9/30/11 update: Switched back to my old template (what you're seeing now) because Dynamic Views messed up my visitor stats. I'm using Stat Counter and since the time I used Dynamic Views yesterday, I couldn't see any stats registering on my counter. So for now, back to this template. More on this in the next post!

Blogger rolled out their new Dynamic Views a couple of days ago. I was pretty excited to try it out since I've been reading much press about it online. 
If you're on Blogger and haven't tried Dynamic Views yet, you can visit Blogger Buzz for instructions on how to roadtest the various views on your blog. Somewhere below the third paragraph there, you can type in your blog name and click preview to see how your blog looks like in each of the seven views: Classic, Flipcard, Magazine, Mosaic, Sidebar, Snapshot, Timeline. 

Right now, I'm using Magazine. It was a toss between Classic and Magazine, but I ended up with Magazine because I like how it spotlights my current post across the top and the older posts neatly arranged below with a gallery of thumbnail views of the photos.

If you click on the title of a post, it expands into a floating pane in the middle of the screen, pretty much like the interface of my Mac Lion. Neat!

And blog readers can also switch the views on blogs running Dynamic Views. If you hover your mouse cursor over the "chellelandia" word on my header, a black menu bar slides out. On the first menu where it says "Magazine", you can choose the various Dynamic Views from a drop-down list. So readers themselves can control how they want to view your blog. 

Now that's pretty slick, and of course, dynamic. But I do have some minor issues with this new overhaul:

1. Since some of the views automatically cuts my posts as they appear on the page, I wish there was a "Read More" text link at the bottom for readers to click. It's just that most of my blog readers are family and friends who are not so IT-literate and they wouldn't know right away that you need to click on the blog title to read more of the post. 

2. More options for customization. Like changing the colors, fonts, text sizes and the ability to upload headers. Right now, my blog looks just like the rest of the other blogs running the Magazine Dynamic View. I am a creative animal that doesn't want to blend in with the crowd. :-)

3. I can't preview my post when I'm writing it! Right now, the "Preview" button is greyed-out, so I guess it doesn't work for Dynamic Views. I want to be able to preview how my post and photos look like before I hit the Publish button. So please, Blogger, bring back the Preview button. 

I know it's all on the birth pains stage right now, so there's still a lot of room and time for improvement. I hope though it won't take too long, because I know I'll soon be itching to make changes on my blog design, fickle-minded me.

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