Suggestion! - Writers Forum

Mid-evil Fanatic · 01-18-2007, 05:59 PM

I type on my computer all the time and use dialoge often so I've become very accustomed to using my tab button. For some reason this sight doesn't allow tabs and takes you to the submit button if you hit it then if you hit the back space then naturaly you back track and thus lose all of what you were writing. this has just happened while I was writing a rather long post... Why are tabs not allowed? It makes alot of stuff harder to read.

Ilan Bouchard · 01-18-2007, 06:28 PM

From what I know, tabs are not enabled on any webpages.

gohn67 · 01-18-2007, 07:20 PM

I hope you are not typing your stories in the reply box. If that is the case you should type it in your word processing program first and then copy and paste it into the reply box.

Instead of tabs, just double space every new paragraph. That immediately makes things easier to read.

Ex:

Before:

"Hi," said Bob.
"Hey Bob," said Jim.

After:

"Hi," said Bob.

"Hey Bob," said Jim.

------

If you really want tabs then you can do a few things.

One you can post your story with in "code brackets"

They look like this: [code]enter text here[/code]

The result is this:

Code:

        "Hi," said Bob.
        "Hey Bob," said Jim.

Or the alternative is to use the following code:
[color=white]fffffff[/color]

The result is this:

fffffff"Hi," said Bob.
fffffff"Hey Bob," said Jim.

Overall it is much easier to read with the double space after every paragraph than using tabs. Especially because all the post are post in single space which gives very little spacing and makes it hard to read with or without "tabs".

Mid-evil Fanatic · 01-18-2007, 11:38 PM

mm. I see. I'm not typing stories but long replys so yeah thnx for the help

Kamisama · 01-19-2007, 08:40 AM

|||||
______

12345

"I'm leet!" he shouted.

"I know," his split personality replied.

http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/1750/indentni3.png

Use that image before each line to create what I call an "image indent."

The image doesn't create fonts, nor does it mess up a copy-and-paste to notepad.
If you copy and paste to a word processor, such as MS Word, you'll probably have to take out the images and apply the indents. Otherwise, simply pasting to Notepad, moving things to MS Word, and editing from there takes care of problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilan Bouchard

From what I know, tabs are not enabled on any webpages.

I think some forums with LaTeX allow indents, but that requires a type of forum package and installation. Such forums are science and math forums, but typically not writing forums.

Mid-evil Fanatic · 01-19-2007, 11:03 AM

I see, cool. Thanks guys.

Mallignamius · 06-15-2007, 12:57 AM

I'm glad I searched before posting this. Just thought of it myself. It does look much better. I use white "ooo." Why don't more people here do this?

♥♥♥

oooIF TIME PASSED the pepper down the aisle without your permission, maybe it would be best to arrest it. After all, crime is overlapping even the most untouchable interests now. Could we be certain that pepper incidents will remain isolated?
oooWhen I've had a full report on my desk for more than a few minutes, I'll be interested. Until then, shut up.

Ω

mammamaia · 06-15-2007, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Why don't more people here do this?

because it's a time-taking pain... it's a lot easier/faster to just double space for a new paragraph... and most of us have lots of other things to do every day, besides posting here...

silverwriter · 06-15-2007, 10:26 PM

I wouldn't go so far as to say most of us.

mammamaia · 06-16-2007, 06:03 PM

ok, well... some of us!

Pawn · 06-17-2007, 08:35 AM

Um?

Use the [indent] tag to indent your text.

The tab button is used by HTML form sets to move between objects. It's a standardized browser behaviour.

mammamaia · 06-17-2007, 08:35 PM

what 'indent tag'?... there's nothing like that in the 'quick reply' window...

ok, i went to 'advanced' to see if it's here and i see 'decrease indent' and 'increase indent' icons... i'll try them to see what happens...

here is a block of

writing that i would

like to indent, as if

it's a poem, for

instance... i'm
using the increase on
the first and 4th lines...

eeeK!!!... it moved my line over well enough, but it also added a line break!

ok... now i'm going to do it again, but try to take out the line break...

here is a block of
writing that i would

like to indent, as ifit's a poem, for

aaaggghh!... it either indents both, or smashes them together on the same line...

now will try it for a block of prose:

The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are both able and willing. If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent. If they can, but will not, then they are not benevolent. If they are neither able or willing, then they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent. Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil… how does it exist? Epicurus 300 BC […and why? maia 2000 AD]

still no luck!... can't just indent the first line, which is what's needed, to be able to avoid having to use line breaks instead... so, what else is there, if that's not what you were referring to?

lisajane · 06-18-2007, 02:40 AM

It's easier on your readers if you double space paragraphs rather than indenting anyway, so it doesn't appear to be one chunk of long text.

Pawn · 06-19-2007, 03:31 AM

Practically all text online is double spaced paragraphs. It's the standard because of how easy it is to read.

If you are absolutely set on indenting lines within paragraphs then it's true that, unless you double space the entire thing, the [indent] tag won't do it. I suggest you use one of the methods suggested above, easiest being [color=white]____[/color] or similar.

mammamaia · 06-19-2007, 06:37 PM

too much like work... much as i hate it, i'll stick to online style's line breaks, thank you...