Softaculous

Topic : Beginning to have little faith in this software...

Posted By: Neurostructural on June 23, 2021, 7:57 am

I try to avoid working on my website as much as possible now, because it's such a frustrating exercise, every single time I do.

Have just spent the better part of a day trying to create a simple blog page, get it to load and stay on the website...

I paste it in.
Then reformat it (because sitepad doesn't like the format of anything you paste, from anywhere. But you have to write it somewhere else in case you suddenly lose everything - again).
Then I save it, update it, then try to publish it.
The Little pop up says its done publishing.
Then when the website is checked... Nothing - again.

Is this common?

https://foundationchiropractor.com.au/blog.html

Thank you.

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Using sitepad to build and self-manage my own business website. Certainly not a Pro.

Posted By: MicroDrie on June 23, 2021, 10:42 am | Post: 1

First, I have to say that you have created a beautiful website. Let me make a few comments based on your post.

Quote

I paste it in.

Then reformat it (because sitepad doesn't like the format of
anything you paste, from anywhere).

What you should not forget that your website uses HyperText Markup Language (HTML) for the layout of your website. You also write that you check the text for spelling errors. A word processor uses its own formatting method. So if you simply paste the formatted and copied text from a word processor into SitePad web page, these formatting codes will also end up in your web page. That can cause problems. So you should always paste as unformatted text (often Shift-Control-v instead of Control-v).

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.But you have to write it somewhere else in case you suddenly lose everything - again

Very good that you save your text somewhere else in case you need a restore of the texts.

If you take a word processor like LibreOffice you can also format a document as an HTML file so that the HTML formatting is done directly in the word processor and saved with a plain text paste action. I'm not sure if LibreOffice gives it extra formatting code. I first create the text in the text editor plain text, let the spelling checker go over it. Then I paste the plain text into BlueGriffon HTML editor there to add complex formatting to the text. Then I paste the HTML text with complex formatting As HTML Text into SitePad.

Quote

Then I save it, update it, then try to publish it.

With the eye icon you can view the result and adjust it if necessary before you save and publish it

Quote

Then when the website is checked... Nothing - again.

Is this common?

No, this is not common for you to lose the added text. If you go through the steps I used, it should go well right away. However, you can also achieve one step of one meter by ten small steps of 10 cm. That is why it is wise to always add small pieces of text, then test out via the eye icon and then save. That way you always have the next-to-last layout of your web page available.

Finally, one last tip. When you create a new web page, that created page is given a default name New Page. If you rename that new web page and then save it, the editor will still display the New Page web page and not the renamed web page. You may now have several New Page web pages. Let us know if your challenges have been solved with these tips. If not, let us know exactly what you did and where you got stuck. Good luck.

Posted By: Neurostructural on June 23, 2021, 1:13 pm | Post: 2

MicroDrie,
Thank you for your thorough reply. I appreciate your time.

I always put the text together in notpad. But even in notepad if I use carriage return or make paragraphs in notepad, I end up with inconsistent paragraph spacing. So I write everything as one continuous paragraph in notepad, then I format it after pasting on Sitepad page.

I'm not a super tech savvy guy, but even to me the need to do this feels archaic. Like some work around i'd have to do for windows '95.

(Thank you for the tip on Shift-Control-V)

OK. I obviously haven't explained the problem clearly...

If I create a new blog post, it just disappears.
The first time I tried it I obviously completed the post then save and published... But I couldn't find it anywhere.

So I did it again, thinking it was some connection error. I don't have connection errors normally, but I couldn't think of any other reason.

Anyhow, I did it all a second time, but the same thing happened... It appeared to publish properly... But then when I went to view the website The post
couldn't be found anywhere.

Then I did similar to what you suggested. I just created a new 'test' blog post, gave it a name and put a simple heading on it, just to see what would happen.

Then once again I saved the text, updated the page and then published it...
It appeared to publish ok, but once again, nothing could be found on the website.

I have always used the same procedures for my blog posts, and whilst they are a little cumbersome, the blogs normally work. SO I believe something else is wrong...

I say that I think something might be wrong because the last time I tried to add a blog post, the editor itself simply wouldn't appear at all - it was a bug.

I'm happy to be the blame for problems when I know it's a lack of knowledge, and i'm happy to learn, but the last error was some type of bug, and I'm wondering if this is also a bug??

Thank you again for your thoughts and time.

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Using sitepad to build and self-manage my own business website. Certainly not a Pro.

Posted By: Neurostructural on June 23, 2021, 1:19 pm | Post: 3

OK... I just looked again. There may actually be some blog posts missing. I click to see more of my blog posts and the website just hangs... ???

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Using sitepad to build and self-manage my own business website. Certainly not a Pro.

Posted By: Neurostructural on June 23, 2021, 1:33 pm | Post: 4

I have no idea what has happened in my blog.

Anyhow... There is some good news.

After totally logging out, I went back into the list of all blog pages in the dashboard. My new blog post was no where to be found.
While I was there I deleted a few old drafts that were in the list of blogs, just to tidy it up. After deleting those old drafts an blank pages, my new blog has now re-appeared
(?)
The only problem is there is still the second test page heading appearing above it on the blogs page, even though I have deleted the test page and all other draft blogs etc...
(?)

Is there perhaps a limit to how many blog pages a Sitepad website can have?
I don't have many and I only deleted a few blanks/drafts.
It seems to be doing weird things.

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Using sitepad to build and self-manage my own business website. Certainly not a Pro.

Posted By: Neurostructural on June 23, 2021, 1:37 pm | Post: 5

Here is the double heading on the blog page. Even though I have deleted ALL other test pages and draft blog pages...

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Using sitepad to build and self-manage my own business website. Certainly not a Pro.

Posted By: Neurostructural on June 23, 2021, 3:06 pm | Post: 6

Ok... Just went through re-writing, re-saving and re-publishing the blog all over again...

The second heading has now also strangely disappeared. and it seems everything is ok.

Should it really take this many attempts and have so many random glitches appearing and disappearing?

Thanks again for your help.

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Using sitepad to build and self-manage my own business website. Certainly not a Pro.

Posted By: MicroDrie on June 23, 2021, 4:20 pm | Post: 7

I can't say for sure if you followed my tip about the name of the web page. Maybe I wasn't clear enough either.

You must first create a new web page. It is always called "New Page". For a new Blog page it's "New Post", sorry I didn't mention that.

Then click on the gear icon in the left menu. The widgets disappear and the default name of your blog post is shown: "New Post".

The question is what default New Post webpage name is there. It is best after creating a new blog page to first change it from the default "New Post" to the name you want, for example "MyBlog".

Then you save it, close the blog page and then request "MyBlog" again to make sure you are editing the correct page.

It is possible to have multiple web pages with the same name. See the picture of the first attachment. If you have made a mistake in the different names, when you open a web page you can see in the top left of the editor which web page has been edited recently. In the first attachment you can see that the second version "New Post" is edited by the light gray background.

In the left menu you can see that the Post name is "New Post" and the Perma link is "Post". If the blog page is published, it can be requested by adding "/post" after your web site name.

At the top of the drop down list is the last edited page. The terms Permalink and "Post Title" can be seen in the menu.

Posted By: MicroDrie on June 23, 2021, 4:45 pm | Post: 8

I'm guessing you have multiple blog pages with the same name.

Since you are now happy with your last page, it will be the highest in the drop-down menu. Open that page to check that.

If not, open the next blog post until you find it.

Add a new blank line somewhere at the top of the correct blog. Save the correct blog post.
Close the blog post and open the overview page. Then find the correct blog page with the empty line at the top.
Now that you've found it, you can discard all others with the same name.Open de correct blog post web page and remove the empty row and save the blog post.

Don't forget to use only unique page names in the future!

Posted By: MicroDrie on June 23, 2021, 5:54 pm | Post: 9

When I looked at the HTML code of Neurostructural beautiful website, I saw a lot of HTML code between the lines.

Quote

quite successful Andrew”.
 
Successful?
 
This didn’t really feel

I thought you could do with less, right?
And indeed if you use the following trick you get less work and less HTML code (and therefore faster page building). The trick is as follows.

Create a new file in LibreOffice and save it as an HTML file (the name doesn't matter, the HTML formatting is most important). Write or paste your text into this file. With a new line you do not use Enter or Return, but enter a break to insert a new line by pressing the key combination Shift-Enter or Shift-Return.

When you've written all the text and formatted it with blank lines between the text, select all the text with Control-A and copy it with Control-C.

Now if you go to a Rich Text Widget in SitePad in the What You See Is What You Get mode you can suffice with Control-V and in one step you have an HTML paragraph with text separated by empty lines with the HTML Break ( ) code in one paragraph (between the HTML code ..... ....).

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quite successful Andrew”.
 
 
Successful?
 
 
This didn’t really feel

Is this trick also working:
https://foundationchiropractor.com.au/blog.html from LibreOffice?

And the answer is: Yes

an HTML hyperlink created with Control-K in LibreOffice can just be copied directly into SitePad with Control-V. ;-D

As a frugal Dutchman I can say that both LibreOffice and BlueGriffon HTML editors don't cost a cent, but are a lot less hassle :angel:

Posted By: Neurostructural on January 15, 2023, 11:39 pm | Post: 10

So sorry for never replying to your posts. I will check notifications so the I know when someone replies. Thank you.

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Using sitepad to build and self-manage my own business website. Certainly not a Pro.