Common Problems

Don't forget to look at the Tech Guides page.

Connecting to the server

• WS_FTP asks for an Activation Key.
• You can't log into the UI system.
• You can't log into your web space with WS_FTP or Fetch.

Uploading

• You can log into your space but can't upload anything.
• Some folders refuse to be deleted even though "Delete Non-Empty Folders" is checked.

Pages don't look right on the web

• Your site doesn't appear on the web, even though uploading worked.
• A web page doesn't look like it does in Word.
• Some converted Word files are blank or don't show images.
• Strange characters appear on your pages and the page layout is not right.

What about after graduation?

• In Address, enter
  "ftps://eportfolio.education.uiowa.edu/yourHawkID/"
• In User ID, enter your HawkID.
• Enter your password carefully. If you copy-and-paste it make sure you don't include an extra space at the beginning or end.

Large image files. (How to avoid large image files)
The easiest way to fix this is to come into the ePortfolio Support Center where someone can help you and we have all the needed software. But you may be able to work where you are.

Your image files need to be properly sized for web use. You can make the file smaller without changing the on-screen size or sacrificing too much image quality. You will need a photo editing application. In the ITCs and ePortfolio Support Center we use Adobe Photoshop Elements. Microsoft Office comes with Picture Manager and Macintoshes come with iPhoto, either of which will do the job. Other applications are available at download.com.

Instructions for preparing images for the web: Adobe Photoshop Elements; Microsoft Office Picture Manager; iPhoto.

Work on the files on your USB drive (or wherever you keep your ePortfolio) and then upload them to the appropriate folder.

First, identify the large files. Look for png or jpg files bigger than 100KB.

Open the file and use the photo editing application to resize it. In Photoshop Elements Resize is under the Image menu. In MS Office Picture Manager it is under the Picture menu. In iPhoto it is a step in the Export process.

Choose the size of the picture in pixels as you want it to appear on your page. This will be around 320 by 270 for a medium-sized horizontal picture. You almost certainly don't want to exceed 600 by 450 pixels.

Save the file using the -exact- same file name and replacing the original. If you use another name the picture won't show up correctly. In Photoshop Elements choose Save for Web under the File menu. In Picture Manager choose Save As under the File menu. In iPhoto choose Export under the File menu (the Export window lets you set the picture size).

Working from a png original is more complicated. Save for the web as with a jpg original. Choose the size of the picture in pixels as you want it to appear on your page. This will be around 320 by 270 for a medium sized appearance. You almost certainly don't want to exceed 640 by 480.

After saving-for-the-web, move the png original file from the web folder on your USB drive.

Open the page in Designer, making sure that it actually opens in Designer rather than Word. (In Designer, under the Tools menu choose Options. Click the second Tab, Configure Editors, and make sure the box next to "Open web pages in the Office application that created them" is NOT checked.)

Because saving for the web converted the file to jpg, the image will not show up on the web page. You now have to delete the "broken" png image from the page, insert the new jpg.

Once the new version of the page is saved, upload it to the folder it belongs in. Again, if your original was a png make sure the new jpg version is also uploaded. Also, you -must- delete the png file from the server. Otherwise it still takes up space.

To repeat, the easiest way to deal with all this is to come into the ePortfolio Support Center and have someone help you.

Duplicate folders or files.
Duplicate folders, such as another entire web folder inside your eportfolio/web folder, and duplicate files, such as re-named files or original Office documents, only take up space.

Also look for any files or folders outside your eportfolio/web and employment/web folders. Anything outside those two folders cannot be accessed on the web so they just take up space.

Remove duplicate and unusable folders and files with WS_FTP or Fetch.

Before you start, set WS_FTP to allow deletion of folders: Under the Tools menu choose Options; Make sure there is a checkmark next to Delete Non-Empty Folder.

Select the folder or file that needs to be deleted and click the Delete toolbar button. If a folder cannot be deleted you need to set WS-FTP to display invisible files (see below).

mp3 files
mp3 files cannot be used on the College of Education server.

Remove mp3 files with WS_FTP or Fetch.

Select the file that needs to be deleted and click the Delete toolbar button.

You need to upload the contents of your web folder, not the folder itself.

Your server space needs to have nothing but one eportfolio folder and one employment folder. Inside each of those folders is nothing but a web folder. The web folder contains all the main pages and course folders.

First, use WS_FTP to remove the redundant web folder (here's how). Don't remove the top-level one, though.

Then, use WS_FTP to upload the index, standards, courses, and experience pages and all the course folders into the web folder.

Make sure "Delete Non-Empty Folders" is enabled.

1. Under the Tools menu choose Options
2. Make sure there is a checkmark next to Delete Non-Empty Folders

Do the following in WS_FTP:

1. Click the down arrow in the lower remote pane toolbar
2. Click Add or Remove Buttons
3. Click Command Bar
4. Select File Mask
5. In the field next to the New Folder icon type "-al" (lowercase -AL)
6. Click Refresh
7. Go into folders that can't be deleted and delete any files.
8. Go up from the folder and delete files and folders in the normal way

Save As a pdf file. Images will be optimized and embedded in the file.

DANGER! Links to existing pages will be preserved BUT if you change a linked file's name or format (e.g. from doc or htm file to pdf) the link will be broken. If that is the case, go to the next solution.

1. Open the original document in Word.
2. Under the File menu choose Save As.
3. In the Save As Type popup menu choose PDF.
4. Click Minimize File Size (publishing online).
5. Click Publish.

Remove the bad html code.

First make sure Designer is the default web page editor.

1. Open Designer
2. Under the Tools menu choose Options
3. Click the second tab, "Configure Editors"
4. Near the bottom of the dialog window, UN-check the box next to "Open web pages in the application that created them"
5. Click OK

Then do the following:

1. Under the Tools menu choose Optimize HTML
2. Check all the boxes in the next window EXCEPT the two dealing with white space.
3. Click OK.

Reset html encoding to Unicode-UTF8.

For each page that has the bad characters:

1. Open the page in Designer.
2. Right-click an empty area of the page.
3. Select Page Properties.
4. Click the Language tab.
5. At the bottom of the Properties window, change the HTML Encoding from Unicode to Unicode-UTF8.
6. Save and upload the page.