Tips on using the board

[Luke Blanchard]

I thought a thread of this kind might help out our new members. If anyone has a question, just ask away.

When you're writing a post, you can make the html tags in it visible by pressing the 'html' button (the rightmost one above the reply box). This is particularly helpful if you want to put a "reply" quote at the start of your post. When you press the "reply" button immediately below a post you want to respond to, the board brings up a box with the post's text in a blockquote (at the bottom of the box). If you bring up the html, you can place your own text after the quote by placing it after the /blockquote instruction.

I sometimes write my posts in Word and then transfer them across. This can result in unwanted formatting effects, so when I do this, I switch to html format and cut out the chaff I don't want.

[Luke Blanchard]

Switch to HTML Editor and place <blockquote> and </blockquote> either side of the text. Thus:

Switch to HTML mode and place <blockquote> and </blockquote> either side of the text.

For a long time in Visual Mode when you highlighted text to make it a link the link appeared at the top of the page. The board has resumed converting the highlighted text in place.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Randy Jackson said:

Yes, I can see it's not there anymore. It appears as if the editor has been redesigned, and as if several buttons have been removed.

Well, can we get it back?

Luke Blanchard said:

Switch to HTML Editor and place <blockquote> and </blockquote> either side of the text. Thus:

Switch to HTML mode and place <blockquote> and </blockquote> either side of the text.

For a long time in Visual Mode when you highlighted text to make it a link the link appeared at the top of the page. The board has resumed converting the highlighted text in place.

I know how to do that; I miss having a function that did it for you.

[Peter Wrexham]

Several people have been experiencing problems in the last week or so when trying to upload images to the "Cover a Day" discussion.  In my case, I found that the process hung after I'd selected the image from my computer.  The progress spinner kept turning, but the process never completed.  This was when I was using Internet Explorer as my browser.

I switched to Chrome, and the problem went away for a while.  However, it's now come back with different symptoms.  The process doesn't hang, but apparently nothing gets uploaded.  The URL generated for the uploaded image file has the form:

    https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1801184921?prof...

However, when I try to edit the image (for example, to change its size or padding), I get an error message:

    There is no file at that URL. Please try again.

Does anyone have any ideas what's wrong?

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Hi, Peter. I'm afraid I don't know what could be causing it. I've uploaded a few images today (in a Chrome browser) and haven't encountered the problem yet. 

I wonder if, since it's such an image-heavy thread, that particular thread is just overloaded? That probably doesn't make sense, but it's the only thing I can think of. I

I'll put the word out to the mods in the mod group, in case they missed it here, and see if any of the more technical-minded ones have any ideas. 

[Richard Willis]

i know it's not the thread. Most of us haven't had this problem. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

OK, thanks, Richard. I've got no other ideas, but maybe one of the other mods does. I've posted word on the mod page, and they'll probably see this thread as well. 

[Peter Wrexham]

For what it's worth, I've found today that uploads are working for me again when I'm using Chrome.  However, they still hang in Internet Explorer.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Glad to hear it, Peter. Are both of your browsers updated? Maybe IE is hanging up because it's an outdated version. Or maybe there's a bug  in the current version; are any of the other people having trouble using IE, or is their trouble on other browsers?

(Again, I'm shooting in the dark here. I've got no IT knowhow whatsoever.)

[Richard Willis]

Browsers tend to accumulate images of every web page they view, whether or not there are large images on those pages. Then when making a search they will take the time to look through all these images to "save you time," which actually takes longer. Also, the temporary files accumulated on your computer itself are similar and will slow everything to a crawl unless they are periodically cleaned out. That might account for switching browsers not helping. Your page "hanging" will cause it to "time out" and get nowhere. Look at the settings on your browsers and try clearing the "cache" of web pages, etc. Do a search on the internet to find out how to clean out temp files from your particular computer.

[Dave Palmer]

For the past week I’ve encountered the same problem with images getting “hung up.”  I mostly use an iPad and Safari.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Hi Peter, I am thinking Internet Explorer is the problem. Microsoft has discontinued support for it outside of technical and security updates. (Even Microsoft recommends discontinued use of IE). If you are using IE 10 or older they are offering no support for it at all.

Another thing is that websites are no longer being written for IE, just for modern browsers. As time goes on, you will probably find IE not working properly on other websites.

I highly recommend you permanently switch your default browser to something else. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, whatever. 

Peter Wrexham said:

For what it's worth, I've found today that uploads are working for me again when I'm using Chrome.  However, they still hang in Internet Explorer.

[Richard Willis]

This site tells you how to clean temp files in all the different  web browsers:

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867904

This site tells you how to clean other temp files from an iPad or iPhone:

https://tweaks.com/windows/65539/clean-temporary-files-on-iphone-an...

This tells you how to delete other temp files in a Windows 10 computer:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/70830-delete-temporary-files-wi...

This tells you how to delete other temp files in older versions of Windows:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/260897/how-to-delete-the-c...

Also, if you have a computer with a standard spinning hard drive, you should also "defragment" the files on your computer. 

All of these things will slow down the responsiveness of your computer.