Macs can read PC disks, but...

We've been having some troubles with pages that look fine in SimpleText but part of the page doesn't show up in Netscape. So far the problem seems to happen only with SimpleText and PC formatted disks. (If you have the same problem with Composer or with a Mac disk, let me know.)

The lab Macintoshes may have several different versions of SimpleText on them, some copies older than the computers, which may be the cause of the problem. Or the software that reads PC disks on the Macintosh may be the problem. Or there may be a physical error on your disk. While we haven't pinpointed the cause of the problem, we do have several techniques that may help you avoid it or recover from it.

Here are some tricks that have worked for other people:

• Try saving a duplicate copy under a new name and see if Netscape can see all the text in that version.
• Open the file with Microsoft Word and save a copy as a text-only file under a new name, then open that copy with Netscape. (If it works, stick with Word instead of SimpleText. If the problem returns, let Bob or Jayson know, since that means SimpleText isn't the problem after all.)
• Save a copy of the HTML file in the TEMP folder of the Mac's hard disk and load that copy into Netscape.

If the last trick is the only one that works, the disk (or the way SimpleText writes to PC disks) was at least part of the problem. Copy the new file in the TEMP folder onto your floppy disk and it probably will work again.

If the problem persists comes back, the best solution may be to get a Macintosh-formatted floppy disk and use only use PC disks when you know you'll have to carry files back and forth between the Mac and a PC.

If you don't have to use a PC disk, sticking to Macintosh disks may avoid troubles. PC disks work OK in the Macs when you only have a few files, but if your Web work (html files, jpgs and gifs) grows to more than a dozen files, it may be best to switch to Mac disks. We've already had one case of a PC disk getting damaged so that the Mac couldn't tell which file was which.

Related page:
Debugging Web pages, Eric Chernoff's excellent list of common Web publishing errors and questions from previous JOMC50 classes... and how to fix them.

revised July25,1998 by Bob Stepno