Forum strips out extra spaces

[david moon]

I was trying to post beat numbers above chord symbols, and used extra spaces to make it all line up. Instead I got this after posting:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1
Call (rest) E G A E
Response (rest) E G A E etc

The 1 was supposed to be over the first (rest), the 2 over the E, etc. And the response (rest) was under the second call E which was under the second 1 beat.

I would think you would have the same problem if trying to post chord symbols above lyrics.

Is there a way to make the forum quote exactly what you type? I tried using the Insert button (square with a plus sign, next to camera), and one of the options is "Quote". then insert the text between the QUOTE and /QUOTE tags. But it didn't work.

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1
Call (rest) E G A E
Response rest) E G A E

or

1 2 3 4 1
(rest) Boom Boom Boom Boom

 

[david moon]

Here's what I was trying to do. I hope it displays properly. It was created in Open Office and saved as .pdf.

 

[Olivia]

Just saw this thread. Hope you find a way David
I remember how much those helped me together with your snippets.
I wonder if typing it in a word-processor then pasting it would work... I'll try that in a bit but if this program is "correcting" it probably won't work anyway... and if it does work, it's still only a temporary solution (it's long) but I'll give it a go.
Olivia

 

[Chuck]

1 ------2---3---4

Rest--E---G---A


I just tried it and it is difficult to do. When you hit post it removes spacing. I couldn't get the alignment without the dashes occupying the spaces. I tried it in MS word first and then pasted to here and the format didn't hold. Mike is better at this format thing and it may involve implementing tables to get the alignment right.

I'll ask Mike to take a look at this post. In the Interim, you can post the pdf like you did, or save it as a Jpeg and post the pic.

 

[Chuck]

I copied Griff on this as well, there may be something in the Forum Controls that allows for this.

 

[david moon]

This old thread doesn't have a problem placing the chord symbols above the lyrics.

Still Got the Blues

 

[MikeS]

Change the font to Courier new.
Most other fonts use more space for big letters (like W) than the do for small (like I). (Propotrional fonts)
Courier New is a monospace font meaning 1 character = 1 space.


C C
C
I've got sunshine
F C F
on a cloudy day
C F
And when it's cold outside,
C F
I've got the month of May

Interesting.... on the old forum, that would have worked, but it apparently didn't here with spaces.

But works fine below with dashes instead of spaces.
C C
---------C
I've got sunshine
-----F---------C--F--
on a cloudy day
--------------C--------F
And when it's cold outside,
----------------------C----F
I've got the month of May


The really strange part in all this is that the "Still Got The Blues" that David linked (from the old forum) seems to look just fine.
This may be something that Griff need to look at.

 

[Bushwhacker]

I am thinking an attachment might be just as easy, though it can take you away from the discussion.
Dave

 

[Jalapeno]

David I've found this to be annoying too. In the old forum I would just use the courier new font and everything would just align perfectly.

I went to the xenforo site and searched for this problem and one of the threads was here:

https://xenforo.com/community/threa...lems-with-new-lines-spaces.34132/#post-388181

I tried the code and text editor rather than the rich text editor below. The first line is "plus" then "3 spaces" then "dash" then "3 spaces" then "plus" then "3 spaces" then "dash" then "3 spaces" then "plus" using the rich text editor. You can see the spaces were removed.
+ - + - +

Next I did the same thing and used the CODE BB tags and the spaces seem to be preserved as you can tell by counting the dashes below the plus space dash line.

+   -   +   -   +
-------------------

Next I switched to the text editor from the rich text editor but the spaces were removed.
+ - + - +

There was another thread on the xenforo site where the developer answered by saying "this is how HTML is rendered, it removes extra spaces". I don't know if that is true. Maybe we will have to use the code tag but it will apparently highlight recognized code keywords, which itself could prove to be annoying.

I think Griff needs to look into this or we will have to use "CODE" or add attachments instead of using ascii formatting.

 

[david moon]

I also noticed that if I posted and then edited the post, the original formatting (with extra spaces) was present in the edit window.

 

[MikeS]

 [code]
A    B
Text Here

[/code]
Seems to work just fine and it's not that hard to use.

The problem I have is that the editor doesn't display the formatted code, so you don't really know if it's correct til you post it.

 

[Jalapeno]

I also noticed that if I posted and then edited the post, the original formatting (with extra spaces) was present in the edit window.

Yes, the issue isn't the underlying data but rather how it's rendered by the browser, I think. That is why the data is still there when you edit.

 

[Jalapeno]

 [code]
A    B
Text Here

[/code]
Seems to work just fine and it's not that hard to use.

Yes, just highlight the text and select CODE from the menu.

The problem I have is that the editor doesn't display the formatted code, so you don't really know if it's correct til you post it.

I've always used the PREVIEW button to check formatting before posting, even in the old forum software, but it would be really nice to have WYSIWYG in the editor.

 

[david moon]

This     is     a     test.

Using "& n b s p" (remove the spaces between quotes) to insert 4 spaces between each word.
Edit- well it was supposed to work.

 

[Jalapeno]

David I think the raw HTML you inserted won't work, the end result of the posting is sent to your browser by the BB software (which I think is PHP). Your HTML code is sent as text since as users we only get a data box.

according to this xenforo thread, which is about 5 years old, Griff will need an add-on to the software to save pre-formatted text with a method other than the code BB tags. At least that's how I read it.

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/posts-that-recognize-spaces-inserted-by-user

It's possible in the last 5 years that it has been added to the base code and is just an option, I don't know, but we aren't the first forum to complain to Xenforo about this behavior by the forum software.

 

[david moon]

I also found reference to a <pre> </pre> tag which means it is enclosing preformatted text. That didn't work either. Also, apparently it is not supported by all browsers.

So for now, if you need that kind of formatting, a pdf attachment seems like the best solution. pdf is widely supported, and you can also copy the text to import into other programs if needed.

 

[Chuck]

Like I said earlier, there may be something that Griff can get done to fix this. Mike and I don't have access to this area of the Admin section or we would have already looked into it. I agree with David, the pdf file is the way to go for now.

 

[Griff]

I've been doing some research on this but it's going to take a while and some trial and error I think... I'll have to get back to it this weekend or next week as I'm heading out of town tomorrow for a few nights with the family.

There are some plugins and some custom codes that can be done, but I also have a BBCode plugin already and may be able to create this with what I already have installed.

 

[david moon]

Great- take your time. there is a workaround. It might be useful to understand why the old post linked above doesn't have the problem.

 

[Griff]

Great- take your time. there is a workaround. It might be useful to understand why the old post linked above doesn't have the problem.

I have little doubt that it's the HTML behind the post... probably if you do a "view source" on the page you can see that the spaces are handled differently (I haven't done that, but that's my hunch.)