Blogger Frustrations

I have been using Blogger for about a year. Prior to using Blogger, I published my blog manually by typing html and updating links on the pages. Blogger has made publishing much easier, but there are some things I haven't had the time to figure out.

For instance, I don't know how to write a summary for RSS feeds. It was pretty easy using manual methods. I would simply copy the first couple of paragraphs of my post into atom.xml and I was done. Blogger, though, seems to post the entire article to my feed.

I also struggle with styling. My posting on "How Much Detail in Requirement", for example, switches to the "smallest" type size on the bullet list. I have manually adjusted it many times, but I can't get the text to match. I also struggle with the vertical spacing. Unfortunately, Blogger's WYSIWYG editor isn't all that. Maybe I'll switch to Google Docs for editing my posts.


I have trouble with my template too. I like the top of my blogger pages to match the style of my web site. Unfortunately, Blogger's styles clash with my stylesheet resulting in odd colors on my links. I can fix this manually, but I haven't found the time...so I look stupid instead.


The problem could be related to my host. I use Doteasy to host my blog and web site. Blogger supports richer layouts, but you have to host with Blog*Spot. I'm thinking of hosting with Blog*Spot and using links to connect my blog with my web site.

Of course I'm secretly hoping that someone reads this post and has quick and dirty solutions for my problems.