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Question regarding Text-Formating Style in this Forum


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(This is mostly addressed at Admin, but everyone else should feel free to add their thoughts.)

I wonder if it would be possible to change the way this forum handles text formation. I am refering to the fact that - each time you press Enter/Return - you end up not in the next line, but in (what feels like) the line after the next line. To point out what I mean I give an example, that also serves as an explanation of the "problem" in action. Here we go:

So this is the first line of the text I wanna write. To show you what my "problem" is, I will just go on and one to write so you can see what happens when I do not press Enter/Return for a line break, but rather what happens when I just write so much text that the line break will happen automatically. Which just happened on my screen after the word "will". But in case your screen is wider then mine, I will just continue writing until a second line break automatically appeared - which you can also force by just making the window of the browser you are currently less wide. Coinsidentally the line break happened (for me) just after the last "are" in the last sentence. Now I will hit Enter.

Aaaand, as you might be able to see, it looks like this line - altough ment to be just another line below the last line - is actually another paragraph, instead of just the next line. This is due to the amount of space between this line and the last line. If I wanted to add an empty line between two lines I am used to press Enter/Return twice after ending a sentence - the first for landing in the next line, and the second for adding an empty line. I will do that now:

 

In the case of this forum it looks like I have no idea how to properly break up a text. Anyway, sometimes I just want to end a line much sooner before the line break would automatically happen. In order to format the text in a way to give it.. a pattern... .

I don't know how to describe it.

I can show you though.

Like...

... right now.

In this VERY instance.

 

OK, end of the expample. Please note that this is not critisism as such, but I am rather puzzled why this forum formats text in this way - which is simply a way i am not used to.

I am also aware that changing this... now.... on the fly... with so many written text out... is almost impossible without messing up the text anyone has written so far.

 

I just wonder why this is and if it could be changed.. and if I am the only one who has to adapt the style of writing/formating text for this forum (since this is so far the onlyforum where I have experienced this).

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Yes, as glad1 said, shift and enter sounds like what you want to achieve to get single spacing. The standard is double line spacing as I think it looks better and makes for easier reading. I agree sometimes you may want single-line spacing (especially for stories perhaps?) so by all means use this when needed, but generally speaking I think things look clearer how they currently are. For example, here is the first half of your post using single line spacing, which to me looks far less legible and enticing to read:

 

(This is mostly addressed at Admin, but everyone else should feel free to add their thoughts.)
I wonder if it would be possible to change the way this forum handles text formation. I am refering to the fact that - each time you press Enter/Return - you end up not in the next line, but in (what feels like) the line after the next line. To point out what I mean I give an example, that also serves as an explanation of the "problem" in action. Here we go:
So this is the first line of the text I wanna write. To show you what my "problem" is, I will just go on and one to write so you can see what happens when I do not press Enter/Return for a line break, but rather what happens when I just write so much text that the line break will happen automatically. Which just happened on my screen after the word "will". But in case your screen is wider then mine, I will just continue writing until a second line break automatically appeared - which you can also force by just making the window of the browser you are currently less wide. Coinsidentally the line break happened (for me) just after the last "are" in the last sentence. Now I will hit Enter.
Aaaand, as you might be able to see, it looks like this line - altough ment to be just another line below the last line - is actually another paragraph, instead of just the next line. This is due to the amount of space between this line and the last line. If I wanted to add an empty line between two lines I am used to press Enter/Return twice after ending a sentence - the first for landing in the next line, and the second for adding an empty line. I will do that now:

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On 5/10/2018 at 7:31 PM, Admin said:

Yes, as glad1 said, shift and enter sounds like what you want to achieve to get single spacing. The standard is double line spacing as I think it looks better and makes for easier reading. I agree sometimes you may want single-line spacing (especially for stories perhaps?) so by all means use this when needed, but generally speaking I think things look clearer how they currently are. For example, here is the first half of your post using single line spacing, which to me looks far less legible and enticing to read:

 

(This is mostly addressed at Admin, but everyone else should feel free to add their thoughts.)
I wonder if it would be possible to change the way this forum handles text formation. I am refering to the fact that - each time you press Enter/Return - you end up not in the next line, but in (what feels like) the line after the next line. To point out what I mean I give an example, that also serves as an explanation of the "problem" in action. Here we go:
So this is the first line of the text I wanna write. To show you what my "problem" is, I will just go on and one to write so you can see what happens when I do not press Enter/Return for a line break, but rather what happens when I just write so much text that the line break will happen automatically. Which just happened on my screen after the word "will". But in case your screen is wider then mine, I will just continue writing until a second line break automatically appeared - which you can also force by just making the window of the browser you are currently less wide. Coinsidentally the line break happened (for me) just after the last "are" in the last sentence. Now I will hit Enter.
Aaaand, as you might be able to see, it looks like this line - altough ment to be just another line below the last line - is actually another paragraph, instead of just the next line. This is due to the amount of space between this line and the last line. If I wanted to add an empty line between two lines I am used to press Enter/Return twice after ending a sentence - the first for landing in the next line, and the second for adding an empty line. I will do that now:

Thanks for the hint, glad1.

@ Admin:

I am also all a fan of readability, so I will always make sure the text I am writing looks the way I want it to look.

Problem is though, that I am used to write with single spacing happening as the norm (in all other forums, plus in any writing tool I used so far), and then I will add blank lines where I feel they belong. I sometime even write a text I want to post in a writing tool and then just copy&paste it over into the forum, which in case of this forum is always puzzling me. 😉

Anyway, I was just curious and sinceI am the only one who has to adept his style of writing, i will just continue doing so. 😄

  • Agree 1
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4 hours ago, WantonLee said:

Thanks for the hint, glad1.

@ Admin:

I am also all a fan of readability, so I will always make sure the text I am writing looks the way I want it to look.

Problem is though, that I am used to write with single spacing happening as the norm (in all other forums, plus in any writing tool I used so far), and then I will add blank lines where I feel they belong. I sometime even write a text I want to post in a writing tool and then just copy&paste it over into the forum, which in case of this forum is always puzzling me. 😉

Anyway, I was just curious and sinceI am the only one who has to adept his style of writing, i will just continue doing so. 😄

I'm the same and the two line breaks always catch me out when I'm writing on this forum. Every single time. 

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I'm surprised to hear this style is new to you; it's the default for the main modern forum software I know of, and also the default for the most popular word processor there is: Microsoft Word.

If copying across, you can right click and 'paste as plain text', but otherwise it's fairly easy to just press the shift button when pressing enter to get the effect you want. Though generally speaking, I still think the double line spacing looks better, though I understand you're not used to it. 

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, Admin said:

I'm surprised to hear this style is new to you; it's the default for the main modern forum software I know of, and also the default for the most popular word processor there is: Microsoft Word.

If copying across, you can right click and 'paste as plain text', but otherwise it's fairly easy to just press the shift button when pressing enter to get the effect you want. Though generally speaking, I still think the double line spacing looks better, though I understand you're not used to it. 
 

Looks like the other forums I frequent do not use this modern forum software then. null

I also don't use MS Word, but a different third party program; I do however just remember that in WordPad I have the same problem, but when ever I use it, I just uncheck the Checkbox that says "After each paragraph add a 10 point spacing" (something like that; I use the German version of it and am just translating what it says in German on the fly).

Anyway, good point about the "paste as plain text", will try that next time I want to copy&paste a longer text.

I somehow agree with you about that double line spacing looks better... well.. to some extend. Probably it's the amount of spacing that I feel... uncomfortable with, as it would be the same amount of spacing I tend to create when adding a blank line to break up the text into paragraphs. So when I add a blank line HERE, the spacing looks to big in my eyes. (I hope what I wrote makes sense somewhat; English is not my first language... .)

Is the spacing here 10 points? Would half of that still be enough to look good? I don't know if experimenting with this would be worth it; especially since everyone wrote their text with double spacing in mind, and it's only two persons that have problems with it.

Again, I am not complaining, I was just confused a bit and wanted to know what was wrong with me. null

I say, unless an overwhelming majority of the forum users suddenly speak up and want to see a change - lets just drop the subject. As I said, I will just adept my style of writing, as I had in the past.

 

Keep up the good work. Admin, and thanks for your answers! null
 

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