Using a new toolbar to create a webpage is a challenge, and none of the editing systems works perfectly all the time. This text editor and toolbar has its quirks, but you can create a good-looking webpage using it. (As proof, we created every informational page on www.worldfamilies.net using this same toolbar and text editor, and we think they look pretty good! We don't read a word of code, so it had to be the text editor or nothing for us. It took some trial and error, but we made it work, and so can you.)
Here are some of the issues we found in editing pages on this website, and some of the solutions:
I had custom text on my project pages on the old website. Where did my text go?
You can reset the pages so that your old customized text will appear. In order to do this, just log in as admin, go to the page you want to reset, click on "Edit" near the top of the page.
On the Home Page: When the edit page opens, you will see that you have 2 choices for each page: Custom or Default. (You will see your old text when the editing page opens.) Even if it shows Custom as your selection, click on "Custom" again, then scroll down and click Save. Your old page will appear on the web page.
On the other pages: When the edit page opens, you will see you have "Editing Choices" Choose either Choice 1 or Choice 2, scroll down and click Save. Your text will appear on the page.
I'm having trouble formatting the page (i.e. getting the text to look the way I want, placing bullet points, getting the right spacing on the page).
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Before you begin, make a copy of the page in a Word document, just so you have a backup copy if the worst happens and you lose the page. Or, try the following:
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Open the Patriarch Page in two different browsers (for example Internet Explorer and Firefox), so you will be able to look at the published page in one browser while you make the edits in the other. This will help you put the page back if you lose anything in the edits and also see how it is displayed on the published page. When you complete the edits, refresh the extra browser to see if the page displays well in both browsers.
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Only edit a small amount at a time. Do a few edits, then “Save”, then do a few more, then “Save”. The editor can handle a few at a time better.
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If you have a formatting problem that just won’t let you put text where you want, try highlighting the text and clicking on the “remove formatting” tool (the eraser) in the toolbar. This only works for a small amount of text. For larger amounts of text, copy the text that is giving you problems and paste it into WordPad or NotePad or another text editor. This will remove all formatting (including hyperlinks and color). You can then paste the text back into the editing box and it should format correctly.
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Bullet points are the single biggest issue with formatting, so you may want to change to numbering for the generations.
- The "Undo" arrow is your best friend! Use it whenever you have made a mistake, or the formatting seems to be getting crazy--just go back until you can start the edit over again.
- Use "shift-enter" to move the text down one line when you are trying to create a block of text without adding a new bullet point. (Example: Adding a space between two pedigrees)
- When trying to remove extra space between lines on the page, try this trick: left click on your mouse, starting at the end of the line above the extra space, and drag the curser down to the next line. Doing this will make any extra blocks of formatting show as black blocks or lines. You can then delete them to remove the space. If the text below jumps up too far (for example, it appears on the last line of the text above) hit the Undo arrow, go back and try again.
- If you can't find the symbol on the toolbar that you are looking for, hold your curser on each symbol and words will appear to tell you what that symbol represents. (For example, holding your curser on the symbol that shows lines with an arrow pointing right will show you the words “Increase Indent”—a tool you will use on the Patriarch page.) Click here for an explanation of the tools and symbols on the toolbar.
I made an edit and suddenly I lost the text and/or it was moved around where I didn't want it.
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Only edit a small amount at a time. Do a few edits, then “Save”, then do a few more, then “Save”. The editor can handle a few at a time better.
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This editor is "jittery"--sometimes when you make an edit, hit enter, or move text, the curser will jump, and things get moved around. You can usually tell when it does this, as the page seems to "jump" a little before you see the text again.
- If it does, look carefully at the text and see that everything is as it should be.
- If it is not, click on the "undo" arrow (arrow curving to left in top of toolbar). This will take it back a step before you made the edit, and you can try it another way to see if it edits the way you want.
- If you get too focused on the line you are editing, you may not realize that other text has jumped or disappeared.
- Sometimes a piece of text that seems to have disappeared has been moved to the very bottom of the page, so look there if you lose text. Scroll way, way down to the very bottom.
- If you realize the text is gone and you can't find it even by clicking the "undo", then hit the "Back" arrow on your browser before you click on Save and you will be able to get the page back as it was before editing. (But you'll lose any edits you made before the glitch.)
- As a precaution, you may want to copy each page of your website when you get it just the way you want it, and save it as a document on your computer. Then, if the worst happens and you lose the page when you are editing, you will have a copy of it to paste back into the editing box. (or upload as an HTML File if it is the Patriarch Page).
- Before you begin to edit, open two browsers (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc) and open the website page in both of them. You can diminish one and use the other to make your edits. Then, if a mishap occurs and you lose the page as it was, you can copy and paste the page as it appears in the other browser.
I made all my edits on my large Patriarch Page, clicked Save and Publish, and the computer seems to stall a while, and then the page displayed isn't what I wanted.
- The editor doesn't like to Save too much information. It may freeze on you or leave out parts of the text--or refuse altogether to Save and Publish.
- We suggest you always create the Patriarch page in an HTML file (click here to learn how)
- We suggest that you always make your changes on the HTML page that you saved, then save it again, and upload the entire page again in the Upload HTML file tool.
- If you want to make changes on the website editing page anyway, and you have a large amount of text on the page, edit a little bit, then Save, then edit a little more, then Save, until you make all the edits you want to make.
I was editing in Internet Explorer and I got a warning: "Stop running this script? A script on this page is causing Internet Explorer to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer may become unresponsive." The best thing to do is to click "yes", then quickly scroll down to the "Save" button to make sure you have saved your edits before it shuts down. Then you can scream at Microsoft as long as you like!
. When I upload my file, the Results Page comes up blank.
- Try uploading the same file again, as it may work when you try again.
- You may need to re-save the file as an HTML file, using the methods listed earlier.
- Click the “Edit” button and make sure you have chosen “Choice 1: Custom”
Here are some pages that will be helpful in learning to edit your project's website:
