Erm.

[theeverdream]

Anybody know how people get those nice narrow columns of text in the normal (unformatted) lj entry style? CSS doesn't work in the entry of course, and preformatted font with a width value thing isn't working.

Is it inline CSS? Margin or something? Does inline CSS even work in lj (not in the journal styles, I mean, but in the actual entries)? Or maybe tables? Or maybe I've dreamed up the whole thing. Hmm.

ETA: Answered! wintermute_lj is fantastic!!

Comments

[iamwintermute]

...what are you trying to do? I'm not familiar with how LJ names everything, but I know enough about CSS so I might be able to help.

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

Oooh thanks :)

Like... in this entry, instead of the text going across the whole screen, it goes across 50% of the screen or whatever. Does that make sense?

[iamwintermute]

Oooh ok. I got it.

Hmm... well, it's either tables or inline css. I think inline CSS works, because some of the programming (like text color and styling) are done by inline CSS using the <span> tag. I mean, you can't use a div tag to create spaces because you're styling text, but you can define the margins I think, but you'd have to do it for every paragraph. The simpler method is just create a table, set the border and spacing to 0 then you won't see the lines.

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

Definitely don't mind doing it for every paragraph.. with a table, would it be hard to have two columns on either side that don't have anything in them but still take up space? (Also geez, I really need to learn how to do tables in the first place..)

[iamwintermute]

just define it with the <table> tag, and include the width in fixed # of pixels and set the thing to align center on the page. <tr> gets you a row, and in each row, use <td> to get columns (all nested). all of the rows need the same number of columns, and if you want to merge cells, give one less td and in the td tag you want as merged, write colspan=2. in your case, if you just want a centered thing, you just write the following:

<table width=## border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center>
<tr>
<td>
insert everything here
</td>
</tr>
</table>

you get more control with inline CSS + tables, if you were so inclined, but just inline CSS works equally well. But I think most people format their profile pages (bio section) using tables, it's easier to control .

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness!! I put that in my test entry and it's just what I wanted. Thank you so so so so much!! I can't even describe how happy this makes me.

[iamwintermute]

no prob :) glad I could help!

it's weird that some styles have no stylesheets for the entry pages...

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

I actually have been using non-styled entry pages; I've read that for people reading fanfic it's easier to read from a non-styled page instead of someone else's style.

[iamwintermute]

hmm really? Haven't noticed. but yeah, I did pick my layout for both style AND for readability, so maybe there is an effect. Plus I adjust the font size of all of my fics so they are easier to read. I'm a huge fan of usability and readability when it comes to websites. Pisses me off to no end when people who are experts in web coding ignores the human factor completely.

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is really frustrating. I hate the light gray text in a small font size on a white background thing some lj users have going - it's like, okay, apparently they have super-awesome roboteyes or something.

[iamwintermute]

you mean like the one over at stevedannoslash? my eyes hurt just thinking about it lol

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I've seen ones that make that color combo look readable, hah.


also! (http://pics.livejournal.com/theeverdream/pic/000dhqbp) :)

[iamwintermute]

oh dear *wide eyes*

and thank you :D (and what kind of effect was that you used?)

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

I did some levels and brightness/contrast adjustment and hue/sat but the effect to get the soft kind of texture is paint.net's surface blur, which when I found it made me quite happy.

You are very welcome - I am just so very pleased about the table, I'm gonna be smiling for a long time :)

[iamwintermute]

oooh I'll have to check that place out! thx!

lol... the table trick is something most people overlook when looking for solutions, but most of the time simple is best!

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

:D

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

Oh I do though with that comm definitely have to add ?style=mine to all the urls if the stories are actually posted there!