View Full Version : Formatting Toolbar Request
FaireMaiden
30-01-2009, 09:09
Dearest Solandia... I am formally requesting a 'Formatting Toolbar' so that we can add the various formatting techniques easily, (such as colour, bold, italics, underline, url, emoticons, etc.), instead of having to type in the 'code'. Thank you.
FaireMaiden
13-03-2009, 03:46
Hmmm... am I really the only one on this website that is desirous of a 'formatting toolbar'?
Nope, I'd love to have one, too. :)
thorhammer
13-03-2009, 08:02
Ack, no, I saw this ages ago and really did mean to post here, but forgot and never found it again!
I'd love one, as well :( particularly for size and centreing and colour. Bold and Italics are okay - they're easy. Lists are fiendishly difficult and time-consuming :D and I can never remember what fonts are available so end up using Papyrus when I want something different and I'm so sick of it! LOL
Please, Solandia?
\m/ Kat
Mellifluous
13-03-2009, 10:05
That would be good. Also, it'd be nice to have the smilies available where you type the message - instead of having to know the codes or open up that whole separate page of them.
I vaguely recall someone saying that the reason we don’t have this is that it isn’t something that’s compatible with the vBulletin software ? It is available on a number of forums I am with – but not with the only other one I have ever been to using vBulletin…..
That said - it would save time, though I think we have so many smilies that side might not work out....
Mellifluous
13-03-2009, 15:56
Hmm. That's interesting - considering that vBulletin is the fancy, expensive option. lol
On other forums if they have a ton of smilies, they have some choices on the side and then you can click to see more of them. (Not that that matters if it's not an option in the software.)
EarthFaery
13-03-2009, 21:49
Hmm. That's interesting - considering that vBulletin is the fancy, expensive option. lol
On other forums if they have a ton of smilies, they have some choices on the side and then you can click to see more of them. (Not that that matters if it's not an option in the software.)
There is a Vbulletin forum that I go on every now and again that has this drop down smiley menu next to the reply box, if you wanted to see more a side bar menu would pop up.
I'd love to have a toolbar or box for fonts and colors. I've been here a couple of years now and have only managed to change them once, I can't for the life of me figure out how I did it, outside of bold and italic I can't figure out the right codes for anything else, I've tried and tried :)
A toolbar would be convenient, though I kind of like that is uncluttered here. Lots of fonts and colors make forums hard to read... So maybe a toolbar with very few options })
thorhammer
13-03-2009, 22:49
A toolbar would be convenient, though I kind of like that is uncluttered here. Lots of fonts and colors make forums hard to read... So maybe a toolbar with very few options })I like it being uncluttered, too, particularly that we can't have pictures in our signatures. I hate going to forums where every thread is 90% pictures that you see over and over again and you have to search for the tiny bits of (usually inane) text between.
This place is nice and easy on the eyes :)
Love your user title, btw, similia. :D
\m/ Kat
I'll third the wish for a formatting toolbar with FEW options to keep the uncluttered look of the forum. (thorhammer, I'm with you in hating signatures with pictures!)
For me, italics, bold, lists, center, and size would be enough.
And even though I like to use smilies, I do fine with the limited selection that I actually remember how to produce.
Too many colors and fonts make for hard reading, IMHO, so I'd consider them among the not-so-necessary options.
I like it being uncluttered, too, particularly that we can't have pictures in our signatures. I hate going to forums where every thread is 90% pictures that you see over and over again and you have to search for the tiny bits of (usually inane) text between.
YES !!! Whatever changes might be made, PLEASE no sig pix. GHASTLY things - and why are they always so BIG. No larger avatars, either. They have got to the perfect size now !.
FaireMaiden
14-03-2009, 03:14
I'm having a hard time understanding all the 'exceptions' to the formatting toolbar that are being expressed here. Some want this, others want that.
The whole point of a formatting toolbar is so that, if you want to format something, you never have to type in code again. If you don't like 'lists' don't use it. If you don't like 'colours', don't use it. If you don't like 'emoticons', don't use it.
Having a formatting toolbar with so many requested restrictions so that, if someone wanted to format something that isn't on the toolbar they'd have to type in 'code', defeats the entire purpose of having a 'formatting toolbar' in the first place.
That said - it would save time, though I think we have so many smilies that side might not work out....It would be nice IF it didn't slow things down. The only sites I've used that have this were notoriously SLOW to reload pages after each edit and so forth, and it didn't turn out to be all that convenient -- I could've looked up the code and typed it in in the time it took to use the fancy editor function. But it's possible those sites were just slow and clunky anyway.
If it's just as speedy as the old way -- yes!
But I don't want to make more work for Solandia.
I'm all for keeping it simple and uncluttered, just the basics if a toolbar is added.
Sig pics -- BLEH! I'm so happy we don't have those here. Why do people get so carried away with those? Never, ever. Horrid things.
I think it is coming from people saying what they get on other boards - the various software packages can provide formatting - and sometimes this comes with the other stuff as well., I would prefer no formatting options if the alternative which gave them allowed sig pix, for instance....
Mellifluous
14-03-2009, 07:54
Signatures and avatars are board preferences and separate from options given when writing individual posts. The conversation is drifting a bit. lol
Personally, I don't think any board needs as many smilies as are offered here. (Those teeny tarot card ones aren't even easily recognizable when someone does use them.) It's preferable to be able to insert an emoticon quickly if you're going to offer them at all though.
Nevada, that sounds like a problem with the site itself. Pretty much all forums offer a smilie menu and some are slow and some are fast. I don't think it's related. I can only think of one other site I've frequented in recent years that doesn't have a smilie menu where you type your post.
I doubt Solandia has time or the inclination to change any of this anyway. lol I'm sure there are reasons things are the way they are right now - which is pretty good overall. Nice to be able to offer opinions though.
I wouldn't like a toolbar at all, I prefer the forum uncluttered. Its doesn't take much longer to type in the code than to click.
thorhammer
14-03-2009, 21:55
I'm having a hard time understanding all the 'exceptions' to the formatting toolbar that are being expressed here. Some want this, others want that.
The whole point of a formatting toolbar is so that, if you want to format something, you never have to type in code again. If you don't like 'lists' don't use it. If you don't like 'colours', don't use it. If you don't like 'emoticons', don't use it.
It's not that we don't want to use it, we don't want to see it. I love lists. They're just quite time-consuming to format with the vb code, though I seem to have the theory down now, just the practice ends up being very slow.
I don't mind fonts, but if everyone was using different ones then it would be annoying, I do admit. I get the $h!ts with people who always use funny fonts in their posts; against the purple it usually turns out hard to read. I tend to ignore their posts.
So I retract the suggestion of fonts. But I like colours :D
\m/ Kat
I wouldn't like a toolbar at all, I prefer the forum uncluttered. Its doesn't take much longer to type in the code than to click.
I'm with Moonbow* and would prefer things to stay as they are. I quite like the forum without loads of different fonts and colours and if you want them, I don't think it's that much trouble to do the typing.
I can just imagine that posts would be multicoloured and many differing sizes if we had a toolbar and I like the neat, tidy, purpleness of this place as it is now.
Also a lot of people have problems seeing coloured font if they use the plain forum skin (the white one). Many colours don't show up against the white.
Sulis has the nub of the thing; quite a few people post NOW that they can't see the threads properly as it is, and I know people who go to another forum I'm on say what a relief it is that they CAN....
Best leave all the colours etc to those who can be bothered to type the code; I confess that I can and do, but I shall try and be more thoughtful of others in future....
Lists - copy and paste is how I get around that one :D Copy and paste the coded first item several times and then go back and change the items themselves (to those who don't post lists - ignore this snippet !!!)
FaireMaiden
15-03-2009, 04:58
Well, I'm quite frustrated having to play in DOS-world---> having to open another page to get the codes... and then having to open yet another page to get the emoticons. And if one doesn't want to open all these pages, then one has to memorize the codes... like one doesn't have enough 'stuff' to keep straight in their head.
C'mon already. The days of 'typing-in-code' are positively pre-historic. This is the ONLY site I visit in which one is forced to do so.
Many of you visit Adam's site. Are you really going to sit there and say that the 'formatting options toolbar' offered at that site is 'painful' to you?
FaireMaiden
15-03-2009, 05:20
Sulis has the nub of the thing; quite a few people post NOW that they can't see the threads properly as it is, and I know people who go to another forum I'm on say what a relief it is that they CAN... Best leave all the colours etc to those who can be bothered to type the code; I confess that I can and do, but I shall try and be more thoughtful of others in future...
The point being that the 'default' of this site is the purple background, of which some colours show up quite well. The fact that others have chosen to change the 'default' is, rather, their problem. They are the one's wanting to live 'outside the box' so-to-speak. Why should the members adhering to the 'default' settings be made to feel guilty and give up the 'default offerings' to accommodate them?
Lists - copy and paste is how I get around that one :D Copy and paste the coded first item several times and then go back and change the items themselves
*sigh* This is the ENTIRE point. Why should anyone have to 'get around' anything? Who wants to jump thru all the hoops you're jumping thru just to express themselves?
I'm quite frustrated having to play in DOS-world
having to open another page to get the codes
having to open yet another page to get the emoticons
then one has to memorize the codes like one doesn't have enough 'stuff' to keep straight in their head.
come on lovey, no one has to do any of those things. If so I missed that rule :)
I'd love everyone to be happy, but me? I like plain and simple, with a grey background. That purple makes my eyes bleed. Blessing that we do have an alternative!
FaireMaiden
15-03-2009, 08:14
come on lovey, no one has to do any of those things. If so I missed that rule :)
If you want to take advantage of either the formatting and/or emoticons offered, you do.
Many of you visit Adam's site. Are you really going to sit there and say that the 'formatting options toolbar' offered at that site is 'painful' to you?
ACTUALLY - I HATE the formatting options on Adam's site. There are other sites with options I do like, though :D
Solandia
16-03-2009, 10:45
Thanks for the suggestion, FaireMaiden, but at the moment I have no plans to add a formatting toolbar.
~ Solandia
Is it possible to turn the area into a rich text editing field without adding a formatting bar? Because at least that would make simple things like bolding lots of text easier, and it would allow me to use Ubiquity to format my posts.