How to Keep Your Gadgets in Your New Template

1. Before you install the new template, go to your Dashboard and click on Layout. Then click on Edit HTML.

2. Scroll down in the scary looking HTML until you see this code:

<div id='sidebar-wrapper'>
<b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>.

It will likely be almost all the way at the bottom.

3. Right underneath that code, you'll see a list of your gadgets that will look something like this, although everyone's will be different since everyone has different sidebar stuff:

<b:widget id='Text1' locked='false' title='Test' type='Text'/>
<b:widget id='Followers1' locked='false' title='Followers' type='Followers'/>
<b:widget id='BlogArchive1' locked='false' title='Blog Archive' type='BlogArchive'/>
<b:widget id='Profile1' locked='false' title='About Me' type='Profile'/>

4. Copy all the gadgets, up to but not including </b:section>

5. Open up a Notepad window (or Word if you don't know how to find Notepad) and paste the list of gadgets in there. Save it to your desktop and keep it open.

6. Follow the Installation instructions. Before hitting "confirm and save," copy the list of gadgets from your notepad and paste into the template underneath the same code in number 2. It will be a little harder to find this time, but it's there! Also, make sure you paste it under the second line of code listed in number 2, not under the first line.

7. Hit preview to make sure all your gadgets show up. When you hit "confirm and save" it might give you an error message that is something like this: "More than one widget was found with id: BlogArchive1. Widget IDs should be unique." If that happens, you have to go into the gadgets you pasted and delete whichever one is listed in the error message. (If you're interested, the reason this happens is that the template I created and your template have the same gadgets, but if you delete one, then yours will still be there). If your gadgets don't show up, go back and start over!

8. Hit "confirm and save."