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    Developing Science 2.0: New Editor Features
    By Patrick Adair | September 11th 2009 04:11 PM | 10 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
    About Patrick

    Patrick Adair is a self-taught computer scientist from California, now employed as the lead programmer at ION Publications. Every now and again,...

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    Hi there, I'm Patrick and I'm one of the principal developers on ScientificBlogging.com - that means if the site mysteriously crashed, I likely did it. This column is around to help introduce / discuss new features, and talk about what Science 2.0 looks like from a functional perspective.

    On the plate today is the new editor features we've uploaded to the site, allowing for more embedded media in your articles, and I'm going to cover some of the important details of what's changed.

    Buttons

    Icon Source: http://www.pinvoke.com/
    As you can see, we've updated the appearance of the buttons on the editor to make them a bit more clear. The music icon is for your media files, and the video icon is for your video codes.

    Media Files

    We've added some new capabilities to the media file uploader. Hank seems to think that some of you might want to upload podcasts (maybe audio versions of your column for people with iPods), or huge PDF documents that relate to your article. The maximum file size is 20MB, but be warned that uploading something that big might take a while.

    You can also upload .zip files using this editor; they are subject to the same file size restriction.

    A Note on Uploaded Media Files:

    When you upload something using the Media Files form, you'll notice that it looks like this:


    Because of how our editor works, it's not recommended to erase the whole text and rewrite it, as it will lose the link to your new file. For best results, only replace the text inside the brackets and leave the brackets as they are.

    Embedding Videos

    Aside from the prettier look, the only real thing that has changed is a shameless plug for our video site.

    Comments

    Ashwani Kumar
    Dear Sir
    I am new to blog writing. I find it very effective medium. However  many a times on almost on my all blogs once I put the buttons and finally it appears there are some unwanted signs and spacing also changes. Photographs are not uploaded if pasted . Where to load own books is not clear. Can you suggest how to correct uwanted signs on my blogs
    with kind regards

    urs
    ashwani kumar
    Hank
    Pasted photographs from a Word document will be relative URLs to your computer, perhaps in a folder, which a website cannot access.  If you have them stored online, you can put the URL in the image upload button of the toolbar - or you can upload them directly wherever you like in your article.

    On formatting, I most often see that error if people paste Word HTML directly into the editor.   It works better if you use the Switch to Plain Editor button and then paste.   Or just copy the plain text directly, paste it into our editor, and then add photos.

    Patrick will probably provide a more comprehensive answer.
    Hi Patrick,
    Just testing to see if I can make an anonymous post here after managing to make one logged in as another user earlier.

    Hi Patrick,

    Below is the umpteenth comment that I have tried to post on SB in the last few days, only to be given the pink
    "Please fill in the field. It is empty".problem which is preventing me from doing any posting on SB? Hank has told me to clear my browsing cache which I have done several times but to no avail. I have also tried to post when signed out as a theoretically anonymous user but then instead of the field empty message I get a message telling me I'm a registered user.

    Also, by the way, the first and last time I ticked the send yourself a copy box below when I was emailing Hank it didn't send me a copy. Finally, I have put in a friend request to you so that we can chat online if you want me to try anything?

    This was my last post :-

    This is a test italic
    This is a test underline
    this is a test Ax

    xxxxxxxx

    this is a test bullet

    1. this is a test number

    Hi Patrick, any chance you can explain the cause and cure of the pink

    "Please fill in the field. It is empty".

    problem which is preventing me from doing any posting on SB? Hank has told me to clear my browsing cache which I have done several times to no avail.

    I am not getting displayed the buttons you are showing above
    Buttons

    even though I am a registered user.

    Instead I have the following options on my toolbar :-

    Toolbar

    Bold CTRL + SHIFT + B
    Italic CTRL + SHIFT + I
    Underline CTRL + SHIFT + U
    |
    Subscript
    Superscript
    |
    Remove Formatting
    |

    Align Left CTRL + SHIFT + [
    Align Center CTRL + SHIFT + |
    |

    Quote This
    Unquote
    Create an Unordered List
    Create an Ordered List
    |

    HTML Link CTRL + SHIFT + L
    Insert Image
    |When I first registered I seem to remember being able to switch between two editors, this option is no longer appears to be available to me.

    I would be very grateful if you could help me to be able to start posting again. My user id is Bonny Bonobo alias Brat otherwise known as Helen Barratt. I am in Australia on Eastern Australian time zone.

    I am not the only user experiencing this problem as you are proabably aware. Another example is Lubos below on the Garret Lisi blog :-

    Quote “I can't post with my scientificblogging.com account now - it says that the field is empty although it's not. I had to post the longish comment above twice.”

    Quote “Luboš Motl (not verified) | 07/01/10 | 14:01 PM New”

    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    Now I'm logged in as Bonny Bonobo and doing another test post, hoping to have cleared the problem, and maybe even shed some light on why the expletive deleted "Please fill in the field. It is empty"problem is happening to some long-suffering users like me. All the rest have probably left SB.
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    Interesting. I can only make posts via the plain editor and not the rich text editor mentioned above by Patrick in this blog. Sherlock Bonny Bonobo
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    Deduction: If you are a registered user and you encounter the "Please fill in the field. It is empty" problem, switch to the plain text editor and then make a post here on this blog.
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    blah
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    My Higgs, Is it working now?


    1. This is a test Rich text Editor post.
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    Thankyou very much!
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    When I just posted a plain text comment about giant octopuses the following debugging code appeared :- Line: 189 Error: 'myEditor.plaintextState' is null or not an object. Here is the code (I put the line 189 pointer in) if (toggle == 'on') { toggle = 'off'; return false; } Line 189-> else if (myEditor.plaintextState == 'on') { myEditor.setEditorHTML(myEditor.get('textarea').value); } else { myEditor.saveHTML(); } The same debugging script appeared with the same error on the same line when I tried to post this comment using the rich text editor. Hope this helps from Bad Luck Bonny Bonobo

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