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Breaking up my log into paragraphs...


Beach_hut

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Silly question, is there any markup or codes I can add to my logs to force the text onto a new line? (I don't suppose I can use HTML, can I?)

 

I am writing a log out over several paragraphs, and although I typed it out in nice, neat paragraphs, the resulting log has merged it all into one paragraph, making it tricky to read.

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Silly question, is there any markup or codes I can add to my logs to force the text onto a new line? (I don't suppose I can use HTML, can I?)

 

I am writing a log out over several paragraphs, and although I typed it out in nice, neat paragraphs, the resulting log has merged it all into one paragraph, making it tricky to read.

 

I've never had this problem. My logs often have paragraphs, and all I do is hit the "enter" button on my keyboard to create a new paragraph.

 

For example:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=297f7ead-ef02-47ff-a79c-f65561b0a462

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Normally, a blank line in the log will be maintained, thus breaking the log into paragraphs.

 

BUT if you use any HTML in the log, the system detects it and processes the whole log as HTML, thus removing those blank lines along with any other extraneous white space. I normally just avoid using HTML, but if I need HTML for some other reason (<em> or <a href=...>, for example), then I use HTML <p> for paragraphs. Using <p> isn't quite as natural as I expected: if you don't use an initial <p> at the beginning -- i.e., before the first paragraph -- then a <p> between the first paragraph and second paragraph will cause a line break, but not a full paragraph break with a blank line. Alas, then this initial <p> causes a blank line at the top of the log, but I live with that.

 

Also, </p> is required: the <p>'s don't seem to work unless you also include </p> at the end of each paragraph, too.

 

Oh, and the first log display when you post a log does not render the log quite the same as the real log entry on the cache page. I've forgotten all the details, but I think that missing first <p> problem is not visible in the log confirm page. I make a habit of looking at the actual cache log to make sure how my logs look every time.

 

I hate using <br> for paragraphs -- just an affectation of mine -- but I have to admit, it's probably the more reliable solution in this case.

 

I should mention that I learned all this from experiementation (i.e., posting what I expecting to be a well formatted log, only to go "oh, shoot" and rushing to edit mode to fix it before the no-timestamp grace period ends), not from any official source.

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Oh, NM, I've sorted it, it was rendering my log as HTML, and when I put <br> tags in, all is fine. :)

How did you control whether your log was rendered in HTML? In my experience, the system decides how to render them. I've always found that quite annoying, so I'd love to hear how to control it.

I didn't control it, just accounted for it. It was like you said, I put some HTML in it, not to format my log, but to actually display the HTML markup in my log. As you said, the system decided what I was writing was entirely HTML, and rendered the whole thing in HTML, ignoring all my line and paragraph breaks, so I had to put them back with lots of <br> tags. You're right, they are clunky! :blink:

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Normally, a blank line in the log will be maintained, thus breaking the log into paragraphs.

 

BUT if you use any HTML in the log, the system detects it and processes the whole log as HTML, thus removing those blank lines along with any other extraneous white space. I normally just avoid using HTML, but if I need HTML for some other reason (<em> or <a href=...>, for example), then I use HTML <p> for paragraphs. Using <p> isn't quite as natural as I expected: if you don't use an initial <p> at the beginning -- i.e., before the first paragraph -- then a <p> between the first paragraph and second paragraph will cause a line break, but not a full paragraph break with a blank line. Alas, then this initial <p> causes a blank line at the top of the log, but I live with that.

 

Also, </p> is required: the <p>'s don't seem to work unless you also include </p> at the end of each paragraph, too.

 

Oh, and the first log display when you post a log does not render the log quite the same as the real log entry on the cache page. I've forgotten all the details, but I think that missing first <p> problem is not visible in the log confirm page. I make a habit of looking at the actual cache log to make sure how my logs look every time.

 

I hate using <br> for paragraphs -- just an affectation of mine -- but I have to admit, it's probably the more reliable solution in this case.

 

I should mention that I learned all this from experiementation (i.e., posting what I expecting to be a well formatted log, only to go "oh, shoot" and rushing to edit mode to fix it before the no-timestamp grace period ends), not from any official source.

 

Why not just use BB Code like you are supposed to? It works where you need it without messing up your spacing. If you are using Firefox, there is a Greasemonkey script that will give you BB Code controls like you see at the top of the forum post editor.

 

http://gmscripts.locusprime.net/Log_Maximizer.html

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Ah, the thing was I needed to actually display the HTML markup in my log, not use it as markup. I can't say any more that that, I have my reasons... LOL

 

That's interesting. I just did a few quick tests. Even if I wrap html tags in BB Code code or quote blocks, it still does not display them. The whole point of the code block is to display raw code, yet it is not displayed in a log entry.

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Why not just use BB Code like you are supposed to? It works where you need it without messing up your spacing.

I had to think about this. I finally realize it was because I figured out HTML works in logs and got in the habit of using that long before I knew BBCode was allowed. You say, "supposed to", but I don't remember seeing anything anywhere telling me I was supposed to use BBCode -- I don't even remember anything telling me I was allowed to use BBCode -- so I thought the two were equally valid. Since I'm much more familiar with HTML, I stuck with that. (Besides, a chill runs up my spine every time I have to use "" when I mean "<em>".) But now that you've told me HTML is a second class citizen -- something I've been suspecting as I've dealt with these problems -- I'll have to reconsider.

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Why not just use BB Code like you are supposed to? It works where you need it without messing up your spacing.

I had to think about this. I finally realize it was because I figured out HTML works in logs and got in the habit of using that long before I knew BBCode was allowed. You say, "supposed to", but I don't remember seeing anything anywhere telling me I was supposed to use BBCode -- I don't even remember anything telling me I was allowed to use BBCode -- so I thought the two were equally valid. Since I'm much more familiar with HTML, I stuck with that. (Besides, a chill runs up my spine every time I have to use "" when I mean "<em>".) But now that you've told me HTML is a second class citizen -- something I've been suspecting as I've dealt with these problems -- I'll have to reconsider.

 

I apologize. Between the new GSAK features and the Greasemonky script that I mentioned that modifies the page, it has been a long time since I have actually looked at the "Post a New Log". I am almost certain that at some point in time, it said that you could use BB Code to format your log. I think that this is where I first heard of it.

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