Text heavy posts.

[Ross]

Hi everyone.

Here are some helpful tips, in helping members and guests to have a more enjoyable experience when reading your posts.:thumb:

Paragraphs:

A paragraph is a section of a piece of writing made up from a group of sentences. A paragraph focuses on one main idea or theme. New paragraphs begin on a separate line and there is usually a one-line gap between paragraphs.

Using paragraphs correctly makes writing easier to understand.

The visual appeal of your posts content can be just as important as the content itself. Write your posts in short paragraphs (no more than 2-3 sentences is a safe rule) to provide visual relief from text heavy posts.

Most readers will skim a post or web page before committing to read it in its entirety. Text heavy posts can be overwhelming to readers while pages with a lot of space are easier to skim and more likely to keep readers on your post.

Using a Word document or similar, is a great way to help format posts. Much easier to proof read and using spell check is very handy tool. Once happy with your format and content simply copy and paste to the post window.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards,

Ross

[Fractalius]

Aww damn, snapped! haha!

[ArtyCarl]

Another problem I see is the quoting of whole posts in some replies. Quite often on some of the long threads you will find the same entire posts being quoted 5 or 6 times which makes the process of navigating an 80+ thread tiresome at best.

[Wood]

Another problem I see is the quoting of whole posts in some replies. Quite often on some of the long threads you will find the same entire posts being quoted 5 or 6 times which makes the process of navigating an 80+ thread tiresome at best.

Very true. I think just the relevant portion should be quoted.

[Ross]

Another problem I see is the quoting of whole posts in some replies. Quite often on some of the long threads you will find the same entire posts being quoted 5 or 6 times which makes the process of navigating an 80+ thread tiresome at best.


Very true. I think just the relevant portion should be quoted.

This is a valid point. Often there is a part of thread that 'chimes' with the reader of which they wish to quote, rather than the entire post.

For those who are not sure how to take a section of a post for "quoting" read below:

Left click and drag across the section you wish to quote. This section will then be highlighted. Then right click and choose "copy"

Next, hit reply button. In the reply window left click your mouse, the flashing line will be present (as if you are ready to type, but dont type yet) then, above the reply window you will see a series of Icons. When holding mouse over the "quote" Icon it will read: "Wrap [quote] tags around selected text" left click and this will appear in the reply window.

Then you left click inbetween the tags and the flashing line will appear. Then you right click and select paste. The copied section will appear between the "quote" tags.

I hope this helpful and not confusing?

Regards

Ross

[DawgBone]

A quote is largely just a signal to the original poster that you are responding. Just a sentence or two is usually enough to set the context.

It might a good idea for us to include the post # when we quote. That way a reader could easily track down the complete text. Or possibly that could be automated.

Better yet, would be an automatically generated link to the original.

[Ross]

Gentle bump...;)

[Anchor]

A quote is largely just a signal to the original poster that you are responding. Just a sentence or two is usually enough to set the context.

...

Better yet, would be an automatically generated link to the original.

It is - click the little symbol by the post to the right of your name in the above quote.

[Ross]

For all to read and ponder....bump.;)

Ross

[zebowho]

....Most readers will skim a post or web page before committing to read it in its entirety. Text heavy posts can be overwhelming to readers while pages with a lot of space are easier to skim and more likely to keep readers on your post.....

Yep, I'm one of them! Skipped countless 20+ sentence, single paragraph posts!

[Ross]

I just read a 560 word sentence which prompted me to bump this thread.

There are those who put a lot of well thought out views into posts and its a shame when it becomes one sentence. Very hard to read and very hard on your eyes.

It does not take much to format a post or to learn how to format. I am here for those who have any questions in this regard.

Ross.

[davyj0nes]

i can't thank you enough Ross for this thread. There are some genuinely interesting topics, but they're drowning in text. If a poster wishes to copy and paste a news article or something similar consider using a link, and just quote those parts of the article you want to discuss.

[Arrowwind]

While we are on this topic I really appreciate shorter paragraphs for reading on the net..
Paragraphs dedicated to one idea then a new paragraph makes it much easier to read and comprehend and to go back over it and find points of interest.

[Ross]

So we can agree its commonsense to format, Im not being a nazi in case some are thinking such, just wanting to facillitate a better read for all, including our guests.

Ross

[bluestflame]

have noticed for meself ,if presented with a whole block of text, me brain tries to read the whole block at once , and fails ..

with the gaps in between main points, it helps

[Anchor]

So we can agree its commonsense to format, Im not being a nazi in case some are thinking such, just wanting to facillitate a better read for all, including our guests.

Ross

f8fbrUjjivw

Bump and
:)

[TWINNICK]

Indeed, some of the threads I've wanted to read were so thick with words I went X- eyed. LOL.

The spell checker is good but I think its American, like the word colour in OZ or color in US.

I get cranky with it LOL and then loose my train of thought when writing a post ( why you little @#$^%^$#@@ get the f@@#%%%$# out of there for f@#$%&&^$# sake, it looks good to me you f@@#%&&^$#@ing stupid !@$%^^&^%$# all I want to do is talk for crying out loud) I say's to myself, self just ignor the stupid thing, people will get my drift.

I know its a bit lazy but when you are in the zone to write and have to deal with typo's as well( I didn't learn to type so this is with 2 fingers) its a pain in the !@#$.

..Nick..

[sepia]

The spell checker is good but I think its American, like the word colour in OZ or color in US.

I know its a bit lazy but when you are in the zone to write and have to deal with typo's as well its a pain in the !@#$.

..Nick..

No, it's not "a pain in the !@#$." - The spell check takes this hassle from you!

I don't care, if you take the british or american spell-check - if it's English at all in the end. But bad spelling makes it very difficult for me as german-speaking person because no dictionary finds the word.

I'm very grateful if you do this extra step.

(Apple-Computer underlines every questionable word red, and if I highlight it and press ctrl the correct spelling is given.)

[Luke]

(Apple-Computer underlines every questionable word red, and if I highlight it and press ctrl the correct spelling is given.)

So is any computer with Firefox installed that have this addon-> https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/british-english-dictionary/ (Right click to access suggestions)

For non-native English speaker like me, it is invaluable tool.

Remember: you do not write for yourself. You want to communicate, right ?

The protocols called "grammar" and "spelling" are there, in order to make communication precise. When you ignore them, that is also part of message.

[Hybrid5226]

Left click and drag across the section you wish to quote. This section will then be highlighted. Then right click and choose "copy"

The message I have written is to short . Thank you for the tips.

[mondaze]

i think most important idea to get across is that we are having a conversation with many people and not writing a thesis. pithy sticks in the mind!

[davyj0nes]

here's a link to wikipedia about reasoning and fallacies. i think this should be helpful to everyone on the board. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason