IE Crashes - Can Auctiva Recover?

Believe me, I feel your pain! This has caused me more than one fit of rage. If your listing was not saved, I'm afraid it is gone. The safest way to safeguard your description is to periodically copy it to Word or Notepad. Make a copy even before clicking a SAVE button or anything else, as even the act of saving can cause a crash. Or like you mentioned, write it out first then copy to Auctiva.

When I start a new listing, I put in the Title only and then save. Once you successfully save your listing once, it seems to go smoother. I usually split my listing into three parts: the basics, the pictures and the description. I save after each part. Then if it freezes, you don't have so much to redo.

By saving at intervals, I seldom have a listing freeze on me anymore. If it does, I close that window and open a fresh one and then redo the last step. It seems like I either have to do it this way or be constantly deleting my cookies and such.

booklady

I usually save the pictures til last. Does it usually do better to have the pictures before the description? I guess that makes sense as then you're at that final step already and the only thing left is to save one last time.

I also save the pictures for last but I don't think it matters. Just be sure to upload images before opening the listing you are working on and it helps to not do anything else to the listing at the time you are doing the pictures. I've found that if I even change something in the item specifics at the time of doing pictures, it may freeze.

By starting out the listing by just saving the title kind of lets me know if I'm going to have a problem. If that save is successful, the rest goes easier.

booklady

I tend to use the option to host pictures off site. I don't know exactly why, I think it's because the uploading at Auctiva gets a little quirky. At any rate, is there a workaround to be able to enter the pictures beforehand even if you're not using Auctiva to host them?

My way

1) always keep image uploads seperate to listing editing and do it first.

2) prepare all components, description (in Word), image, templates, profiles and seller details and then assemble the listing online. Minimises the risk of on line hiccups losing my work.

3) use IE6 - most problems seem to revolve around IE7

These 3 rules significantly minimise the amount of swearing I do whilst sitting at this keyboard.

Thanks Do you do all the formatting of text in word too before pasting to Auctiva? I've noticed that at times what you see in word isn't what comes out at Auctiva and I have to change a few things (spacing, letter size, fonts, whatnot)

Hi, yes all in Word, and paste it all in, if it needs editing redit the Word document and replace the entire text. Using this method really depends on how much formatting you want to use and whether you are going to use the description again.

Regarding font problems, I have found that even typing the text directly into the Design editor on Auctiva, eBay or Turbolister that font colour and sizes can change for no apparent reason.

So do not edit pasted Word text. I use the ctrl-c & ctrl-v approach, editor asks clean it ?, I say no by cancelling and in it goes. Result is what I want with horrendous looking HTML but seems to load and display ok even with my slow PC.

The design editors build complex and heavy looking HTML and get confused easily and in my experience previewers associated with the above rarely show exactly what you will see when live. Often they have shown font errors in preview which were non-existant when listed. I wasted many hours finding that out !

Another complication is that a good HTML based display will dynamically rearrange the text wrapping to minimise the use of the scroll bar and also resize the text according to the users preference, (the latter is also a cause of previewers distorting font size).

If you are good at using a tool like Frontpage or even writing raw HTML then you could probably write more efficient code. I am not good at HTML and rather sell items than become a HTML expert.

In the end use what posts correctly and stick to it, bit of trial and error, do it before you posts 100's of listings and it all ends in tears as so often gets written on these boards.