SharePoint

On my latest project I’m working on I was having serious trouble with SharePoint Designer. As soon as I opened a certain page it hung up, crashed, collapsed and in many cases it wasn’t responding. I’ve checked the proper syntax of the code (there was some custom XSLT), CSS, etc. Even tested the code in some validators to see if I forgot to close some tags, or left something out. Nothing.

Then I discovered that the difference between the troubled page and other pages was some additional CSS. The following method helped:

1. download the troubled page by selecting it and clicking "File –> Export –> File"
2. On your computer using any text editor (I prefer Notepad++) cut the troubled code out (in my case the CSS)
3. On the SharePoint site create the CSS file and paste the CSS code into it.
4. Still on your desktop insert the link link to the CSS file (<link rel="…)
5. Upload the file from desktop (just to be secure make a copy of the file on your server)

Up to this point I didn’t solve the problem, because the troubled (yet validated ok) CSS was still loading and making the SharePoint Designer to hang up. But to bypass the problem I now make the following:

6. Before opening the page in SharePoint Designer I open the CSS file and comment out all the CSS code (/**/)
7. I open the page (yeee, it gets loaded)
8. I uncomment the CSS in the CSS file.

And I can edit the page normally. I hope this method helps at least someone else. Worth a try.