Reset A Gadget Or Post, By Toggling Edit Mode

Sometimes, a problem with a specific gadget or post, when displayed, can affect the appearance of the entire blog.

We've known for years, about the mysterious dropped sidebar. Sometimes, we see similar problems, in other blog performance.

• Gadgets missing.
• Gadgets visible, but they don't work.
• Gadgets visible in the desktop view - but not the mobile view (or, vice versa).
• Posts that are unreadable - or worse, previously published posts, in that index page, that are unreadable.

Both the HTML / JavaScript gadget, and the page or post, can be edited either as code ("HTML"), and as displayed ("Compose" / "Rich Text"). If you spend a lot of time in "Compose" / "Rich Text" mode, when editing gadgets, pages and posts, you may not know about "HTML" mode - or its dangers.

When instructed to use "HTML" mode, to install a specific tweak, you may never know about one good rule to follow, when editing HTML / XML code.

If you don't know the purpose of a given HTML phrase or word, leave it alone.

HTML code, which may appear as gobbledegook to the untrained eye, contains no unnecessary characters. Even adding or removing a single space, in some places, may break a gadget, page, or post - or worse, the rest of the template, following the broken gadget, page, or post.

If you have a problem with the blog, in general, you may be advised to "Reset the post template" - or maybe "Reset the gadgets". If you have a problem with a specific gadget, page, or post, you'll use a different technique.

Sometimes, when you use "HTML" mode in gadget, page, or post editor, and you break a gadget, page, or post, you can repair the broken gadget, page, or post by toggling between modes.

1. Prepare the gadget, page, or post.
   • With a broken gadget, use a widget reset, in Template Editor.
   • WIth a broken page or post, save it back to Draft mode.
2. Toggle from the current mode to the other mode.
3. Toggle back to the "current" mode.
4. If you need to finish the problem reset, in the "other" mode, toggle to that mode.
5. Complete the reset.
   • If you're using the gadget editor, save the gadget.
   • If you're using page or post editor, re publish the page or post.

Inspect the blog. View different pages or posts, carefully. If no immediate improvement is visible, you may need to clear cache, and restart the browser. And try to be more careful, the next time you use HTML mode.

If this procedure does not work completely, you may have to next remove all formatting, if you're editing a page or post.

And when you're done repairing your mistake, backup the template. The next time you make a mistake, you may be using the Template Editor - and a template backup could save your sanity.