I'm putting three different issues here
The only way I can test HTML formatting on BC is to post that I know of. I write in Libra Open Office Word or MS Word, and I try to always use the .doc format so everyone (including old word users such as myself) can read it.
I need to add occasional special formatting. The big three are Bold, italics, and underline.
I'm writing them down as I call them up.
Is there a place on BC that I can put temporary test posts? I want to view them without posting them. I am helping someone else edit, it would be a handy feature.
The google search on BG is not very good, it inserts ads, and doesn't allow searching within a specific forum (such as the FAQ). Ignorance on my part, or just the way it is?
What I do
You could always do what I do. Send your 'test post' to yourself as a pm.
Have a delightfully devious day,
Thank you...
I like that idea.
Suggestion
I'm sure there's a webserver program (httpd) for your OS. (When I ran Win95, I downloaded and ran Apache. These days everything I run is Linux or *BSD and I include Apache or another httpd in each machine's loadout.) Download and install one.
Once you have an httpd installed and running, if you fire up your browser and browse to http://localhost/, you're browsing the machine you're on. Even if/when your machine happens to be landlocked, with no active network connection at all, you can do this.
Use your comfy editor to write in, then export to HTML. Copy that HTML file over into your httpd's docroot (read the httpd's README about that, it's not that hard to understand, it's a folder where you put things -- files and more folders -- for web display). It will then show up at http://localhost/ for your browser to read.
You don't need to do that.
Literally. All you need to do is (1) open your web browser, (2) open your file manager and (3) drag your .html file from your file browser into your web browser. Bingo! (Or even onto the taskbar onto to the minimised web browser on it. In that case wait till the browser restores.)
No need for apache or any of that complication. I run apache (actually several) here and I don't bother with any of them for work such as this. By having to move your work to your docroot and such makes editing very awkward.
All I need do is keep a copy of leafpad (notepad knockoff) open with the HTML source in it. Spot a typo, fix it, resave, redrag. Simples!
Penny
Preview?
There is a preview button for just such occasions. I'm not understanding why that is not enough?
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Because I don't want to post it,
just look at it as BC will display it. Hanging up on the site with an open thread/post just seems rude somehow.
Every time I use HTML I go through the same thing, I have to look them up. On the site I use I have all the formatting codes memorized, but they are not HTML (vBulliten).
I just need to make a quick cheat sheet for when I'm typing in the word processor.
My memory used to be a lot better. At 57 years old I have found it is not what you remember that is important, but what you forgot.
Um, am I still not understanding?
Preveiw, except for a few details, will show you what it looks like. And the software doesn't care if you hang up on it. :)
I'll be 66 in less than two months, you're my brother's age, that whippersnapper. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Use the HTML, Luke
If your writing is going to end up as HTML, then start off by saving it that way.
.doc formats are not readable by everyone else. Even other versions of Word can't always read .doc formats.
I used to write in .rtf format which is a bit more transferable than .doc but one ends up with so much extra baggage that in the end I abandoned it. (RTF as produced by Word is a real beast. Way to misunderstand a standard, Microsoft!)
LibreOffice is what I use and I simply select .html as the desired format. I also changed my file manager to open .html using LibreOffice Writer instead of Leafpad or an HTML editor. You can use the formatting you describe above plus odd things like font sizes and colors if you desire.
Best of all, the output is actual text so that you can open it in Leafpad before you post and trim any junk out of it. Try doing that with a .doc document!
See my other post as to how to display your work in a browser.
Penny
If you save the file you want
If you save the file you want to see as HTML first from Word or any other editor then open it with a browser you can see what it will look like. This is the easiest way to do it with out using a dedicated HTML code writing program, which is not needed for posts.
As this program uses a wyswyg based system, I do not know why using the preview option does not show what you are wanting, other than the differences between operation systems and web browsers.
Word
is a medium I'm comfortable in, which is a lot more important that learning a new program when writing.
When I'm writing for this site I'll add HTML as needed. I've been using VB for a long time, so I'm comfortable with basic formatting. Most times I don't need much at all. Editing for someone else I'll need a little.
Thanks for the input.
You're making it too hard
Just write as you would do normally. Select words with mouse or keyboard shortcuts and bold, italic or underline them as usual. Then just save your file as .html and the program will do the rest.
I repeat, there is no need to ever insert your own HTML tags when using a modern word processor. Let the program do the job it is designed to do.
Penny
Word does NOT write GOOD HTML
Modern Word Processors were NOT built to create HTML. They were built to create Printed documents, and therefore, when you save a Libre Office or MS Office, or even Google Docs document as HTML you get a lot of unnecessary, bloated HTML that DOES NOT need to be there, and is only there because it's trying to exactly preserve to the best of it's ability, the look of the Libre/Word/Google document and not flow like HTML.
Plus, quite honestly. What if you want to use Images? Would you expect them to work without changing the source links to internet accessible images?
-Piper
Word and HTML
I can't speak for Word, indeed, I think that Word is unspeakable.
I'm well aware from past experience that the output of Word in a number of different formats is garbage. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that a document, saved in LibreOffice Writer[1] as .html - and only .html from creation - is refreshingly clean and free of all the junk I expected.
I now write all my postings that way. There is very little I have to correct, as I used to have to, and I'm almost certain the site removes what little remains anyway.
Pictures - I'll give you that. Somebody did an FAQ a while back about how to insert pictures and I use that when I need to, in Leafpad, once I have completed the text bit.
Penny
[1] I'm using the Debian version for Wheezy, which is presently 3.5.4.2.
Does this also save any graphics
I use graphics in my stories does using the HTML save also save the graphics or just the formatting.
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
Word did
I haven't done it for a while, but back in the day (I guess 15 years ago) I was producing web content from word docs and it would save the picture embedded in the document as a gif or a jpg. Not sure whether it creates a fresh image file if the picture already is a jpg or gif.
Back then it did a good enough job turning line art into image files but the html was littered with unnecessary code, these days its files are bloated with unnecessary css too.
-
You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your family.
I use
copy and paste for the most part. If I want to give a file it is a convient format, for me at least.
To answer your first question
The only way to properly test the HTML formatting on BC is to post on BC or another site with similar content settings.
Using the preview function is an almost perfect guide but there is a remote chance of something looking fine in preview but still breaking the frontpage.
Sending yourself a PM is the next best way but again not infallible.
The reason why browsers etc are not as good a guide is that BigCloset only supports a subset of html so tags that are valid inside a browser may do nothing when used in the box for story submissions.
Hugs
Cat
-
You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your family.