justretired

Certain features of HTML (&quot;HyperText Markup Language&quot;, used to create web pages) can be used to improve the formatting of Fodor's entries, making them more readable. To keep the entries under control, Fodor's does not allow all features of HTML to be used, but many are available, such as <i>italics</i>, <b>bold</b>, <u>underline</u>, and <font color="#ff0000">colors</font>. In addition, a great many special characters can be used, such as accented characters (&eacute;, &auml;, &ntilde;, and so on), currency symbols (&euro;, &pound;, etc.), and many others.

I've put up a web page outlining many of the things that can be done. If you're interested, you can see it at:

http://lkrakauer.home.comcast.net/tags.htm

I've tagged this message with the keywords France, Italy, and Spain, the countries I usually post about. I also added the &quot;General Interest&quot; keyword.

I hope people find the page useful.

- Larry

TexasAggie

Hi Larry,

Very cool... and thanks!!!!

fishee

Very useful, thanks.

seetheworld

Wow! Thanks, Larry!

JAGIRL

<font color="khaki">khaki
<font color="plum">plum
<font color="olive">olive
<font color="orchid">orchid</font></font></font>
<font color="lime">lime
<font color="indigo">indigo
<font color="gold">gold
<font color="orange">orange
<font color="fuchsia">fuchsia
<font color="green">green
<font color="yellow">yellow
<font color="white">white <font color="black">(white)
<font color="blue">blue
<font color="navy">navy</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font>
<font color="maroon">maroon
<font color="red">red</font></font>
<font color="brown">brown
<font color="#66ff66"> green</font></font></font></font>

<font color="#ff6666">ooh <font color="#66ffcc">this <font color="#99ccff">IS <font color=#ff9999> fun!<font color="#99ccff">! </font></font></font></font></font>

cw

Thank you! Very clear and useful.

cw

BabsB

justretired, I am glad you are keeping busy. Barb

annesherrod

Yes, but I will forget all of it!!

orval

Thanks.

JAGIRL

Here's a link to &quot;web safe&quot; colours. Thanks to Bayougal.

http://www.web-source.net/216_color_chart.htm

orval

You get a star.

Gardyloo

Don't forget &lt; s &gt; (no spaces) for <s>strikeout</s>

justretired

Thanks for all the compliments - I got 10 replies in the first hour.

JAGIRL, thanks for that link.

Gardyloo, thanks for the info about the strikeout tag. The original tag, and the one that's in my HTML guide, is &lt;strike&gt;. But Fodor's doesn't allow that, so I took it out of the chart. I didn't know about the form you used, &lt;s&gt;, which originated as an abbreviation for &lt;strike&gt;. Strangely, Fodor's allows the abbreviation, but not the original form of the tag.

Notice:
Using &quot;strike&quot;: &lt;strike&gt;strikeout&lt;/strike&gt; (no go)
Using &quot;s&quot;: <s>strikeout</s> (works)

In any event, I'll add it in whenever I update the page. Thanks.

- Larry

jmw44

Have I mentioned that I love this forum? (at the risk of repeating myself) In the last ten days I've learned about roundabouts, treatment of inner ear problems when flying, mini coopers and the Honda Jazz, and now HTML tags! Larry, how did you know I was wishing for a shortcourse on this very topic? Now if someone will just give me a cram session on RenWeb, I'll almost be ready for school to start. Merci. J.

PatrickLondon

Please, please DON'T. Larding your messages with colours, bold, italics, smileys and so on does NOT make them more readable. What does make them readable is

a) focussed titles
b) proper paragraphing
c) short sentences
d) regular spelling and grammar.

Surely we're all computer-literate enough by now to know that just because a program allows you to do something, it doesn't mean you should.

BTilke

I don't mind the Crayola posters except when they pick colors that are MUCH MUCH TOO HARD TO READ. Like khaki or yellow, to pick two from JAGirl's list.

justretired

PatrickLondon, I agree. Look at my web page. I think you'll find it has:

a) focused titles
b) proper paragraphing
c) short sentences
d) regular spelling and grammar.

And you may notice that I never use &quot;Smileys&quot; (although I don't mind it if people give me the occasional star). I'm in the US, so my titles are focused, and not focussed.

Any powerful tool can be misused, and the various formatting tools I discuss are no exception. Someone in the documentation department of my former company had a poster that said, &quot;Whoever dies with the most fonts, wins&quot;.

What I'm suggesting is that people can improve their posts with <i>judicious</i> use of the tools I discuss. But as you point out, we do need to be careful not to <i>overuse</i> them, and your post reminds me that it might be a good idea to add words to that effect to my web page.

In addition to the occasional use of italics for emphasis, or, in some contexts, for foreign words, I find that putting the &quot;focused titles&quot; in bold makes them stand out, and makes it easier to find things. I also like to see words in foreign languages properly spelled, and that means they must have accent marks. It's not a &quot;cafe&quot; (does that rhyme with &quot;safe&quot;?), it's a &quot;caf&eacute;&quot; (unless you're in Italy, and then it's a &quot;caff&egrave;&quot. We're writing about foreign travel - we ought to spell things correctly. And it's more compact to write &quot;&euro;50&quot; than &quot;50 euros&quot;.

But, can you use these tools to create an unreadable mish-mosh? Yes, you can, but as Patrick says, &quot;Please don't&quot;.

- Larry

jmw44

&quot;Surely we're all computer-literate enough by now to know that just because a program allows you to do something, it doesn't mean you should.&quot;

Oh my, Patrick! From your mouth to my school administration's ears, please God. Such sweet reason. I weep. J.

kswl

Fantastic page, Larry, and love your personal website. Your daughters are both lovely <i>and</i> accomplished--you and Mrs. Justretired must be very proud!

The only thing better than Fodor's is . . . SUDOKU! After hours of solving the puzzles those patterns become almost visible, don't they? I'm going to show your spreadsheet to my son, who is still having problems understanding the constraints and therefore pencilling in unnecessary possibilities for a particular square. I sometimes call Sudoku &quot;Either/Or.&quot;

Bigal

I don't object to Smilies, in fact I would encourage them.

I have used emails in business and before them the TWX and what have you.Much of my correspondence was also to factories with instructions on orders and I found that there was a great area for misunderstandings especially for items that could be considered &quot;tongue in cheek&quot;. With the advent of the smilie I have found less areas for misunderstandings as the smilie gave an indication of a persons feeling that cold type didn't.

My messages (and others I know) have been enhanced by effective use of the smilie.