When editing content, BACK UP!

It's just no fun to lose things when you are working, especially when it's a content section somebody else put up, and you are tasked to edit it. So, before you change things, back it up! Also, since there might just be concealed formatting in the window, as well as links and things, it's important to keep a complete copy, not just a copy of the text you see.

To save the contents of a body text block you are about to edit, for backup purposes:

  • Click to highlight the "Source" button in the edit control headers in the Body section, to view the block contents in full HTML form.
  • Left-click with your mouse poised anywhere in the content window.
  • Type Ctrl-A (that's "select all"), and the whole area will highlight.
  • Type Ctrl-C (that's "copy"), to put a copy of the content into the "cut" buffer.
  • Open a Notepad or Notepad++ window (Notepad is found under Start/All Programs/Accessories).
  • Left-click your mouse in the empty Notepad text area.
  • Type Ctrl-V (that's "paste"), and a copy of the content will appear.
  • Navigate -> File -> Save As, and save a copy of the content somewhere that makes sense.

Now, edit away, knowing you can always put things back the way you found them before you started editing.

If you decide you must start over before you actually save any of your edits, the easiest way is simply to close the page without saving, and reopen it: the current saved copy will reappear. If you have saved the edits you have made, however, you'll need to restore the previous version, and that's why you backed it up.

To restore the edit contents you just clobbered:

  • Open your backup copy of the content.
  • Left-click your mouse anywhere in the backup copy text window.
  • Type Ctrl-A (that's "select all"), and the whole area will highlight.
  • Type Ctrl-C (that's "copy"), to put a copy of the content into the "cut" buffer.
  • On the edit page you need to fix, click to highlight the "Source" button in the edit control headers in the Body section, allowing you to insert block contents in full HTML form.
  • Left-click your mouse anywhere in the content edit window.
  • Type Ctrl-A (that's "select all"), and the whole area will highlight.
  • Type Ctrl-V (that's "paste"), and a copy of the content from your backup file will appear in the content edit window.
  • Click Save to restore the original copy to the database.
  • Verify that the restoration shows up before trying your edit again: view the content.

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