Try thinking of partials as mini-templates, you can have fixed and/or editable content.
If you create a Partial and don’t use it, when you re-open RW the Partial is deleted because it is part of the project file and if saved with the project file it is waisting resources. The best way to get around this is to make a page on your site that is not linked to and add a copy of each partial to that page and they won’t disappear (as long as you don’t unpack them). Same goes for if you unpack each instance, if no pages use the partial, then they are deleted from the project file.
Now, you can use a partial on one page or many pages, but what if you want to change something in that partial that is not editable on a given page. You can unpack it and then it becomes editable on that page BUT won’t be updated if you change the Partial. The best way around this is to really think your partials through so that they can stay partials on every page without having to unpack them and lose the functionality of the partial.
@isaiah linked see really good resources above regarding Partials, and @joeworkman has a very good video on Partials, Stacks 3 & Foundations (Applies even if you don’t use Foundations theme & stacks).
Are the partials located somewhere within the projects file? If I examine the package content, should I be able to see them somewhere?
project files are not user editable. doing so almost certainly will cause the project file to become inoperable. never ever ever ever ever mess with the contents of a project file. i cannot possibly overemphasize that. really. never.
ever.
really.
It seems my file must have been corrupted
If you are seeing project file corruption then do the wise thing: drop it like it’s hot.
If a file is broken… it’s probably only going to confuse RW/Stacks and get more broken. Here’s what to do:
make a backup
salvage what you can (copy and paste)
start fresh with as much as possible
and, as more of a public service: send the file to me… i won’t be able to fix it, but perhaps it can provide a hint as to what went wrong and help me prevent that for all other users in the future.
I know starting over seems like a drag. It is. But the time spent doing that is well worth the benefit of getting back to working.
really. never.