Formatting hints list

[Chemus]

Now, I'm not an expert on formatting things to look pretty, but there are a few instances of things that work differently on these boards relative to those other boards. I'll post things as I see them, and invite any others who want to give pointers/advice to post as well, please.

The use of the "code" tag for lists and simple tables can be replaced with the "preformatted text" tags. This does a very nice job of preserving tabs and spaces in a fixed width font, without any automatic scrollbars for longer lists/tables. The button above applies it to the selected text.

Also, the button above gives the horizontal rule:
I realize that I'm not the first on the boards to use it, in fact I just noticed it, but it could come in handy to a lot of posters, and it's even easier than a line of dashes or underscores.

Hope it helps.

While I'm at it, here's a link to dman11235's thread on class formatting. Lotsa good formats there.

[PhoenixInferno]

I was modifiying a table the other day and I noticed that there is what appears to be an order of operations to some of the tags.

Code: [Select]

[b][center]Hello world![/center][/b]

[center][b]Hello world![/b][/center][spoiler]

Hello world!

[/b][/spoiler][spoiler]

Hello world!

[/spoiler]

Why is this and what IS the order?

[Chemus]

Nesting seems to require that center tags go on the outside, as far as I can tell. My best guess is that the justification tags have to be on the outside. No idea why.

[BobismyRhino]

It's kinda like HTML, except with brackets instead of pointy things < these >

In the first case,[ b ][ center ]Hello world![ /center ][ /b ] you're telling the program to bold nothing and to center "hello world."

In the second one, [ center ][ b ]Hello world![ /b ][ /center ] you're telling the computer to center the bolded hello world...

If you were to change the size of the font, it'd be [ center ] [ b ] [ size=6pt ] hello world [ /size ] [ /b ][ /center ] Without the spaces of course... and this would lead to:

hello world

So when you're trying to format something like align left/right/center, you want to make sure you put those tags before any and all font and font tags.

Ooh... marquees...

[PhoenixInferno]

In the first case,[ b ][ center ]Hello world![ /center ][ /b ] you're telling the program to bold nothing and to center "hello world."

In the second one, [ center ][ b ]Hello world![ /b ][ /center ] you're telling the computer to center the bolded hello world...

Yes, I picked up on that.  But WHY is this the case and WHAT is the priority?  Is it only for alignment over font?  Does bold have priority over size?  What other booby traps are there for the non-web developer?

[BobismyRhino]

But WHY is this the case and WHAT is the priority?  Is it only for alignment over font?  Does bold have priority over size?  What other booby traps are there for the non-web developer?

Hahaha hell if I know. It's just like calculating statistics for me. I don't know why if I do a series of math equations, I'll come out with some sort of number that will be the answer to my question... I just do it cuz it works.

As far as priority... just make sure the preformatted text and all the right/left/center alignment codes [ pre ] [ /pre ], [ right ] [ /right ], [ left ] [ /left ], [ center ] [ /center ] go around the text AND all of the text modifications (like size, color, bold, etc).

As far as the text modifications, you can pretty much put them in any order and they'll still work.

You can type "Hi world!"
As:  [ size=8pt ][ b ] "Hi world!" [ /b ][ /size ]
Or:  [ b ][ size=8pt ]  "Hi world!"[ /size ][ /b ]

Basically, just play around with it and then press Preview to see if it worked. That way you'll know for sure if you're getting the results you want. Learn by trial and error is my best advice.

[Chemus]

Bob, you are my hero! You came up with an elegant solution to there being no, to my knowledge anyway, 'noparse' tags; you just put spaces in between the bracket and the contents of the bracket.

[Prime32]

In the first case,[ b ][ center ]Hello world![ /center ][ /b ] you're telling the program to bold nothing and to center "hello world."

In the second one, [ center ][ b ]Hello world![ /b ][ /center ] you're telling the computer to center the bolded hello world...

Yes, I picked up on that.  But WHY is this the case and WHAT is the priority?  Is it only for alignment over font?  Does bold have priority over size?  What other booby traps are there for the non-web developer?

HTML has block tags (like <P> and <TABLE>) and inline tags (like <B> and <A>). I'm guessing [ center ] converts to a block tag.

[BobismyRhino]

Just found this and I think it's amazingly helpful!

[Chemus]

Niiice! You're so helpful.

(I am now liable to get struck for being smarmy. Even though it was really only a little bit. My insurance agent is quaking in fear. Or rather would be if I had health insurance )

[BobismyRhino]

Hahaha!

This is new for me. I'm not usually called useful.