Posting A Review - Some Issues

[Pookie-the-Sailor]

I have just returned from the Mercury Alaska voyage of August 25th, 2006. I wrote up a fairly large review and tried to post it in the Member Review section. I discovered that all formatting is lost in the posting process, so I converted everything to TXT, inserted spaces to get the indenting correct, and posted that. A pain, but done...

 

After wondering why it took so long for the new review to be posted, I found a note from LauraS, the Community Manager of the Member Reviews section, stating that reviews are a little backed up, but that cruisers, while waiting for a review to be posted, are encouraged to post reviews here as well. So, I tried to do just that, using the original DOC file and, when formatting was again lost, the TXT file. Now I am finding that even with the TXT file, all the spaces that I inserted to make the review readable are again stripped out. So I was reduced to using a PDF attachment. So, of course, I discover that the maximum size of a PDF to be posted is 19.5kb. My review is 36kb (which isn't a large file by any means).

 

Yes, I could artificially break the review into two smaller files, but why is it so hard to post a long review with formatting? And by formatting I mean indentations and numbering - no fancy fonts, blinking data or multiple colors - just text.

 

Is there a secret that someone needs to tell me?

 

Thanks.

[Host Anne]

Pookie ~ I've posted relatively lengthy reviews right into a post and haven't experienced a problem getting them to appear. If you want to email your text file to me, I can try to post it here for you. My email is in my address below.

[Pookie-the-Sailor]

Anne,

 

Many thanks for your reply. The probhlem is not that the review doesn't load, but that all indents are lost. Below is an example, but note that since it doesn't keep the indents, I am replacing them in the example with ">"

 

Original text:

 

1. This is a major paragraph

>>a. this is a sub-paragraph

>>b. this is a sub-paragraph

>>>>i. this is yet another level of indentation

>>>>ii. this is yet another level of indentation

2. This is another major paragraph

 

When loaded, shows as:

 

1. This is a major paragraph

a. this is a sub-paragraph

b. this is a sub-paragraph

i. this is yet another level of indentation

ii. this is yet another level of indentation

2. This is another major paragraph

 

How can I keep the indentations, so it shows as originally written?

 

TIA

[Host Walt]

As with most forums, ours does not support MS Word lead spaces (indents).

 

Example, here's a formatted itinerary for the Century posted after preserving the original website formatting using MS Word.

 

Date

Port/City

Activity

DescriptionDay 1 Miami, Florida Boarding Depart 5:00 PM Day 2 Key West, Florida Docked Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM Day 3 At Sea Day 4 George Town, Grand Cayman Tendered Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM Day 5 At Sea Day 6 Miami, Florida Departure Arrive 7:00 AM

 

In other words, Word formatting code, including leading spacing, is not recognized by our software.

 

What I do to make it legible is to add dots:

 

Date......Port/City...............Activity.........Description

Day 1... Miami, Florida ...... Boarding .......Depart 5:00 PM

Day 2... Key West, Florida . Docked ......Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Day 3... At Sea

Day 4... Grand Cayman .... Tendered ....Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Day 5... At Sea

Day 6... Miami, Florida ........................Arrive 7:00 AM

 

Ugly, but it's the only option.

[C 2 C]

What I do to make it legible is to add dots:

 

Date......Port/City...............Activity.........Description

Day 1... Miami, Florida ...... Boarding .......Depart 5:00 PM

Day 2... Key West, Florida . Docked ......Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Day 3... At Sea

Day 4... Grand Cayman .... Tendered ....Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Day 5... At Sea

Day 6... Miami, Florida ........................Arrive 7:00 AM

 

Ugly, but it's the only option.

There is another option, you can do it this way:

[b]
Date      Port/City            Activity      Description[/b]
Day 1     Miami, Florida       Boarding      Depart 5:00 PM 
Day 2     Key West, Florida    Docked        Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM 
Day 3     At Sea 
Day 4     Grand Cayman         Tendered      Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM 
Day 5     At Sea 
Day 6     Miami, Florida                     Arrive 7:00 AM

[LauraS]

Yes, the forums do not support many types of "codeing" unless you utilize the editor embedded with the board software. Sorry!

 

Laura

[Pookie-the-Sailor]

Walt, Arno (C2C), Laura,

 

I understand the issue of "code" being embedded in files. (Whether or not the board should be able to handle that is another discussion. I accept it the way it is, for the moment.) But I followed advice from somewhere on the boards and created a text file - no embedded codes, just leading spaces for indentation. The leading spaces were stripped out. The board doesn't have to support anything foreign to support leading spaces. Just don't strip them out. (The leading space deletion appears to be part of a larger reformatting, namely combining lines to fit a specific margin.)

 

The deletion of standard text characters (e.g. leading spaces) means that to do any kind of formatted posting, you have to do it online, using only the tools provided by the board. Given that it took me several days to create the review, it is not practical to have done that all online. Hence my inquiry. (For what it's worth, the formatting capability of the board appears to be based on Word - at least the icons are the Microsoft Word icons. If would be nice if you could attach a Word file and have the board software use it.)

 

I'm hoping that we will figure out a way to make an improvement.

 

Thanks.