Article Template for Free Republic - With Instructions for Usage (BLOCKQUOTE gone; thank you, John)

Self

[Benoit Baldwin]

Article Template for Free Republic Use to obtain the border and column effect you see here Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional Displays virtually the same in all browsers version 3.x and higher (if not, let me know) Instructions for Usage Copy and paste the following HTML into the Text of Article: form, when posting a new article. Insert the article's HTML into the space noted in the template. That is all. See Notes on Usage for more information. <!-- BEGIN TEMPLATE --> <table bgcolor="#999999" border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"> <tr> <td width="5%"> <br> </td> <td width="55%"> <table bgcolor="#000000" border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1> <tr> <td> <table bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border=0 cellpadding="30%" cellspacing=1> <tr> <td> <!-- Put the article's HTML here --> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td width="40%"> <br> </td> </tr> </table> <!-- END TEMPLATE --> Notes on Usage The value in green should be 100%, unless BLOCKQUOTE is imposed on us again, in which case it should be less; 90% or thereabouts. The values in blue, reading the template from top to bottom, affect the width of the left, center, and right columns repectively--adjust to your liking, but their sum should be that of the value in green. The values in purple, reading the template from top to bottom, affect the color of the left and right columns, the center column border, and the center column respectively. I use hexadecimal color values; the English names of the colors may be substituted. The value in brown affects the space (or "padding") around whatever you place in the center column (text, usually). In other words, the margins or whitespace within the center column can be adjusted by changing this value. If the article's HTML contains tables itself, ensure they are properly nested and terminated. Be careful when using PRE--long lines of PRE formatted text will adversely affect the output of this template. The whole purpose of using this template is to enhance an article's readability, mainly by reducing the size of paragraph widths. It is easily customizable to meet the needs of just about any article or taste, but you may find other methods more to your liking.

[SunnyUsa]

HUH?

This must just be for geeks! ;)

[Jackie]

You must train the children to their studies in a playful manner, and without any air of constraint, with the further object of discerning more readily the natural bent of their respective characters.–Plato

Happy Halloween!

[steveegg]

1 additional unanticipated minor bug in NS 4.77; the fs_header fonts don't work. If you can get them to work, you're a much better programmer than I, as I've tried just about every last trick to spoof them to working. As GWB noted, hover doesn't work in NS 4.x (though it does in NS 6).

That's it for the list of bugs in NS 4.7x (not as bad as you thought, probably <VBG>).

[RedWing9]

Oooh. I didn't know that I was gaining privy knowledge about FreeRepublic v3.0! What an honor :o)

If GWB is right and there will be a user level option for how many posts to allow per page, that would be fantastic. The benefits of breaking a thread into parts, to those with 56k and less, and also to the web server cache would be great. There are many of us though that have high-speed access and 100, 200, or even 500 posts isn't a bother.

I also looked more closely at your example and noticed that there was an "old style" link, that's kinda cool. That would be beneficial to those who have the "fear of change" bug. But I would further suggest that you throw that in at the user level too as it would get kinda annoying to have to click that on every thread you read if you are one of those users. Especially if you have 100 posts set as a preference, on a 56k connection, and have to wait to see that link to download "again" the thread.

If I may be so bold as to offer one more suggestion. Something I think I've mentioned in a "wish list" thread before. And since you've already made changes to the post form, I think its prudent now. Could you please put the post the user is replying to on the bottom of the post page? This makes it much easier to get your point across. The current software does a great job of allowing you to go back without losing what you typed, and I realize the user could always open the reply in a new window. But consider it like a "one-stop shopping" environment.

Thanks.

[Dale 1]

Testing, 1-2-3, Testing!!!!!

[Jackie]

Text Here

I cut and pasted and fiddled with BB's first code above.

[Jackie]

CSS? Interesting

Text Here

Fiddling with BB's No. 2 codes above.

[Jackie]

Two beautiful CSS tutorials for non-techies who have HTML skills:

Part I: http://webreference.com/html/tutorial9/

Part II: http://webreference.com/html/tutorial10/

[RnMomof7]

bump

[John Robinson]

I'm worried about bandwidth usage. By example, all of the very busy forums limit the number of posts per page to some low number. Yahoo: 1, Delphi: 10-20, UBB: 20. The only popular site I know that doesn't limit the number of posts is Slashdot, but they use a true threaded format which hides the bulk of the posts.

I agree with you, the new threads do look like barf w/o some type of formatting. I'll probably make non-style sheet views similar to this:

.fr_title
{
    font: bold 10pt Arial;
}

.fr_header, .fr_choices, .fr_page
{
    font: bold 8pt Arial;
}

.fr_header
{
    padding: 3px 6px;
}

.fr_normal .fr_header
{
    background-color: #ddddee;
}

.fr_removed .fr_header
{
    background-color: #eedddd;
}

.fr_body
{
    margin: 0em 1em;
}

.fr_default
{
    display: none;
}

.fr_menu
{
    margin-bottom: 1em;
}

.fr_page_goto
{
    color: black;
}

.fr_page_here
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: red;
}

[xm177e2]

Some negatives:

1) if you have a fast connection, you might want to get more posts at a time than 100 (I'd rather get the entire thread at once than have to click through as I'm reading it)

2) By using the "post comment" option, when people make comments on the thread it doesn't notify the poster. JH2 and Kat might like that, but the rest of us like to know when people contribute to threads we've posted. Maybe you could include a check box on the "post article" thread for whether "post comment" will flag the thread poster to the comment, that way JH2 and Kat can engage in hit-and-run posting, I can't imagine what their Self-Search feature currently looks like!

[John Robinson]

Yeah, post comment should probably flag in the poster of the thread. I include it as an option, because the new forum software does not need a comment when starting a new thread. Whether or not FR takes advantage of this for article posts could be a legal issue. However, this software is designed to post more than just articles. There will be templates for anything the site wishes to use, among these: discussion threads, excerpt+links, book reviews, polls & surveys, maybe even "caption this image". All up to the site owner.

[LADY J]

Just watching the techies play!!

[j.cam]

What is the article's HTML?

[FreedomFarmer]

I concur with expanding the posts to, say, 100 before pages kick in, which ought to cover most articles in total. Those of us on dial-ups would relish the reload or refresh button loading only the last page. Now I've got to go fire up the AS/400 with it's 1200bps modem, and try this out!

[dixiechick2000]

This must be just for geeks!

Yeah, but I'm gonna bookmark this thread in case, one day, I figure out what it means! ;o)

[xm177e2]

And now, for something completely different: The "Diablo-style" CSS for FR:

.fr_title
{
    padding-top: 1%;
    padding-bottom: 1%;
}

.fr_collapsed
{
    font: bold 12pt Exocet, Times New Roman;
    text-align: center;
}

.fr_collapsed A
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #300F00;
}

.fr_collapsed A:hover
{
    color: #992200;
}

.fr_page
{
    font: bold 8pt/10pt Verdana;
    color: #DFBD90;
    text-align: center;
}

.fr_page A:hover
{
    color: white;
}

.fr_page_here
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #DFBD90;
}

.fr_page_goto
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #992200;
}

.fr_normal
{
    font: bold 8pt/10pt Verdana;
    color: #300F00;
    background-color: #EFDDC0;
    border-style: outset;
    border-width: 1;
    border-color: #904010;
    margin-bottom: 1em;
}

.fr_article .fr_header
{
    font: 12pt Exocet, Times New Roman;
    border-bottom: thin groove #CCAD80;
    padding: 1px 6px;
}

.fr_comment .fr_header
{
    font: bold 8pt/10pt Verdana;
    border-bottom: thin groove #CCAD80;
    padding: 1px 6px;
}

.fr_normal .fr_header
{
    background-color: #992200;
}

.fr_normal .fr_header A
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #DFBD90;
}

.fr_normal .fr_header A:hover
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: white;
}

.fr_normal .fr_body
{
    font: 10pt Verdana, serif;
    margin-left: 30px;
    margin-right: 30px;
}

.fr_removed
{
    font: bold 8pt/10pt Verdana;
    background-color: maroon;
    border-style: outset;
    border-width: 1;
    margin-bottom: 1em;
}

.fr_removed .fr_header
{
    font: bold 8pt/10pt Verdana;
    background-color: maroon;
    border-bottom: thin solid #999999;
}

.fr_removed .fr_body
{
    font: 10pt Verdana, serif;
    margin-left: 30px;
    margin-right: 30px;
}

.fr_menu
{
    font: normal 8pt/10pt Verdana;
    text-align: center;
    white-space: nowrap;
    margin-bottom: 1em;
    color: #300F00;
}

.fr_menu B
{
    font-weight: normal;
}

.fr_menu A
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #300F00;
}

.fr_menu A:hover
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #992200;
    /* font-weight: bold; */
}

.fr_copy
{
    font: italic 8pt/10pt Verdana;
    text-decoration: none;
    color: gray;
}

.fr_default
{
    display: none;
}

.fr_quote
{
    border-top: ridge thin;
    border-bottom: ridge thin;
    padding-top: .5em;
    padding-bottom: .5em;
    font-style: italic;
}

BODY#forum
{
    background-color: #300F00;
}

.fr_body A:link {color:"#101090"; text-decoration: none } 
.fr_body A:visited {color:"#702090"; text-decoration: none; font-style: italic }
.fr_body A:hover {text-decoration: underline} 

.fr_hi
{
  BACKGROUND-COLOR: #eeee00;
}

[xm177e2]

http://drevil.topcities.com/Diablo1/diablo_font.zip <-- link to the Exocet font, unzip this into your Windows/Font directory.

If you have a mac, download this: http://drevil.topcities.com/Diablo1/exocet.sit

[Jackie]

CSS? Interesting

Text Here

Deleting codes I don't understand in BB's No. 2 design, I get the same result. Just an experiment.

[xm177e2]

For your new style, you left out some of the buttons which used to appear at the top/bottom of the screen:

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