Cascade Server Tips

Common problems/issues

Formatting problems when pasting

When you paste something into a page in Cascade Server, it will try to reproduce the formatting of the copied material. It may look okay, but it will cause problems later, when you try to reformat it using the styles that are built into the SNC template. In order to eliminate the unwanted formatting and avoid problems, always paste only plain text into Cascade, using one of the following techniques:

Copying & pasting using Cascade’s Paste as Plain Text feature

1. Copy the text you wish to paste onto a Cascade Server page. This can be from a web page, Word, etc.
2. In Cascade, click the Paste as Plain Text button. If this is the first time you’ve used the feature, you will see a pop-up notice about how it works. Note that this button does not actually paste the text, it just turns the plain-text pasting feature on. It seems to remain on until you copy something else.
3. On the Cascade edit screen, place your cursor where you want the text and go to Edit - Paste (or Ctrl+v). Your text will be pasted into the page without the formatting. Unfortunately, all of the line breaks (enters/returns) are usually removed too, so you may need to edit the text to separate it again.

Copying & pasting plain text into Cascade Server using Notepad in Windows

1. Copy the text you wish to paste into Cascade Server. This can be from a web page, Word, etc.
2. Open Notepad (Start - Programs - Accessories - Notepad).
3. In Notepad, go to Edit - Paste (or Ctrl+v). You will see your text without the formatting.
4. In Notepad, go to Edit - Select All (or Ctrl+a) to highlight the text. Go to Edit - Copy (or Ctrl+c) to copy it.
5. On the Cascade edit screen, place your cursor where you want the text and go to Edit - Paste (or Ctrl+v).
   Note: If you get an error message when using Ctrl+v in Firefox, see the solution below.

Copying & pasting plain text into Cascade Server using TextEdit on a Mac

1. Copy the text you wish to paste into Cascade Server. This can be from a web page, Word document, etc.
2. Open TextEdit (Go – Applications – TextEdit).
3. Paste the text into TextEdit. At this point, the text may still have some formatting.
4. In TextEdit, go to Format - Make Plain Text (or Shift+Apple+t). When it asks if you want to remove the formatting, click OK.
5. In TextEdit, highlight the text and copy it.
6. On the Cascade edit screen, place your cursor where you want the text to be inserted and paste it (Edit – Paste).

A helpful Firefox add-on

When copying text from web pages, another way around these formatting problems is to use a Firefox add-on. (Add-ons, or extensions, are small pieces of software that can add new features or tiny tweaks to your Firefox.) The one we recommend is called Extended Copy Menu. This extension adds a right-click menu option to copy the text you have selected as plain text, thus eliminating the need to paste the text into Notepad and then copy it again. To get this add-on, use the link above, or go to Tools - Add-ons and search for it. 

Copy-Paste error in Firefox

In Firefox, when you try to cut, copy, or paste using the right-click menu or the buttons on the Cascade toolbar, you may get a pop-up error message. This is a security feature, but it can make editing inconvenient. To eliminate the error and allow copying & pasting normally, close Firefox, then go to Start - Network Software and double-click on Fix Firefox Copy-Paste problem (Cascade, Moodle) . Follow the on-screen prompts to apply the fix (for Windows only).

Navigation menu/re-publishing pages

Whenever you change anything that affects the navigation menu, Cascade Server will automatically update all of the necessary pages, but then you must re-publish all of the pages containing that navigation. Be sure to re-publish all of the effected pages if you:

• add a page to the navigation menu
• delete a page
• change the Display Name of a page
• change the order of items on the navigation menu

General topics

Forms

The page editor in Cascade Server does not include any tools for creating web forms, so they must be created directly in the HTML code. If you need to create web forms as part of your site in Cascade Server, please contact the Web Team. For those who create their own forms, more information can be found on the Web Forms page.

Creating new pages & folders

To create a new page, copy a page from the same folder. The new page will take on all of the characteristics of the copied page, including the navigation. Because you cannot change the navigation, be sure to copy a page that has the navigation you want, rather than one that has the content you want (to copy content from another Cascade page, just copy & paste it). Do not copy pages from one top-level folder to another, or you’ll end up with the wrong navigation and will not be able to change it.

Photo banners/background images

The photo banners you see at the tops of College web sites are inserted as background images. As such, you cannot see them in the Cascade Server WYSIWYG editor, but you may see the large space reserved for them. Do not delete that space or you'll lose your banner. To insert a background image into a web page, you must insert the following line of code into the HTML code*, replacing the path to this image (/dining/images/dinningbanner.jpg) with yours.

<div style="background-image: url(''); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 120px"> </div>

*If you are not familiar with HTML code, please ask for assistance.

Links to Zimbra calendars

Because most Zimbra calendars have spaces in their names, linking to them can lead problems with broken links. If you need to link to one of the public Zimbra calendars (the ones under "SNC Calendars"), make the following three changes to the link:

1. Change any spaces to underscores (_)
2. Change "home" to "go"
3. Change "zimbra.snc.edu" to "www.snc.edu"

For example:

If the original Zimbra calendar link is: http://zimbra.snc.edu/home/cal/SNC Calendars/Campus Ministry.html
The new link would be: http://www.snc.edu/go/cal/SNC_Calendars/Campus_Ministry.html

Warnings

Deleting files & folders

You should still be cautious when deleting files and folders from Cascade, but Cascade does now have a Recycle Bin containing items that you've deleted in the last 15 days, so we can all relax about this a bit! When deleting a file or folder, always click on it on the left, even if it looks like it's already highlighted, before clicking Delete. When the confirmation screen comes up, read it carefully to be sure you understand what's being deleted, if it's being unpublished, and if any links will be broken by doing so. If you're unsure of anything, ask for help before clicking Submit.

If you need to access the Recycle Bin, click on Home to go to your Dashboard, then click on Recycle Bin. To restore a file, click the green circular arrow in the “Actions” column on the right. To restore multiple files, check the boxes to the left of them, then from the “With Selected:” drop-down menu at the bottom, choose Restore.

Saving your work

Be sure to save your work before leaving the screen you’re working on, e.g., if you need to refer to something on another page, or want to preview or publish the page. Fortunately, the new version of Cascade Server will warn you if you're about to leave a page you’ve edited without saving it. Note that every time you save, another “version” of the page will be created, and Cascade keeps the last 40 version of each page.