I write all communications to forums on Word unless the forum software contains its own spell checker. I noticed yesterday that a post I pasted into the message on the Readers' Paradise forum had little square boxes where I had types in apostrophes using Word. I had to change them in the Readers' Paradise box provided for typing a question. Also, the italics I entered using Word appeared as plain text.
Nancy

Just as a question:

What is the purpose of typing a question in Word and then transferring it into the message box here at the forum? The ability to walk away from, and then return to the content before posting is all I can think of.

DA

For some time you have not been able to post certain symbols on the gardenweb forums. You used to be able to use the degree symbol but not now. I haven't tried underline. It worked on preview so maybe it will stay. Try degrees: 32�. Still doesn't work.

Would it allow you to use symbols and underlines?

Symbols? You mean like â, î, or ÃÂ. Maybe, you can try it.

Underlines or other formatting, no. You need to use the HTML tags in the body of the message

Symbols seem to be a little dicey. Might have to do with how many times you edit the post.

They should be â, î, and àbut something got screwed up. Not quite sure what.

Hmmm. Not quite sure why. Let's try this.

â î ÃÂ

What happens if I copy and paste the symbols that mike posted in his post to this post. Well not all of them came out...

â î ÃÂ

opps yes they did, but that's not how it showed on the preview page odd

Thanks all. I don't know how to make italics, underlines, bold, change the size of the letters in the body of the post on GW. I see people doing that and wondered if using Word would solve that problem.

Jane

<u>underline this</u> will look like underline this
<i>put this in italics</i> = put this in italics
You can learn to do these things on this site. It's not hard at all.

just learn a few quick and easy html codes like bob mentioned and you can do those things too. Most forums have the ability to add that for you but this forum is extremely basic. Not all the html codes function here but those basic ones for simple things will.

I see no point in typing a reply in word then coming back to the reply box and typing in here. My browser which is firefox underlines in red any misspelled words and I just right click on that word for the correct spelling. If you use IE you can add IEspell and it will do the same thing for you. So if the only benefit is a spell checker there is a much much simpler soulution.

I compose in Word because I am a terrible speller and typist. I am also a perfectionist and cringe whenever I find a typo/misspelling in anything I send on the internet. I do have IEspell but I prefer Word because I can also use its Thesaurus.
Nancy

" I just right click on that word for the correct spelling."

Ravencajun, I never knew that! I've occasionally struggled with correct spelling and finally changed the word in frustration. Thanks for the info. Better late than never.

Nancy I understand your vigilance just don't be overly hard on your product. It could be worse.

I am an fine speller, and a good writer. However, I leave a lot to be desired in typing, and there is my problem. I too am unhappy when something slips by in one of my posts, but I have learned to live with it.

Now at work that's a different story. No room for error there.

DA

Might I suggest that anyone who wants to use HTML tags to do so sparingly, perhaps emphasis a word or phase. I can't speak for anyone else but I've been to forums where people insist on posting messages in bright colors and I find those messages be hard to read. In most cases, I skip right over them.

I wish this forum had the ability to use those simple enhancements. Sometimes I want to italicize or underline. I've tried to learn it but my brain doesn't retain that stuff unless I did it all the time. Just too many steps and the whole thing takes too long. I think typing on Word would be faster. At my age I am short of memory & patience!

I use FF and don't worry about spelling as it always underlines. Even with that, I still spell wrong because I hit the submit button without proof reading. I'm always rushing.

But back to the original question: Would Word work for using those symbols? I would us it rarely, but would like to occasionally.

Jane

"Would Word work for using those symbols?"

I think that if you use word, some symbols show up correctly for people using IE, but not for people using other browsers, and some symbols don't show up correctly for anybody. Word even mangles some fairly innocuous things, like quotation marks.

I agree with Mike Kaiser in that the use of add-ons such as tags, pictures, avatars, etc. should be used minimally. As cute or as good as the intention may be the emphasis can be distracting or in some response delaying. I too have been know to skip threads just because of the detracting presentation.

DA

66ð

I posted the degree symbol by holding down the ALT key and pressing 0176 on the numbers keyboard ð

now that A wasn't on the preview screen sorry
ð

Ive been posting that degree symbol for years on other GW Forums with out any problems

There was no problem until a month or so ago. Now the windows alt key codes and unicode characters do not work properly.

Thanks for that info Bob
I feel better now !!