Schools Website Service user guide

Frequently asked questions, and troubleshooting

1) The text has vanished in the text wizard. What has happened?

  • When scrolling a long document in the text wizard the text may vanish. Don’t panic!

  • To bring it back click ‘Save’, close the text wizard, then re-open the text wizard.

2) The text wizard is taking ages to load. What can I do?

  • You may need to log out and log back in again, or close and re-open the browser.

3) Why are my bulleted lists spaced so far apart?

  • Set the bulleted text style to ‘No style’ rather than ‘Normal’ in the text wizard.

4) Can I design my own page templates?

  • You cannot create your own page templates in the School Website Service.

  • If you have an idea for a template that you would like to make available to other schools please contact the IT Help Desk. We will consider all applications, but are under no obligation to use donated templates.

  • If you would like a template set up specifically for your school this will be a chargeable service. Please contact the IT Help Desk to arrange for a quotation.

5) How can I extract the images in a Word file for use in the School Website Service?

6) I have inserted a table , but no table borders are showing. How can I make the table borders show?

  • Right-click on the table in the text wizard and choose ‘Table Properties’.

  • Choose a table style from the drop-down list. The default style is ‘Blind Table’ which has no borders

  • More information on tables

7) When moving pages in the navigation is it possible to move them any other way than one step at a time?

  • At the moment that is the only way to move pages in navigation.

8) I laid out some text in the text wizard using spaces. When I view it in the web browser the layout is different.

  • Web browsers collapse multiple spaces into one space.

  • To lay out text in columns use a table.

9) I can't find the Governor Login Area page

  • This may be because your site has been created in an old template which does not include the features of a Governor login area

  • To request an update for this please contact the IT Help Desk.

10) When opening the text wizard to edit my page I am unable to do so and receive a 'fillbuf' error message

  • This happens when too much content is placed on one page and therefore the text object struggles to open and sometimes even corrupts. To avoid this, try breaking the content down into at least 2 pages. Note – If you are unable to open this you will need to contact the IT Help Desk who will arrange for this page to be reset.

11) When I open the text wizard I can't see any fonts to select within the styles dropdown menu

  • At present the SWS will work with any version of Java up to Version 6.20, but any later version will not work with the text wizard correctly. To fix this you will therefore need to downgrade your Java to version 6.20.

  • It is fine to use an earlier version than 6, but we do recommend that you check first to see what version you have installed. Please do not download the latest version of Java, if prompted.

12) I have made changes to my website, but when I view them on my official URL they don't appear

  • When a change is made in the SWS, please allow around one hour for this to replicate to your live website. You can also press CTRL + F5 to refresh the page.

  • If the changes still aren't showing in SWS after a longer period of time check that you've made the page active as well as the text object (there should be a green icon next to the page / object).

  • If there are still problems please contact the IT Help Desk, who will investigate the cause.  

13) I have attempted to apply a different template page to my website but it has not updated

  • Please allow around one hour for this to replicate to your live website. You can also press CTRL + F5 to refresh the page.

  • If there are still problems please contact the IT Help Desk, who will investigate the cause.

14 ) I can't edit my site in Internet Explorer

  • Please note that Internet Explorer 9 is not compatible with the current SWS system that you use to maintain your school websites: the editor function will not work. You may therefore need to downgrade you browser to a compatible version (IE 7 or 8) or use an alternative browser such as Firefox or Chrome.

15 ) We have switched to the Hosted School Service (HSS) but can no longer access the text wizard to edit the site?

  • We have identified a conflict between the different versions of Java that HSS and SWS use.

  • To rectify this, we have created a separate internet browser specifically for using the School Website Service within HSS.

  • To access, go to the Start Menu and select School Website Service. This will open an internet browser and take you to the Hantsweb homepage where you can browse to your school's website to login and edit as usual.