A Conversation for The GuideML Clinic

Formatting poems

Post 1

minorvogonpoet

Can you advise me on how to format my poems?

Dmitri showed me a way that used to work, which went (spaces inserted just to demonstrate)
< P > &nbsp; </ P>
< CENTER > line of text < / P>
Now I get a message that &nbsp; is invalid. The poem will still centre in Alabaster but, in Pliny, I get a crunched up block of text.


Formatting poems

Post 2

Titania (gone for lunch)

First, why would you want to start with an empty space?

Second, you have one too much. starts a new paragraph, ends it. You start a new paragraph but end it twice?

Personally, I think I'd do it something like this:



First line of text

Second line of text

Third line of text

Fourth line of text


Formatting poems

Post 3

Titania (gone for lunch)

Haven't used Pliny myself (Goo rules!) but here is a go using my method first with the and your method with a for each line:

http://h2g2.com/entry/A87824523


Formatting poems

Post 4

Pastey

What effect are you trying to achieve mvp? smiley - smiley


Formatting poems

Post 5

minorvogonpoet

Thank you all for your advice.smiley - smiley
Unfortunately, I confused everybody by getting my original post garbled. smiley - groan

But, in my latest attempt at formatting a poem A87823047 I used the
< CENTER > Line of text </ CENTER >
approach. It works in Alabaster, but in Pliny I get a crunched up paragraph.

I don't mind if my poems are centered on a page, or lined up down the left-hand margin, but I do want them in lines.


Formatting poems

Post 6

Titania (gone for lunch)

Then I'd like to point back at my posting no.2, to use between each line rather than the CENTER tag repeatedly.

Although the line spacing seems a bit odd in my own example.


Formatting poems

Post 7

Pastey

Right, I see what's happening smiley - smiley

Pliny doesn't force new lines on unedited entries like the older skins do. So, if you want to create a new line, use the break tag: < br />

With the < center > tag, you should only need it once at the start of what you want centring, and at the end.

So with your poem, if you want it all centred, put the start center tag right at the start, and the end one right at the end. Then put a break tag at the end of each line.

That should sort it for you
smiley - smiley


Formatting poems

Post 8

minorvogonpoet

Thank you all smiley - smiley I'll try that.


Formatting poems

Post 9

minorvogonpoet

I tried the approach you recommended, Pastey.

In Pliny I got line breaks, so an advance on the previous result, but the centering didn't work! smiley - erm


Formatting poems

Post 10

Pastey

Would you like me to tweak it "behind the scenes" so you can see? smiley - smiley


Formatting poems

Post 11

Pastey

In fact, I've just fiddled with the site code a bit, it should be centred now for you smiley - winkeye


Formatting poems

Post 12

minorvogonpoet

Thank you very much Pastey. smiley - biggrin


Formatting poems

Post 13

Pastey

You're very welcome, I've been meaning to sort that out for a while now smiley - winkeye


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