Editing An Old Post? Beware Missing "</li>" Tags!

I recently updated an old post, to add a link to a newly published post - and experienced panic.

Adding a link to an old post, Deleted / Locked Blogs Have Several Causes, I discovered an oddity which caused extreme heartburn for several hours. Maybe you have experienced this, also.

Editing my post, and adding a simple single sentence, with embedded link, at the end of the post, I refreshed the display (always test your changes - no matter how minor!), and watched as the paragraphing scrambled itself.

I added a single sentence to the end of an old post - and watched as paragraphs in the post became hopelessly scrambled.

See the missing "</li>" at the end of the first list element?

Look at how the list line spacing is screwy now.

<li><a href="#DMCA">DMCA Violation</a> looks for copyright and similar violations.

Just one missing tag. Long ago, I learned to always close every list element properly.

<li><a href="#DMCA">DMCA Violation</a> looks for copyright and similar violations.</li>

But my proper list syntax policy had apparently started after the post, in question, was published.

I spent the next 1/2 hour re paragraphing the post content, following the broken list - and re spacing the list itself.

And having saved my work, the list - and the paragraphs following the list - remained scrambled.

This is no good!

How can I hope to help people, using this post?



Observing that paragraphing above the broken list was fine, I looked at the list code, line by line.

Paragraphing above the list is OK!



Much to my relief, I found a missing "</li>" tag. Adding the missing tag, I re paragraphed the post content - and this time, my changes remained.

This is what I would want to see.

Even the list remains properly spaced, in post editor.



Be very careful, when editing lists, in post editor "HTML" mode. Lack of care can lead to unpleasant consequence.

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When editing a #Blogger blog post, in HTML mode, be very careful to avoid dropping closing list element tags. One dropped tag affects formatting of list content after the missing tag - and paragraphing following the broken list, even with the list properly closed.

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Comments With HTML Code Confuse Blog Owners

Some blog owners see encoded special characters, in Blogger dashboard displays - and do not understand why they are there.

I recently noticed that the comments, that I view in my Blogger dashboard page, have like a series of numbers and symbols in some of the comments.

This owner is looking at comments, displayed in the Dashboard Comments pages ("Published", "Awaiting moderation", and "Spam"), which right now may contain strange character sequences.

The "HTML entity codes" for special characters, like ampersand, apostrophe, and quote marks, are HTML code - that will probably be with us, forever. Blogger blog content (like many other blogs and websites) uses HTML - and those characters have syntactical importance. Using them in blog content, unencoded, causes problems with browser operation.

Blogger has had various problems with displaying special characters, like ampersand (&), apostrophe ('), and quote marks ("), for many years.

Long ago, I published my recipes blog, titled "Chuck's Kitchen".

Seeing the blog title displayed a few times, in comments, in the dashboard - and even in the blog header - as "Chuck&#39;s Kitchen" confused my readers, with the apostrophe displayed as an HTML entity. I figured the simplest solution was simply to compromise - and accept a non grammatical title of "Chucks Kitchen".

What I saw, in the dashboard Comments wizard, recently. Look at my comment, of "10:17 AM".

What we now see, in the post comment. Compare the above, with my published comment, of "10:17 AM"



You are allowed to use special characters, like ampersand (&), apostrophe ('), greater than (>), less than (<), and quote marks ("), and others, if you like, in your blog - but you will occasionally see confusion from your readers - as the confusion recently seen in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

I recently noticed that the comments that I view in my Blogger Design page have like a series of numbers and symbols. I don't know why they are there or how to get rid of them.

You can't really get rid of them, you need to just learn to ignore them. Right now, only you see them.

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Some #Blogger blog owners see comments, displayed in the dashboard Comments pages, displayed with HTML entity coded characters. They are odd looking - but right now, they only display this way, in the dashboard pages.

When published, the blog will display the special characters properly.

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