h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have whe met?
Anyhow - HI Welcome to H2G2
Who is Thelrik?

ZOE ya round

I've not yet encountered a one "Zoe", if that is in fact your real name. Being as it is that I reside in sunny California, I may never meet you in person. Unless you're referring to a chat room or something, in which case I always use the name "Thelrik." So. I think I'm going to ID Thel in my intro. Thanks for asking, though.

Ah, listen: Was the Guide offline or something for a few hours today? (7-14, or 14-7 for you Brits.) I had to send a message via the [email protected] address, check it for details.

Greetings Thelrik!

Well, I must say you seem to have landed on both feet in this funnt world known as h2g2.... Oh me, well, I'm a Guardian Angel, an unofficial greeter if you like. I'm here to help you get settled in, not that you seem to need much of that, and generally say welcome!

Oh, help yourself to some of these brownies, they really are delicious! I'm not sure if h2g2 was down earlier, but it seemes fine when i came on earlier....

Ah well, no doubt an ACE (one of the official greeters) will be around soon, but if you have a querie, question, problem, or if you just want someone to shout at, come find me....

Hope to speak more soon

FC

Yes, nice to know everyone's so friendly around here. But now, a technical question: I have a program that allows one to type in Japanese, and write HTML or any kind of ML with Japanese characters incorporated. Does anyone know if such a document would translate onto a Guide entry? Thanks fer yer help.

hmmm... I have no idea, and to be honest, i only just converted my page to HTML, and that was hard enough!

Though all is not lost, I think I know someone who can help. He has been alerted, and should wind his way here with an answer soon. Hopefully!

hmm... maybe I should have said.... any problems, queries or questions that a *blonde* angel could answer, pass them my way!!!

I can't see that incorporating non English characters in the text of a page would be a problem whether the page was GuideML or HTML (though you may have difficulties in forums, journals & other plain text areas) - so long as the browser viewing it can display the characters it shouldn't matter. Though character set support will probably need to be downloaded for most browsers to be able to see this extended character set - some offer to do it automatically & some don't.

One thing that you should bear in mind is that h2g2 HTML pages are not complete HTML pages - h2g2 provides a whole lot of HTML that comproses the skin. So you shouldn't include HEADER or BODY tags in the page.

h2g2 is, apparently, considering removing support for HTML pages at h2g2 so I would suggest that using GuideML pages will be more future proof.

hope it helps
;^)#

That is all very helpful and well, thanks, but something about that bugged me: Don't use Body tags? Aren't those sort of essential to the program? Or do we only need use Guide? Same for Header: That tag's listed as accepted Guide ML, unless something's changed. Header tags are also essential for stylistic reasons.... Once again, thanks for all your help.

-Matt

Thats only in HTML pages not GuideML

;^)#

Okay, I guess I can accept the idea of giving up my headers. (I can still keep subheaders, right?) However, I went to edit my personal entry and remove the body tags, because you informed me that they were unnecessary. When I did that, and updated the page, the body was gone, and all I saw were footnotes. It would seem that body tags are still an essential component of a Guide entry.

-Matt

There are 3 types of Guide pages - plain text, HTML & GuideML - the type can be selected during page editing.

In GuideML pages you must include a GUIDER & BODY pair to open & close the page. If you are using the HEADER, SUBHEADER & FOOTNOTE tags then your page type is GuideML.

The information about not using HEADER & BODY tags related (as it said) to HTML pages only.

;^)#

Ohhhhhhhh. I probably should have seen that.... Okay, but here's one for you: When one is putting blank spaces in a table, one uses the code, "&nbsp". This code fails and triggers an error because of the ampersand. So, one went back and tried the ampersand code: &amp. And yet, the error persisted in its bright, boldfaced redness. Now I don't care about using ampersands; I don't want to use ampersands. What I'm trying for, here, is a blank space in my tables. Any ideas?
Thanks.

-Matt

You've got to use the full ISO code - so it's & and   - the semicolons are important

;^)#

Howdy, Zoe. Glad to viddy(see) a new face around. Sorry I didn't get a chance to welcome you before but I've been having 'puter 'probs.

For you questions about the characters, as long as the guideML or html tags aren't written with them, they should work fine(as long as others have them on there system, or enabled). I think that was already said, so if it's a repeat just ignore me. As for blank spaces in tables and the like there are a couple of things you could try if you're still having problems with it...(1) Create a blank gif 1x1 pixel and use the IMG SRC code. (2)   (I think was was also said). (3) Cheat... change the font color to match the background and put in hidden words( like on www.theforce.net) the only way to see them is to highlight the page. Neat for passing secret message to friends without others seeing them.

Well good luck with your page, and welcome once again

So sorry, you may beat me with a steal pole. Got a little confused on where I was. I do apolgize for using the wrong name. my bad, I'm going to stand in the corner till my brain comes back to me.