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3. Formatting

OK, Jason, I'm going to bite the bullet and look like a total idiot for the second time this month (notice I said total; God knows how many times I've looked like a partial idiot in various threads).

I can't find the directions. I just know they are here someplace in plain view, but like that disappearing hook just pulled out for the next fly, the directions page is eluding me.

What directions? The directions on doing formatting, like the cute in blue paragraph quotation of another's witty comment so one can follow up with his own witty comments (where are the Cathy Becks of the world these days to make me add the inclusive "or her"? I feel a bit piggish omitting it, but silly including it here where it appears only men tred.).

So, could you help me out once more? I keep cutting and pasting in quotations, but I feel left out and inept. I promise this time I'll copy your response into a word document, as I do some of the other salient hints I glean here, and I'll never darken your e-doorstep with this question again. Plus, I'll write a brilliant essay on the superiority of dry fly fishing.

Oh, one other thing. I rarely worry about such in fora, but is there also a way to italicize? I tried to do it with the key board the other day and everything shifted around on my screen when another window popped up (at first I thought I'd lost the whole wonderfully insightful post), but the emphasis never came.

I came very close to making this a PM, for obvious reasons, but then I remembered how I always tell my students to ask in class because it may help another baffeled student. Also, Taxon hasn't had a good laugh out of me yet this week.

Someone very kindly sent me a PM on how to locate the missing directions. I here add his helpful hint:

This is getting almost onanistic, but one last post on this thread:

Wow!! It worked.

--Thanks again to my Secret Clarifier.

When you go to make a new post, there's a link to the formatting help page above the box. I guess I should put it in more obvious places.

Anyway, here's a direct link to the formatting instructions.

Thanks, Jason, I see it now when making a new post, but don't find it when trying to reply. You and SC have provided more than enough help now. I'm no longer clueless (about the formatting codes, that is).

Louis,

Don't feel bad. Your post made me feel much better about my own computer incompetency. You clearly have a greater level of computer savvy than I do. After all, you've figured out how to cut and paste in this format, while I copy quotations manually. :)

Me too, though we may use a different process; one has to to manually move the words to get the blue block. That's the thing that eluded me so much in the past that I gave up for a while on trying to do it. I thought Jason had created some way to magically export the quotation to the composing box without cutting and pasting or retyping, but I couldn't for the life of me imagine how to access this feature. It turns out it didn't exist.

For anyone who is interested but as perplexed as I was: the quickest and easiest way I've found so far to get the quote box is to first copy and paste in the quotation and then to add the formatting codes.

I first open a green reply box, then scroll back to the original blue posting to highlight the words to transport. One way to do this is by clicking and dragging over the target words with the mouse. To actually make the copy, while the target is still highlighted, simultaneously hit the control key, "Ctrl" (on the lower left--of my keyboard, anyway) and the "C" key. Then, to paste, click in your green composing box and simultaneously hit "Ctrl" plus the "V" key. The target quotation should magically appear in your box. It sounds complicated if you haven't tried it before, but it's quick, just three clicks of the mouse.

After that, in the green composing box just place the word "blockquote" in square brackets before the pasted in quotation and "/blockquote" in square brackets after it (in place of quotation marks) to get the effect once you hit the post button.

I know I'm either being too obvious or not clear enough. Different folks pick up different keyboard tricks--it always amazes me when someone shows me a tip that's new. Just how many kinds of backflips can these darned machines do?


Now I'm going to get bold and try some more of those cute formatting tricks. It's helpful to be so easily entertained.

We haven't heard from Taxon recently. It'll probably take some Latin to bring him to the surface.

By the way, I had missed the closing slash before, so this may work a bit better than my previous attempt.

wasn't going to copy that bit manually, so had to go find all those nifty codes myself. besides, the blue box dignifies all that it encompasses.

time to get out of the sandbox and go do something worthwhile. trouble with these fora is that "checking the e-mail" takes forever:

• check college e-mail
  
• check personal e-mail
  
• check troutnut e-mail and postings
  
• respond to troutnut postings
  
• remember resolution to troutnut once a day
  
• log out, while imagining fishing in one of Jason's pictures
  

this posting qualifies as professional development, right?

Indeed it does!

We can discuss whether the plural of "forum" as used on the Internet is "forums" or "fora." I say "forums" based on popular usage, even though it's certain blasphemy against some Latin root. Anyone else?

Casey,

Dare I . . .



Now, you weren't punning with that last word, were you?


Jason,

When discussing fauna and flora,
it's hard not to say fora,

but either will suit me just fine.

Ave atque vale.