How to preview your posts

On browsing thru threads I stumbled across Tom Bryant's "Again the HTML is screwed up. Is there a way to preview a submission on this site, like you can the ads?"

<p>

This is what I found out will work:

<p>

Just highlight and copy your submission (before submitting...;o), paste it into a blank text file (of any text editor) and save it as "whatever.htm". Then "open" that "page" thru the "file" menu of your browser. While the layout might still screw up, your links will be ready for verification.

<p>

As an alternative I propose to sacrifice THIS thread as a playground for tests before submitting to the correct thread...?! How's that? Just remember to save your submission (HTML and all included) at least on the clipboard of your computer before test-submitting. Otherwise "Kansas is going bye-bye..." ;o)

<p>

Finally, since Tom doesn't seem to have reproposed the correct link to his site, I'm going to do it:

<p>

<A HREF="http://208.218.135.74/top/top.html">Tom's site</A>

<p>

Go there, folks, if you haven't so far! It is so full of advice, commonsense and a very subtle humour.

<p>

Cheers

I do a similiar thing but I use Adobe's web editor, GoLive. I type in

the editing window, include my links and images, then select all the

text and switch to the HTML source view. Just the relevant HTML is

selected (none of the header information), which I then copy and

paste into the editing window here. Easy! (if you've got a web editor)

Though it takes a few extra steps, Lutz's procedure above does work.

To test how a page will look, web page designers typically point their

browsers to working copies of a web page - or entire "site" -- on a

local hard drive (like drive C:) before uploading to the "for real"

version on the Internet. Users of LUSENET can do the same thing.

This can be especially useful for tables, graphics, and special

formatting. Certainly this is not a practical when posting regular

text.<p>

INSTRUCTIONS:

<OL>

<LI>For Windows users, use Wordpad or Write (both included with

Windows) to create a text file on your C: drive with your complete

posting, just like you would enter it here. Use whatever HTML you

need to create tables, include images or other graphics.

<LI>Save your file with .HTM as the extension. Example:

C:\TESTPOST.HTM. It's a good idea to create a folder for this because

it's NEVER a good idea to cloud the root directory of your hard drive

with miscellaneous files of this sort. So a better example would be

C:\<U>LUSENET</U>\TESTPOST.HTM. The underlined portion of that is my

new folder.

<LI>Open your browser. You don't need to be connected to the internet

yet unless resources that are available only on the internet are

being referred to with your posting. In the Location field (for

Netscape) or Go To field (for IE), type the complete name to the file

you just created. Don't start with "http://..." like typical web

URLs. In this case, the URL is a local file, so in my example I would

type: C:\LUSENET\TESTPOST.HTM. Press Enter and wa la. You can

preview the body of your post.

</OL>

Another - and much swifter - way to accomplish a preview of your

posting is to visit <a

href="http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002

lhb">Allan Engelhardt's post</a> to the <a

href="http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=People%20Photo

graphy">People Photography Forum</a> entitled <a

href="http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002

lhb">Ask questions with preview</a>. This little bit of programming

genius - affectionately referred to as a "post hack" by Allan

himself, allows you to preview your posts with just a few clicks! You

don't have to fool around with creating files on your hard drive,

etc.<p>

Let me know if I can assist you in any way with posting.

I went to Allan's post hack page, but to proceed to posting to our

Leica forum, it listed out all 14,395,685 LUSENET forums <i>in

alphabetic order!</i> Since ours begins with "L," it took a long time

over my 28.8 connection. So for you, instead of waiting, just

click on <a

href="http://cybaea.com/cgi-bin/post-new.pl?FORUM=Leica%20Photography"

>http://cybaea.com/cgi-bin/post-new.pl?FORUM=Leica%20Photography</a>

and you'll be presented with a form that resembles the actual form to

start a new thread here.

One caveat: Allan's "post hack" to preview before posting works only

for starting new threads, not for adding responses to existing

threads.<p>

Let me just remind you that, for 98.5% of our members, none of this is

necessary because simple "text" is the only thing we use, so no

preview is really necessary. All this is useful only when you're

including tables, pictures, graphics, or weird formatting. Weird

formatting can adversely affect the formatting of successive posts to

a thread, so one needs to be careful to close any HTML tags.<p>

Now... on to our regularly scheduled programming. (I shouldn't have

said that)

Tony:

<p>

Alternatively, you could go to:

<p>

<A

HREF="http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=HT

ML%20test%20forum"> HTML Test</A>

<p>

on this server to look at the results of your HTML commands

before posting here.

<p>

Art

How does one post a reply in italics or bold text or post a web

address and have it come up in color so that one can just click on it

to take you straight there? When I do these things in MS Word and

transfer them to this forum's 'Answer' box they all revert to plain

text and any web address' I might of posted are not linked.

Sam:

<p>

You need to write direct HTML code on the site. Everything is

surrounded by <>

<p>

Bold tags are b followed by /b to close the tag;

Italics are i followed by /i

<p>

For links, just go to view and source and see how it is done.

<p>

For CNN it would be:

<p>

&lt A HREF="cnn.com"&gt CNN &lt /A &gt

<p>

The only space inside the <> should be between A and HREF.

<p>

Hence; <A HREF="http:www.cnn.com"> CNN</A>

<p>

Art

If you are interested the NCSA site has an HTML primer which

gives you the simple instructions that you need here. We will give

it a try. Linking to their internal sites sometimes doesn't work.

<p>

<A

HREF="http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTM

LPrimer.html"> HTML Primer </A>

<p>

It is a PDF or ZIP file that can be downloaded [choose printable

version].

<p>

Art

<P><CENTER> </CENTER></P>

<P><CENTER>Some of my first shots taken with the Voigtländer

Ultron 1.9/28mm on a Leica M6</CENTER></P>

<P><CENTER><TABLE BORDER=2 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=150>

<P><CENTER><A HREF="http://www.konermann.net/ultron//

salotto.jpeg"><IMG

SRC="http://www.konermann.net/ultron//salotto.tmb.jpeg"

X-SAS-UseImageWidth X-SAS-UseImageHeight BORDER=0

ALIGN=bottom></A></CENTER>

</TD><TD WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=150>

<P><CENTER><A HREF="http://www.konermann.net/ultron//

kite.2.jpeg"><IMG

SRC="http://www.konermann.net/ultron//kite.2.tmb.jpeg"

X-SAS-UseImageWidth X-SAS-UseImageHeight BORDER=0

ALIGN=bottom></A></CENTER>

</TD></TR>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH=150>

<P><CENTER>wide open / 1/15th<BR>

on Kodakchrome EPJ 320T</CENTER>

</TD><TD WIDTH=150>

<P><CENTER>f 8 / 1/500th<BR>

on Kodachrome 200</CENTER>

</TD></TR>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=150>

<P><CENTER><A HREF="http://www.konermann.net/ultron//

waiting.for.the.guests.jpeg"><IMG

SRC="http://www.konermann.net/ultron//

waiting.for.the.guests.tmb.jpeg"

X-SAS-UseImageWidth X-SAS-UseImageHeight BORDER=0

ALIGN=bottom></A></CENTER>

</TD><TD WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=150>

<P><CENTER><A HREF="http://www.konermann.net/ultron//

macglobal.jpeg"><IMG

SRC="http://www.konermann.net/ultron//macglobal.tmb.jpeg"

X-SAS-UseImageWidth X-SAS-UseImageHeight BORDER=0

ALIGN=bottom></A></CENTER>

</TD></TR>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH=150>

<P><CENTER>f 11 / 1 sec<BR>

on Kodachrome 64</CENTER>

</TD><TD WIDTH=150>

<P><CENTER>f 8 / 1/60 th<BR>

on Kodachrome 200</CENTER>

</TD></TR>

</TABLE></CENTER></P>

<P><CENTER>© Lutz Konermann 2001</CENTER></P>

Al

For you and others to copy the layout I'm pasting the HTML below.

Highlight and copy, then paste it into your contribution window. Just

make sure to swap my CAPS against your text leaving the "s untouched.

Make sure you uploaded your pictures to the internet FIRST to be able

to see if the links work. You may wish to test your posts here:

<A HREF="http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=

005uhi">HTML PLAYGROUND</A> If they work, go BACK with your browser,

highlight and copy your whole contribution and paste it into the right

thread.

<BR>

<<P><CENTER>SWAP THIS AGAINST YOUR HEADLINE</CENTER></P>

<P><CENTER><TABLE BORDER=2 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=150>

<P><CENTER><A HREF="SWAP THIS AGAINST THE INTERNET ADDRESS OF

YOUR FIRST PICTURE"><IMG

SRC="SWAP THIS AGAINST A THUMBNAIL (SMALLER SIZE, IDEALLY

150X100 PIXELS) OF YOUR FIRST PICTURE"

X-SAS-UseImageWidth X-SAS-UseImageHeight BORDER=0

ALIGN=bottom></A></CENTER>

</TD><TD WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=150>

<P><CENTER><A HREF="SWAP THIS AGAINST THE INTERNET ADDRESS OF

YOUR SECOND PICTURE"><IMG

SRC="SWAP THIS AGAINST A THUMBNAIL (SMALLER SIZE, IDEALLY

150X100 PIXELS) OF YOUR SECOND PICTURE"

X-SAS-UseImageWidth X-SAS-UseImageHeight BORDER=0

ALIGN=bottom></A></CENTER>

</TD></TR>

<TR>

<TD WIDTH=150>

<P><CENTER>SWAP THIS AGAINST THE FIRST LINE OF CAPTION OF YOUR

FIRST PICTURE<BR>

SWAP THIS AGAINST THE SECOND LINE OF CAPTION OF YOUR FIRST

PICTURE</CENTER>

</TD><TD WIDTH=150>

<P><CENTER>SWAP THIS AGAINST THE FIRST LINE OF CAPTION OF YOUR

SECOND PICTURE<BR>

SWAP THIS AGAINST THE SECOND LINE OF CAPTION OF YOUR SECOND

PICTURE</CENTER></P>

</TD></TR>

</TABLE></CENTER></P>>

Every once in a post I stumble across links to GREAT picture sites I

hadn't the slightest idea of. That's why I want to propose to dedicate

this thread to this kind of links and make it an archive to grow in

time.

I'm going to post two other threads, one for our OWN galleries (which

may be equally GREAT but nice to have in a dedicated place, for easy

reference...;o) and one for links to phototechnique.

Hope you'll enjoy this and participate. For everybody to make the links

"clickable": copy and paste the HTML below in your post, then

substitute my text with the URL and the name of the link you're

proposing:

<P><TABLE BORDER=1>

<TR>

<TD>

<P><A HREF="Substitute this text by the URL you're

proposing">Substitute this text by the name of your

link</A>

</TD></TR>

</TABLE></P>

To make a start I'm reproposing <A HREF="http://www.time.com/time/btf/

index_intro.html">Beyond The Fall</A> - a photographic project by

Anthony Suau on the former Sovietic block in transition from 1989 to

1999. An impressive body of outstanding b&w documentary photography in

the tradition of great Leica masters, accompanied by most informative

personal comments. Anthony uses M6s. The British edition of his book is

splendid.