A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....01-10-06....Turning the Tables

Billie

[Billie]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, Dutchess, DollyCali, Mama_Bear, GodBlessUSA ~

Turning the Tables

I'm turning the tables on you today. My opening won't be a pretty one - today that's *your* job!

This is the third 'installment' of how to make pretty posts, using tables and borders and decorative fonts. You will have all the tools you need today to create your own beautiful table posts. But first you need a few decorative fonts and a good source for html color codes to break out of the basic red, blue, green, etc. colors. Once you have the fonts installed on your own hard drive, you can use them in your posts, along with hundreds of pretty color codes, to turn ordinary, default text into pretty script or playful fonts.

Below are a few fonts to begin with. Simply click on the name, and when you are asked "Do you want to open or save this file?", click on the button *Save*, and a list of the programs and folders on your computer will open. Navigate down the tree to "Control Panel", and click on the "Fonts" folder. The new font will download and install in that folder - that's all there is to it! It is now on your hard drive, and you can specify the new font face, as well as color and size, in your html command: <font face="brush flair" size=5 color="b20000"><b>. After you've posted your text, using that font face, size, and color, you only have to turn OFF the font once: </font>

Charming
Chaucer
Invitation
Brush Flair
Vivaldi
Quill

If you would like to locate and download more fonts, this is a great source:

6500 Free Fonts to Download

Now you need a source to find the 'perfect shade' of color for text that will compliment your backgrounds or graphics. Try this one: (use the color *number* rather than a name)

HTML Color Codes

A little further down I am including several background files and some graphics you can use to build your table posts. To help you understand how to post a table, you need to know that there is a whole *set* of commands for each table you post. I always start mine with the <center> command because I like for the tables to be centered in my posts.

<center><table><tr><td>

You must turn OFF as many sets of commands (in the opposite order you turned them on) after you have finished inserting the information or pictures in your last/main table.

</td></tr></table><center>

Our Finest opening posts are a series of *nested* tables, and the outside tables form a 'frame/border' around the last/main table. It is the last table that we put our text and images on, and we give that last table a specific width (most websites use percentages for their table widths, and they will increase/decrease to fit your screen - your text and/or images may also *move around* when you use percentages. We prefer them to stay *put*, which is why our last tables have a specific width in the table command)

The <table>command itself is where we put all the little details that show the widths of the frames/borders, and the background colors or *patterns*. To use a background pattern or image, it is similar to posting a graphic - you must have the image uploaded. To use just a color code, you need only specify bgcolor=#dfcdf3 (or any color code of your choice) inside the table command. You can do both bgcolor AND background image in the same table command - the bgcolor will open first and the background image will be on top of the bgcolor.

Below is a set of tables that uses both background images/patterns and bgcolors. Below the set, I will show the code that created it. (Notice that narrow strip just below this table? It is a ruler/guide I use to keep my table posts from getting too wide for an 800 x 600 screen resolution. I delete it before posting.)   :)

       

Hello, Finest FReepers, and thank you for coming today.

I used 4 sets of tables here - the first three are background images or gradients, and the last one is just a black bgcolor. If you use this *template* to create your own table, just replace ALL of this text with whatever you wish to say. You may also add more table *sets* or use fewer. Just remember to count how many you turn *on*, so you can turn *off* the same number.

One more thing I ask in posting tables at the Finest....we use a screen resolution of 800 x 600 for our regulars who have theirs set at that size. When you are creating a table post, please keep them sized so that no one has to scroll to view the whole thing. I use a little ruler/guide at the top of the tables I build that keeps me within that guideline. See it above, between the two sets of tables? I normally remove it when I'm finished checking the tables, before I post the thread! :)

I will post the text to make the ruler/guide for *you* so you'll know you can't exceed that width. Keep it there until you're ready to post - sometimes pictures are wider than the last table, and it stretches the table to fit the picture. :)

READY? LET'S GO!

COPY & PASTE EVERYTHING IN GREEN BELOW THIS PARAGRAPH, BECAUSE IT IS THE HTML TEXT IT TAKES TO BUILD YOUR TABLES. If the urls, words or numbers inside any of the brackets are in Italics, those urls/words/numbers can be changed to bigger or smaller numbers, or other colors or backgrounds or graphics you want to use instead. Below this table text, there will be several backgrounds and opening* graphics you can use instead of those I used just above. The first line of commands is the ruler/guide that will post above your tables when you start. Don't let your tables get wider than the guide - preferably comment posts should be narrower than the guide, but *definitely* not wider!

<center><table width=775 border=1><tr><td></td></tr></table></center>

<center>
<table background="http://d21c.com/billie/backgrounds/DeepRedtexturedgradient.jpg" cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0 border=4>
<tr><td><center>
<table background="http://d21c.com/billie/backgrounds/Blackgradientbg.jpg" cellpadding=15 cellspacing=0 border=2>
<tr><td><center>
<table background="http://d21c.com/billie/backgrounds/merlotcontemporarybg.jpg" cellpadding=50 cellspacing=0 border=2>
<tr><td><center>
<table bgcolor=#000000 width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=2>
<tr><td>
<br><br>
<center>
<img src="http://tinypic.com/jv0gzo.jpg" width=280 height=415>
</center>
<br><br>
<blockquote><font color=#e5e5e5 face=arial size=3>
Replace all this stuff with your text. The *blockquote* command gives a nice little margin on both sides, rather than having the text go all the way to the edges.
<br><br>
PLEASE include the width and height of your graphics in your commands. You can find those when you right-click on the graphic to get the url. Under *size*, the width is listed first, then the height.
<br><br>
One more thing I ask in posting tables at the Finest....we use a screen resolution of 800 x 600 for our regulars who have theirs set at that size. When you are creating a table post, please keep them sized so that no one has to scroll to view the whole thing. I use a little ruler/guide at the top of the tables I build that keeps me within that guideline. See it above, between the two sets of tables? I normally remove it when I'm finished checking the tables, before I post the thread! :)
</font></blockquote>
<br><br>
</td></tr></table></center>
</td></tr></table></center>
</td></tr></table></center>
</td></tr></table></center>


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's the fun part. With that template above, and with these graphics and backgrounds below, choose a graphic from the thumbnails (click on the thumbnails for the original - don't post the thumbnail size!)   The bgcolor number listed below the thumbnail graphic is the background bgcolor you should use for your last table because it was made for that particular graphic to *sit on*.

Once you have chosen the graphic, choose from the backgrounds below the thumbnails for the urls to use instead of the ones in the template above. You will notice that a few of the backgrounds were made specifically for the graphics - they might be *too busy* to use as the *wide* frames/borders, but will probably look nice as narrow ones. There should be at least one gradient background that will coordinate with your graphic. Now, have fun and let us all see what you do with it. Get creative and change some of the numbers for wider or narrower frames/borders - make the borders, narrow-wide-narrow instead of narrow-narrow-wide. Use the bgcolor for one of the wider frame/borders, or even add more tables before your last one! (Remember if you do, to do another line of *off* commands for each set of tables you add.)

CLICK ON THUMBNAILS FOR GRAPHIC

bgcolor=#dfcdf3

bgcolor=#e2b3ab

bgcolor=#dca19b

bgcolor=#e5f4f1

bgcolor=#000000

bgcolor=#502d27

bgcolor=#c8994b

bgcolor=#7a5755

bgcolor=#f8f8e0

bgcolor=#e0d6d5

BACKGROUNDS & GRADIENTS
Right-click to get the url

If none of these backgrounds or graphics say "Pick ME!", please Google and find something you like. Would love to see you have some fun putting things together today! Any questions, just ask. Have a Terrific Tuesday!

12-28-05 ~ Hall of Fame #14

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 01-09-06 Military Monday

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' Every Thursday at the Finest The guy's good, folks!

[Billie]

Here's another background that might look good with the kitties (I think):

[Mama_Bear]

Doing all the neat things our photo editing software can do is the *most* fun.

It is! It is like therapy for me. I start working with something, like that little bear, and have not a clue where I am going with it. I just keep trying different things and playing until I like what I have. That is how I have learned photoshop, just from playing and experimenting. Haven't read a bit of the manual. The nice thing is, nothing that you do in these editing programs is permanent until you make it so and, even then, it can often be undone.

I am beginning to venture (again) into animations, but I find it frustrating and tedious, for some reason.

[Aquamarine]

Good Morning All!

I wish all my Posts were this easy to build. :)

There is still so much to learn.

[LadyX]

Last night after I left the board, DollyCali, you wrote:
"I am sorry that you have had the pain.."

Believe me, on my Clinic visit yesterday the 6 tubes of blood drawn and the IV infusion of iron monthly; and yesterday, the Hepatitis B vaccine and the tine test, were totally painless for me - well, with the exception of the Hepatitis shot having to go into a muscle, and that was not much worse than a mosquito bite.
The peritoneal dialysis nurses love to handle me, chatting away as they do their handiwork, and we laugh and joke.

The same was true of the 11 months of wound care, handling with aplomb the surgeon scraping clean with a currette all the places on the legs (2 to 7) each visit, for a time digging deep to extract gangrene from 3 of them. I dubbed the original bad one The Black Hole of Calcutta..:))

I have been on insulin injections since 1975 - for 9 years (1986-1995) pioneered the insulin infusion pump in North Carolina, without *any* improvement in control, conferring at any time I desired with my Endocrinologist across the street from the hospital where I worked 15 years - and as a rule every day since 1995 must give myself 4-5 or more shots, based on the results of each test of the blood glucose.

Every physician and dentist I've had throughout life has remarked on my unusual ability to be extremely compliant, and to handle pain/setbacks. I see them as God's provision for my particular walk.

It allows me to face the unknown without fear or "woe is me," standing firm on His promise that He will never forsake us...I indeed trust Him to always be acting for my own good, and for His, and know He will equip me with strength should my own falter...

He always has been there through decades of adversity and outright hardship, and I rest in that...

[Billie]

I am beginning to venture (again) into animations, but I find it frustrating and tedious, for some reason.

It is tedious, and it has to be more *exacting*, or the animation is jumpy. I have to be *really* in the mood to work on animations.

Of course, making wolfie's tail swish or his buttons pop is fun to do 'cause he knows just how to *work us*! LOL

[Billie]

Morning, Sistah A!

Isn't that a sweet kitty face, and I love the mauve colors with her/him!

[Mama_Bear]

Very pretty!

Now I have to go over to my MIL's house and start packing up all of her household and getting it ready for storage. This is a BIG job, but fortunately I am not under time pressure to get it completed. She has decided she likes it over at the assisted living center and wants to either sell or rent her house.

She has all of her "important stuff" with her in her new apartment, but I have taken a cursory look at what is left at her house and what lies ahead of me.....my goodness, she sure had a "thing" for Tupperware! I don't think there is one thing that company made that she doesn't have at least two of. LOL.

It is a sad job for me, I feel as though I am packing up her life - the things she collected over a lifetime. It makes me realize that her life is ending. I am trying not to get all maudlin about it, but when I come across things, like boxes of pretty cocktail napkins left over from days gone by, it reminds me how she love to entertain years ago when she was an officer's wife. I have to stop this or I am going to end up in tears. :-(

TTYL, friends.

[Aquamarine]

I should have made a frame for the kitty graphic but was going with the tables you provided. Did have to change the font color, the one you provided didn't show up on the silver bg.

[Mama_Bear]

'cause he knows just how to *work us*! LOL

Ain't THAT the truth!!!

[Aquamarine]

I love Tupperware, got a pretty good collection back when I sold it. Sounds like your mil attended lots of Tupperware parties in her time.
Sorry you're having to take care of the painful details, guess someone has to do it though.

[MEG33]

So pretty!

[Aquamarine]

Thank you MEG. You've come a long ways since you started posting pictures at Christmastime. You're doing fantastic!

[Billie]

I should have made a frame for the kitty graphic but was going with the tables you provided. Did have to change the font color, the one you provided didn't show up on the silver bg.

Try again? The color under the thumbnail was for the bgcolor - the last table - it was the exact color as the background of the kitty graphhic. :)

[Mama_Bear]

I love Tupperware, got a pretty good collection back when I sold it.

I have a weakness for it too! In fact, my MIL insists that I take anything I can use, so I have already brought some of it home. Probably will end up with most of it.

Sorry you're having to take care of the painful details, guess someone has to do it though.

Yes, and better me than JK. He wouldn't know where to begin, and, if it is this upsetting for me, I can imagine how much more difficult it would be for him. It just seems to be a job a woman should do.

Have a great day, Lil' Sistah. :-)

[Billie]

Now I have to go over to my MIL's house and start packing up all of her household and getting it ready for storage. This is a BIG job, but fortunately I am not under time pressure to get it completed. She has decided she likes it over at the assisted living center and wants to either sell or rent her house.

Oh, I hate to see her rent it, but guess I just feel that renters as a rule don't give a home the love and care that a homeowner would. I'm sure it's not true of all renters.

[MEG33]

(((Hugs)))Packing up my mother's things was a really tough job. I put it off when she was in the nursing home..knowing she could never return. She had cleaned out through the years and still there was so much there to pull at my heart.

There was no storage ..just giving away to the family what she had designated and what she had not and the rest to the church. I kept some things that mean nothing to any one but me..my dad's old records, a dress she wore to my daughter's wedding, a pan I recall made particularly delicious meatloaf(It's not the pan that made it delicious).I am going to have to get rid of those old Britannicas I keep for sentimental reasons..

Well..there I go.I think I'll stop,too!

[Mama_Bear]

I was close to tears before I read your reply, now......well, I give up. I am just going to have a good cry over this and get it over with. :-(

a pan I recall made particularly delicious meatloaf(It's not the pan that made it delicious)

It was that comment that "got" me.

I realize I am stalling. I should have been over there already, but I'm still here talking about going. LOL.

[Aquamarine]

This color matches the kitty but doesn't go so well with the table colors.

Think maybe the black works better.
The kitty graphic looks much better in a frame, don't you think so?

[MEG33]

I had to look at the "job" to get through it and I had to sell the house so I could settle her estate..I had no choice and that made it easier to make decisions, I think.