This page will generate a Blogger archive script with your choice of date formatting, creating either a select (dropdown) menu, or a list of links. If you choose a list of links, you can either choose to show all the links all the time, or you can give your readers the choice between seeing all the links, or just the four links closest to the page being shown (most recent four for the main page, two before and two after for archive pages), with the choice stored in a cookie (sample in popup).

Requirements: for your blog, you must be using Javascript included links already (or be willing to switch; see my instructions for how to switch), and you must know what I mean when I say save a backup copy of your current archive template right now. For this site, you must be using a modern browser that knows CSS and Javascript (and I don't mean NS4.x or Opera) or it will be confusing as all get out: I use the onclick event and 'display: none' to show and hide options that don't apply based on your previous choices, so if your browser doesn't know how to handle that then you are on your own (though I'd be interested in hearing about what browsers can't hack it).

Credits: Every good, elegant bit of the resulting script is thanks to Andy Buchanan. The lame parts (especially the ugly code to make the 'show four' a rolling limit) are mine. Also, thanks to Jake, my inspiration for archive scripting. I probably never would have guessed that you could do that, otherwise.