Wow– this is such a serene template it nearly puts me to sleep to look at it! People have said a few of the others are hard to read, and I liked the typeface in this one.
But, I am literally brimming with excitement over having discovered Google’s Blogger last night. I hate to say it, but its user-friendliness makes me feel like chucking WordPress….
First of all I already had a Google e-mail account– I like their e-mail as well–so very easy and ‘intuitive’.
So– I was part way there. First step is to get a Google account– and it’s always good to have several e-mail accounts so that you can divert mail or send private mail or just because it’s fun–you can switch identities and good old Hotmail goes down all the time….. I forgive G-mail for losing my imported mail last fall..all 2,000 pieces of it…
Anyway. So then you just go to http://www.blogger.com and try out the program. I was up and running in about five minutes with a spiffy new blog with a stunning transparent template I love.
I’m not abandoning WordPress at this point and not ready to list URL of new blog, but thought I’d mention that a drunken monkey could use Blogger. Maybe that’s Google’s thinking too, as when you open them today they spew balloons in your face…how did they do that!?!
At least when you try the thing out and choose from some publication ready templates, many blog features are already there for you. The Word Processing Screen lets you control fonts/on your posts– a feature lacking in wordpress. You aren’t over-confused with tricky options/widgets as you are in WordPress– and you don’t need to do as much selecting of buttons for various things and toggling of screens– extremely simple and time-saving.
Blogger just instituted a page option so that your blog can also be your web site– this is the feature that has worked so well for WordPress and we wordy folk. New is that you can download a Blogger toolbar to Word and publish to your blog directly from Word. Not certain of the advantages there yet– more formatting options? The RTF Editor on Blogger as noted is terrific.
do weigh in on my most recent posts if you have a minute, link me to whatever you’d like me to read, and stay tuned! xxxj
Later, much later, I might look at the thousands of blog themes/templates for sale on line for all the blog hosts– but for now the one I chose suits me. When I have something nice to unveil, I’ll post the URL.
My first post on that blog is a small rant from hearing about the “Christian” community center in Gainesville’s plan to burn a copy of the Islamic religious text on 9/11; like any thinking person I said it was a very, very bad idea.
I’ll be back here later with something tasty for my friends/fans/loyal followers…xxxj
Loquaciously Yours 
I know many who have abandoned WordPress because it’s not so easy. I’ve used blogger for a while, though I haven’t switched over to the new templates. Others I know have and like them a lot.
i love blogger lol.
When I started “shopping” for a blog site, I tried a bunch of them out, and went back to Blogger because I UNDERSTOOD it. Kind of. My college junior nephew recommended WordPress and I almost always go with his suggestions (he is much smarter than I am, just don’t tell him I know it). Not this time.
I do have a WordPress blog for my dad’s work — the spareness and clean look lend themselves to his style, and he doesn’t need a lot of extra features (which is good, since WordPress blocks a lot of them from being used anyway). I might switch his too, though, since a big part of his life involves music, and I can’t quite get all that I need done on WordPress.
Other blog sites have had templates and fonts and styles and setups that probably reflect my style better than what I’ve got on Blogger, but you have to take the bad with the good!
I haven’t found the feature you can place on Word to publish directly from there yet though…do you mean instead of cut-and-paste? Because there is one tiny niggling feature I don’t care for, and that’s if you compose in Word, as I do, then transpose it, you can never go in and edit it without extra steps that you don’t have to do if you compose directly on Blogger. Which I rarely do.
Yep, about the font, this one’s better, Jenne.
Hi LB– if you go to blogger home page I think they’ll have info on this feature… i’ll look for it tomorrow. xj
Yes, a “drunken monkey could use Blogger” and we often do… 😉