FAO Chris, Bruce, Tracey or Toby

[leehack]

Ive just finished my first upgrade and once you are confident what you are doing, it seems a very good process. I tried as you did Martin, to import a snapshot and it went through the various questions etc. and upgraded it all fine.

I did ponder on the CSS file update, im presuming that they have made some good changes in there, however i recall quite heavily modifying the old one so installed the new sheet, but kept my amended one.

Very good work Actinic with the software, just need to fine tune on the communications (recurring theme here).

[fleetwood]

I'm using an external stylesheet, as I found trying to edit it within the design interface was a nightmare. So my stylesheet is the same I was using in 8.03, as there would be no way for the updater to get it.
If there were any useful changes made to the actinic.css, maybe Chris could post the details.

css is actually causing me more frustrations than A8.
Lovely idea, completely messed up by every browser interpreting it in a different way!
I'll continue banging my head....

[Jan]

there are others further north who will really shoot me down in flames for a stupid question!

I must admit that I have been finding the forum a scary place to be just lately - very aggressive.

Regards,

[leehack]

If you modified the factory layout, the compare facility is fantastic, highlights everything - well worth a pat on the back for that Actinic. With your external sheet i guess you are stuffed though.

The cross browser interpretation can be a pain for sure, i usually find it's padding, margins and positioning that are the biggest headache.

One thing i can recommend is removing all padding and margin settings for each element by including:

* {padding: 0; margin: 0;}

at the top of your stylesheet.

On each class you then define what margins and padding you want (if any). I have personally found this to be of great help. Its very rare indeed i see any cross browser issues to be honest, i think controlling those 2 settings yourself makes a big difference.

[fleetwood]

Good tip Lee.
Yes, margins and padding do not conform to the box model they are supposed to follow.
Even the same browser seems to interpret padding one way at certain times, and another at others (not literally of course - in relation to other style settings - but finding which has made what do what and why is maddening).
I am sort of enjoying the ride (discovering what clever things you can do), but don't really have the spare time that I am lavishing on my 'grand design'.

[fleetwood]

I must admit that I have been finding the forum a scary place to be just lately - very aggressive.

Just a bit of surplus testosterone floating about Jan (blame it on the goats) ... it will pass

[RuralWeb]

So much for the so called "friendly notherners

Who are they I wonder

Actinic is like any other piece of software ie it can be removed and unistalled at will. As long as you have a snapshot (and external design copied if you use one) then you are safe.

If it all goes wrong or you make a mistake then uninstall the software put it back and inport the snapshot - job done.

I started the whole issue about the patch - as a result it has now been removed and the only option you have is to install the full version which has always been the best idea.

[cdicken]

Hi chaps

I haven't really got anything else to add to what the others (especially Jont) have already written.

I think we are going to permentantly remove the patch from the website, as it doesn't include the updated documentation - which is really handy for the shipping stuff.

The process I always follow is:

1) Backup all sites and all external designs
2) Download a full version of Actinic 8.5.0 - currently this is labelled as a 30-day trial, but this will change soon.
3) Install the new version over the top of your current version.
4) Start Actinic and go round each site in turn upgrading them.
5) If you have a fully working design that you are happy with, when you are informed that the 'System supplied design has been changed' select 'Do not upgrade my site design'.

You can do the uninstallation and re-installation if you want, it does no harm, and probably does a lot of good - but it is not essential.