Discussions of current MRB issue

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17 years 4 months ago #19466 by Larry Burford
Tom,

Another flow problem I see in the latest electronic MRB is related to long "words" such as URLs. These seem to be incompatible with full justification of text, frequently causing the line above or below to have very wide gaps between words. The following is an example of what I'm talking about. It is not an exact reproduction but it is close.
Code:
ESA comments on “horn” on Cydonia Face image Our 2006 September 15 issue (http://metaresearch.org/publications/bulletin/2006issues/0915/Mrb06c.asp) contained an article about the new 3-D stereo image of the Cydonia Face – the real image seen by the spacecraft and the “processed” one with selectively exaggerated vertical relief and a “horn” on the forehead that was released to the world media.

An extreme example of this would be where a (very long) URL was the third word in the first sentence of a paragraph. This would result in the first line of the paragraph having two words separated by one very large string of spaces and the URL on the next line.

Some instances of this effect could be fixed by placing the long word on its own line, but not all. The example above is one that could not, since the distorted text comes before the long word and is the first line of a paragraph.

The only global fix I can think of right now is to use short text (such as "click here") as a link to the URL, in place of the actual URL text. Like a link to a foot note, but when the reader clicks on this link text it is translated into a page at the URL address instead of into a page at a footnote address.

LB

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17 years 4 months ago #19599 by MarkVitrone
Replied by MarkVitrone on topic Reply from Mark Vitrone
Larry, I have been reading this thread and have a suggestion that builds on what you have said. Using an icon or a text line could redirect the viewer to the URL,(That is what you said), my idea is then to add the URL's to a reference page at the end in the case that the viewer wants to see them as a list. The short text idea is fine too because having the convenience of checking the reference immediately without interrupting the reader with the long spaces and huge url's is important too.

Mark

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17 years 4 months ago #19532 by tvanflandern
The full link (active or not) is needed by print version readers. So how about this as a compromise: I could include the full link as inactive text, adding line breaks wherever needed to keep the gaps out of the text, followed by a short symbol (same for all links, 1 character would probably do) that could be clicked on to activate the link?

If that seems an acceptable solution, what do you suggest as the symbol? -|Tom|-

P.S. I've added a PDF version to ease home printing for off-line reading.

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17 years 4 months ago #17939 by neilderosa
Replied by neilderosa on topic Reply from Neil DeRosa
I'm not sure if this relates to your discussion, but on my computer I could not print the text without losing 1/3 of it from the right margin. My trial and error solution was to select "Edit with Microsoft Office Word," from the File tab, and then to select "Web Page Preview." I was then able to print properly. This may be common knowledge to you, but it was new to me, so I pass it on.

Neil

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17 years 4 months ago #19886 by Larry Burford
Hmmm. I guess Mark's idea (collect the text of the URLs in a list at the end of the article) is the right way to go. The short symbol that is the click-able link can be the same symbol for all of them, but does not have to be the same symbol. So why not use a sequential number or letter that references the link text at the bottom?

Other schemes are possible, and might work better (be more intuitive). Whatever is used should look different from a typical footnote reference.

===

Readers of the text version can use the letter or number reference to find the appropriate URL.

Readers of the on-line version can click on the letter or number reference.

Neither group of readers has to mentally "blah blah" past URL text (that often contains "gibberish" from the human point of view) embedded in the article, or worry/wonder/grin about larger than normal spaces between words. All of these interrupt the reader's concentration.

The author and editor don't have to worry about putting spaces in long URLs that are embedded in the body of the article. Nor do they have to worry about missing one.

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17 years 4 months ago #19533 by tvanflandern
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by neilderosa</i>
<br />I could not print the text without losing 1/3 of it from the right margin.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Try the PDF version. It is designed for those who want to print the web pages. -|Tom|-

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