Using the Percent sign

[tillyfromparadise Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tillyfromparadise]

I have discovered that the first time you use the percent sign in a post it usually comes out like this %

The next and subsiquent times you use the percent sign it comes out %

Therefore, you should start out posting a random percent sign at the beginning of the post where it is convenient

[tillyfromparadise Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tillyfromparadise]

Re: Using the Percent sign

Three percent signs in a row

% % %

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Using the Percent sign

%Tilly %
That is good research.
I thought that adding a space before the % sign would work, and I will check this post to see it this is true.
How about %%%%

Regards,
Tony
ps, could not fault the % sign in my post above (in preview mode at least - how does it come out in the forum???)
Edit:
It looks like you are correct Tilly, the first % sign appears as &#37

[tillyfromparadise Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tillyfromparadise]

Re: Using the Percent sign

After the first percent sign % it usually works OK.

Another % sign and % still %

Interestingly enough, when you first post even the first % looks OK. But then if you you edit and re-post it goes to % (I posted the gibberish and it displayed as %)

[smithw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close smithw]

Re: Using the Percent sign

Thats weird if you type in % (not percent) it changes to % on the second time it apears also

[Tim-HJ61 Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tim-HJ61]

Re: Using the Percent sign

And I've just found the ° symbol that has worked for years is no longer working either. Oh, it's meant to be the degrees symbol. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to resolve the second time it is used.
°
°
°

on my Mac keyboard this is Option, Shift, 8.


Nope, not worked..... sigh. Must be following the software update Robert did a while ago and we are just noticing it.

Tim

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Using the Percent sign

Sorry people, seems there are a few loose ends that I have not fixed up yet.

This issue looks like it is to do with the funky new text interface in the new software. The codes that you are talking about are the standard HTML codes for ascii text (like this). As some of the HTML language depends on some of these symbols, if you want to tell the language to display the symbol, rather than try to understand it, you need to use one of these codes. This example of the code for space is a good one.

So, the % symbol is resorting to showing it's code (correctly, this is &#37) instead of the text itself, clearly other symbols are also faulty as well.

I should stop waffling on with technical explanations to explain why the symptoms exist and actually fix the problem (that may be much harder). Leave it with me and I'll see what I can do.

[Tim-HJ61 Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tim-HJ61]

Re: Using the Percent sign

Hi Robert,

What is particularly odd, is that the first instance of the percentage sign shows up as Unicode or ascii text, but the subsequent ones are displaying the symbol properly.
I note that in your post however, it has displayed the percentage sign correctly the first time you used it.

Maybe it is behaving for Daddy! :-)

Tim

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Using the Percent sign

I've had a quick check of a few things. There may be a fix to this issue in a newer version (there is always a newer version as soon as you think you've finished the latest). However, looking a bit closer I can see that the new message editing interface with this current version is selectable.

If you look at the top right of the screen, you'll see a link called settings for changing various options on your account (you need to be logged in to see this). Following this link will take you to your User Control Panel. On the left, under My Settings/My Account will be a link for General Settings. Right at the end of this page of options is "Miscellaneous Options" and you will see a selection for the default editor that you use when making posts. This will be set to "enhanced" which was one of the new features in the current version of the software. The old editor was "standard". I changed mine to "standard" and I've just tried it now and there is no issue with the % or ° any more.

I think that because the enhanced editor changes what you type on the screen at the time, it gets ahead of itself. It is full WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), so when you make a link in your text, it immediately displays it, or when you change a font, or make something bold, it shows straight away. It's obviously got a bug and does this there and back on some characters causing the code and not the symbol to show when you submit. On the standard editor, it simply wraps code either side of your text , but as soon as you submit or preview it, this code is stripped and it displays correctly.

So, I'd suggest that if you want to use percent and degree signs etc, change your editor to good ol' faithful standard. If you just type straight text and want to see what you type appear exactly as it would to others when you've finished posting, then leave your editor set to enhanced. This is obviously a work around rather than a proper fix, but it should get you out of trouble until I can get to my next round of fixes & upgrades (there are also problems with image uploads as well).

[Tim-HJ61 Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tim-HJ61]

Re: Using the Percent sign

Good pick up Robert,

I am using Google Chrome on Mac OSX and in that settings section I found I had three options.

Enhanced Interface - Full WYSIWYG Editing
Basic Editor - A simple text box
Standard Editor - Extra formatting controls


The Standard Editor was already selected.

I have now selected and saved Basic Editor, and let's see if this works 100% so is 360° perfect...... :-)

Tim

[Tim-HJ61 Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tim-HJ61]

Re: Using the Percent sign

Sigh.

Well that didn't work :-\

I have logged out and logged back in again.

% percentage
° Degrees

%
°

Tim

[smithw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close smithw]

Re: Using the Percent sign

Hi Tim
I have found that google chrome, does some odd things to some web sites especially if the web site has been made with Iweb on a Mac. Hope this helps, but it probably wont

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Using the Percent sign

OK,I am using Firefox and selected the basic editor, so all will be well won't it ???

Percent %%
Degrees °°

So did this work???? NO, 1 percent sign of 2 entered showed up, neither degree symbol worked.
Next test is WYSIWYG editor.....

Tony

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Using the Percent sign

OK, this is the WYSIWYG editor.

Percent % %
Degrees ° °

Tony

I think that the editor is not the problem, neither is the web browser in use.

[yorta2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close yorta2]

Re: Using the Percent sign

Sorry, but you all look like you're swearing at me - I'm getting a bit paranoid.... (Thanks for your efforts, though)