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

Deborah

Why not

Click here for the next part

Makes it more 'user friendly'.

Regards,

Peter

Hi Deborah

Coincidence time.....

Peter has been trying to sell me on the delights of GuideML and after I triumphantly managed to 'bold and italicise' a phrase I also lost all my paragraph breaks.

As you posted I had just sent him an e-mail to complain, perhaps you can also tell me what I am doing wrong

Regards

Ron

Deborah

The long thread was because I have only just learnt that we can use GuideML in stories.

Regarding linking using GuideML, might it not be more stable to enter


Click here for the next part


Regards,

Peter

Ron

I've just been experimenting using the Preview facility.

One way to stop all your carriage returns and breaks disappearing when you put a bit of GuideML into a story is to prefix each paragraph in the story with , either placed before or in the gaps between your paragraphs.

There is no need for you to enter at the end of each paragraph, the clever parser automatically adds them all at the end.

Entering is not as tedious as it sounds, just type in the first one then copy it and paste in the rest.

Try it and let me know what happens.

Peter

To all concerned

If you've been following this gripping drama on the use of GuideHL, then you will be relieved to hear that Peter's suggestion of to restore paragraph spacing actually works.

Ron

Hello all,

Yes, if you lose your paragraphs you tag each one with to get them back. However, I would recommend that you always start the paragraph with AND end it with . If you leave out the end tag it might not always work.

An important note on end tags: if your start tag is in capital letters, your end tag must be too, else it won't work. Best to always stick with capitals.

All this and much more you will find in h2g2's GuideML clinic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A187229

Deborah

Hallo Deborah

Hope you had a nice holiday and thank you for the response and your help in this.

Unfortunately, this discussion becomes longer. I tried typing in exactly what you said but substituting "previous" for "next" and article A2720558 instead of A123456. I did this in the "Edit Article" section on the left at the head of the article. However each time I tried I got the following:

For the previous part of this story please go to Attribute starts with illegal characterA2720558112595223821318738677_1.jpgRon on FKR868 August 1939 (2).jpgRon in Territorial Army late August 1939 at Gravesend

Somehow, it appears to involve the file name, image and so on! Sorry to be a nuisance, but help!!

Regards

Ron

Hi Ron,

The code you need to type in is

A123456

You have to do it exactly like that (except for the numbers, which should be the number of the next article). So you must leave a space between the words 'link' and 'dnaid'. I'm afraid with code it has to be absolutely correct or else it won't work!

I have done the link for article A2720558. If you go to the article, click on edit and then scroll to the bottom of the article, you can see how it's done.

I hope that helps!
Deborah

Deborah/Ron

With great respect (as they say ), whilst A123456 works there is absolutely no need to stick to that rigid formula. Between > and < you can enter whatever you like. It's just a link label.

Try

On to next part in this story

Descriptive words are always more user friendly than file ID numbers. Also your BBC GuideML parser is quite efficient and closes all s at the end with an approriate number of .

Regards,

Peter

Hi Deborah

Thanks for that. What a difference a space makes. I followed your advice and had a look at A2720558 in Edit. Thanks, by the way, for doing that.

Later I will try my hand with the references back to the second and first parts of my contributions which I have put at the top of my last article. Will let you know how I get on!

Kind regards

Ron (A)

Hi Ron (G) and Peter

Sorry I did not get back to you as promised - caused by an accident to my wife and a visit from USA by a son which both intervened.

My delay in replying seems to have been overtaken by events, with Deborah's advice and the correspondence.

Thanks a lot, Ron, for your helpful suggestions. I am tackling the means of getting short-cut cross references in my articles immediately, but once I have conquered that (always open to a challenge - it's how I became reasonably computer-literate) I am sure I can use some of your ideas as, you kindly offered.

Peter - again thanks for commending Ron G's work on the site and for your other advice on the current problem. It so happens that I have followed Ron' contributions for some time with interest, but I had not corresponded with him until recently.

I must say I had no idea what I was starting when I made my original query, but I think it is very worth while. I have certainly learnt from it.

Ron (A)

Dear All

At last I'v cracked it, with the help of you all for which many thanks.

It did not go smoothly, though. I didn't just loose the paragraphs, but lost the whole story after the links.

Fortunately I also had the story in Microsoft Word, so was able to paste it back in then sort the paragraphs out.

All the best

Ron (A)

Well done, Ron.

Peter

Hi Peter

Like the Clip Art(?) Where do they come from?

Ron

Hi Ron,

Glad to hear it's worked!

And very glad to hear you had your story saved in Word too, and didn't lose it. In my experience, not closing tags can sometimes result in the entire story after a left out tag being deleted - so it's best practice to always close your tags. By that I mean if you have a at the beginning of the paragraph, it's best to also have a at the end.

Looking forward to seeing more contributions.

Best wishes
Deborah

They are called :) 'smilies' :), Ron. You can get those that work from a list I gave here http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/F1667054?thread=440825&skip=0&show=20 See Message 2. In that list I gave the code for as d_|.|_b , but <.cheers> works just as well and is quicker. In both cases remove the dot, I had to put that in here otherwise you would have seen "... the code for as d_||_b , but ..." Peter

Hi Deborah and Peter

Thanks for all the "Smilies" and their codes, Peter.

With regard to links to different stories and retention of paragraphs, I decided I ought to get to know a bit more about all this. If you glance again at my articles, you will see that I have extended the article's ID to include the title as well. I think this is more user friendly than just the article ID. Also it gave me a chance to play about with links a bit more!!

One thing I have found though which may be of interest, if not already known to you.
If anybody formats their articles in Word and attempts to put the links in there, before pasting the articles to the site, there is a problem, which as far as I am concerned took a while to find the answer. Word automatically, by default, gives smart quotes instead of straight quotes, causing the system to hang and error messages to be generated. It seems straight quotes only can be used.

Best wishes

Ron (A)

Hi Ron,

Glad to see how well you're getting on with the GuideML! Your articles look beautifully formatted.

Interesting about the smart quotes - have never experienced that problem because I always switch off everything the computer thinks is 'smart' or 'automatic'!


Deborah

Hi Deborah

Thanks for your response. I thought the bit about the smart quotes might be of interest to anybody who, like me, tends to formualte the article in Word. It ensures there is a copy on the computer apart from the site copy.

Kind regards

Ron (A)