Help:Technical Support

If you have a technical problem with the MediaWiki software or any other computer-related issues, please post them here and we will get you an answer.

Loss of logged in status

After writing an article quote for a page, I clicked on preview button as instructed. I understood this should be done before saving it. This gave an 'error' page, that I needed to log in and then I tried the 'back' button. This sent me to the Main Page and said I needed to log in the view other pages. How can I avoid this? Should I have saved it first?

I expect that saving the page would have resulted in the same error. The exact source of the error is unclear but here are some suggestions that should prevent it from happening again:

1. Make sure that you check the "remember me" box on the log in page. This will eliminate the need to login to the site in the future and will keep you logged in all of the time.
2. Ensure that you can accept a 'cookie' from the website - click here to learn how to make sure you can get cookies. If you can't accept cookies, the site can't keep you logged in.
3. If you are doing an edit that is going to take a long time, I would suggest that you do it in Word and then cut and paste it to the website. If you were on the page for a long time before you hit the preview button, it could be that your internet sevice provider timed you out and then when you clicked on "preview", you were effectively logging in to the site again. However, steps 1 & 2 above should solve this problem.

BroRod 08:52, 14 September 2006 (CDT)

Problem with "Show Preview"

(I don't know if this is the correct page to be asking this sort of question. please direct me if not for future use) When I work on the edit page of my article, I have hit "show preview" and I have lost the editing that I wanted to see. What did I do wrong? I thought I could edit, then "show preview" to see if I like the work, hit "edit" again and then hit "save page". Is that wrong?

When you hit "show preview", you should see the changes reflected BELOW (i.e. scroll down). You can have the preview appear before the edit box if you select that option in the "edit" section of your perferences (one of the menu items in the top right of the page). However, if you hit the "edit" tab before you "save", you can lose all of your work, so don't touch the "edit" tab until you are finished editing and have saved your work.

If it is a big edit, I always select and copy the section I edited (select by left clicking the mouse and keeping it held down while you drag across the text you want to select and then right click and press copy in the popup menu) just to be safe. I don't trust computers. Alternatively, you can copy and past the edit to Word before you save, again just to be safe. BroRod 17:59, 14 September 2006 (CDT)

How do I paste a quote from the Message to the site?

You select your text and then hit Ctrl-V (this copies the text) You then go on the site to where you want to paste it and then hit Ctrl-P. BroRod 18:18, 14 September 2006 (CDT)