Formatting on Goodreads

[H. Graham]

Anyone know how to make OpenOffice (or any text editor, for that matter) work with Goodreads so I don't get forced to use web-style formatting? I've tried using text files with tabs (they get ignored), text files with leading spaces for paragraphs (also ignored), and HTML with CSS from OO (botched to hell).

I guess I'm asking for the missing owner's manual...

[Gwendolyn]

I'm afraid you're stuck with web-style formatting. For now, that's it and that's all.

...and that's not the worst of it.

See that little some html is ok at the top of the comment block down below?

Just click on it. Those are the only allowable formatting commands you may imbed inside your text.

... or to post an image.



... or to send a link to somewhere else on the web.

Oh... and line spacing, especially when your posting to your writing area, is the pits.

It doesn't care how many blank spaces you put between lines. When you paste in, it strips them out. or and are ignored and treated like text, but <'br'> (without the quotes)

seems to work for section breaks.

[H. Graham]

Well, guess that means I won't be posting anything here until someone administrating the site fixes their craniorectal inversion and lets people write in English the way it was meant to be written.

[Keiji]

Good lord I hope they don't 'fix' anything.

The reason indents and the like aren't programmed for is because they are useless on the web. I've been reading online since forever and one thing I've learned is that throwing in an entire space between paragraphs is the kindest method of presenting text online.

Keeping text together and allowing users to indent would be hell. Not all browsers display the same, and not all computers have the same resolution. What are huge letters on one persons screen are presented as teeny tiny on another's.

Put writing online that has no spaces between paragraphs and only indents all a reader will see is, what has been dubbed, 'block o' text.' Because it'll look like a big rectangular box of words words words words without any distinguishing breaks between them.

[Gwendolyn]

No, Keiji... They're not going to fix anything, since there is nothing broken. My response was intentional.

The system is as it is for precisely the reason you identified.

But it is susceptible to block-o-text if you don't either edit the content before posting or remember to include breaks, <'br'> [without the quotes:] when you're pasting text into an entry box.

Another reason for the system as it is; the content here is stored as blobs in a relational database.