So the new Blogger is out of beta (cue fireworks, the sound of a thousand geeks shrugging). I just 'upgraded', and am little on the fence about the new template regime.

The template for my blog is built upon a standard Blogger template, but has changed a lot from that: custom images, server side includes, some widget-type things, the works. Basically it's tag soup hell, but I'm happy with it.

Now, in the new Blogger if you 'migrate' your template to a 'Layout', you get some sort of WYSIWYG editing functionality and some neat new 'page elements' you can use for widgets and the like, as I understand it.

But... migrating involves ditching your existing template and picking a new one from the standard selection, after which you can tweak it to your heart's delight. I suppose.

Now, my question: considering rebuilding my template from scratch would be a truckload of work and frustration I'd like to avoid, is there a way to convert the 'old' Blogger tags (i.e. <$Foo$>) to the new style ones, i.e. [b:foo]? Maybe someone has written a script to do so?

Perhaps my understanding of the new Blogger is pedestrian, but then it is quite new. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately, no (IMAIK). I had to redo the whole thing (in my case it was good, the old one was terrible anyway).

IMAIK = (In My, Admittedly Incomplete, Knowledge)

Yeah, it's a drag, but take it as a good chance to start fresh. You'll probably come up with something even better!

I had to redo, but I have to say I really, really enjoyed working with the new WYSIWYG editor. It couldn't be simpler and it really allows a lot of tweaking. I'd suggest you migrate, set it all up in a new template, and then apply your final tweaks via HTML, which you can still do.

I see. Thanks guys.