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New website editor

This topic has 58 replies, 31 voices, and was last updated 20 February 2012 at 03:28 by John McNamara.

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15 February 2012 at 11:29 #84819
David Clark 13
Participant
@davidclark13
Hi There

We are changing the website text editor due to Intenet Explorer not being backwards compatible.

It is the same editor as used for personal messages so many of you will already have used it.

If you find any problems, please post them on this thread.

regards David

Edited By David Clark 1 on 15/02/2012 11:30:03
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15 February 2012 at 11:29 #22011
David Clark 13
Participant
@davidclark13
15 February 2012 at 20:44 #84854
Ian P
Participant
@ianp
David

Is the editor going to change, or has it already been changed?

Having only a short memory I cannot remember what the old editor was like so I don’t know whether what I have just experienced is me or the new editor.

A few minutes ago I replied to another post, I had written a few lines when (I think I may have pressed a wrong key by mistake) the editor window enlarged to fill the whole monitor.

Most of the screen was the white editor window, with its pale blue bar and toolbar below the Internet explorer menu and toolbar. It went right to the bottom of the screen covering the windows taskbar (which I have locked/set to ‘stay on top).

Whilst I could still get to other IE tabs I could not get the editor window back to normal size and had to abandon the reply by closing the whole tab.

I looked in Windows help but whilst I can see how to minimise/maximise windows none of the commands work on the editor window.

On the positive side, I have not been able to reproduce the problems again.

Ian P
15 February 2012 at 21:15 #84858
John Stevenson 1
Participant
@johnstevenson1
Posted by David Clark 1 on 15/02/2012 11:29:01:

Hi There

We are changing the website text editor

regards David

Who’s going to be doing it now, you or another member of staff ?

John S.
15 February 2012 at 21:21 #84861
jason udall
Participant
@jasonudall57142
Sorry
but the pm editor doesn’t work for me on phone. will have to drop out ’till I am behind desk…shame but there you go.
15 February 2012 at 21:33 #84864
Peter G. Shaw
Participant
@peterg-shaw75338
Interesting point about this. A few years ago, I took on the job of creating a website for my choral society (because no-one else would do it even though at least one other person was capable of doing it). One of the things I learned in the process is that there was a minimum international standard for websites which most browsers including Internet Explorer (IE) did meet. However, IE (and others) did provide other facilities over and above the then standard. Unfortunately, some designers then produced websites which relied on these extra facilities and this meant that sometimes their websites would not work correctly with other browsers.

It seems to me that this an instance where the designer has designed to a Microsoft IE design, not the international standard, and has now fallen foul of Microsoft “improvements”.

I hope that Magicalia (or whatever the present name is) is taking the website designer to task over this because it does seem to me that he has not done his job correctly.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw
15 February 2012 at 21:51 #84866
Wolfie
Participant
@wolfie
I am a part time web designer and currently have 3 websites and 2 forums on line. When you create a website you should check it with the various browsers BEFORE you even go live. This is taught early on.

The minimum standard that Peter is on about is presumably the W3C one.

You want a hand moderating David give me a shout, least I can do for the help I’ve had on here. I note that some of the forum main titles are a bit out of date.
15 February 2012 at 22:11 #84869
Diane Carney
Moderator
@dianecarney30678
Posted by John Stevenson on 15/02/2012 21:15:07:

Posted by David Clark 1 on 15/02/2012 11:29:01:

Hi There

We are changing the website text editor

regards David

Who’s going to be doing it now, you or another member of staff ?

John S.

That’s what I was wondering John! I am on annual leave this week. You turn your back for five minutes…………

Diane
15 February 2012 at 22:43 #84873
Gone Away
Participant
@goneaway
Posted by Peter G. Shaw on 15/02/2012 21:33:08:

It seems to me that this an instance where the designer has designed to a Microsoft IE design, not the international standard, and has now fallen foul of Microsoft “improvements”.

Same thing happened with Java some years ago. Microsoft started implementing its own version with numerous “improvements”. Pretty soon many websites wouldn’t work with standard (Sun) Java.

Sun sued MS for copyright violation and won (of course, but not before MS had dragged the whole thing out to try to make it too expensive for Sun to continue) and a subsequent OS update removed the MS version of Java. At that point, a whole bunch of websites stopped working,

Edited By Sid Herbage on 15/02/2012 22:44:08
16 February 2012 at 00:25 #84879
John McNamara
Participant
@johnmcnamara74883
Hi All

Apart from compatibility with various web browsers to me the most glaring fault with the current system is the lack of compatibility with MS Word.

Not being able to cut and paste from Word is a serious issue. Like it or not the word processor of choice for the vast majority of the world.

I hope this post does not start discussion of (off topic) of Microsoft monopoly issues. We are talking about ease of use here for this website for the majority of users; not politics.

Cheers

John

Edited By John McNamara on 16/02/2012 00:26:10
16 February 2012 at 00:44 #84881
_Paul_
Participant
@_paul_
If your making alterations for gods sake do something with your awful search “facility” just Searching for Keywords in a thread title went out with the Atari…

Paul
16 February 2012 at 01:43 #84882
Ady1
Participant
@ady1
Just do a google site search

gods sake site:www.model-engineer.co.uk

Edited By Ady1 on 16/02/2012 01:45:03
16 February 2012 at 06:26 #84884
Terry Lane
Participant
@terrylane
Didja think you’d got the sack DC2? Dave did say text editor
16 February 2012 at 08:53 #84887
Bazyle
Participant
@bazyle
Every forum is different due to the software they use and even with two using the same package the settings used make them different. It’s all part of the character and helps you realise which one you are on and so not post boring rubbish about computers on an engineering site.

erm hang on, I am on the geeksysoftwareforum.nut aren’t I?
16 February 2012 at 09:23 #84892
Russell Eberhardt
Participant
@russelleberhardt48058
Posted by John McNamara on 16/02/2012 00:25:29:

Not being able to cut and paste from Word is a serious issue. Like it or not the word processor of choice for the vast majority of the world.

Cutting and pasting works just fine here from and to LibreOffice Writer so perhaps it is yet another case of Microsoft not complying with international standards.

Russell.
16 February 2012 at 10:15 #84897
The Merry Miller
Participant
@themerrymiller
Posted by John McNamara on 16/02/2012 00:25:29:

Not
being able to cut and paste from Word is a serious issue. Like it or
not the word processor of choice for the vast majority of the world.

Excellent idea John if only because it has a very good spell checker.

Len. P.
16 February 2012 at 10:19 #84898
John McNamara
Participant
@johnmcnamara74883
Hi Russell

As I said before.

“Not being able to cut and paste from Word is a serious issue. Like it or not the word processor of choice for the vast majority of the world.”

Can you please substantiate that LibreOffice is in fact the word processor of choice for so many.

Otherwise…..

Please do not hijack the thread with diatribe.

Cheers

John Mcnamara

Edited By John McNamara on 16/02/2012 10:20:42
16 February 2012 at 11:05 #84901
David Clark 13
Participant
@davidclark13
Hi Diane
You have not been sacked.
Can you think of a better headline to make people read this thread?
No, I thought not.
regards David
16 February 2012 at 11:22 #84903
Peter G. Shaw
Participant
@peterg-shaw75338
John McNamara,

The only reason why Word is the word processor of choice is simply due to Microsoft's policies. Often, you will find a new machine may well have Works or a limited version of Office included. Furthermore, schools use Office – don't know why, but wouldn't be surprised to find that there has been some sort of financial deal done. In any event, Microsoft offer price reductions to any person who has a student, or student to be (pre-school child) in the house. Similarly, a lot of businesses use Office – again I would not be surprised to find a financial inducement based on quantity of licences bought.

But, what about those individuals like myself who on a personal basis have no possibility of obtaining a price reduction. Are we to fork out large amounts of money for something of which we would probably only ever use a small subset of the facilities offered? Frankly, the answer is no – especially when there are alternatives available which are just as good.

Frankly, it is high time that people like you accept and understand that there are good alternatives available. I have used Lotus Smartsuite in the past. I now use Open Office. I have even used a DOS based program which did everything that I needed, and more besides. Someone here has mentioned Libre – I have no experience, but I do know that people do use it.

John, Microsoft is NOT the be all and end all of the computing world, and on a personal basis, the sooner that is realised the better.

In respect of cut and paste, I have never had to do it yet – and I have produced some long posts. It simply is not necessary.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

ps. Whilst on about it, why on earth do all those users of Word assume that everyone else uses Word and thus issue documents on the .doc format which again is NOT an international standard. It IS a Microsoft proprietory standard. What would Word users do if I sent them a document writen in the Open Office propretory standard, eg .odt? I rather imagine that they would not be able to open it.
16 February 2012 at 12:06 #84905
dcosta
Participant
@dcosta
Hello all.

Not having English as my mother tongue, sometimes I find is better to be shut up even if I feel I should intervene.

This time I feel I must intervene and because of the above reason and also because Mr. Peter G. Shaw says eloquently the same I could say, I beg him permission to make mine his words.

Dias Costa

I made some tests pasting a few lines of text from Word 2003, Word 2007 and Open Office to this post as You'll see below.

The only difference I found is only the text coming from Open Ofiice brought information on font. The extra space between the lines was inserted by this new editor.

The pasted lines are were extracted from Jethro Tull's Thick as a brick

pasted from MS Word 2007

See there, a son is born

And we pronounce him fit to fight

pasted from MS Word 2003

There are blackheads on his shoulders

And there he pees himself in the night

pasted from MS Word 2003

We'll make a man of him

Put him to trade

Teach him to play Monopoly

And how to sing in the rain

Is this a too simple teste or am I missing something?

Edited By dcosta on 16/02/2012 12:13:22
16 February 2012 at 12:25 #84906
John McNamara
Participant
@johnmcnamara74883
Hi Peter

I knew when I posted a suggestion that the site be made completely compatible with MS word that I would ignite the inevitable. As I said. " I hope this post does not start discussion of (off topic) Microsoft monopoly issues. We are talking about ease of use here for this website for the majority of users; not politics."

I stand strongly supporting my suggestion that the site be made compatible with MS Word as a priority. This will fit the needs of the many…. It is your choice to use whatever software you choose. However do you really believe the Word users be punished…. A totally unreasonable concept.

I hark back to the title of this thread

New website editor

It needs to be compatible with Word. Discussion of the rightness or wrongness of using Microsoft product is off topic.

I intend to make no further comment on this subject unless it points directly to the thread heading.

Cheers

John

Edited By John McNamara on 16/02/2012 12:39:39
16 February 2012 at 12:38 #84907
John McNamara
Participant
@johnmcnamara74883
Hi dcosta

You are correct; it works some of the time. at other times it can make a post and the following posts unreadable by placing the advertisements to the right over the text, Word carries hidden punctuation and formatting data between lines of text, this often wreaks havoc with the MEW editor. There are other gremlins. Any software that only works some of the time needs to be fixed. Word works flawlessly with several other Engineering sites I post to.

Cheers

John
16 February 2012 at 12:38 #84908
Katy Purvis
Participant
@katypurvis79544
Hi John

If I use the 'Paste from Word' button, I can paste from word. Please can you explain what doesn't work for you, and I will see how I can fix it.

Thanks

Katy
16 February 2012 at 12:53 #84910
John McNamara
Participant
@johnmcnamara74883
Hi Katy Purvis

As I said above it works some of the time. I am sure it is the formatting characters that cause the problems.

From time to time I see the displaced adds on other MEW posters threads. there was one last week although I cannot remember where.

I stopped using word as an editor for this forum because of these problems. Quite frankly very inconvenient. As you are in the process of upgrading the Editor, surely there is a web page plug in editor that will not require a paste from word or any other editor button, there should simply be a paste text button or the shortcut ctrlV on the editor page to paste text as used by other Engineering forums.

Cheers

John

Edited By John McNamara on 16/02/2012 13:06:12
16 February 2012 at 13:02 #84912
Katy Purvis
Participant
@katypurvis79544
Thank you John.

The displaced ads are usually caused by a long link in a post, if you report such posts when you see them, they can be edited and fixed.

I take note of your complaint about paste from word, and will investigate it further. However another upgrade to a different editor is unlikely to happen in the near future, as we have only switched to this one in the forum today.

Thanks for your comments

Katy
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