Chose "On post without comments" if you want the comment box show under no comment articel (your previouse comment still exist). If you want the comment box exist on every posting chose "On all blog post" (You will lose your previouse comments, but it can be restored).

8. The click "Complete Installation" button.

9. You will see the page like this :

10. Chose your blog then click "ADD WIDGET" button.

Finish...

Moderate comments via email notification: Advantages and problems

I have set almost all my blogs to moderate comments via email moderation and this method have many advantages over Moderating comments from Dashboard plus problems.

Advantages of moderating comments via email notification

The biggest advantage of moderating comments via email notification is that in the email notification message, there is a link to the post where the comment was made. This link is non-existent if you Moderate comments from Dashboard. This very useful link allows you to quickly go to the post where the comment was made if you need a response and save you the hassle of having to save the post title, then searching for the post in the Dashboard when you moderate comments from the Dashboard. Further, you have a permanent record of the comment plus the link to the post in your Inbox which you can refer to if ever necessary. A further advantage is you can have a solution if accidentally delete a comment or want to edit a comment (click BACK button to get back to this page).

How to moderate comments via email moderation

You will first have to set comments to moderation and provide an email address to send the email notification for comment moderation. If you do not give an email address, your only choice is to moderate comments via the Dashboard with its resultant problems.

This is how an email notification for comment moderation will look like.:



Note that the full text of the comment is visible plus there is link to the post where the comment was made and another link to the profile of the commentator (both highlighted by red ellipses). If you click publish, you will be taken to a page with another link to the post. Click on that link and you will be in the post, ready to respond to the comment. In this case, the link in the email notification is superfluous, but may be helpful, say, you want to check the post before you publish or reject the comment, useful as a permanent record, if you accidentally deleted the comment, etc.

How to solve comment moderation via email problem

Comment moderation via email for Blogger

If you opted for comment moderation for your blog, there are two ways of doing it. One is to moderate from the Dashboard. The other is to moderate via email. If you chose the second option, the first option is still available. This second option is a much better alternative because you get a permanent record of the of the comment in your Inbox, you can publish or reject direct from the email plus, very useful, you get a link to the post where the comment was made (see screenshot. Title of post which is a link highlighted by red ellipse):



If you moderate via the Dashboard, very important is to remember to click on "Post Name" to display the title of the post in which the comment was made (see screenshot below:



It is only after clicking on "Post Name" that the title of the post in which the comments were made are displayed:



It is such a simple matter for Blogger to make the post title displayed by default, without having to click "Post Name" as it is important if you have any intention of responding to the comment. It is easy to forget, and that have happened to me before. Once you published the comment, it will disappear from the Dashboard and you will not know which post to go to to respond to the comment. What I have been doing when I need to moderate comments via email is to highlight the post title, copy and paste it into a Notepad file. After publishing the comment, I will then have to click "Edit Posts" and paste the post title into the search box to search for the post. The funny thing is, I have pasted the whole of what I copied into the search box and the search came up empty. I have to delete some of it before the post turn up in the search. Strange.

Anyway, once you locate the post, click VIEW to go to the post and then you can respond to the comment there.

Some comments not receiving email notification for moderation

This have been going on for some time and I have been faithfully posting details of it to the Google Blogger Help group. Blogger Employee asked us to check the spam folder. I did and so far, have never come across a single email notification for comment moderation in the spam folder, but have got some emails from my blog readers which ended up there. So if you have tried to email me but didn't get a reply, I may have missed it when I check the spam folder.

I was using Yahoo mail. Thinking that changing to Gmail may make the task for Blogger to trace the problem, I changed it to Gmail. The problem still persist.

New problem. Email notification gives a funky format

Recently, a new problem surfaced. The email I received for comment moderation was in a funky format. See scroll box:

New comment on How to change the width
of the content and the sid....
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_Part_289_10079831.1189897613291"

------=_Part_289_10079831.1189897613291
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

USMLE ROCKER has left a new comment on your post "How to change the
width of the content and the sid...":

thanks a lot chen. rounders 2 doesnt give seperate tags for each
sidebars. it gives a single tag only. so i cant have sidebars with
different widths in this template. I wanted to have an extra width in
my sidebar with ads. anyways, i can manage with rounders2. thanks again.

Moderate comments for this blog:
http://www.blogger.com/moderate-comment.g?blogID=26880688

Posted by USMLE ROCKER to Blogger Tips and Tricks at 9/16/2007
------=_Part_289_10079831.1189897613291
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/08969904823520344562">USMLE ROCKER</a> has left a new comment on your post "<a href="http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-to-change-width-of-content-and.html">How to change the width of the content and the sid...</a>":
<br><br>
thanks a lot chen. rounders 2 doesnt give seperate tags for each sidebars. it gives a single tag only. so i cant have sidebars with different widths in this template. I wanted to have an extra width in my sidebar with ads. anyways, i can manage with rounders2. thanks again.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/comment-moderate-confirm.g?blogID=26880688&postID=2656812332030611371&publish=true">Publish</a> this comment.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/comment-moderate-confirm.g?blogID=26880688&postID=2656812332030611371&reject=true">Reject</a> this comment.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/moderate-comment.g?blogID=26880688">Moderate</a> comments for this blog.
<font color="gray" size="2"><br>
<br>
Posted by USMLE ROCKER to <a href="http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/">Blogger Tips and Tricks</a> at 9/16/2007 </font>
------=_Part_289_10079831.1189897613291--

It was no longer in the format in the first screenshot, and I was forced to go Dashboard to approve and to respond to the comment, with its attendant problems. It was time consuming and I am already very short of time. (I found out later it is possible to moderate from that funky email but it is still less convenient and harder to read than in its original format).

How this problem of funky email for comment moderation got solved

One day, I received an email for comment moderation in my Yahoo mail for a very low traffic blog. It was in the original format and very easy to use. I immediately reset my main blogs to receive email for comment moderating to the Yahoo mail, and now the problem is solved. No need intervention of Blogger Support.

Haloscan Installation Wizard for Blogger

(Important: see update at bottom of post)

Some people people prefer Haloscan commenting system to Blogger commenting system because you get the email addresses of commentator, etc., and I have previously tested Haloscan commenting system hack for Blogger. That was before Haloscan introduced an installation wizard for Blogger which makes the process a breeze.

All you need to do is to sign into your Blogger account, click LAYOUT for the blog you want to install Haloscan, then the TEMPLATE tab followed by the EDIT HTML sub-tab and click "Download Full Template". For full instruction, refer to Backup New Blogger template and Page Elements and Backup and change New Blogger template. Note the advice about backing up the Page Elements as well as in the process of changing to a different template, some Page Elements (widgets) may be deleted or become empty.

When you download your original template, it may be a good idea to save it in a folder "templates" followed by a sub-folder "name of blog". Name the file "blog title before Haloscan date" or something meaningful.

It is best to use a browser like FireFox which has tabbed browsing and is also recommended by Blogger. Then you can open a new tab and to to
http://www.haloscan.com/members/install-blogger.php
where you will see



Click "Browse" and locate the template you backed up in the step above, then click "Upload Blogger Template". You will then be taken to step 2 of the Haloscan Installation Wizard. Click "Download New Template" and save the revised template in the same folder as the one above with a slightly different file name like "blog title after Haloscan date" or something similar.

Go back to the tab where you have the Blogger account opened, and in the template editor page,



click "Browse" and locate the new template revised by the Haloscan installation wizard. Click upload. You may or may not get a warning that certain widgets will be deleted. If you don't mind that, and you have your Page Elements saved, then you may not mind that and go ahead to upload the new template. You will then have to add back the deleted Page Elements.

NOTE: The Haloscan Installation Wizard will work well with Blogger standard templates, but may not work with third party templates. I tested the Installation Wizard with Good Etiquette which uses the standard Blogger Minima 2 column template and it worked flawlessly. However, I tried to repeat it with Medical Matters which uses the BloggerBuster Sweet Dreams New Blogger template and found that after going through all the steps above, I still got the old Blogger commenting system.

Update 24 August 2004, 9.30am: According to Haloscan, using their Installation Wizard will not delete the old Blogger comments. Read their notes at
http://www.haloscan.com/help/MovingfromBloggerConsiderations

However, a reader had a bad experience. His old Blogger comments were all deleted. Read the comments. I will ask him if his is a standard Blogger template or a modified Blogger template, or a third party template. If you happen to use the last 2, please be extra careful.

Change "Comment" to "Leave Comment" or anything you want

Some bloggers are not satisfied with the simple "comments" at the bottom of a post which you have to click to view or leave a comment. They want to change it to something else like "Leave Your Comment" for example. To see a blog where that has been changed, surf over to Google AdSense Signup Page. Look at the bottom of the only post. The standard "comment" have been changed to "Leave Your Comment".

This is how you do it. Click TEMPLATE tab, then the EDIT HTML sub-tab to get to the template editor. First, backup your template plus the Page Elements. If you don't know how to do it, refer to Backing and changing New Blogger template. Once you have done it, tick the "Expand Widgets Template" and wait for it to fully expand. Then look for this line of code:

<data:top.commentLabel/><b:else/><data:post.numComments/> <data:top.commentLabelPlural/></b:if></a>

To help you find the code, click ctrl+F and type or copy-paste part or all of the code you are trying to find into the "Find" field at the taskbar at the bottom of the page, and click "Next". The code will be located and highlighted.

Another way to do is is to click inside the template editor window, press ctrl+A to highlight all the codes, press ctrl+C or right-click and select "copy" to copy the expanded template into clipboard, open a Notepad file, paste the template into it. Click Edit > Select All in the menu bar at the top to highlight all the template. Click Edit > Find in the menu bar, and copy-paste part or all of the code you want to find. For example, paste <data:top.commentLabelPlural/> into the "Find what" box, and then click "Find Next".

Replace <data:top.commentLabelPlural/> (highlighted in red) with "Leave Your Comment". Click inside the Notepad file and press ctrl+A to highlight all the edited template, click ctrl+C to copy into clipboard (or click EDIT > SELECT ALL in the menu bar followed by EDIT > COPY). Go back to the template editor. The whole of the original template should still be highlighted. Click DELETE key to delete the original template, then press ctrl+A to paste the edited template in the clipboard into the template editor window (or right-click inside the template editor window and select "Paste"). Click PREVIEW at the bottom of the page and if satisfied, click "Save Template".

If you want to check, click VIEW BLOG to confirm that the standard "comments" have been changed to "Leave Your Comment" (or anything else you had chosen).