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Journal Title: One For The Writers:
Found a small FA trick...
Method for indenting text (something
that FA doesn't normally allow).
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By Fred Brown, Nov 27/ 2011
fwbrown61
Copyright 2011
********
********
This might be useful. Or might be useless? Tricks are like that.
So FA's poor at handling text. Ya, news. Still, readers can read it.
Submit a .txt file or copy the story into the sub's comment field and
there it is. Enjoy.
But the way FA handles text inflicts a small dirty. Paragraph first
line indents get zapped.
The BBcode parser doesn't know what a Tab char is. Oops. What
about just five or six blank spaces instead? Nope: stripped out. Bad
parser.
This is a small thing but a genuine piss-off. We've all learned to
read text that's got that para first line indent. We read better with it.
The trick? Found a way to get it back. Look at what you've been
reading.
HowTo: In Windows, dig out an obscure utility called Character Map
(charmap.exe). Other OS's have something similar. Choose Verdana
font (what FA uses).
Then select and copy char #160. Should be on the fifth line, right
after the ~ char. Looks like a space. Technically speaking, this is
called the 'hard space, or the 'no-break' space.
It isn't treated as a space char. For some reason, FA doesn't strip
it out. But it *looks* like a space. To the parser it's just another
ordinary character.
Surprise: it works like an ordinary space. Five of 'em are indenting each
para of this journal. And everything else I've been posting around here
(been wondering if anybody would notice).
Ctrl-V = Paste. Once you've selected it, go to where you want to put
those five hard spaces, Ctrl-V five times, and you're ready to rock. And
your text will read waaaay better. (Don't forget an extra blank line
between paras; even better.)
OR: Best idea so far, use the italics tags: [ i ], five Ctrl-Vs, then [ /i ]
(less the spaces there). This tells you where you *put* the indent
spaces. Do it once, then copy the whole string and paste that
wherever you like. Saves time.
But char #160 will work by itself. When I'm creating a .txt doc I put
search-and-replace to use to convert Tabs to this italic string. Eats
another few minutes work. Pfff...
This is FA. Nobody said it was going to be easy. :- )
********
********
Found a small FA trick...
Method for indenting text (something
that FA doesn't normally allow).
......................................................................................................
......................................................................................................
......................................................................................................
......................................................................................................
By Fred Brown, Nov 27/ 2011
fwbrown61Copyright 2011
********
********
This might be useful. Or might be useless? Tricks are like that.
So FA's poor at handling text. Ya, news. Still, readers can read it.
Submit a .txt file or copy the story into the sub's comment field and
there it is. Enjoy.
But the way FA handles text inflicts a small dirty. Paragraph first
line indents get zapped.
The BBcode parser doesn't know what a Tab char is. Oops. What
about just five or six blank spaces instead? Nope: stripped out. Bad
parser.
This is a small thing but a genuine piss-off. We've all learned to
read text that's got that para first line indent. We read better with it.
The trick? Found a way to get it back. Look at what you've been
reading.
HowTo: In Windows, dig out an obscure utility called Character Map
(charmap.exe). Other OS's have something similar. Choose Verdana
font (what FA uses).
Then select and copy char #160. Should be on the fifth line, right
after the ~ char. Looks like a space. Technically speaking, this is
called the 'hard space, or the 'no-break' space.
It isn't treated as a space char. For some reason, FA doesn't strip
it out. But it *looks* like a space. To the parser it's just another
ordinary character.
Surprise: it works like an ordinary space. Five of 'em are indenting each
para of this journal. And everything else I've been posting around here
(been wondering if anybody would notice).
Ctrl-V = Paste. Once you've selected it, go to where you want to put
those five hard spaces, Ctrl-V five times, and you're ready to rock. And
your text will read waaaay better. (Don't forget an extra blank line
between paras; even better.)
OR: Best idea so far, use the italics tags: [ i ], five Ctrl-Vs, then [ /i ]
(less the spaces there). This tells you where you *put* the indent
spaces. Do it once, then copy the whole string and paste that
wherever you like. Saves time.
But char #160 will work by itself. When I'm creating a .txt doc I put
search-and-replace to use to convert Tabs to this italic string. Eats
another few minutes work. Pfff...
This is FA. Nobody said it was going to be easy. :- )
********
********
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 1.9 kB
There's a slightly better indent trick I ought to add to the 'hard space' idea.
When someone uses FA's Classic user interface screen, the text is displayed in Verdana font, meaning a string of hard spaces won't be treated like normal space chars and an indent will show up, which is fine.
But when any one of the Modern UI screens is in play, Segoe font is used, and for some silly reason it seems that a hard space *is* seen like a normal space. And when FA sees a string of more'n three consecutive normal spaces it 'edits' them down to one space. Completely weird.
But: Look waaay down in the Segoe character set. There's a character called the Zero-Width Space, identified as 2008 (hex) or 8,200 (dec). Use a Windows utility called Character Map to find it, then select it, and copy it.
Then *pair* No-Width chars with normal spaces. Meaning paste in a No-Width char, then type a space char, then again, and again. Using the [i ] and [ /i] thing once more, you get an indent string that looks like:
[ i] <NC spc><Normal spc><NC spc><Normal spc> <NC spc> <Normal spc> etc., etc [ /i]
We're fooling FA here. It does not see consecutive spaces. The No-Width char gets in the way. As far as I know the No-Width char 2008 hex works with Verdana too, but go into the Segoe char set to find it; it's under a different number in Verdana.
So doing the same indents with No-Width spaces will work on both the Classic and Modern screens. Did I mention that FA was weird? I think i did. :- )
Cheers,
fwbrown61
When someone uses FA's Classic user interface screen, the text is displayed in Verdana font, meaning a string of hard spaces won't be treated like normal space chars and an indent will show up, which is fine.
But when any one of the Modern UI screens is in play, Segoe font is used, and for some silly reason it seems that a hard space *is* seen like a normal space. And when FA sees a string of more'n three consecutive normal spaces it 'edits' them down to one space. Completely weird.
But: Look waaay down in the Segoe character set. There's a character called the Zero-Width Space, identified as 2008 (hex) or 8,200 (dec). Use a Windows utility called Character Map to find it, then select it, and copy it.
Then *pair* No-Width chars with normal spaces. Meaning paste in a No-Width char, then type a space char, then again, and again. Using the [i ] and [ /i] thing once more, you get an indent string that looks like:
[ i] <NC spc><Normal spc><NC spc><Normal spc> <NC spc> <Normal spc> etc., etc [ /i]
We're fooling FA here. It does not see consecutive spaces. The No-Width char gets in the way. As far as I know the No-Width char 2008 hex works with Verdana too, but go into the Segoe char set to find it; it's under a different number in Verdana.
So doing the same indents with No-Width spaces will work on both the Classic and Modern screens. Did I mention that FA was weird? I think i did. :- )
Cheers,
fwbrown61 
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