Advice on Using Word Processor for Creating Posts

I know some of you prepare your posts by using a word processor Whenever I've tried this I get some weird results and gobledegook so I mostly compose my posts directly in the "Post to the forum" dialogue. However, I can see there are advantages in composing offline and simply pasting into the dialogue box. Not the least of these is the ability to spellcheck. Also because the text before posting is so small I find that with my dodgy eyesight I make a lot of mistakes and it can take me a long time to get it right. So a few questions for you clever people out there.

  • How do you eliminate the gobbledegook? I suspect it's something to do with the format with which you save the file but which one is it? Plain text, encoded text, rich text, HTML document?
  • What is the appropriate format and font size to use or does it get converted when you paste it?
  • In a word processor you can embed images. When you cut and paste into the post will the images copy or do you have to embed these independently in the post as I normally do?

I've got both Microsoft Word and its Open Office equivalent installed on my computer.

Sorry if this has been asked before but I did a search and couldn't find anything.

Your advice and help would be appreciated.

TJ

____________________________________________________________________

Tony

My Flickr Photostream 

  • S thats the easiest way.

    Blackbird

    if your browser is IE run windows update

    if its firefox you can check for updates from the help menu,

    google chrome run the installer again, it will pull in the latest stable.

    Alot of sites used to check for ie for certain scripts on webpages usually javascript, flash or vb

    but its an old phenom from when other browsers were crash prone, compatibility is rarely an issue now.

    pasting from office into firefox is likely where the error comes in, with ie ie removes the junk ff posts what you paste.

    It's both what you do and the way that you do it!

    You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren.
    William Henry Hudson (1841 - 1922)

  • Here's my two-penneth:

    I use IE v8.
    I type up all my reports in Notepad and then copy and paste.
    Then I add the photos and edit any text ie italics; bold etc.

    I've never had any problems.
    Doh! Tempting fate again!

    Like TJ my eyes need help. I sometimes change the zoom level in IE8 (found bottom-right corner).

    Cheers, Graham

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous 06/01/2011 23:45 in reply to GrahamC

    Hi Graham

    How do you do Italics, bold, underline text in this Forum?

    What combination of keys do you press?

    Regards

    Kathy and Dave

  • When you hit 'Reply' and the box comes up for typing you can highlight any letter, word or paragraph to edit them.

    So, for example, highlighting this line and then holding down the 'Ctrl' button and hitting 'i' will italicise it.

    And the same for bold: 'Ctrl' + 'b'....

    And again for underlining: 'Ctrl' + 'u'.....

    This could, of course, be done when using MS Word beforehand.

    If there were a problem with this Site regarding all this 'gobbledegook' then it would happen to everyone. So I would advise upgrading your Browser and your editing software to see if it helps.

    Hope this helps.
    Graham

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous 07/01/2011 01:14 in reply to GrahamC

    Hi Graham

    Thank you for the information with the edit facility

    Must get the swing of updating the browser too!

    Regards

    Kathy and Dave

  • Unknown said:

    Hi Chris

    No I actually meant that the text in the dialogue box when composing the post is smaller than it eventually appears in the final post. It's this I find hard to read. Is there any way of increasing this font size?

    TJ

    Hi TJ

    You mean that this text that I'm typing now actually looks smaller when you type it than when it is posted?

    It might be fractionally smaller for me than when it appears, but not so that I can't read it.

    If you highlight a line that you have typed, then right click, you can 'View Selection Source'. Then when you have the Selection Source box up you can click on the View Tab and adjust the Text Size. It doesn't work for me because mine might be at the largest setting, but it might be worth a try.

     

     

    Best wishes Chris

    Click Here to see my photos