#229220 - 08/05/11 11:19 AM
Re: Help make your posts readable
[Re: Bingley]
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Old Hand
Registered: 10/19/06
Posts: 1013
Loc: Pacific NW, USA
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Good writing demonstrates not merely your level of education, but also consideration for your readers.
Mostly agreed. I submit I can probably self-spell check, punctuate and add line breaks, but brevity and clarity aren't always my strong point - I had an English teacher who said I was cursed with Germanic sentence / thought structures, when translated to the page. I will take 100 words to say what most men can say in 10. I'm not offended by anyone else's sentence structure or writing style, its all good. I don't mind reading some difficult to parse posts, as long as there aren't ugly thoughts behind the words. I think the ultimate consideration is consideration for different points of view, which most everyone has here. Goebbels was a helluva writer, fronting for some very ugly thoughts / people. Hey, now that I've mentioned the Nazis, can we invoke Godwin's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law on this thread? :-)
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#229221 - 08/05/11 12:16 PM
Tech solution to wall-of-text, punch2para/bodyWrap
[Re: GarlyDog]
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Enthusiast
Registered: 09/10/08
Posts: 382
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Here is a "bookmarklet", its a javascript bookmark If you click it while reading this forum (or any UBB forum), it will turn wall-of-text more betterer readable by inserting paragraphs Save it as punch2para javascript:(function(){
var period2p=function(d){
var i,id,a,e=d.getElementsByTagName("div");
for(i=0;i<e.length;i++){
a=e[i];
if(a.id.match(/^body\d+$/)){
a.innerHTML=a.innerHTML.replace(
/([\.\?\!\u2047\u2048\u203C\u203D\u2049]+)/g,'$1<p>');
}}};
period2p(document);})();
This next one will wrap text after 80-90 chars, save it as wrapBody
javascript:(function(){
var count = 0;
var searchWithinNode = function (node, re) {
var pos, skip, spannode, middlebit, endbit, middleclone;
skip = 0;
if (node.nodeType == 3) {
pos = node.data.search(re);
if (pos >= 0) {
spannode = document.createElement("p");
middlebit = node.splitText(pos);
endbit = middlebit.splitText(RegExp.$1.length);
middleclone = middlebit.cloneNode(true);
spannode.appendChild(middleclone);
middlebit.parentNode.replaceChild(spannode, middlebit);
++count;
skip = 1;
}
} else {
if (node.nodeType == 1 &&
node.childNodes &&
node.tagName.toUpperCase() != "SCRIPT" &&
node.tagName.toUpperCase != "STYLE") {
for (var child = 0; child < node.childNodes.length; ++child) {
child = child + searchWithinNode(node.childNodes[child], re);
}
}
}
return skip;
};
var warpBodyDivs =function(d){
var i,id,a,e=d.getElementsByTagName("div");
for(i=0;i<e.length;i++){
a=e[i];
if(a.id.match(/^body\d+$/)){
searchWithinNode( a, /(.{80,90}\b)/g );
}}
};
warpBodyDivs( document.body );
})();
Tested with the latest firefox browser, I don't care if it works with others I've posted this once before, but apparently the sheriff nixed it instead of fixing his css stylesheet Enjoy
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#229222 - 08/05/11 12:20 PM
Re: Help make your posts readable
[Re: Lono]
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Geezer in Chief
Geezer
Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
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If you have an important point you wish to get across to your audience, good organization, phrasing, and at least decent grammar are your friends. Why place obstacles between you and those trying to understand your post?
A really long text with no organization, and chaotic grammar will send me to the next post, with whatever thoughts were contained therein lost forever....
_________________________
Geezer in Chief
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#229223 - 08/05/11 12:27 PM
Re: Tech solution to wall-of-text, punch2para/bodyWrap
[Re: EMPnotImplyNuclear]
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τΏτ
Old Hand
Registered: 04/05/07
Posts: 776
Loc: The People's Republic of IL
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Wow! How do I use it?
_________________________
Gary
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#229227 - 08/05/11 01:05 PM
Re: Tech solution to wall-of-text, punch2para/bodyWrap
[Re: GarlyDog]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/08/07
Posts: 2208
Loc: Beer&Cheese country
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Wow, this thread exploded.
I'm a self-admitted spelling-Nazi, which is ironic b/c often I don't care about one or two typos in my writing. I strive to curb this desire, unless it's one of those words that's pronounced the same and spelled differently.
I agree w/ Bingley, to a point, about writing reflecting education. That being said, I know my cousin did phenomenal in college, better than me, and he's dsylexic (just like his dad and uncle). His writing is atrocious (if I even spelled that right!) but he's a pretty smart guy.
Fortunately, most of the people on here with "imperfect" grammer still come across rather clearly. Sometimes I have problems, but almost always, the content is worth the effort. For that, I applaud everyone - as has been mentioned in more than one thread over the last few years, ETS is truly one of the more courteous and civil boards on the web. Thank you all!
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#229230 - 08/05/11 01:10 PM
Re: Tech solution to wall-of-text, punch2para/bodyWrap
[Re: GarlyDog]
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Enthusiast
Registered: 09/10/08
Posts: 382
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You click on it Or you could use your keyboard Alt+ Bookmarks+punch2para+Enter Alt+ Bookmarks+bodyWrap+Enter
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#229240 - 08/05/11 02:33 PM
Re: Help make your posts readable
[Re: GarlyDog]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 11/13/06
Posts: 2977
Loc: Nacogdoches, Texas
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As a French Texan would say, "Bonjour y'all."
Most Texans are not uptight over something like this; "y'all" must be used correctly. "Y'all" is a contraction of "you all" so it needs an apostrophe after the "Y."
Jeanette Isabelle
_________________________
I'm not sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago, but I admire the sadism. -- Wednesday Adams, Wednesday
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#229244 - 08/05/11 03:30 PM
Re: Help make your posts readable
[Re: GarlyDog]
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Veteran
Registered: 07/23/08
Posts: 1502
Loc: Mesa, AZ
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Transparency, here. I honestly don't think I am a poor composer of words or sentence structure. However, I think I use too many words to get my point across. I write almost exactly as I speak, as most people can speak and hear faster than they can read, it adds a lot of words to my prose.
Having spent a fair amount of my career in dispute resolution every word had to be studied so that it can't be used or misconstrued in emotional situations. This often means over explaining a simple process to deter needless follow up.
Now I'm just trying to write with an economy of words.
_________________________
Don't just survive. Thrive.
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#229245 - 08/05/11 03:31 PM
Re: Help make your posts readable
[Re: GarlyDog]
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τΏτ
Old Hand
Registered: 04/05/07
Posts: 776
Loc: The People's Republic of IL
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This is what I love about this forum: solutions. Great job with the code guys!. It works with Chrome.
I guess I'm not the only one...
Thanks!
_________________________
Gary
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