Formatting Text into Columns

journey on

New member
Uh, Da Nag, you said "Nerd tip - using the "code" markup, allows you to space things out using a fixed-width font."


Could you explain a little more than that, for us slow ones?

Boris
 
journey on":13lskpfa said:
Uh, Da Nag, you said "Nerd tip - using the "code" markup, allows you to space things out using a fixed-width font."


Could you explain a little more than that, for us slow ones?

Sure...it's a simple concept, although it's a bit of a kludge in practice. Might be more effort than some folks wish to undertake.

If you have something you want formatted with specific line spacing using a fixed-width font, surround the text with "code" brackets - example below. You can also highlight the text you want formatted with your mouse, then click the "Code' button in the edit window - does the same thing.

Code:
[code]
RPM	 MPH	Knots	GPH	 MPG	 NMPG	 Range	NM Range

1000	 5.2	 4.6	  .26  20.00	17.69	1080	955
1500	 6.8	 6.0	  .6	11.33	10.00	 612	540
2000	 8.2	 7.3	 1.4	 5.86	 5.21	 316	281
2500	10.8	 9.6	 2.6	 4.15	 3.69	 224	199
3000	15.4	13.6	 3.8	 4.05	 3.58	 219	193
3500	19.9	17.6	 4.5	 4.42	 3.91	 239	211
4000	25.9	22.9	 5.7	 4.54	 4.02	 245	217
4500	29.3	25.9	 7.0	 4.19	 3.70	 226	200
5000	33.0	29.2	 8.3	 3.98	 3.52	 215	190
5500	37.0	32.7	10.4	 3.56	 3.14	 192	170
5650	38.0	33.6	11.0	 3.45	 3.05	 186	165
[/code]

Now...it's not quite that simple. First - you'll want to create the text elsewhere, not in the edit window where you write your post. Reason being - the edit window here, does not use a fixed-width font. So, things will look lined up in your edit window, but when you hit preview you'll quickly see things are way out of whack.

Instead, use a text editor on your computer, and configure it to use a fixed-width font. Courier is a good example of one on Windows (use Notepad or similar), Mac users often use Monaco. Regardless, after getting everything nicely spaced and formatted in your text editor (use spaces - not tabs), simply cut/paste the contents into the edit window here when making a post. It might not work out exactly as-is - you'll probably need to add a few spaces here and there in the edit window, to get your text to line up as you wish. Still, you can edit, click preview, edit, click preview....until things look right.
 
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