Add, Edit or Remove Labels in Multiple Posts in New Blogger

As I wrote yesterday, this weekend has been (is being) spent on cleaning, sprucing and polishing the blog.  And a series of OMG moments for hours.  I can’t believe there are so many dead links.  Sorting them out is killing hours.

Another OMG moment was when I wanted to reclassify some articles - a whole bunch of them - under a different label and delete the existing label - change the ‘Research-Study’ label to ‘Analysis-Study’, as ‘analysis’ is a more appropriate term.

In the old blogger, it was easy - you could actually see the options.  In the New Blogger, the bloody thing is intuitive - means it is hidden;  you’ve to think it through before you hit on the solution.

What is worse is a quick Google search for ‘blogger remove labels in multiple posts’ turns up solutions for the old blogger and not the new blogger (including Google's own Blogger Help).  One showed the new blogger solution - but there is no ‘Remove Label’ option in my blogger window.  As I wrote, the controls are intuitive - a real no brainer if you think about it.

Okay, to cut the story short - the Labels in the editing window are ‘toggles’.  If the post doesn’t have the label, blogger will apply it.  If the post has that label, it will remove it.  If you don’t understand it, read on further.

The explanation with snapshots.

Create New Label:
Here I am going to apply label ‘test’ (Add Label) and then delete label ‘test’ (Remove Label)  from multiple posts.  First to apply the label, I’ve to create label ‘test’ (New Label), to at least one post. 

1. select the checkbox for the post,
2. use the dropdown menu,
3. select ‘New Label’,
4. type the name ‘test’ and OK.

Add Label to multiple posts:

Here is where the ‘toggle’ function of the label menu plays its hand.  And to be frank, I spent around 20 minutes scratching my head (to be polite).  That’s why I’m spending another 30 minutes to write this one up - so someone else doesn’t have to waste 20 minutes. :-)

1. select the checkboxes for 2 (or more) posts,
2. use the dropdown menu,
3. scroll down to the required label ‘test’; popup says you can ‘Add or Remove Label Test’,
4. click and the label test is applied to the selected posts.

Remove Label from multiple posts:

This is the same as the earlier step.

1. select the checkboxes for 2 (or more) posts - 3 here,
2. use the dropdown menu,
3. scroll down to the required label ‘test’; popup informs you can ‘Add or Remove Label Test’,
4. click and the label test is removed from the selected posts.

Add or Remove Label from individual posts:
Just joking…

Edit a Label:

Suppose you want to modify an existing label - say modify ‘test’ into ‘tests’.  The easiest option is to select all the posts labelled ‘test’, Create a New Label ‘tests’,  apply to all those posts and then remove the old label ‘test’. [Tip:  Add the new label and *then* remove the old label - don’t try it other way around]
:-D
Cheers!

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