Tabs in HTML?

Subject: Tabs in HTML?
From: LaMarca
Date: 02 Jun 97 - 06:29 PM

Thanks to the more technically competant out there, I now know how to get a hard return in my messages using the bracketed BR. Song lyrics layouts would also look nicer if someone could tell me how to get a "TAB" command to stagger verses from choruses, etc. And how do you write "bracketed BR" so that it shows up in the message, instead of executing the command?

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Peter Timmerman
Date: 02 Jun 97 - 06:45 PM

Dear La Marca (hi), unfortunately, you can't tab directly in HTML, unless you want to save a preformatted text (which is another can of worms). You can indent using blockquotes that is -- and I am using different words to describe the familiar symbols so as not to generate them -- (front arrow) blockquote (back arrow) followed at the end by (front arrow, slash)blockquote (back arrow). Another alternative is to create ordered or unordered lists which indent. You would use OL or UL fronted and backed by the same arrow and slash pattern. You can also use an align function to centre stuff. The last possibility is to create a blank table cell! (forget it). Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Peter Timmerman
Date: 02 Jun 97 - 07:06 PM

To add to that, if you wanted to work using UL, the unordered list approach, you would start: (front arrow)UL(back arrow) and you would follow that with (front arrow)LI(back arrow) for each item in the list -- which could be a chorus -- and at the end you would put (front arrow, slash) UL(back arrow). Note that the LI instruction doesn't need a double set of instructions both at the front and the back -- that slash stuff that pops up when you redo UL at the end. The slash tells the HTML gods that the instruction is over. However, LI is like the BR instruction you were using earlier. This is because LI is within the larger universe of UL. One of the wrinkles of HTML is that some instructions -- like UL-- need the final closing instruction of (front arrow,slash)X(back arrow) at the end of what is marked, and some don't. Yours, Peter P.S. This is what I know. There are other greater geniuses out there who may know better.

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Bert Hansell
Date: 02 Jun 97 - 07:14 PM

&lt gives you the <
&gt gives you >
&amp gives you &
I think,
Bert

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Bert Hansell
Date: 02 Jun 97 - 07:15 PM

See how weird this is my first line feed didn't get interpreted
Bert.

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Peter Timmerman
Date: 02 Jun 97 - 07:43 PM

I should have said that one problem with the UL approach is that it gives you annoying bullets you have to get rid of. The blockquote approach may be the cleaner. I attach a sample. You can use your BR instruction, and also do a secondary indent by just repeating the blockquote sequence exactly inside the first one (nested). Well, I hope this works, or I will look like a fool. Not unusual, Yours, Peter:

WORST FOLK SONG EVER WRITTEN

Once there was the worst folk song ever,
worse than the Wedding Song, worse than....

Chorus: Oh was it the worst
Oh was it the worst
oh yes it was the worst

Second verse comes here

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Peter Timmerman
Date: 02 Jun 97 - 07:55 PM

Phew. To be absolutely clear, the BR instruction used inside the (front arrow)blockquote (back arrow) keeps the line indent. After the first blockquote instruction (that is, the one without the slash) you can get a second indent by repeating it -- thus creating a second blockquote -- . To then get back afterwards to the first indent, you then have to put in the (front arrow, slash)blockquote(back arrow) instruction, closing off the second indent. And at the end of it all you have to do the same thing, closing off the first overall blockquote instruction to get back to square one.

Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Bert Hansell
Date: 03 Jun 97 - 09:04 AM

I hate to say this Peter, but I've heard songs that are MUCH WORSE than that.
Bert.

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Peter Timmerman
Date: 03 Jun 97 - 09:44 AM

Yes, but so pithy and so elegantly arranged? I thought your e.e. cummings poem was cute too. Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 06 Apr 98 - 11:44 AM

I just found out about the HTML tag (left angle bracket)pre(right angle bracket) (and end it with the / before pre) that tells HTML to leave it the way you typed it up, it's preformatted the way you want it. No more br or p tags, no need for tabs, no more taking out HTML tags in ABC's with this.

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Apr 98 - 02:39 PM

Hi, Bruce - I was hoping that <pre> command would solve all our problems, but I've gotten skittish results with it, and the stuff I've posted with it just doesn't look right. I think it's still best if we end new lines with the <br> command, but the <pre> command might help us in posting TAB. So far, we haven't quite found the easy way out.
OK, now I'm going to use the command on the text following this, and see how it looks:

 Hi, Bruce - I was hoping that <pre> command would solve all our problems, but I've gotten mixed results with it, and the stuff I've posted with it just doesn't look right. I think it's still best if we end new lines with the <br> command, but the <pre> command might help us in posting TAB. So far, we haven't quite found the easy way out. For one thing, it doesn't allow Mudcat to word-wrap. I'll hit "enter at the end of the lines below and see if that works:  Mary had a little lamb  Its fleece was white  So, what else do you want to know about the lamb?  

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 06 Apr 98 - 02:50 PM

Different browsers or different severs sometimes give different results. I've started using it on my website, and it's worked fine, so far, with my (Netscape 3) browser over the internet to my website. I asked someone last Friday, about how standard the 'pre' command was, but I guess he didn't know the answer to that one. He's a computer jock that many in FSGW know, and I was hoping to get some guideline.

Anyone out there that can tell us what the pitfalls are?

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From:
Date: 06 Apr 98 - 08:48 PM

My experience with the < pre > command is that if I use it while directly typing into the little "Enter message below" window that comes on each thread page, then it preserves the line breaks. If I type it in a text editor first (which I like to do so I can test the HTML code before posting) and then paste it into the little window, I lose the line breaks (as Joe did above).

Murray

Subject: RE: Tabs in HTML?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 06 Apr 98 - 09:03 PM

I put in the 'pre' and '/pre' in the ASCII file on my word processor, and that seems to work ok in my 'Scarce Songs' file, but I haven't tried to send it by pasting the document to an e-mail message box.