In general, it is useful to learn to associate the relationship between cause and effect, action and reaction, stimulus and response. Touch a hot stove and the pain will cause recoil. When it rains, things get wet. This is also a very useful skill when trying to solve problems while building your web site.
One of the most common questions posted in the Office Live Small Business Community will be something like this:
"I was editing my site, and now I can't view the page. Is there something wrong with Office Live?"
A variation of this goes,
"I made some changes to my page, but when I try to save it, I get an error message."
When this crops up, the first thing to look at is the last thing you did. Ask these questions:
- What did I just put on the page?
- Is it different from things I have added in the past? If so, how is it different?
- Is it possible what I just did is the cause of the problem?
Whatever it was, delete it. Save the page and see if you can view it. If the problem persists, delete the next previous thing added and try again. Keep deleting your way backwards until the page can be successfully saved and viewed.
Once in a while something added to a page can be catastrophic. The page will be irreversibly broken. The only solution will be to replace it with a new page. If it’s your home page that is broken, don’t try to delete it. Create a new page; put the word default in the address text box giving it the address …/default.aspx. Then check the box for “Overwrite existing page.”
How to Prevent the Pain
- While editing, “Save” frequently and “View” the results. If there’s a problem, you’ll catch it quickly.
- Never, never paste formatted Word text to a web page. Such text actually contains embedded code that will kill the page. The same is true for Excel files. You can use Word to compose text, but don't format it in Word. That includes bullets, fonts and all other formatting.
- Be careful when adding code to your site. Never paste it directly to a page.
- To create new content, use a “test” or “composition” page off navigation. Create and edit page segments here, especially any new code modules. Only when it is working and looking good, copy and paste it to the final location. This also prevents a half-baked look when adding new content to your live pages. If you kill your test page, nothing is lost.
So, it hurts when you do that? Don't do that.