I am quite satisfied with the sample which was sent to me yesterday. It doesn't really matter to me whether paragraphs are separated or not, as long as they are not widely separated, i.e., by more than one line. As long as they are left-justified and indented, that is fine. Thank you for your attention to this problem.

Allowing the authors more latitude on formatting issues is definitely the way to go. I am a writer on different levels most recently in the mainstream arena. Choosing a format suitable for the work allows the author to make a further statement about the writing...and is part of the fun. From a reader's perspective, having all the stories appear the same is...well...boring.

As a suggestion, why not allow certain basic formatting choices? Include some of the more primary fonts such as: Ariel, Garamond, Palatino Linotype, Verdana, and, if you absolutely must, Times New Roman. These are all quite readable yet would permit variety on the storyboard.

Anyway...just my two cents worth. Regards and thanks to all those who work so tirelessly to keep this forum running!

Almond Kid

Almond Kid (imported) wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2006 9:14 am Allowing the authors more latitude on formatting issues is definitely the way to go. I am a writer on different levels most recently in the mainstream arena. Choosing a format suitable for the work allows the author to make a further statement about the writing...and is part of the fun. From a reader's perspective, having all the stories appear the same is...well...boring.

As a suggestion, why not allow certain basic formatting choices? Include some of the more primary fonts such as: Ariel, Garamond, Palatino Linotype, Verdana, and, if you absolutely must, Times New Roman. These are all quite readable yet would permit variety on the storyboard.

Anyway...just my two cents worth. Regards and thanks to all those who work so tirelessly to keep this forum running!

Almond Kid

While I like Almond Kid's idea, I think we all have to realize that there needs to be a way of submitting stories that doesn't cause undue hardship -- reformatting, etc. -- on the moderator reviewing the stories. I know -- although I have my own site -- I haven't a clue as to how to write the code to accomplish that. My hat's off to IEunuch. We authors press a button submitting our stories thinking that it's a simple process, without realizing how much code's been written to get us to that point.

I now rarely read the stories. However, I voted for the traditional style.

I wish the poll had been worded a bit differently, rather than allowing for only one end of the spectrum or the other. I understand (and appreciate the need and benefit) that creativity and formatting styles can add to the reading experience. However, my experience (granted, very limited) with such material as I get older is that a LOT of really cutsie formatting makes for unreadable content for those with aging eyes and those with more acute vision challenges.

Perhaps a medium position could be permitted, but with standards being published and enforced. For instance, keeping font sizes between some boundaries (no fonts less than 10 points, no "screaming" in all caps, etc.), use of type faces that are easy on the eyes (no bizarre fonts with difficult visual presentation), color schemes that are reasonable (no red text on orange backgrounds), left or full justification, allowing for ordered and unordered lists (probably not a big deal for these stories), highlighting styles based on bolding and underlining, requirement for extra white space between paragraphs and exceptionally long paragraphs being double spaced, requirement for spell checking prior to posting, etc.

Almond Kid (imported) wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2006 9:14 am Allowing the authors more latitude on formatting issues is definitely the way to go. I am a writer on different levels most recently in the mainstream arena. Choosing a format suitable for the work allows the author to make a further statement about the writing...and is part of the fun. From a reader's perspective, having all the stories appear the same is...well...boring.

As a suggestion, why not allow certain basic formatting choices? Include some of the more primary fonts such as: Ariel, Garamond, Palatino Linotype, Verdana, and, if you absolutely must, Times New Roman. These are all quite readable yet would permit variety on the storyboard.

Anyway...just my two cents worth. Regards and thanks to all those who work so tirelessly to keep this forum running!

Almond Kid

This is an example of one of the problems, font size. I find myself looking in the large print section in the Library just so I can read a book without a magnifing glass.

River

One problem with the author not being able to do any formatting is that I often employ italics to convey a character's thoughts or to otherwise empathize certain words. I can no longer do that with the new system. No bold type either. Everything comes out the same. Can't set off titles and chapter headings by enlarging the text, bolding, or underlining them.

RW,

At the top of your browser, you can can select VIEW, to to text size, chose from large, larger, largest, getting old, got old, and finally, "Buy a widescreen plasma monitor."

I hear the next Windows Update will have an option called "Riverwind" right under the "buy a new monitor" option.

Slammr (imported) wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:31 am One problem with the author not being able to do any formatting is that I often employ italics to convey a character's thoughts or to otherwise empathize certain words. I can no longer do that with the new system. No bold type either. Everything comes out the same. Can't set off titles and chapter headings by enlarging the text, bolding, or underlining them.

I don't know from the other end of what goes on here. Perhaps IE can answer. If you were to insert code for Bold, Italic, or Underline, if it would show up?

The codes for bold, underline, and italic do definitely all work, as do those for headers. Those bits of HTML were just tested, and did work.

I'm not sure why Slammer would be unable to use them, unless Word is for some bizarre reason not using the standard HTML for those duties.

BossTamsin (imported) wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:51 pm The codes for bold, underline, and italic do definitely all work, as do those for headers. Those bits of HTML were just tested, and did work.

I'm not sure why Slammer would be unable to use them, unless Word is for some bizarre reason not using the standard HTML for those duties.

Perhaps I have to submit the stories differently. I've just copied from my webpages. What should I use instead, plain text?