Testing Élan Before Launch

Run through the important Élan page types, responsive layouts, sidebar rules, comments, forms and dark mode before making the finished site public.

Before publishing your finished Élan site, test the views that use different theme layouts and settings. A homepage that looks perfect does not prove that a label archive or threaded comment has quietly avoided becoming strange.

Desktop and mobile navigation

Open every top-level navigation link.
Test each dropdown level.
Resize to mobile and confirm the menu button and nested expand controls work.
Open search from both desktop and mobile navigation.

Homepage

Check the featured-post slider and its previous/next controls.
Confirm the three featured image boxes link to the correct destinations.
Check the homepage About section and latest-post excerpts.
Verify the footer and Instagram strip if enabled.

Blog and archive views

Open the chronological Blog view, at least one label/category page, a search-results page and an archive page. Confirm post cards, images, excerpts, pagination and any sidebar settings are correct.

Single posts

Check headings, paragraphs, lists, blockquotes, images and video embeds.
Test share buttons.
Confirm the author profile, comments, reply controls, previous/next navigation and related posts display correctly.
If a post sidebar is enabled, confirm the article header and content do not run underneath it.

Static pages

Open a standard page plus the supplied About and Contact layouts if you use them. Submit a test message through Blogger’s native ContactForm gadget and confirm the success/error feedback appears correctly.

Sidebar rules

Élan can show or hide the sidebar independently on the homepage, Blog page, single posts, static pages, category pages, search pages, archives and the error page. Visit every page type for which you changed a sidebar width.

Light and dark mode

Switch to dark mode and move through several different pages and posts. The selected mode is stored by the theme, so it should remain consistent while you navigate. Check navigation, cards, post content, comments, forms and footer content in both modes.

404 and utility behavior

Visit a deliberately incorrect URL to confirm the custom 404 panel is readable and its links work. Scroll a long page and test the back-to-top button as well.

Final launch pass

Replace remaining demo text and placeholder social usernames.
Confirm newsletter and Behold URLs are yours.
Check all important links in a private/incognito window.
Keep an untouched copy of the final Elan.xml somewhere safe.