Blogger will have categories soon

If you're thinking of leaving Blogger over categories, you might want to wait because Blogger is going to be providing categories soon. They are currently testing a system that will allow you to do categories and to add stuff with your mouse instead of editing your template (no more destroying your template because you are adding a link to your link list and didn't realize that your stupid touch pad had selected the entire bottom half of your template to be replaced, woohoo :-) Here are the particulars:

Today we're launching a new version of Blogger in beta! You've been asking for ways to do more with your blog, and you can with this new release. With the beta you can:

• Categorize your posts with labels
• Control who can read your blog
• Change the appearance and content of your blog with your mouse instead of HTML

Take a look at the tour to see all the new things you can do (well, a lot of the new things ... they didn't all fit in the tour).

As we release this version, we're limiting the number of people who can switch over. (You'll see a link on your Blogger dashboard when you are able to move.) Eventually, of course, everyone will be able to transition their blogs to the new version. Thanks in advance for your patience as we roll it out.

If you can't wait, you can create a new account on the beta now and make a new blog to test out the new features. Because the new Blogger uses Google Accounts, you can use your existing Google login, or create a new one. (Later, you'll be able to merge your current and beta accounts, and have all your blogs in one place.)

I've tried it out and it looks easy to use and has some neat features, but they won't let you edit the html, yet and so the whole thing is useless for me until they do. I'm not using their templates so I have to be able to copy over my templates (I refuse to go back to blogger templates). It's fun to play with, though and you might want to set up a test blog to see what it looks like and get familiar with the new way to blog.

Updated to add: You guys who have had problems adding the blogroll, wait until you see how easy it is to upload the blogroll. I can't believe it. I just clicked on "add a page element" and in the window for the page element, which I named "Blogging Chicks," I put in the code for the blogroll and saved the changes and that was it. When I viewed the blog, the blogroll was there. Man, I can't believe how easy it was. Go set up a test blog, but don't move your blog over to the new system. It's only a beta system which means it's a test system. I'm sure there will be a lot of kinks to be worked out before it's really robust enough to trust your blog to it.