Problems with editor

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Jeff Wright, modified 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 2:33 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 2:33 PM

Problems with editor

Posts: 82 Join Date: 4/16/15 Recent Posts
I hope this is the appropriate place to post.

The inline editor is really finicky and often refuses to accept paste, ignores line breaks, etc. Also It won't perform spell checking on the fly, so I'm having a lot of frustration trying to just post basic posts. Am I alone in this? 

Thanks, Jeff
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CJMacie, modified 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 9:00 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 8:58 PM

RE: Problems with editor

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
Jeff Wright:

...
The inline editor is really finicky and often refuses to accept paste, ignores line breaks, etc. Also It won't perform spell checking on the fly, so I'm having a lot of frustration trying to just post basic posts. Am I alone in this? 
...

By no means.


Reshaping text copied from MSWord to suit this editor regularly takes a big chunk of time, as it doesn't import emphasis, color, etc.; and seemingly randomly space characters get lost.

And then, after all that work, and in doing "save as draft" or "preview", the system punts -- forget the exact message, but some kind of server problem. Then back to the beginning. (When not willing to copied-out text in progress to a backup).

BUT, having spent 30+ years (1967-2000) designing, implementing and otherwise futzing with software, I just deal with it, as s/t that's just the way it is.

To paraphase a sign once seen in some bar:
"Our software manager is Hellen Waite. If you want perfect software, go to Hellen Waite!"
(The original had "credit manager"..."if you want credit...")

P.S. This is in no way intended to reflect on those in DhO working with this system. I assume it's built into "liferay", which is not primarily a word processor.
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Psi, modified 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 10:40 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 10:36 PM

RE: Problems with editor

Posts: 1099 Join Date: 11/22/13 Recent Posts
Jeff Wright:
I hope this is the appropriate place to post.

The inline editor is really finicky and often refuses to accept paste, ignores line breaks, etc. Also It won't perform spell checking on the fly, so I'm having a lot of frustration trying to just post basic posts. Am I alone in this? 

Thanks, Jeff
Hi Jeff, it is not just you, it is at least me too....

So, Good point Jeff.  

On a serious note, is there an instruction guide anywhere?  

If not, here is what I have concluded....
  • [url=Haha, yes, one could write]Haha, yes, one could write[/url] out an entire post, only to have it vanish in a distant plane called, server not found.   And sometimes trying to copy and paste is a comedy of errors.  [font=comic sans ms, cursive]And trying to quote, unquote, use the format button, etc.  I do not even know what I am doing half the time!! I usually just try something and if it doe[/font]s not work, I use the left arrow thingy, it is like[color=#2f4f4f] a reset to last thing done button, [/color]i.e. undo.
    And that pretty much sums it up.

<whispering now> But, my hypothesis is this, there is some Dukkha Overlord out there testing our responses, looking over our shoulders, to see if we respond with equanimity or not, then this information is transmitted either to the CIA or to Google, which in turn uses this information to come up with even more devious ways to test our nervous systems, with ever more complex formatting riddles.  And actually , I think some of the buttons up there may be alien cryptography, long and short dashes in various combinations, I mean, I have never seen these letters before, except in crop circles.

So, no, 

We are not alone...

Psi

P.S.  I think I may have figured out the first four symbols.

B  this one is obviously for Batman

I this has to be to contact flash

U   Underdog

S  This is some kind of anti Superman campaign here, obviously of evil intent
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Psi, modified 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 10:48 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 10:48 PM

RE: Problems with editor

Posts: 1099 Join Date: 11/22/13 Recent Posts
[quote=Psi

][quote=]And actually, I am very grateful for the DHO and the message board, quirks and all, and I suspect they are not really quirks, but my own lack of computer skills.  emoticon


emoticon  emoticon      emoticonemoticon     emoticonemoticon     emoticonemoticon  emoticonemoticon   emoticon

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CJMacie, modified 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 3:22 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/6/15 11:43 PM

RE: Problems with editor

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } If it's any consolation...

I participate in "Hackers Conference" discussion group (started way back in 1983 by Stuart Brandt), which uses some archaic listserv software that is quirky about anything beyond the old basic ASCII character set.  They occasionally debate about upgrading the system, but in the end stick with it and tell users to only create text that it can handle. (The issues have to do with Apple vs Windows vs Unix vs email-encoding, etc. character-handling conventions, and most in the group are various flavors of Unix users.)

For instance, I copy in, from Windows generated MSWord text (loaded via OpenOffice editor on an iMac):
    "Here's another practical question, theoretically trivial, but a matter of saving time and effort…"
and what comes out the other end (in the forum 'digest') is:
    "Here's another practical question, theoretically trivial, but a matter of saving time and effort=E2=80=A6"

or in (text I don't have the original of):
{Arggh! Right here liferay refuses to paste text, and, independently, the DSL line freezes; continuing hours later, and having to type in the rest below because liferay won't paste it}
    "Former Apple CEO John Scully=92s new venture unveiled its latest products Wednesday night =97 two sleek smartphones ... =93We don=92t need a very big market share to have a very successful business,=94 Scully said..."

Those '=9n' things stand for quotation marks, single or double -- the different ones for open-quote and end-quote -- as well as apostrophe, colon, and 3-dots.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 5:15 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 5:15 PM

RE: Problems with editor

Posts: 3293 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
It is true that the editor here has quirks and shortcomings. I find it annoying but have explored the various options and apparently the alternatives here available in Liferay are similarly quirky. This current editor was one of three, I seem to recall, and it seems no better nor worse than the others. 

I have adopted the following methods:

For long post, I compose them in another program, such as text edit, and paste them in, then edit them after.

I select all and then copy all posts before posting them, as this reduces lost posts. For moderately long posts, I select all and then copy multiple times along the way, lest my post vanish.

If anyone knows how to get a more reasonable editor on Liferay, let me know!

Thanks,

Daniel
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Jeff Wright, modified 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 7:39 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 7:39 PM

RE: Problems with editor

Posts: 82 Join Date: 4/16/15 Recent Posts
You see, that's the issue for me, though - I got to the point where I was composing everything in a plain text editor, copying, and then trying to paste in but the text box refused to accept the paste. This was on Firefox, Safari and Chrome, so I don't think it was a browser issue.

I can explore further - maybe I have to log back out and then back in again (possibly some lingering cookies after I was auto-logged-out gae the impression I was still logged in, os something lije that...) - when it happens again I'll try to quantify it more closely.
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Chris M, modified 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 7:53 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 7:53 PM

RE: Problems with editor

Posts: 5474 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
I've tried many browsers for editing here and Firefox works best. Safari is prone to crashing the editor. Chrome works okay most of the time, but it too can crash the editor. I never compose and paste in another program but like Daniel, I regularly copy what I'm wriiting, just in case. I've installed and used many web editors and they're limited by the underlying web technology and thus all prone to quirkiness and failings.

YMMV, of course.
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Psi, modified 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 8:08 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/7/15 7:59 PM

RE: Problems with editor

Posts: 1099 Join Date: 11/22/13 Recent Posts
Jeff Wright:
You see, that's the issue for me, though - I got to the point where I was composing everything in a plain text editor, copying, and then trying to paste in but the text box refused to accept the paste. This was on Firefox, Safari and Chrome, so I don't think it was a browser issue.

I can explore further - maybe I have to log back out and then back in again (possibly some lingering cookies after I was auto-logged-out gae the impression I was still logged in, os something lije that...) - when it happens again I'll try to quantify it more closely.
FYI stuff

Hey Jeff, I kinda forgot, I use the preview button alot, that way it kinda saves as you go, and you can see what is actually going to show up and fix it as you go.

Psi

And that way if you accidentially hit the back page button on the browser, you just go back to what you have already typed in the original.
And I use chrome.
  Also, sometimes if it is glitchin, just hit preview, and sometimes that fixes it, and then you can paste into the preview box, where before you would not be able to paste.

Also, sometimes you can create a quote space and paste into that, also I have even pasted into a link, and then unlinked it to get a paste to work.  Funny huh?  I get pretty stubborn and try all kinds of stuff.

And sometimes I am glad my posts get lost, sometimes they are baloney anyway, as you can tell.

Also , I think the preview button saves your work as a draft??  I have found stuff in there sometimes that I thought was obliterated.

Also, Hitting the Format dropdown, Normal, then hit enter 2x, will help you to separate out quote boxes....  sometimes.