Double-Hyphens vs. Dashes
One of the banes of my existence—especially in my fan fiction stories posts on my site—has been the appearance of double-hyphens when I wanted dashes. (You'll see two examples of dashes in the sentence above, as opposed to double-hyphens, which look like this: --)
Normally, in M.S. Word or other word processing programs, when you type a double-hyphen (--) it changes automatically into a dash (—). However, when typing a double-hyphen into a text field in Weebly, it stays a double-hyphen. Moreover, a lot of the dashes in my text originally typed into a Word document and then copied and pasted into Weebly, somehow changed to double-hyphens when I tried to import it into Weebly. This has been an aggravating problem, because I get some dashes in Weebly, but still a lot of double-hyphens, and when I tried to copy a dash that did appear and paste it in place of the double-hyphen, it looked okay initially, but after "Publishing" and coming back to it later, it had changed back to a double-hyphen again.
Very, very frustrating.
I contacted Tech Support about the issue, but they were absolutely zero help. This is part of what they said;
"... while we do our best to support all users, we aren’t experts in coding or custom HTML adjustments, and that's why we generally don't recommend making changes through code in our themes. Our goal is to keep the process user-friendly and accessible for everyone, especially those who don’t have a coding background."
Que? They're not experts in HTML coding??
Basically, they are blaming the problem on my failure to use one of their "themes." My desired "theme" is a white background with (for the most part, except when I'm trying to show block-quotes or web links) using black text, and a simple easy-to-read font like "Times New Roman." You would not believe how hard that is to get! The exception to this is my Home Screen, which uses a black background with white text, because I want to show my original movie "Poster," which was designed for my videos with simple black backgrounds. But even the Home Screen is a simple "themeless" design. How freaking hard should this be? Next to impossible, apparently!! That simple design (of not wanting to use one of the fancy Weebly "themes") took me a long time to achieve, and is apparently considered "custom."
But back to my double-hyphen/dash problem. I think it all stems from the font I can't seem to get out of. When I copy and paste text from Weebly into Word, Word tells me that the font is "Quattrocento." No matter how much I may desire "Times New Roman," it stays "Quattrocento." Unfortunately, I still can't get any font except Quattrocento. Fortunately, however, it looks pretty much like "Times New Roman." Except that Quattrocento may have its own unique set of problems, and I think the problem is related to the "Quattrocento" font that Weebly uses, and which I (also frustratingly) can't change. Something to do with the HTML code of that font. Or something.
Like the Weebly Tech support people, I am not an HTML coder (que?). Unlike the Weebly Tech Support people, however, I am stubborn and persistent about getting something I really want—like dashes. And even though it is a pain in the behind to get the dashes I want (as in the sentence before this one), I have finally figured out how to do it.
After much trial-and-error, I have figured out how to get my dashes in Weebly. It is a ROYAL PAIN IN THE POSTERIOR, has to be done for just about each individual instance, but at least I get my dashes. Here's how to do it (and make sure you follow these steps in order). This takes care of most of the dashes, but not all of them:
How to Get Most of the Dashes You Want:
1. In "Build" mode, use command+f and type "--" into the magnifying glass area at the top of the screen, and press <Return>. The first instance of the double-hyphen on the page should appear on the page. This process helps you find the double-hyphens in your text fields.
2. Triple-click the paragraph where the double-hyphen appears to select it. Use command+c to copy the paragraph.
3. Open M.S. Word and open a "new" document. It is not always necessary to open a new document once you get going, but if the process doesn't save properly, ignore any previous documents you've tried to use, and open/create a new one.
4. Use command+v to paste the paragraph into this Word document.
5. While in Word, use command+a to "select all."
6. Change the font from Quattrocento to "Times New Roman."
7. Fix the double-hyphen by putting your cursor at the beginning of the double-hyphen, re-typing the double-hyphen, re-typing the word after the double hyphen, and adding a space. Word should automatically change the double-hyphen into a dash. Now move your cursor to the end of the original word you re-typed after the double-hyphen, and delete the word and the double-hyphen. Your text should now look the way you want it to.
8. Use command-a to select-all and then use command-c to copy the paragraph.
9. Go back to Weebly and use command-v to paste the new fixed paragraph into the old paragraph with the double-hyphen. It will look okay, but your "fix" is not yet permanent.
10. Unbelievably, you have to "Publish" the change after just about every paragraph fix. Also, unbelievably, it still may not yet a permanent fix to change the Weebly double-hyphen to a dash.
11. Now you need to go to "Page" mode and change to a different page! If you don't see the momentary small "Loading" notification box in the center of your screen, it's possible (nay, likely) that none of the hard work you've just done will save.
12. Now you have return to the page you were working on. Do your search for a double-hyphen again. If the fix you just made does not appear in the first yellow box, it should be permanently saved as a dash. However, you still have to repeat the process for each and every double-hyphen. And that still may not solve all your double-hyphen/dash problems, especially if you also want to use Italics in front of or behind your dash, or if you want to use your dash at the end of the sentence. There are separate fixes for those.
Again, you have to repeat this process for EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE OF A PARAGRAPH CONTAINING A DOUBLE-HYPHEN!! TRYING TO CHANGE TOO LARGE A CHUNK OF TEXT AT ONE TIME WILL NOT SAVE YOUR DASHES!!!! So you can see the work-load necessary to fix this when you want to use dashes in your writing!!!
To Put a Dash at the End of a Sentence:
Example: Sometimes want a dash at the end of a sentence—
If you want your dash at the end of a sentence, you may have to add a letter and a space after you type the double-hyphen in Word. For example:
I want a dash at the end of this sentence--
So in Word I have to type:
I want a dash at the end of this sentence--j
with a space after the "j". Word automatically changed the double-hyphen to a dash. I copy that paragraph and paste it into this page. It looks like this:
I want a dash at the end of this sentence—j
Now I have to go through the whole rigmarole of "Publishing" and making sure I get the "loading" icon after I "Publish" and switch to a different page and then back to this page before it's actually saved.
Now I take off the "j" at the end (although leaving the space), and FINALLY I get the result I want:
I want a dash at the end of this sentence—
I left the space after the dash, which is invisible, because taking it out creates trouble.
To Use an Italicized Word after a Dash:
Example: I sometimes want a dash—and an Italicized word after the dash!
This one took me a really long time to solve. I finally solved it! If the word after the double-hyphen/dash is Italicized, then the "fix" I described above will not work. No matter how many times you try, Weebly always turned the dash back to a double-hyphen! Two possible solutions are: putting a space after the dash keeps it a dash, or using regular text instead of Italics after the dash to keep it a dash, but otherwise Weebly insists on making it a double-hyphen. Finally, I tried turning the dash before the Italicized word into an Italicized dash in Word before copying and pasting into Weebly, going through the usual rigamarole to save it, and finally I can get the look of the dash that I want with an Italicized word after the dash.
Another Problem with Weebly: Italics and Line Breaks
The double-hyphen/dash problem isn't the only one I've encountered with Weebly text, especially when Italics are involved. When I try to Italicize occasional words, Weebly screws up the line-breaks, especially when I'm trying to view the page on my phone instead of my computer. This is a bit easier to fix, only because it will save larger chunks of text at a time than when I try to fix my dashes. The fix is to use my phone to visually scan for any odd line-breaks (i.e., the line breaks too early, leaving it shorter than what it should be). The solution is then to go to the page on Weebly on my computer, go into "Build" mode, search for some unique text in the paragraph where the odd line break occurs, and then look for any Italicized words in the paragraph. Now take out any spaces before the Italicized word/s, and then add the space back in. Then take any space after the Italicized word and then add it back in, too. Periodically go through the "Publish" and then changing pages rigamarole to get the "Loading" icon in order to save the changes, but it tends to "take" with larger chunks of text than the dash fix. If I re-load the page on my phone, the odd line break is usually now fixed.
Again, this is a ROYAL PAIN IN THE POSTERIOR, but apparently is one of the quirks of Weebly—the price one pays (i.e., having to go through an overly complicated process just to put a dash into this sentence!) for the other easier features of this website building service.
Hope this helps!
-Denise
One of the banes of my existence—especially in my fan fiction stories posts on my site—has been the appearance of double-hyphens when I wanted dashes. (You'll see two examples of dashes in the sentence above, as opposed to double-hyphens, which look like this: --)
Normally, in M.S. Word or other word processing programs, when you type a double-hyphen (--) it changes automatically into a dash (—). However, when typing a double-hyphen into a text field in Weebly, it stays a double-hyphen. Moreover, a lot of the dashes in my text originally typed into a Word document and then copied and pasted into Weebly, somehow changed to double-hyphens when I tried to import it into Weebly. This has been an aggravating problem, because I get some dashes in Weebly, but still a lot of double-hyphens, and when I tried to copy a dash that did appear and paste it in place of the double-hyphen, it looked okay initially, but after "Publishing" and coming back to it later, it had changed back to a double-hyphen again.
Very, very frustrating.
I contacted Tech Support about the issue, but they were absolutely zero help. This is part of what they said;
"... while we do our best to support all users, we aren’t experts in coding or custom HTML adjustments, and that's why we generally don't recommend making changes through code in our themes. Our goal is to keep the process user-friendly and accessible for everyone, especially those who don’t have a coding background."
Que? They're not experts in HTML coding??
Basically, they are blaming the problem on my failure to use one of their "themes." My desired "theme" is a white background with (for the most part, except when I'm trying to show block-quotes or web links) using black text, and a simple easy-to-read font like "Times New Roman." You would not believe how hard that is to get! The exception to this is my Home Screen, which uses a black background with white text, because I want to show my original movie "Poster," which was designed for my videos with simple black backgrounds. But even the Home Screen is a simple "themeless" design. How freaking hard should this be? Next to impossible, apparently!! That simple design (of not wanting to use one of the fancy Weebly "themes") took me a long time to achieve, and is apparently considered "custom."
But back to my double-hyphen/dash problem. I think it all stems from the font I can't seem to get out of. When I copy and paste text from Weebly into Word, Word tells me that the font is "Quattrocento." No matter how much I may desire "Times New Roman," it stays "Quattrocento." Unfortunately, I still can't get any font except Quattrocento. Fortunately, however, it looks pretty much like "Times New Roman." Except that Quattrocento may have its own unique set of problems, and I think the problem is related to the "Quattrocento" font that Weebly uses, and which I (also frustratingly) can't change. Something to do with the HTML code of that font. Or something.
Like the Weebly Tech support people, I am not an HTML coder (que?). Unlike the Weebly Tech Support people, however, I am stubborn and persistent about getting something I really want—like dashes. And even though it is a pain in the behind to get the dashes I want (as in the sentence before this one), I have finally figured out how to do it.
After much trial-and-error, I have figured out how to get my dashes in Weebly. It is a ROYAL PAIN IN THE POSTERIOR, has to be done for just about each individual instance, but at least I get my dashes. Here's how to do it (and make sure you follow these steps in order). This takes care of most of the dashes, but not all of them:
How to Get Most of the Dashes You Want:
1. In "Build" mode, use command+f and type "--" into the magnifying glass area at the top of the screen, and press <Return>. The first instance of the double-hyphen on the page should appear on the page. This process helps you find the double-hyphens in your text fields.
2. Triple-click the paragraph where the double-hyphen appears to select it. Use command+c to copy the paragraph.
3. Open M.S. Word and open a "new" document. It is not always necessary to open a new document once you get going, but if the process doesn't save properly, ignore any previous documents you've tried to use, and open/create a new one.
4. Use command+v to paste the paragraph into this Word document.
5. While in Word, use command+a to "select all."
6. Change the font from Quattrocento to "Times New Roman."
7. Fix the double-hyphen by putting your cursor at the beginning of the double-hyphen, re-typing the double-hyphen, re-typing the word after the double hyphen, and adding a space. Word should automatically change the double-hyphen into a dash. Now move your cursor to the end of the original word you re-typed after the double-hyphen, and delete the word and the double-hyphen. Your text should now look the way you want it to.
8. Use command-a to select-all and then use command-c to copy the paragraph.
9. Go back to Weebly and use command-v to paste the new fixed paragraph into the old paragraph with the double-hyphen. It will look okay, but your "fix" is not yet permanent.
10. Unbelievably, you have to "Publish" the change after just about every paragraph fix. Also, unbelievably, it still may not yet a permanent fix to change the Weebly double-hyphen to a dash.
11. Now you need to go to "Page" mode and change to a different page! If you don't see the momentary small "Loading" notification box in the center of your screen, it's possible (nay, likely) that none of the hard work you've just done will save.
12. Now you have return to the page you were working on. Do your search for a double-hyphen again. If the fix you just made does not appear in the first yellow box, it should be permanently saved as a dash. However, you still have to repeat the process for each and every double-hyphen. And that still may not solve all your double-hyphen/dash problems, especially if you also want to use Italics in front of or behind your dash, or if you want to use your dash at the end of the sentence. There are separate fixes for those.
Again, you have to repeat this process for EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE OF A PARAGRAPH CONTAINING A DOUBLE-HYPHEN!! TRYING TO CHANGE TOO LARGE A CHUNK OF TEXT AT ONE TIME WILL NOT SAVE YOUR DASHES!!!! So you can see the work-load necessary to fix this when you want to use dashes in your writing!!!
To Put a Dash at the End of a Sentence:
Example: Sometimes want a dash at the end of a sentence—
If you want your dash at the end of a sentence, you may have to add a letter and a space after you type the double-hyphen in Word. For example:
I want a dash at the end of this sentence--
So in Word I have to type:
I want a dash at the end of this sentence--j
with a space after the "j". Word automatically changed the double-hyphen to a dash. I copy that paragraph and paste it into this page. It looks like this:
I want a dash at the end of this sentence—j
Now I have to go through the whole rigmarole of "Publishing" and making sure I get the "loading" icon after I "Publish" and switch to a different page and then back to this page before it's actually saved.
Now I take off the "j" at the end (although leaving the space), and FINALLY I get the result I want:
I want a dash at the end of this sentence—
I left the space after the dash, which is invisible, because taking it out creates trouble.
To Use an Italicized Word after a Dash:
Example: I sometimes want a dash—and an Italicized word after the dash!
This one took me a really long time to solve. I finally solved it! If the word after the double-hyphen/dash is Italicized, then the "fix" I described above will not work. No matter how many times you try, Weebly always turned the dash back to a double-hyphen! Two possible solutions are: putting a space after the dash keeps it a dash, or using regular text instead of Italics after the dash to keep it a dash, but otherwise Weebly insists on making it a double-hyphen. Finally, I tried turning the dash before the Italicized word into an Italicized dash in Word before copying and pasting into Weebly, going through the usual rigamarole to save it, and finally I can get the look of the dash that I want with an Italicized word after the dash.
Another Problem with Weebly: Italics and Line Breaks
The double-hyphen/dash problem isn't the only one I've encountered with Weebly text, especially when Italics are involved. When I try to Italicize occasional words, Weebly screws up the line-breaks, especially when I'm trying to view the page on my phone instead of my computer. This is a bit easier to fix, only because it will save larger chunks of text at a time than when I try to fix my dashes. The fix is to use my phone to visually scan for any odd line-breaks (i.e., the line breaks too early, leaving it shorter than what it should be). The solution is then to go to the page on Weebly on my computer, go into "Build" mode, search for some unique text in the paragraph where the odd line break occurs, and then look for any Italicized words in the paragraph. Now take out any spaces before the Italicized word/s, and then add the space back in. Then take any space after the Italicized word and then add it back in, too. Periodically go through the "Publish" and then changing pages rigamarole to get the "Loading" icon in order to save the changes, but it tends to "take" with larger chunks of text than the dash fix. If I re-load the page on my phone, the odd line break is usually now fixed.
Again, this is a ROYAL PAIN IN THE POSTERIOR, but apparently is one of the quirks of Weebly—the price one pays (i.e., having to go through an overly complicated process just to put a dash into this sentence!) for the other easier features of this website building service.
Hope this helps!
-Denise