A difficult question ...

bababardwan

sorry mate. I used to be able to do this. There used to be a tool up the top to paste from word, but it doesn't appear to be there anymore, at least not on this thread

bababardwan

here's one solution I found:

"paste into notepad and clear out all the old formatting that way"

... but I'm sure there's a better way

bababardwan

hmm, supposedly you can save the word document [or a copy of it] as one of a couple of html codes....but I've just tried that and it doesn't work pasting the result here.

bababardwan

just found one way that works. You can send it to yourself in gmail and then instead of downloading it, hit view, then view it as plain html and then copy and paste. I think you could also use google docs for this.

There are also editors that can do this, some you have to pay for though.

bodawei

Thanks a lot for your advice. I used to be able to just paste from a Word document (not using the little Word button function) but now if you do the copy and paste you get nothing - the post does not work at all.

So thanks for the gmail route - I am still curious why they made it so 麻烦? Any idea about the politics of posting here. It has been so difficult lately (and I have lost several posts to the ether) that my interest has dropped off. There must be some discussion of this somewhere that I have missed.

bodawei

I have tried it - totally lost (sorry to be so dim). I sent it to myself using gmail, hit view and it comes up as a google document. Then I cannot copy. The options include 'save as' and 'view source' but neither seems to allow me to paste back in ChinesePod. Can you take me through step by step?

bababardwan

I'm just on my way out mate, but I think you're missing one step. After hitting view and getting that google doc up the top you should see some options. The 3rd from the left is plain html...click on that and copy what comes up. Good luck. Catch you later.

bodawei

Thanks Barbs, got it. Just made the post that I was trying to make earlier. Just hope I remember that process in future. :)

zhenlijiang

Here, Bodawei--two little comments, buried in my increasingly irate post about "Blue Links" June-July:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/9491#comment-185605

bodawei

Ah Zhenlijiang, thanks a lot. I have been out of the loop for a while and missed some of this discussion. It is interesting that things have gone quiet even though a number of technical problems persist. People have let off steam and then maybe forget how things were before.

But this posting thing is really getting to me - almost every time I use 'create a post' I lose it, so I need to type it up elsewhere to avoid lost effort and time. But I can't easily use Word for this. There - I have let off steam. .... No - I am still disappointed that this gets in the way of communicating on the site.

zhenlijiang

Bodawei just speaking for myself, I wouldn't say I've been letting off steam. I've pointed problems and glitches out and expressed disbelief about website usability issues that made no sense at all and complained so much over the last half year, because there were so many reasons to. I haven't forgotten. I've become sick and tired of making all that effort just so that some bad changes that should never have been implemented in the first place could be put back right. I'm sick and tired of having to repeat a complaint when to me the problem is glaring and simply looks bad, sick and tired of being shown (most recently again by Hank) that CPod have no grip on what a user (maybe this is Subscription users actually that CPod have no clue about, sounded like that anyway) sees and experiences with their website. I'm tired of the silent manner in which fixes are made (seems either sneaky or sullen, because of the lack of any word). I find it very unfriendly, the way in which CPod won't announce those things and won't tell us about decisions they make, unless asked. GoManly had to ask about the Paste from Word function, I had to ask about the "in reply to" links within subthreads that had apparently been discontinued months before the change actually took effect for us users. etc. etc.

Sarah did tell us some weeks ago we would be notified of all changes to the website including minor ones That's been stopped after just two such posts. I used to acknowledge and thank CPod, when they wouldn't tell us they'd fixed a problem we reported, if I noticed it had been fixed. I thought it would be good, if we could actually check off the resolved issues reported on that Tech Problems on Site group. But I'm now sick of taking time to do that too. After a certain point you just can't keep up the caring anymore.

The timing you describe with your loss of posts is something I've never experienced, so I wouldn't know if there is anything you could do to prevent that from happening. Maybe you could try simply copying what you've written in the text box--at whatever timing you felt like it--you could save it that way, instead of writing on and importing from Word. I think with the larger comment-writing boxes (which I asked for. other users may have as well. the ones we used to have were ridiculously small and the text displayed too large for us to see what we'd written in the tiny boxes) we have now, and Convert to Tone Marks function, and the text formatting tools they've given us back (after taking them away! what was that for? then we had to grumble and petition, to get them brought back), I imagine the thinking also is that we shouldn't have any reason to write our comments in Word. But yeah, I would try just copying your post whenever. Sorry for the rant.

Tal

baba is certainly to be commended for an ingenious solution to the problem. My own solution is (for the most part) to just avoid using Word! Well... for posting on Chinesepod anyway. Don't forget Wordpad , the simple Windows word processor, and I think it may be fine if you copy and paste from Word into Wordpad, and then copy and paste from Wordpad into the CPod posting box.

(Of course, in an ideal world, no such nonsense would be necessary, but I think by now we regulars here know the score, 对不对?)

Tal

This is a test post, composed of text written in Word, copied into Wordpad, and then into the CPod posting box.

[P.S. and it worked just fine. Possibly less hassle than having to send emails to oneself in Gmail.]

bodawei

'Sorry for the rant' ..

Not at all. :) Made me feel that I was not alone in the universe. It is a funny place ChinesePod isn't it? (Funny weird more than funny ha ha.) It is such a great community and yet you can't help but wonder what is GOING ON sometimes behind the backlit screen, our portal to the ChinesePod world. Anyway, 5 yrs old now; I believe there is cause for celebration. Quietly claps three or four times while gazing earnestly into the middle distance. I should explain that I am not a party person. but I won't begrudge a bit of fun. When the fireworks have finished and the last sparkler has fizzled out I will wait a respectful moment or two and then ask:

Why could I paste from Word for most of my life here at ChinesePod, only to be told that it now conflicts with other functions on the site so this functionality had to be abandoned? (One wonders what these other new improved functions are that we have been blessed with that led to this unfortunate outcome.) And when I ask this question I understand that I now have to put it in an email rather than post it in the now defunct Technical Problems on Site group. And while there maybe I will ask for an update on the question of using the Groups function.

bodawei

Hi tal_

Thanks for your practical solution to my little dilemma. I love it when the solution to a 2010 problem involves technology dating back to last century.

In case I sound like a Luddite I have been enjoying, these last few months, the little 3G thingies that allow me easy access to the Internet wherever I go. We celebrated by cancelling our home phone service. Begone copper wire!

bababardwan

I understand that I now have to put it in an email rather than post it in the now defunct Technical Problems on Site group

...oh really? defunct huh? ...I missed that. So it can't be used at all? When did that happen, and why is it so?

bodawei

我不要引起麻烦。。！

(Oh I hope I haven't put a cat among the pigeons)

I thought that I read a thread where Peter said that technical problems now should be sent in emails to CP to ensure that they receive attention - do I have that wrong?? It does make sense I guess, the group rapidly became unwieldy - it was difficult to keep track to complaints, let alone responses and/or solutions.

bababardwan

"do I have that wrong?"

...I really don't know mate. I haven't been following closely. You may be right. I guess the question therefore is ..was he just giving an alternative, or was it clearly a case of closing that group down.?

bodawei

I don't think that there is any intention to 'close' the group - from memory it was expressed in terms of time (taken to respond) and being sure that the matter received attention. Someone else is sure to remember the discussion.