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.

[xm177e2]

Just a test, to see what a reply looks like.

[xm177e2]

If I put the template in my reply, it looks like this

It isn't causing any problems with my custom CSS. Nice work.

[hole_n_one]

The "template" in which you wrote your text required that I scroll from left to right to read an entire sentence ....and then scroll back again, from right to left on order to read another...and so on, and so forth

In a word.....

Yuck!

[Dan Day]

The "template" in which you wrote your text required that I scroll from left to right to read an entire sentence ....and then scroll back again, from right to left on order to read another...and so on, and so forth

It looked just fine here...

[lowbridge]

Lowbridge rules!

[Benoit Baldwin]

>The "template" in which you wrote your text required that
>I scroll from left to right to read an entire 
>sentence ....and then scroll back again, from right to 
>left on order to read another...and so on, and so forth

I had to use PRE in this article--which, as I noted, can cause problems. Which version Web browser and what Operating System are you using?

[hole_n_one]

In my case, I can't see the entire sentence on the screen........ the last 2 characters of each sentence are not being shown.......I have a scroll bar showing at the bottom, and must use it to see the entire text.

I'm using IE.

[Dan Day]

Testing, one two three testing.... I'm going to try typing a really long continuous line here to see whether it wraps properly when posted. Wish me luck.

[hole_n_one]

IE

WIN 98

[hole_n_one]

It looks fine with Netscape

[gjeiii]

Does this mean we can no longer just type a message or simply cut and paste an article?

Will there be prizes for the prettiest or neatest postings? regardless of content?

Since I don't spend all day, every day, reading Free Republic, I am confused by what these formatting threads mean to the non-professionals among us.

[MississippiMan]

Yet another test.

[Denver Ditdat]

bump

[mercy]

Ditto here. Using Windows 95 and Nescape 4.7

[Benoit Baldwin]

Yes, it's because I used PRE to format the display of the template code. PRE formatted text does not wrap to its container.

If I change my display resolution from 1024x768 to 640x480, I get the effect you are describing.

[1John]

Hmmmm........

[Benoit Baldwin]

>Does this mean we can no longer just type a message or 
>simply cut and paste an article?

No, no, no. This is just a tool I am making available;....

>Since I don't spend all day, every day, reading Free 
>Republic, I am confused by what these formatting threads 
>mean to the non-professionals among us. 

....hopefully easy enough for the non-professional to use.

Just copy and paste.

No one has to use it.

[LiveFree2000]

Get Bent

[George W. Bush]

No one has to use it.

Well, of course not. But we have to see it if others choose to post with it.

If people start setting their left and right margins manually in their style sheets to provide indentation on pages which don't use your TABLE template, then when we view a page with your template, your table tries to use 100% of the space. Which means that it will always overflow on the right side by the same amount as the CSS indent was specified for.

It seems that articles posted in this style need to have a way of determining any pre-existing margin settings and inheriting them properly before determining the width to use for the TABLE template.