No editing tools when using Firefox

[takesiteasy]

FWIW, I realized today that when I use Firefox (I'm on a Mac), I don't see the editing toolbars when making new posts or replying to posts. I realized it when I wanted to use an emoticon and couldn't find the button. Then I realized there weren't any editing buttons. I don't know if this is a general problem or related to my computer alone but thought I would post it up. When I use Safari, everything works fine.

 

[Ted]

I am using Firefox but not a Mac. Just checked on a previous post and was able to click on edit. It opened the whole edit toolbox including the emoticons. So I don't think it is WTW or Firefox. Maybe a setting or something to do with Macs?

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Al I had the problem of no spell check using firefox and a mac.It just came back on it's own, don't know how but just did.
Not sure what editing you want,but do you click on the "more options" tab?
I am actually not qualified to answer this,just adding some trial and error.
Frank

 

[MarkBC]

I think we're talking about the edit toolbar as shown in the screen grab (thumbnail) below, right?



The toolbar didn't appear until I clicked on the blank zone where you type your reply. And the choice of emoticons appears (usually below) when you click on the single smilie in the toolbar. A few more of the emoticons appear when you click on the tiny arrow to the right of the emoticons.
I assume that takesiteasy knows that, since he sees the toolbar on Safari.

 

[takesiteasy]

Well I'm chalking this one up to the mysterious computer gremlins. When I signed back in just now, everything seems to be working. When I have tried restarting before, it didn't fix it. Sorry for the wild goose chase. I have had some other random problems making posts since the new software, but they seem intermittent so I don't know what the deal is. It's working now, so I'm good. Thanks for your replies.

 

[Lighthawk]

I'm on a Mac, using Chrome and all the edit functions are visible.


Well I tried to include them all, but the emoticon police gave me this warning,

You have posted a message with more emoticons than this community allows. Please reduce the number of emoticons you've added to the message


----------

Looks like <10 emoticons is acceptable, so don't worry guys!! lol

 

[Alley-Kat]

I haven't posted many messages since the forum upgrade, however, I found something new today.

I'm on a PC, Windows 7 Pro, and Internet Explorer 10 (recently upgraded from IE9).

When I clicked inside the text window to create a new reply to an existing thread, the editing tool bar was INACTIVE, or greyed out and I could not click on almost all of the icon buttons. And, later it was no surprise that when creating a Private Message I experienced the same behavior.

However, one icon button on the far left side, top row was active.

Usually when I move my mouse pointer over any one of the active icon buttons on the editing tool bar, a little popup message says what the icon button does, however, this far left side, top row icon button didn't do that.

Here's the screen capture with my mouse pointer over that active icon button and the rest of the editing tool bar greyed out.

Once I clicked on that icon button the entire editing tool bar became ACTIVE and all of the icon buttons were working, including the little popup message about what each icon button did.

So, I'm guessing that the far left side, top row icon button that I clicked on was toggling between the "Quick Reply Editor" (all icon buttons greyed out, used for text only replies) and the Full Reply Editor (all icon buttons are ACTIVE, for enhanced messages with web links, photos and other things).

 

[takesiteasy]

Alley-Cat, how did you post those screen shots? Are they images? I tried to post some by copying and pasting but it didn't work. I discovered that the little arrow all the way to the right on the toolbar toggles the editing tools- visible and hidden. Maybe that was my problem earlier.

 

[Alley-Kat]

There are several ways to do screen captures, I think some members have posted about a few of them previously. I think most of the methods make the screen capture into a JPEG image and thus can be treated just like a photo from any digital camera.

I like to use a free software program called ScreenHunter to do my screen captures. There are multiple ways to select the area of the screen to be captured.

I also use a free account at Photobucket for hosting my images (photos, screen captures and drawings from my Galaxy Note 2 cell phone). Using something like Photobucket allows me to post my images anywhere on the web, and, I like to keep ownership of my images, and not store them on the WTW gallery, with the WTW logo or note on the image.

- - - - - - - - -

The arrow on the RIGHT is a little different than what I discovered with the icon button on the LEFT. The one you are talking about hides or shows the editing tool bar. The one on the left makes the icon buttons of the editing tool bar active or inactive.

I'm not really sure why we need the icon button on the left, because, if the editing tool bar is hidden then you're automatically in the "Quick Reply Editor" for text only messages. Activate the editing tool bar and you should automatically be in the "Full Reply Editor" for enhanced message creation (a person should not have to do a second step to actually activate the icon buttons).

 

[MarkBC]

There are several ways to do screen captures, I think some members have posted about a few of them previously. I think most of the methods make the screen capture into a JPEG image and thus can be treated just like a photo from any digital camera.

......

I'm not really sure why we need the icon button on the left, because, if the editing tool bar is hidden then you're automatically in the "Quick Reply Editor" for text only messages. Activate the editing tool bar and you should automatically be in the "Full Reply Editor" for enhanced message creation (a person should not have to do a second step to actually activate the icon buttons).

For me, the little switch on the left seems already set by default so that the Toolbar appears active.
When I click on the text-entry area of "Reply to this topic" at the bottom of the page (aka "Quick Reply") the Toolbar pops into existence, active.
How the Reply box looks before I click in the text-entry window:

How the Reply box looks after I click in the text-entry window; note the cursor in the window, showing that I've clicked there:

I'm not sure if there's a user-selectable setting somewhere that makes it so or if it just remembers how I had it set the last time I used it...but it's ALWAYS this way for me., using Chrome or Internet Explorer.
Given that, the main difference between the "quick reply" and what you get when you click on "More Reply Options" (besides the fact that you stay on the same page or not) is the ability to attach files (usually image thumbnails) and the ability to preview the reply...and a few rarely-used options, such as Poll.

BTW: I got these screen grabs using good ole Shift-PrintScreen (available in all versions of Windows since it's inception), which copies the entire screen to the clipboard. I then paste that into IrfanView and crop it how I want it. (Irfanview: the BEST free simple image editor/viewer out there, IMHO; I have LIghtroom & Photoshop, and I still use IrfanView for cropping non-critical stuff and viewing lots of stuff, 'cause it's such a tiny low-overhead program)
Another option for screen grabs (more powerful than Shift-PrintScreen), built into Windows 7, is the Snipping Tool:

 

[Alley-Kat]

I believe that it remembers what you set it to the last time.
In my case I upgraded from IE 9 to IE 10 and I suspect that the upgrade did a change to the way I found it... above.
Now, it appears in the Full Reply Editor every time when I click in the reply message window.

 

[takesiteasy]

Thanks for the info on posting screen grabs. It is easy to generate them on the mac (command-shift-3 or 4) but I was hoping there was an easy way to post them here. I know how to do photos and I use Picasa for storing my photos but was hoping I didn't need to mess with all that just for some screen shots.

 

[MarkBC]

Thanks for the info on posting screen grabs. It is easy to generate them on the mac (command-shift-3 or 4) but I was hoping there was an easy way to post them here. I know how to do photos and I use Picasa for storing my photos but was hoping I didn't need to mess with all that just for some screen shots.

Nope -- no way to paste an image directly from the clipboard (or whatever it's called on a Mac) into a post. The closest thing (most direct way) is to save the screen grab to your computer, then use the Attach Files function (from the Full editor) to upload it to the post, where it shows as a thumbnail. This eliminates the need to have the file hosted explicitly anywhere, but no, not as easy as just pasting an image into a post...
Are there forums that give you the ability to paste images directly into a post?

 

[takesiteasy]

Nope -- no way to paste an image directly from the clipboard (or whatever it's called on a Mac) into a post. The closest thing (most direct way) is to save the screen grab to your computer, then use the Attach Files function (from the Full editor) to upload it to the post, where it shows as a thumbnail. This eliminates the need to have the file hosted explicitly anywhere, but no, not as easy as just pasting an image into a post...
Are there forums that give you the ability to paste images directly into a post?

Thanks Mark. I appreciate the Attach Files tip. That's easy enough for me. I usually skip that with images due to the 500 kb limit but it would work fine for the screen grab. I don't know the answer to your question. I would guess probably not.