Lesson: I Make Changes and Nothing Happens

  • When you make changes to your CSS file, you need to view the changes in your browser. The browser will often store the most recent information in its “cache” and when you hit Refresh, it will show you the stored information and not the new one.

    You can clear the “cache” in order to see the new changes by:

    MSIE: Hold down SHIFT and click on the REFRESH button in the toolbar under the menu.

    FireFox: Hold down CNTRL+SHIFT+R.

    MSIE – Serious clearing: If you are having problems clearing out the cache, then force it by choosing from the menu TOOLS > INTERNET OPTIONS and looking for Temporary Files. Click on Delete Temporary Files. You can or not choose the checkbox, I usually don’t, to delete all Internet files, as that will also clear all your passwords and cookies, but if you are having trouble, this is a way to do it.

    How about some other browsers? How do you clear the cache from Safari, Opera, etc.?

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

  • The other thing to do is this:

    – make a backup of the file you are working on
    – check you have the backup safe
    – make a big change (such as setting the bg as #ff000;)
    – now try to see it
    – still nothing changes ?
    – delete the file (and only that file) from the server
    – still nothing changes ?

    You and WP are looking at completely different files.

    (It happens !)

    I set my cache to not store anything, and prety much every change I make will be presented – the only time nothing changes is if I made an error, or if the change I make requires an action. In any case, I always refresh the page and that pretty much works for me.

    I don’t honestly use IE, but having to use it to check for compatability. Again, refreshing presents any changes I’ve made immediately, and again I have set the browser to not cache anything, except when surfing.

    Using FF and the web developers plugin sometimes, but very rarely, causes problems, and more often than not it’s not the browser at fault but the code. At least what I find.

    I assume other browsers have a clear cache function similarly. With FF, and the developer plugin you can just click Misc and then Clear Cache – although whether three keys or two clicks is faster is for another deabte:)

    Taking Podz’s comments I have sometimes ran into the problem of nothing changing, and then I delete half the CSS and voila big change, so just ctrl+z and everything is back.

    Thread Starter Lorelle

    (@lorelle)

    Yeah, but with different programs, Ctrl+z only gets you ONE chance to restore your boo boo…I hate that. Some give you 3-5 backups. I had a brilliant web page editor that would allow as many as I set the default number to, so I could go back 100 undos….miss it.

    How do you “set” your browser to never cache things?

    Thread Starter Lorelle

    (@lorelle)

    I did some research on this:

    For Netscape: From the menu, click Edit > Preferences > Advanced. Choose “Cache” and click both “Clear Memory Cache” and “Clear Disk Cache”.

    Mozilla 1.x and up: From the menu, Edit > Preferences > Advanced and click “Cache” and “Clear Cache”.

    Opera: Edit > File > Preferences > History and Cache and click “Cache”.

    Safari: From the menu, Safari > Reset Safari and click Reset to confirm OR Safari > Empty Cache.

    actually Lorelle if you use the develop plugin you’ll find the cahnges you make are cached and stored, so pressing ctrl+z will revert back to the original state if you press it enough times within the edit CSS section of the plugin.

    Thread Starter Lorelle

    (@lorelle)

    That’s the cache within the program you are working with, and dependent upon the program you are working with. How far can you go back with the developer plugin for Firefox?

    And once you hit “save” on some programs, you can’t undelete past that point. That’s really frustrating. But it depends upon the program.

    Well say you have your css editor in FF using the plugin on the left, you make say 20 or 30 edits. If you press it 20-30 times you’ll revert back that many times. If you want to reset it all, thre’s a button that let’s you. You could save the CSS up to a point, still work on it within the editor on the left and still revert back to the original state, or a state just after editing and you’ll see those changes on the screen

    Thread Starter Lorelle

    (@lorelle)

    Did I miss any browsers? Anyone have any other suggestions for clearing the cache?

    In Firefox a Ctrl +F5 will force a CSS reload.

    Thread Starter Lorelle

    (@lorelle)

    But not a “page” reload? Is this specific to CSS only?

    Thats a page reload plus css.

    Thread Starter Lorelle

    (@lorelle)

    Thanks for the clarification. I have found that Firefox reloads lovely the majority of the time with F5 but to REALLY clear the cache, Cntrl+Shift+R does the job completely, so I use different ones and if I see no change, I go to the serious clearing.

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
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