My menu bar seems to have gone walkabout *update*

I've lodged a help ticket with Typepad, so hopefully the problem will be sorted asap.

[I will delete this post when the menu bar reappears in its proper place.]

*UPDATE*

Typepad have responded most unhelpfully, by suggesting I stop composing my posts in Microsoft Word. Quite frankly, this is a ludicrious response, given I always compose my posts direct into Typepad's compose editor. I have told them the problem is not a user one, but a Typepad one. In the meantime, my menu bar continues to sit at the very bottom of the page instead of the righthand side of the screen. Apologies for the inconvenience this causes.

I'm actually very frustrated with Typepad at the moment. Is anyone else having problems with the new compose editor? Mine is slow, clunky and refuses to do certain things, like italicising hyperlinks, without me having to fiddle with the HTML. At this rate, I may just swap to Blogger or WordPress.

Comments

[Dean]

OMG - as soon as a service becomes popular client response lags. I remember asking Facebook nicely but with urgency to change the spelling of my name to accommodate names that do not start with a capital letter. They complied within 24 hours - fantastic service.

Swap to blogger. My only concern with blogger is the picture limitation, though admittedly it's been 2.5 years and I've only used 10 per cent of the allowance.

[kimbofo]

Dean, I first logged the problem on June 30. The (unhelpful) response took 27 hours. I complained about the response on July 4 but haven't heard back from them. I assume Typepad staff get to take the weekend off, so I'll see whether they respond tomorrow (Monday) before getting *really* stroppy about the lack of customer service.

[crimeficreader]

I am as frustrated as you are, Kim. The new compose editor works a little better now - less clunky for me - but it takes longer to load and the instructions were rubbish.

It turned some parts of the method on their head. You used to post hyperlinks with a box coming up into which you pasted the text and the link. Now you type the text in the main box, then highlight it to get the box for the link. I couldn't work out how to put in a hyperlink with the new format. All they kept saying was "Highlight the text first". They overlooked actually saying "type the text in the main box first, the highlight it". I came upon the workings by accident when I wanted to put something in italics. Ooee, the link button suddenly became active! I didn't find the response helpful and listed a catalogue of complaints at one point for which I got an acknowledgment of my frustration. And I'm paying for this!

This week I had two posts on a timer and neither was published. I haven't even bothered querying it.

I think they could have dropped one monthly fee for all those inconvenienced by their release of something that clearly was not ready. But no.

As for their comments to you on Word, they really appear to have little clue as to how their own service interfaces with Word. I learnt a long time ago, NOT to type my posts into Word first as on pasting they lose all sorts of formatting. Editing can take hours, is not reliable and you may even need to move into HTML edit mode to make the corrections. It was far easier to retype the lot.

Having read your comments, Kim and reconsidering the responses I received, I find them a tad arrogant.

I too, have thought about moving to another service provider, it's only thinking of links inwards that's stopped me.

[kimbofo]

crimefic reader, they eventually responded and told me one particular post had "kooky" elements in it which was indicative of me having written it in Word first. Typically, the one and only time I write a post in Word it causes these problems. I only wrote the post this way because I had an internet connection that kept dropping in and out, so emailed it to my work address and uploaded it from there. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I fixed up the formatting as they suggested, but the menu bar is still misbehaving. I have lodged yet another query but still no response.

Personally, I hate the new compose editor. The speed was initially very slow, but that seems to be fixed. However, there are still issues with hyperlinks, block text and italicising text -- to name but a few. It annoys me that I am paying for this service.

I used to love, love, love Typepad and have sung the company's praises to all and sundry, but this recent experience has me questioning my loyalty. Like you, I'm reluctant to switch because of all the inbound links to my site, but if the situation isn't sorted soon I may just have to bite the bullet.