editing and formatting

[Brownie]

I don't care how carefully and scrupulously I proofread a story, no sooner do I post it than I catch something I miss. But I don't see any way of editing my post. Am I missing something?

Also, I use italics quite a bit. I write in Word, then c&p into a post. When I do, formatting doesn't transfer. How do I get italics (or other formatting) to transfer properly?

Thanks!

~Brownie

[FanChan]

The site's set up so that you can't edit your post more than a few minutes after you've posted. Also, I don't believe there's any way to transfer formatting from one place into the forum. But I do have a suggestion. When you're writing the story, just code it as you go. The italics coding is very simple, just brackets [] with i and /i. So it shouldn't take you very long to type it as you go.

[Brownie]

Okies, thanks. Although if you knew just what my typing speed and skills were, you'd understand why saying 'it wouldn't take very long' is funny. --wry grin--

[FanChan]

Lol, I suppose that could be true. I am an unusually fast typer, so..I guess I find it hard to understand why people have issues with various typing things xD

[Dialga-Brite]

I still don't happen to think typing the code is that hard, since it's less than ten letters/characters compared to a whole story. but that's just me.

[FanChan]

Lol, thank-you. There's also no use of the shift or control key, either.

[SunSpire]

Yes it's true that you can only edit your message within 5 minutes of posting it, but again this is something I can change if the community would like to try a different setting

What I do recommend however is that you do not type up your stories inside the message window, the risk of losing everything is far too high, be it because the submit button not working properly so that you have to press "back" in your browser, erasing your typing in the process .. or the board logging you out for whatever reason and erasing your typing as well. I heard from other members they type up their stuff in word, notepad or similar programs and then copy / paste it over.

You have buttons for bold, italic and underline writing as well as quote boxes above the message window, the codes for that are just [ ] and [/ ] with the corresponding letter inside. For different colours just highlight the lines you want to edit and then hit one of the colours to the right.

Hope this helps, happy story-writing!

"SunSpire"

EDIT: The only way to get your formatting transferred when c/c'ing from word is to include the

Code: Select all

 [ code ] [/ code ] 

in your original writing. This is because the board doesn't understand any other formatting codes except for its own ones. This might be an idea for a useful modification / hack to install in the future, if there's one available for phpbb3. I'll be looking into this!

[Chibi Rachy]

Yes it's true that you can only edit your message within 5 minutes of posting it, but again this is something I can change if the community would like to try a different setting

I would certainly be up for trying a new setting...sometimes there are things I'd like to change later on in a post, such as add chapter links for my stories or such as with the fan video thread I did, I would have liked to have been able to take the links I posted in one entry and put them on the first page to be found, instead of making someone search.

I really don't think this community would have to deal with an issue of editing posts for the sake of an argument to change what they said...it's a pretty tight knit group. Trolls and spammers would easily be taken care of with mods, should the need arise.

I am definitely all for trying an editing setting that doesn't expire!

[SunSpire]

Very well said! I've removed the time limit for editing a post. I think I never actually set a specific limit but it was already there when the board was installed.

Happy editing!

"SunSpire"

[Dialga-Brite]

Very well said! I've removed the time limit for editing a post. I think I never actually set a specific limit but it was already there when the board was installed.

Happy editing!

"SunSpire"

Yay, I was hoping this time would come! I've always hated the editing time limit as well.