non-programmers want pretty text

March 4, 2002 9:56 PM

Sorry, Matt, but would it be too much to get the Italics, Bold, and Link icons on the MeTa post threads? Is it something you've been meaning to do or what? It really would make life easier for us non-programming types.
posted by Ufez Jones to Feature Requests at 9:56 PM (24 comments total)

We get it on posting, yet not on original comments. Why no shortcuts?
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:14 PM on March 4, 2002

Ufez, what browser are you using? 'Cause I can see the shortcuts toolbar underneath this text box right now. Yup even there when previewing a comment. (IE6/XP)

Oh you mean that the shortcuts aren't present when posting a new thread, right?
posted by riffola at 10:27 PM on March 4, 2002

Oh you mean that the shortcuts aren't present when posting a new thread, right?

Exactly my point riffola.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:38 PM on March 4, 2002

Hey, I don't see any icons. ever. IE5/Mac??

posted by bittennails at 8:11 AM on March 5, 2002

ctrl+shift+b: bold
ctrl+shift+t: italics
ctrl+shift+a: link

Dunno if you knew that already or not, but for my money it's easier than moving from the keyboard to the mouse and clicking the buttons.
posted by Hildago at 8:51 AM on March 5, 2002

Thanks, Hildago, that is helpfull. I'd seen it somewhere before, but forgotten to write it down.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:13 AM on March 5, 2002

Ctrl-shift-a doesn't work when posting a new thread though does it?
posted by Spoon at 9:17 AM on March 5, 2002

there are no keyboard shortcuts on the metatalk posting form. I'll work on this later this month.

And due to inconsistency in browser development, they only work on other pages in IE 5+ on the PC.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:28 AM on March 5, 2002

note: ICQ seems to interfere with the keyboard shortcuts for me. Not a big deal, as I never use it, so I just turn it off if I'm posting, but maybe someone else is wondering why the hyper-useful-javascript-shortcut-linky-thingy (CTRL-SHIFT-A) isn't working for them.
posted by fishfucker at 10:47 AM on March 5, 2002

Sorry to be a tiresome Netscape user, but the keyboard commands don't work in N6 at all. No icons, either, as Matt said (IE5 only). Oh well.
posted by Lynsey at 11:26 AM on March 5, 2002

<b>bold</b> = bold
<i>italic</i> = italic
<a href="">link</a> = link

Works in all browsers. :-)
posted by fraying at 7:13 PM on March 5, 2002

Hey, I don't see any icons. ever. IE5/Mac??

Ditto that. I've never seen these shortcuts in ANY Mac browser. We have to do every post by hand.
posted by aaron at 7:38 PM on March 5, 2002

I second that, aaron. I run both IE for OSX and IE5/Mac and I don't see the shortcuts. But they work on my PC/IE6. Since the Mac is my main system, any chance of implementing the shortcuts, keyboard or screen?
posted by evanizer at 10:03 PM on March 5, 2002

let me use my bold tags for the people that didn't catch it the first time:

due to inconsistency in browser development, they only work on other pages in IE 5+ on the PC

translation: Not my fault, don't complain here on metatalk, complain to the folks in Redmond and the Mozilla developers that haven't patched the form select bug entered into bugzilla almost two years ago (IIRC).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:17 PM on March 5, 2002

Youch, sorry. My mistake.
posted by evanizer at 12:25 AM on March 6, 2002

Youch, sorry. My mistake.

Sorry to be crabby, but I get comments like this all the time and there's nothing I can do.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:32 AM on March 6, 2002

Woe, that's cool. How did you do that thing with the bold tags, Matt?

*runs*
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:05 AM on March 6, 2002

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the shortcuts in the comment input, Matt. Those of us using Windows with multiple input languages installed use Ctrl+Shift to change between languages.
posted by pooldemon at 7:35 AM on March 6, 2002

Woe, that's cool. How did you do that thing with the bold tags, Matt?
*runs*

I don't get it.
posted by rodii at 8:39 AM on March 6, 2002

I humbly apologize, Matt. I didn't mean my comment to sound like a complaint - it wasn't. It was just a dumb comment. I'll just show myself out, ok? (wrings hands nervously, backs out of room slowly)
posted by Lynsey at 10:23 AM on March 6, 2002

Rodii:

What, are you thick or something? No, I was just pretending to be as bothersome as some other fellow members, asking Matt to please explain the obvious yet again, i.e., how to go about making text bold. Hilarious, once you know the joke, isn't it? ;)

Lynsey, meet you at the ghetto gates?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:36 AM on March 6, 2002

No, I was just pretending to be as bothersome as some other fellow members

Oh, that's a stretch.

(Kidding, Maurice, kidding!)

Oh, and yes, I am thick. I prefer the German spelling though.
posted by rodii at 11:07 AM on March 6, 2002

BTW, I did email someone at mozilla.org and wrote the following: "Request: could you folks please patch the form select bug that was entered into bugzilla almost two years ago? It's hampering my ability to post on one of my favorite community websites.

Here's a quote from the site's adminstrator:
'translation: Not my fault, don't complain here, complain to the Mozilla developers that haven't patched the form select bug entered into bugzilla almost two years ago.'

Thank you for considering this request."

Think it'll do any good? ;-)
posted by Lynsey at 11:28 AM on March 6, 2002

We could harness the mighty power of Metafilter and complain en masse. Except I've never been able to figure out how to complain the right way at mozilla.org.
posted by rodii at 11:47 AM on March 6, 2002