Keeping your widgets when changing Blogger template

Update Feb 2010: Good news, Blogger has come up with an option to keep your existing widgets during template change. I guess you won’t be needing this tutorial anymore…oh well.

Usually there is one problem with regard to changing Blogger template to a third party template –some of the existing widgets / gadgets will be deleted by Blogger upon saving of the new template. Now if you spent much time and effort installing them in your blog, losing them wouldn’t be fun, would it?

Luckily there is a workaround. This tutorial will show you how to retain those widgets. This process is irreversible, so please make sure you fully understand the steps before going for it.

You may want to try this method on your test blog first.

Here it is:

 

1. Identifying and backing up affected widgets

You need to identify which widgets are to be deleted by Blogger, so that you can rescue them later.

1. Proceed with changing the template.
2. When Blogger ask you to confirm widgets deletion, do the following to back up your existing widgets (click picture to enlarge):   
   • Take note the names of the about-to-be-deleted widgets.
   • Click Cancel button (because at this time you just want to take the widgets’ name).
   • Untick Expand Widget Templates tick box. When the pop-up below appears, click OK.
   • Now remember the names of about-to-be-deleted widgets? Look/search for them inside the template codes (use Ctrl+F). You are about to rescue them :). Do it one by one.
   • When you find the name inside the codes, copy and paste the whole line into Notepad or any other text editor. One line per widget.

2. Placing existing widgets into the new template

1. Start uploading the new template again.
2. When Blogger ask you to confirm widgets deletion, this time do the following:
   • Search for the phrase “widget id” in the template codes.
   • Once you get there, paste the all the “rescued” widgets exactly in between “widget id” and "section id” line.  
3. Click Preview button, check if the widgets appear in the new template. Don’t worry about the positioning of the widgets, you can reposition them later in Page Elements.
4. If you like what you see,  click Save Template.
5. Enjoy!

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