I Am Stupid....

[rluzinski]

...becuase I CAN'T figure out how to cut and paste a "spaced" table and have it format nicely. The spaces go away. This has been talked about before but it's apparently much to hard for me. I need an idiot's guide or something.

 

Thanks!

[ja002h]

There shouldn't be any big trick to it. Assuming you have all spaces (not tabs), you just make sure you're using the "ezCodes" formatting, type "

", and then paste your info in between the tags.

[BillScottCanRake]

One thing you can try to do is paste or create the table/text into Notepad first.

 

I do this because so long as you use a monospace font (Lucida Console is the default), your text will appear exactly as it will on the board using the CODE tags.

 

Second, as ja noted, make sure you replace any TABS with an appropriate number of spaces.

 

Also, you may want to put your table/text one line below the CODE tag. I have found sometimes if your post starts:

 

Blah...

 

the first row may not be aligned with all subsequent rows. I think you are better off formatting your post like this:

 

[code]

Blah...

 

Finally, be sure to use the Preview checkbox to preview your posts before they actually get posted. Even after going thru all these steps, you may find you need to tweak things before you click POST.

[1992casey]

I almost always use Chris' monospaced font trick. It's a great way to get an idea how things will finally look. Additionally, you have the opportunity to save as you go along; that can be invaluable toward keeping your sanity. Actually, I probably use a text editor or word processor to draft about 80% of my posts because of saving and spell-checking capabilities.

 

Occasionally, when I think a table layout is really hairy, I'll use a word processor that gives me the opportunity to show all the invisible characters (tabs, spaces, line feed/carriage returns, etc.). It makes things easy to spot. Sometimes a global 'find and replace' speeds things your editing, too.

 

Invisible characters can generally be shown by going to a program's preferences (options). Varying terminology is used, such as 'invisibles' or 'non-printing characters'.

[rluzinski]

 help 2 ihatethis 1 monospaced 3 

 

EDIT: I copied a spaced up notepad snippit, using a monospaced font. It's all lined up before I post. It's all NOT lined up after I post. I suck.

[rluzinski]

What font does ezboard offer that's monospaced?

 

 <span style="font-family:lucida console;">

tssd 5
lasttrysuckers 7
wow 6


</span> 

 

so, it looks all wrong while writing it, but if I keep previewing it and guessing at the spaces it's eventually right. Kind of a silly way.

 

No html is allowed at all, or just app-lets? Would be nice to use html tables http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[1992casey]

Via your browser, you could be seeing monospaced text through any one of a number of fonts. Brian's style sheet designates Lucinda Console. That isn't on my system, so I'm figuring that my browser falls back on Courier, which is its default. However, when I pasted your text into Appleworks, it showed up in Lucinda Grande.

 

I honestly prefer working with Monaco when I'm trying to line stuff up for on-screen presentation. It's a little ugly, but I find it easiest to read for the draft process.

 

Anyway, here's a screen shot showing the invisible characters within the text you had trouble with:

 

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a244/casey1992/boardpics/bfnet/mono.jpg

 

The dots are spaces. The markers at the end of each line are carriage returns.

 

Here's an example of what a tab character might look like, depending on your program. It's the arrow:

 

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a244/casey1992/boardpics/bfnet/mono2.jpg

 

---

Edit: Graphics moved to different server

---

[1992casey]

This is obviously a hack, and I don't even know if the code is valid, but tables will post here.

 

xxxxxx	xxxxxx
xxxxxx	xxxxxx

[rluzinski]

That isn't on my system, so I'm figuring that my browser falls back on Courier, which is its default.

 

Must be what's happening to me. I picked Lucina Console in notepad and it all lined up great. I'm just suprised it requies ANY thought to line text up; it's 2005 damn nabit!

[1992casey]

It really shouldn't matter which font you use to draft your tables, as long as it's monospaced. You should be able to line things up and paste your stuff between the

tags and be set.

If other people's tables are showing up properly, there shouldn't be any problem within your browser settings.

Have you tried switching between ezCodes and HTML (via the radio buttons on top of the reply boxes)? I've had better luck using ezCodes'

tags than HTML's tags. That could just be me, though. ;-)

 

When I really want to do a decent job, I'll use the HTML

tags, but that's more work. Likewise, I think using HTML tables would be a ton more work in a situation like a message board post. I'd keep it simple to start with.

[ja002h]

I've had better luck using ezCodes' tags than HTML's tags.

 

It's been my experience that you MUST use ezCodes formatting.

[bjamesw22]

Russ,

 

I just figured out how to do this 2 days ago myself.

 

I put my info into notepad, changed the font to Corier, and lined up each character using individual spacing. Then use the ezcodes other's have shown.

 

It was easier than I thought it was going to be.

[rluzinski]

All I do is write something in notebook and paste it between the code tags. Didn't have to change fonts or anything.