back up

So I'm trying to backup the blog per the blogger instructions and I don't like the results.
Following the instructions I get nothing but a page of text.

I've decided it would be more productive to edit the source code to show all comments.
I can set the archiving to 999days using blogger's settings - and thus...see everything. Then save as should (maybe) work.

Problem is, I can't figure out what to change in the source code to show all comments.
The Blogger backup says to write over your entire template with this:
<--- -blogger>
AUTHOR: -$BlogItemAuthor$>
DATE: -$BlogItemDateTime$>
-----
BODY:
-$BlogItemBody$>
--------
-blogitemcommentsenabled>
-blogitemcomments>
COMMENT-AUTHOR:<$BlogCommentAuthor$>
COMMENT-DATE:<$BlogCommentDateTime$>
COMMENT-BODY:<$BlogCommentBody$>
--------
-/blogitemcomments>
-/blogitemcommentsenabled>
-/blogger>
--->
The part in green is the "show all comments" html.
(I had to change the "<" to "-" for the sake of this post but I know what it means.)

Now, I'm going to see if I can go blind trying to figure out WHERE to add that and what to delete to make it work.
I'm saying this in case things get very wonky around here.

Wish me luck.
Aggie