Using EAPH EasyLinks With: eBay's "more choices" Sell Your Item form eBay's Easy Lister form TurboLister FreeForm Template Helper Everywhere Else General Advice and Tips

eBay has two on-line forms for creating item descriptions. An "Easy Lister" with very limited options and a fully featured "Sell Your Item" (SYI) form. As an item listing is created you may switch from one to the other via a link provided at the top of the form page. Here is a screen showing the location of the link to eBay's more choices form, which for most sellers is the better one to use:

Switching to eBay's "more choices" form

EAPH EasyLinks, however, will work with either of eBay's forms.

Using with eBay's Sell Your Item (SYI) "More Choices" form

Top

eBay's SYI form provides two modes for the item description - Standard and HTML. The Standard mode is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface into which you may type or paste contents and then format it via use of the tool bar provided. The HTML mode displays the underlying HTML code that produces what is displayed in Standard mode. The two modes represent the same content but are just expressed differently. Changes made to either are reflected in the other.

Because eBay has two modes, you have two different ways to add your pictures to your item description on eBay. You may paste the Screen Copy of your pictures into Standard mode, or paste the HTML code for your pictures into HTML mode. The result is the same either way.


Using the Copy Screen Method with eBay's SYI form:

In the EAPH EasyLinks step 4 page "Use and Save", carefully position your mouse in the gray area along the edges of the Screen Copy Method box, and then right click once and choose Select All:



Right click again at the same location and choose Copy:



On eBay in another web browser window, make sure you are in eBay's Standard Mode. The Standard tab will have a white background. Position the cursor where you want the pictures to appear then press enter to start a new line. At that position right click and choose Paste:



To add text in between the photos or continue otherwise working on the item description keep eBay's form in Standard mode. Carefully position the mouse to the immediate left or right of a photo and left click once to set the cursor. Then press the enter key to insert new lines. You may then type in text and format it using eBay's Standard editor tool bar:

(Adding text in between photos is the same whether using Screen Copy or HTML Method)



Using the HTML Method with eBay's SYI form:

In the EAPH EasyLinks step 4 page "Use and Save", position your mouse in the HTML Method box, left click once to set the cursor, then right click once and choose Select All:



Right click again at the same location and choose Copy:



On eBay in another web browser window, set the mode to HTML by clicking the HTML tab at the top. It's background will change to white. Then position the cursor in the description area at the end of any existing HTML already in the box, and use the Enter key to start a new line. At that position right click with your mouse and choose Paste:



To add text in between the photos or continue otherwise working on the item description switch eBay's form to Standard mode by clicking on the Standard tab. It will acquire a white background. Carefully position the mouse to the immediate left or right of a photo and left click once to set the cursor. Then press the enter key to insert new lines. You may then type in text and format it using eBay's Standard editor tool bar:



Using with eBay's Easy Lister form

Top

Screen shot of eBay's Easy Lister page top

eBay's "Easy Lister" form is intended by eBay to provide a very simple form to fill in. There are less choices, less features, than eBay's "more options" form. Only the Copy Screen method will work with the Easy Lister Form.

In the EAPH EasyLinks step 4 page "Use and Save", carefully position your mouse in the gray area along the edges of the Screen Copy Method box, and then right click once and choose Select All:



Right click again at the same location and choose Copy:



On eBay in another web browser window, in the Easy Lister form description box, start a new line where you want the pictures to appear and at that location right click once and choose Paste:



After you have pasted in the pictures you may add text between them by carefully inserting new lines:



Using with Turbo Lister

Top

Get to the Description Builder


Using the Copy Screen Method with Turbo Lister:

In the EAPH EasyLinks step 4 page "Use and Save", carefully position your mouse in the gray area along the edges of the Screen Copy Method box, and then right click once and choose Select All:



Right click again at the same location and choose Copy:



Then, in Turbo Lister's Description Builder, set to Design View and start a new line where you want the pictures to appear. Right click once at that location and choose Paste:



After you have pasted in the pictures you may add text between them by carefully inserting new lines:




Using the HTML Method with Turbo Lister:

In the EAPH EasyLinks step 4 page "Use and Save", position your mouse in the HTML Method box, left click once to set the cursor, then right click once anywhere on the text and choose Select All:



Right click again at the same location and choose Copy:



In Turbo Lister's Description Builder click on "HTML View". Then left click once in the box to set the cursor. At that position right click once and choose Paste:



After you have pasted in the pictures you may switch to Design View to add text between them:



Using with FreeForm

Top

Use the Save button

There is no limit to the number of saves you can perform with EasyLinks so you can prepare as many groupings as you desire before going on to FreeForm to use them. Any time after having saved in EasyLinks, visit FreeForm at robshelp.com and insert a Text Input Area into Builder'B' where you want the pictures to appear. Use the EAPH EasyLinks button to choose and import one of your saves.



After the HTML is filled in from the import you may use the WYSIWYG interface to edit it if you desire.



From within the WYSIWYG interface you may add text between the pictures by carefully inserting new lines:



Using with EAPH's Template Helper

Top

Use the Save button


There is no limit to the number of saves you can perform with EasyLinks so you can prepare as many groupings as you desire before going on to use them in the Template Helper. In the Template Helper position the cursor where you want the group of pictures to appear. The page does not need to be empty as shown here in the screen shot. Then click the Insert/Replace button in the Editor tool bar.



In the Insert/Replace window use the EAPH EasyLinks button to choose among your saves and insert.



Upon insertion you will be returned to the WYSIWYG screen and editor where you may add text between the pictures by carefully inserting new lines. All the formatting capabilities of the Editor are available to use with the inserted pictures.



Using Everywhere Else

Top

EasyLinks produces a simple mix of HTML and inline CSS formatting so nothing in the code will interfere with any other part of the page it is put into. As a result it should be allowed everywhere HTML and CSS is accepted, but that doesn't guarantee it will be accepted "as is". Typically a site that filters HTML/CSS will simply take out the parts it doesn't like, so the easiest way to determine what is or is not accepted is by trial and error.

There are several possibilies for what might be removed. Some sites may not allow use of CSS. In that case you will not be successful assigning borders to the pictures and should avoid using the "Absolutely precise spacing" feature which both use CSS. Conversely, some sites may be prejudiced against standard HTML formatting, in which case you'd need to use the "Absolutely precise spacing" feature which uses CSS for most of the formatting.

Getting the HTML onto whatever other site you wish to use it with will be similar in concept to using on eBay or Turbo Lister (see above sections). When you are provided with a WYSIWYG / Rich Text editor that enables formatting content via a tool bar you may use the EasyLinks Copy Screen Method. When you are either not allowed to paste onto that kind of screen -or- there is no such editing capability then you'd need to use EasyLinks HTML Method.

Some sites where you are allowed to use your own HTML may use different terminology for getting to where that can be done. For example, getting to the HTML view may be by a button labeled "Source". Another possibility is the site providing an "Insert" or "Paste" button that must be used to Insert HTML at any given position.

In all cases, if using the HTML Method results in the code itself showing in the finished product then either the site does not allow HTML/CSS at all, or you've pasted into the wrong place. If that happens, all you can do is revise (if possible) to remove (delete out) everything you pasted in and try again.

My help is available as a part of your EAPH Hosting, so please take advantage of it. If you have any problems using EasyLinks with any site let me know and we'll figure it out together. rob@robshelp.com


General Advice and Tips

Top

  1. The FireFox web browser includes an "Undo" feature in its toobar under "Edit" that Internet Explorer does not. That can come in quite handy when pasting into or editing an on-line form. FireFox is free to download and use from Mozilla.com

  2. When you will be using a WYSIWYG interface such as eBay's Standard editor for item descriptions, structure your routines so you are pasting in the code from EasyLinks before any other content is put into the page, item description box, etc. That way you can delete out everything if the paste doesn't go well. Otherwise it may be difficult to figure out what needs to be removed prior to another attempt.

  3. If you are wanting to use EasyLinks with a pre-made HTML template into which you would otherwise be editing the source code to put in individual picture URLs write to me rob@robshelp.com. I'll help you mark up the source code with comment lines that make it very easy to find where the EasyLinks code would be inserted. Instead of having to copy and paste URLs you have the capability with EasyLinks to put in as many pictures as you want all at once.

  4. Especially when using the Copy Screen Method there is a natural tendency to think in terms of the pictures themselves being embedded into the page in which they are pasted. Instead, what is actually being pasted are HTML links to where the pictures are stored in your EAPH hosting (that's how the Internet works for pictures). With both the HTML Method and Copy Screen Method the same links are present, the only difference is how you got them there. So, for the life of wherever you have used EasyLinks you need to keep your pictures present in your EAPH hosting (don't delete, rename, move, or alter them in any way).

  5. A little off topic, but important to understand... If you routinely use a WYSIWYG interface to edit text or insert content it is best to load and work from a fresh "master" template than from a previously created item description or web page. The problem is inevitable bloating of the underlying HTML when the same content area is altered over and over again using a WYSIWYG editor. Eventually that bloated HTML can interfere with proper display.

    For a master template you'd create only the content that never (or hardly ever) changes along with place holders (only) for the content that will be changing. Then each time you create a new presentation you'd use that same master template as your starting point leaving it as it was for the next time.

    If you are using FreeForm you could readily use completed presentations as your starting points by using multiple Input Areas to keep the portions that don't change separated from those that do. Then all you'd need to do to avoid the bloating problem is delete out the entire previously existing content of the Text Input Areas before putting in the new content via the WYSIWYG.
My help is available as a part of your EAPH Hosting, so please take advantage of it. If you have any problems using EasyLinks with any site let me know and we'll figure it out together. rob@robshelp.com
EasyLinks http://www.eaph.com    rob@robshelp.com © 2009 Rob Bell