Two Easy Formatting Tricks!

When cutting and pasting the results of, say, a poll, I always want the columns to line up -- but they often don't, partly due to proportional spacing:

Bush.............46.0
Kerry............49.5
Other.............3.2
Not sure..........1.3
Total...........100.0

By adding "tt" between square brackets, you can specify a "typewriter" font that has the same width for all characters:

Kerry............49.5
Other.............3.2
Not sure..........1.3
Total...........100.0

I also want to insert extra blank spaces sometimes, but multiple spaces are normally reduced to one space. So, in the previous example, if the dots ("......") are replaced by spaces, you get the following:

Bush 46.0
Kerry 49.5
Other 3.2
Not sure 1.3
Total 100.0

To show each blank space separately, you can put "pre" between square brackets (indicating that the text is pre-formatted), and voila!

Bush             46.0 
Kerry            49.5 
Other             3.2 
Not sure          1.3 
Total           100.0 

I've been trying to find a way to do this ever since I started posting at DU three years ago, and just found how by looking at an old HTML guide:

http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerAll.html

Most of the tags work on DU if you substitute square brackets for the "<" and ">" signs.

I've used them a couple of times, but they're pretty clunky and complicated for most posting purposes.

Although cutting and pasting the HTML for a table from another sire resulted in a black screen for some reason. Don't know why this is.

You may regret bestowing knowledge upon the unwashed masses.

  :)

:thumbsup: