Blogger Workflow

Background

Back in the mists of time I used to write my own web pages in a simple text editor then upload them to a web server by FTP. Later I graduated to a more complex editor and added CSS to my repertoire.

None of this was really required when I started blogging in 2007 with Blogger. However, I began to find Blogger's WYSIWYG editor increasingly difficult to control. I switched to editing the "raw" HTML to get a consistent look.

Until recently, I would write a blog item directly in Blogger's HTML editor. I only switched to the WYSIWYG view for spell checking and final proof reading.

Speed, or rather the lack of it, kills

At the beginning of this year I became increasingly frustrated with Blogger's HTML editor. Not because it's a bad editor, I actually really like it, but because it distracts me.

I get tied up with HTML tags rather than writing. To speed things up I have some keyboard shortcuts that add paragraph tags and the like. Despite this, writing was still slower than I'd like.

Markdown to the rescue

A few years ago I heard about Markdown, a lightweight markup language for creating web pages. At first I thought it was just a thing the "cool kids" used, but the more I looked into it the more I saw a solution to my problem.

What tipped the balance was Retext. This two pane editor allows me to write quickly in the left hand pane and shows a live web version in the right. It also checks the spelling as I type, unlike the Blogger HTML editor.

Now I've memorised the syntax, adding hyperlinks and bulleted lists is very quick. I've also found footnotes really easy to use; I never bothered with them before as the HTML is a faff. I've even graduated to creating tables in Markdown.

I'm certain I've a lot left to learn about Markdown, but the little I've learnt so far has really changed how I write. I don't even use a conventional word processor any more.

New workflow

I now write Blogger posts as follows:

• Write the Markdown text using Retext.
• Cut the body code from Retext's HTML preview option.
• Paste it straight into Blogger.
• Upload any images with Blogger.
• Add CSS tweaks for code sections or specific tables.
• Add tags and set publication date & time.

This is so much quicker. Not least because Retext encourages me to use simple formatting. Retext is a Linux application, but I'm sure there's an equivalent for Windows or there's StackEdit.

Double bubble

This new approach has saved me so much time I began to wonder whether I might be better using a blogging platform that supports markdown; Blogger doesn't.

Various internet searches uncovered Bear Blog which offers a minimalist approach very different from Blogger. It supports pages written in both either Markdown and HTML. So, I opened an account and began creating a "shadow" blog.

With the new platform I wanted to know:

• How easy it would be to recreate posts from Blogger using Markdown?
• How would my words look in a minimalist environment?
• Could I easily recreate the various pages I'd added to Blogger?

To tackle the first two questions I cross-posted, and in some cases rewrote, a few articles and pages from Blogger. There's an online HTML to Markdown converter which is handy. The transferred posts do look different and I'm quite taken by the clean, uncluttered presentation. More importantly, I've learnt a lot more about Markdown.

The short answer to the last question is yes. However, the free version of Bear Blog doesn't allow scripting. This restricted what I was able to do, but I found ways round this for many pages.

However, the big benefit came with new posts. With a few clicks, I was able to re-use the code from Retext (Markdown or HTML) to create a new Bear Blog post in seconds. I now prefer Markdown but pages with complex tables still use HTML (for consistency).

Closing remarks

Having saved a considerable amount of time by switching to Markdown, and learnt a new skill, I've made the classic mistake of using some of the time saved to open, what is essentially, a duplicate blog.

However, I don't consider the time spent maintaining a "shadow" blog as wasted. I look at it as a backup and having a backup is always good.