Hi everyone – a quick update on experimental features this evening. First off, our tax configuration feature is no longer experimental and can be utilized by all. This enables us to launch a new experimental feature this evening – a new WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor for our new item form.
The new editor has a number of features and enhancements over the current one. Top features that might be of interest to you include:
• Paste from Word – no guarantees, but this editor has a ‘paste from MS Word’ feature. Hopefully this retains your formatting more effectively than our previous version. I imagine it still will not be perfect, particularly for more obscure fonts or advanced tables, but it's worth an experiment.
• Integrated spell check – do it on-command, or as you type
• Drag-able sizing – just drag the corner to set your preferred size. Or, if you prefer, try the new full screen option which really is full screen.
• Find & Replace – want to change an oft-repeated word? No problem.
• Speed – the new editor should be faster to work with as well.
• Also…it has smileys. ; )
Why make this experimental? Primarily we want to hear your feedback before making this (potentially) the new default editor for everyone. There are simply too many scenarios for us to test comprehensively when you factor in different browsers and the myriad of content and HTML combinations that exist from item to item. If you want to experiment with a listing, but are concerned about the impact on your carefully crafted description, I suggest you duplicate a listing first and experiment on the duplicate.
I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback on your editor preferences (new or old). If you do experience any problems with the editor please be sure to include the item you edited as well as your specific browser number. WYSIWYG editors are notoriously finicky, but we believe this to be one of the better ones. Knowing the browser is the fastest way to help us replicate the issue which is a prerequisite for fixing. We’re not blaming the browser when we ask for this - we just want to find the problems fast to fix ‘em!
Also, over the past few days we’ve made a number of small changes which I wouldn’t want to get lost in the big feature shuffle.
Here’s a quick list of some of the changes we’ve made recently that you *might* want to be aware of.
Item zooms are no longer tiny for some users (or way too large).
Duplicated items can now be fully edited in the NIF.
Merchants can now disable OBO for their entire booth in the advanced settings area.
When you mouse over main item images there’s now an indication that a large (zoom) is available.
Add shipping price to search results
Thanks for the feedback everyone!
Oh, and if you don't like the new editor simply turn off experimental features. Now that the tax configurator is available to all that means you'll simply roll back to the old editor and not lose any other features.
The one thing that needs to be fixed is when you hit on a picture, lets say there is a second item and you try to open it…. it takes forever to open up, Hopefully you can work on that, it’s very frustrating….But the other updates look really good
SMILEYS? Cool! I can’t function without smileys, and have to say that I have ALWAYS appreciated the wry sense of humor that pops up within the site. It’s one of my favorite things about B.
Wait, I do edit listings. Today there is no search in edit listings. Wait, it came back. I really appreciate having that. Keep it, Pretty Please???
Nice work!!
I have just listed 3 new listings – first one needed editing after the first placement – but the others seemed to work well after that. Will do a few more tomorrow and keep testing. Used Batch Editor and that seemed to work okay as well.
@gingernellscloset – can tell me more about what was lost? In my test previews (where we open the item in a new window) all of my changes have been reflected in the preview and no data is lost.
I have deleted images and previewed, then changed shipping prices, then edited the description – all were reflected when I previewed.
If GPS requires tax to be shown, but we do not have to charge it, how do we do that? It will not let me enter a rate of 0, and I can’t find a place to select ‘no tax’.
I am in Canada, and need to charge different tax rates for different provinces.
I cannot enter provinces in the state box, as it gives an error. However, I need to charge anywhere from 5 – 15%, depending on which province the order is going to, and it will not let me enter more than one tax rule for Canada.
I cannot set US at zero, and yet GPS requires tax rates for anything shipping to the states.
I just edited a listing, changed my templates, saved it and it was good. Then clicked edit again because that’s where the trouble was before, and it didn’t add breaks (empty spaces), so I am glad for that. It’s good to finally have spell check too.
And for Caverly Sports, I assume zero will be sent for USA, and I’ll just apply tax as needed to invoices. I do specify in the listings, that the GST or HST is applicable to all Canadian orders, so I’ll just keep adding it on as needed.
This is a great WYSIWYG Editor. You need to be aware that the text size is now different – no longer size 1,2,3,etc. Now it’s 12pt, 14pt, 16pt. Now need to figure out what size I WAS using…..
Text wrapping (to the next line) seems to work better automatically – I don’t need to press Enter as much!! If my were too long I would lose my “other items for sale” boxes on the right of the listing. That seems to be fixed now.
I am anxious to test it out. Unfortunately I just finished a whole slew of new listings, so now you’re gonna make me go find some more…LOL~ I can’t stand to be in suspense!
I was just adding a couple of more listings like the earlier ones – and noticed – that on items where I usually have more than 1 – which is most of this booth – when duplicating – it doesn’t keep the number – not a big issue – just something I noticed.
Hi Alex, All was well and I just edited an item that I haven’t yet posted and when I edited it and went back to look at it well, let’s say the editor was waaaaay different.
It’s teeny with no buttons or anything just an up/down bar and everything is in html. I don’t know html and have only added a couple of things by html in my close to three years being here. Here’s a link to the screen shot I posted under About Bonanza. http://www.bonanza.com/forums/4/topics/162472
Hi, Alex, First the good news, then the Uh-oh news:
1. Good News: I just added a new listing, using a template from Auctiva. It turned out beautiful and easier than the old way.
2. Uh-oh News: One thing that DID happen, though, is, looking at the Batch Editor, the new listing and some of my older listings defaulted to various international shipping configurations. I noticed this happened a couple of days ago, after the New Item Form Redesign, just before this newest editor.
This is Uh-oh for me, because I don’t want to ship internationally. My items are heavy glass, and have to have a lot of cushioning; so the boxes get big sometimes. That would cost SO much to ship internationally, and it seems so complicated, I don’t want to get into it.
The New Item Form Redesign seems to randomly choose international if you don’t check the “I will not ship outside of the US” button near the bottom of the page. It shouldn’t automatically default to international.
IMO, this new editor is glitchy, too. It’s somewhat better than the old one and I like the features but: Line breaks don’t always translate into a line break. And when you go back in to edit to fix them, one paragraph loses its font size and has to be redone.
Also, Alex, disabling Prices Negotiable (OBO) in seller settings is not working. I still have to uncheck it each time. Unless I am missing something somewhere…
Much better. If I was creating listings directly in this lister I think it would do the job. In my situation, I am importing listings from eBay, which were created with a template, and the results aren’t good. I don’t know if something has also changed in the importer, or if I can just see the problems better now and was letting them slip by before, but it’s sort of messy, and requires a lot of work to fix.
Specific to the new lister, the problem that I have is that it will strip out the style block that I use. I know, that is supposed to be in head for strict compliance, but all browsers will render it if in the body and that is what I have been doing in order to condense the inline CSS code. Do you see any solution to that? About all I can do now is a search and replace for id=“foo” or class=“bar”, etc., to insert the appropriate inline style tags.
I am using the eBay import tool. I haven’t looked at the CSV import. I’m not sure, but I don’t think the style block can modify anything outside the div where the style block and description are wrapped.
@ calicoseas – you’re welcome! And, if you check out the new item form now, you will see that we’ve changed the messaging around the price negotiable (AKA ‘OBO’) checkbox.
sorry guys…but it takes 3-4 times to make changes stick…what is entered is not what is showing…spending an hour trying to fix listings which were perfectly fine originally on 2.00 books is not fun
adding new listings is for the most part okay…
The new editor is an adventure. Please know that I am very thankful that support is trying to fix the editing problems.
I am using Internet Explorer 8, Windows XP.
The good part:
1. I was able to edit listings that were refusing to take changes at all. It was still very difficult, but they did finally accept changes.
2. Can click on “edit†and it does NOT mess up the line spacing anymore. Hurrah!
The bad part:
1. Sometimes a listing still doesn’t accept changes (purple cow salt and pepper shakers http://www.bonanza.com/booths/TheCuriousPhoenix/items/Purple_Cow_and_Calves_3_Piece_Salt_and_Pepper_Japan_Japanese have middle two lines in bold face and refuses to change).
2. Sometimes it takes three times or more to get an editing change to stick, including when I tell it to center copy, it flush rights it instead and I have to keep telling it to center, it does it eventually.
3. When I tell it to flush left, the cursor completely disappears off the screen.
4. Auto text color is gray…why? Why is it not the standard black?
5. Has fewer typeface options and nothing ornate.
6. Hard to switch from larger typeface to smaller, it does it eventually
@TheCuriousPhoenix – I wish I had better news for you on this one.
WYSIWYG editing in web browsers is inherently finicky; especially for formatting like you describe. Just the other day I was using a similar editor in Google Sites and experienced similar inconsistencies. Why can’t I paste in that table cell? Why won’t you center align text consistently? Argh. ; )
I know saying what amounts to as ‘no web editor is perfect’ is not a great answer, but right now it’s the best I’ve got and it’s the truth. This editor (we didn’t create it) is widely regarded as one of the best available.
Thanks for providing specific feedback and your browser.
You may find the editor behaves better in Firefox or Google Chrome. Those browsers could play more nicely with the editor itself. I’m not blaming your browser. The truth is that all of them play differently.
I am having many of the above mentioned problems editing and listing. Studio_255 mentions the “dots” or “bullets” are not showing up while editing, then they are out of sync when I go to view my listing. I’ve spent several frustrating hours today trying to fix one single listing. I can not afford to waste my time like this. I love the look of Bonanza and y’all seem like a wonderful site to do business on, but I can’t spin my wheels “testing” your product. A guinea pig I am not. Glad I am going to be out of town for a little bit and hoping things get better…
47 responses to Updated Experimental Features
Look at THIS guy! Can’t wait to try it out. Thank you Alex and Support Team. And also, for the info added re: the recent changes
Thank you!!!
The one thing that needs to be fixed is when you hit on a picture, lets say there is a second item and you try to open it…. it takes forever to open up, Hopefully you can work on that, it’s very frustrating….But the other updates look really good
@misskeech – are you talking about when adding or editing item photos in the new item form or the picture tool in the WYSIWYG editor?
Wait, I do edit listings. Today there is no search in edit listings. Wait, it came back. I really appreciate having that. Keep it, Pretty Please???
Nice work!!
I have just listed 3 new listings – first one needed editing after the first placement – but the others seemed to work well after that. Will do a few more tomorrow and keep testing. Used Batch Editor and that seemed to work okay as well.
It looks good but don’t hit preview without saving first or your listing goes poof!
Edited a couple items this morning and didn’t seem to hit any snags…..item appeared as edited after saving and updating..
Thanks – think this is an improvement in spite of the few problems some folks are experiencing……….
@gingernellscloset – can tell me more about what was lost? In my test previews (where we open the item in a new window) all of my changes have been reflected in the preview and no data is lost.
I have deleted images and previewed, then changed shipping prices, then edited the description – all were reflected when I previewed.
Thanks for the help!
Sounds great! Can’t wait to try it when I return next week.
Alex, how do we show that we charge no tax?
If GPS requires tax to be shown, but we do not have to charge it, how do we do that? It will not let me enter a rate of 0, and I can’t find a place to select ‘no tax’.
I am in Canada, and need to charge different tax rates for different provinces.
I cannot enter provinces in the state box, as it gives an error. However, I need to charge anywhere from 5 – 15%, depending on which province the order is going to, and it will not let me enter more than one tax rule for Canada.
I cannot set US at zero, and yet GPS requires tax rates for anything shipping to the states.
@BookbinEtc – if you have no tax specified we send zero instead of nothing. This fulfills Google’s requirement to the best of our knowledge.
Awesome!! Thank you!
lookin goood!! thank you!!
@caverlysports – Regrettably Google restricts international tax collection to country or country and postal code, but does not allow provinces.
Oh goodie…a new toy.
I’ll have to go check it out. It looks awesome from the screenshot and I love the search and replace feature. Way cool!!
Thanks Bonz gang!!
Maybe today I can list something and try it out! I’m liking the sound of this!
I just edited a listing, changed my templates, saved it and it was good. Then clicked edit again because that’s where the trouble was before, and it didn’t add breaks (empty spaces), so I am glad for that. It’s good to finally have spell check too.
Thanks Alex!
As long as you’re sending zero, we’re covered.
And for Caverly Sports, I assume zero will be sent for USA, and I’ll just apply tax as needed to invoices. I do specify in the listings, that the GST or HST is applicable to all Canadian orders, so I’ll just keep adding it on as needed.
Yeah!! It worked just fine, copied over my description from word with no problems.
Thanks so much!
This is a great WYSIWYG Editor. You need to be aware that the text size is now different – no longer size 1,2,3,etc. Now it’s 12pt, 14pt, 16pt. Now need to figure out what size I WAS using…..
Text wrapping (to the next line) seems to work better automatically – I don’t need to press Enter as much!! If my were too long I would lose my “other items for sale” boxes on the right of the listing. That seems to be fixed now.
Glad you like it so far ImpressionsExpress and Indizona!
I am anxious to test it out. Unfortunately I just finished a whole slew of new listings, so now you’re gonna make me go find some more…LOL~ I can’t stand to be in suspense!
I was just adding a couple of more listings like the earlier ones – and noticed – that on items where I usually have more than 1 – which is most of this booth – when duplicating – it doesn’t keep the number – not a big issue – just something I noticed.
Hi Alex, All was well and I just edited an item that I haven’t yet posted and when I edited it and went back to look at it well, let’s say the editor was waaaaay different.
It’s teeny with no buttons or anything just an up/down bar and everything is in html. I don’t know html and have only added a couple of things by html in my close to three years being here. Here’s a link to the screen shot I posted under About Bonanza. http://www.bonanza.com/forums/4/topics/162472
See what ya think!
Oh, I’m on FF 3.6.17
@nflgirl – looking at the forum post now…
FABULOUS! LOVE IT! MUCH BETTER!
So far, my descriptions are not being altered simply by clicking the EDIT link! THANK YOU!
Ditto! Much better!
Hi, Alex, First the good news, then the Uh-oh news:
1. Good News: I just added a new listing, using a template from Auctiva. It turned out beautiful and easier than the old way.
2. Uh-oh News: One thing that DID happen, though, is, looking at the Batch Editor, the new listing and some of my older listings defaulted to various international shipping configurations. I noticed this happened a couple of days ago, after the New Item Form Redesign, just before this newest editor.
This is Uh-oh for me, because I don’t want to ship internationally. My items are heavy glass, and have to have a lot of cushioning; so the boxes get big sometimes. That would cost SO much to ship internationally, and it seems so complicated, I don’t want to get into it.
The New Item Form Redesign seems to randomly choose international if you don’t check the “I will not ship outside of the US” button near the bottom of the page. It shouldn’t automatically default to international.
Note: I edited the above for clarity.
The new text box editor speed is at least a 1000 percent improvement for me. Thank you VERY, VERY, VERY MUCH for fixing this problem.
IMO, this new editor is glitchy, too. It’s somewhat better than the old one and I like the features but: Line breaks don’t always translate into a line break. And when you go back in to edit to fix them, one paragraph loses its font size and has to be redone.
Also, Alex, disabling Prices Negotiable (OBO) in seller settings is not working. I still have to uncheck it each time. Unless I am missing something somewhere…
@calicoseas – we’ve got this one bugged and are investigating. Thanks for enduring…!
@CrystalBlueAttitude – indeed you’re right on OBO. I just checked it myself. We’ll get that fixed. I’m writing a bug on that now.
Much better. If I was creating listings directly in this lister I think it would do the job. In my situation, I am importing listings from eBay, which were created with a template, and the results aren’t good. I don’t know if something has also changed in the importer, or if I can just see the problems better now and was letting them slip by before, but it’s sort of messy, and requires a lot of work to fix.
Specific to the new lister, the problem that I have is that it will strip out the style block that I use. I know, that is supposed to be in head for strict compliance, but all browsers will render it if in the body and that is what I have been doing in order to condense the inline CSS code. Do you see any solution to that? About all I can do now is a search and replace for id=“foo” or class=“bar”, etc., to insert the appropriate inline style tags.
@AC-EBIZ – We do strip out style blocks from item descriptions, as they would allow nefarious folks to modify things outside the description area.
It looks like you are currently searching/replacing the CSS in all of your items – do you typically enter your items via CSV import?
I am using the eBay import tool. I haven’t looked at the CSV import. I’m not sure, but I don’t think the style block can modify anything outside the div where the style block and description are wrapped.
Thank you for keeping us posted, Alex, and for your genuine concern and positive attitude when someone has a “complaint.”
It’s so refreshing to see you actively asking questions of people to further understand what exactly needs fixing.
You shine!
@ calicoseas – you’re welcome! And, if you check out the new item form now, you will see that we’ve changed the messaging around the price negotiable (AKA ‘OBO’) checkbox.
sorry guys…but it takes 3-4 times to make changes stick…what is entered is not what is showing…spending an hour trying to fix listings which were perfectly fine originally on 2.00 books is not fun
adding new listings is for the most part okay…
@ccmom – I’ll send you a bmail for details.
Attn Alex:
The new editor is an adventure. Please know that I am very thankful that support is trying to fix the editing problems.
I am using Internet Explorer 8, Windows XP.
The good part:
1. I was able to edit listings that were refusing to take changes at all. It was still very difficult, but they did finally accept changes.
2. Can click on “edit†and it does NOT mess up the line spacing anymore. Hurrah!
The bad part:
1. Sometimes a listing still doesn’t accept changes (purple cow salt and pepper shakers http://www.bonanza.com/booths/TheCuriousPhoenix/items/Purple_Cow_and_Calves_3_Piece_Salt_and_Pepper_Japan_Japanese have middle two lines in bold face and refuses to change).
2. Sometimes it takes three times or more to get an editing change to stick, including when I tell it to center copy, it flush rights it instead and I have to keep telling it to center, it does it eventually.
3. When I tell it to flush left, the cursor completely disappears off the screen.
4. Auto text color is gray…why? Why is it not the standard black?
5. Has fewer typeface options and nothing ornate.
6. Hard to switch from larger typeface to smaller, it does it eventually
@TheCuriousPhoenix – I wish I had better news for you on this one.
WYSIWYG editing in web browsers is inherently finicky; especially for formatting like you describe. Just the other day I was using a similar editor in Google Sites and experienced similar inconsistencies. Why can’t I paste in that table cell? Why won’t you center align text consistently? Argh. ; )
I know saying what amounts to as ‘no web editor is perfect’ is not a great answer, but right now it’s the best I’ve got and it’s the truth. This editor (we didn’t create it) is widely regarded as one of the best available.
Thanks for providing specific feedback and your browser.
You may find the editor behaves better in Firefox or Google Chrome. Those browsers could play more nicely with the editor itself. I’m not blaming your browser. The truth is that all of them play differently.
My problem is the “Dots” on the bullets do not show up???
I am having many of the above mentioned problems editing and listing. Studio_255 mentions the “dots” or “bullets” are not showing up while editing, then they are out of sync when I go to view my listing. I’ve spent several frustrating hours today trying to fix one single listing. I can not afford to waste my time like this. I love the look of Bonanza and y’all seem like a wonderful site to do business on, but I can’t spin my wheels “testing” your product. A guinea pig I am not. Glad I am going to be out of town for a little bit and hoping things get better…
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