The forum hates me

And colored quotes too

Published on February 13, 2005 By Danny Bassette In Blogging

So's a while's back island_gurl12 wrote an article asking some questions and such. Good for her, asking questions is better then working in ignorance (although finding the answers out yourself can be fun too). Through the answers Gene Nash showed us purple quotes, which was neat and pretty. It was great of him to show us this, but his purple quote didn't quiet match the normal quiets (border was too big). Minor detail and I doubt anyone else would care, but I did, so when I attempted to take the idea of purple quotes and mix them with the html code joeuser uses to mark quotes I couldn't get it to work right.

I could get a normal quote, that was easy enough.

But when I tried to make the background purple I would end up with a yellow border.

So I looked into the code and hunted it down. Turns out that stardock is using css to make the quotes come out the way they do. This is fine and all, but I havn't used css before, so didn't think I could embed it in the html code like I ended up doing. But some quick research later and I found out I could. Made up my own little style sheet which uses the class "coloredquotetable", which I figured wouldn't be used by stardock, since they have their own pattern. All done, tested on my test article, worked fine, so off to share it with island_gurl's article. Or so I thought...

Due to some of the attempts to make purple quotes there is all sorts of odd html code loose on that article, which prevents me from seeing the whole thing if I come to it from her blog. I get about half way down the page and then it goes all white. So I come in through the forum, something I generally don't do.

I add my new comment, which is the code for the quote inside a purple quote box, and then some explaination afterwards.

I had just tested it on my blog, so I figured it would work fine, right? Nope.
Whatever has been done to the forums in this whole 'upgrade' or whatever it is has it redoing my comment. I had to edit it three times to get it back to what it was supposed to be, and even then I couldn't get the link to hex color codes to show up the way I wanted it to, it kept getting itself converted into some other oddness. I don't want to use pretty world icons

and the word Link for links, I want to have them embedded into the article as underlined words. But apparently that's too old school and this is the flashy sister site of pretty color wincustomize land so it has to use all sorts of bells and whistles (or at least the visual equivelant, sound might be next).
I don't use the forum if I can help it, I've always liked the feel of the blogs themselves better then the forum, this upgrade just makes it even more so. So I can get by with whatever autoreformating code is going on there. Just so long as it stays there and doesn't come visit my blog as well...
And while I was trying to convince the forum to display what I wanted it to display I noticed that the earlier attempts at purple quotes had succeeded, but they had failed at the time. Looking into it, the css class that was so hard to find before doesn't seem to exist anymore. Overlooked during the changes or being phased out? Probably phased out, is usually what happens when I figure out how something works

Assuming anyone else wants it (and that it doesn't get invalidated tomorrow), here's the funny code for different colored quotes. Currently set for green (00FF00), but if you change the two places 00FF00 shows up to a different hex color code you'll get a different color quote. Normal yellow is FFF394, purple is FFCCFF, but there are many other color options.

<style type="text/css">
.coloredquotetable
{
BORDER-RIGHT: #999999 1px solid;
BORDER-TOP: #999999 1px solid;
BORDER-LEFT: #999999 1px solid;
BORDER-BOTTOM: #999999 1px solid;
BACKGROUND-COLOR: #00FF00;
}</style>
<TABLE cellpadding=8 width="95%" align=center class="coloredquotetable"><TR><TD bgColor=#00FF00 class="mb-Body-Quote-Text"> TEXT YOU ARE QUOTING </TD></TR></TABLE><BR>

Comments

island_gurl12

on Feb 13, 2005

Wow Danny, all this time you were trying to get the purple box?! Mmmh, it still looks a bit complicated, but i'm such a dummie when it comes to computers like you already know

and, for the record, if the forum hates you, i dont

Ravenblack

on Feb 14, 2005

I hate using codes in this place. One time I screwed up an entire page while trying to quote. Thus I never do the quote thing.

Cordelia

on Feb 14, 2005

Well, you are way out of my league. I only recently figured out how to do any quoting at all.

Danny Bassette

on Feb 14, 2005

island_gurl12: Not all this time, I really only worked on it yesterday. After the previous attempts on your thread I took note of the code used and filed it away for later. I just didn't get around to trying again until yesterday, I procrastinate well. I'll agree, the code does look complicated, but you can cut/paste it and only change the three important parts (the two places the color code shows up and the text you are quoting). Should be simple enough to use.
Ravenblack: Yeah, it is possible to mess up pages with poorly written code, which I guess is why they are doing the autoreformating on the forums. Nothing wrong with keeping it simple

Cordelia: If you know how to quote normally then using this code for colored quotes isn't that much harder. Although figuring it out from scratch could be. It's all just for flavor, and the challenge of figuring it out. And if I'm out of your league that just gives you something to aim for in catching up

foreverserenity

on Feb 14, 2005

I only recently figured out how to do any quoting at all.

I'm there with you too Cordelia. If I can't quote it the easy way, I do the cut and paste kind.

Wow Danny, good for you. If I could be just as patient....

AngelaMarie88

on Mar 30, 2006

Later that day...

NOW let's see if this works...

AngelaMarie88

on Mar 30, 2006

Woo-hoo! Now let's try some fancy borders....OK, I guess I still need to get some kinks out. Thanks again for the low-down, Danny.

AngelaMarie88

on Mar 30, 2006

Darn. Still Trying.

Thanks for the tutorial, but I guess I'll need a more dumbed-down version.

I chose a really bright color from the site you provided a link to. The code for the color I picked is FF0080. I copied and pasted this which you provided:

< T A B L E c e l l p a d d i n g = 8 w i d t h = " 9 5 % " a l i g n = c e n t e r c l a s s = " c o l o r e d q u o t e t a b l e " > < T R > < T D b g C o l o r = # 0 0 F F 0 0 c l a s s = " m b - B o d y - Q u o t e - T e x t " > T E X T Y O U A R E Q U O T I N G < / T D > < / T R > < / T A B L E > < B R >

(Without the spaces, of course.) Then substituted in my FF0080 instead of your 00FF00. Then I put in my own text to quote.

My result was what you see above. My text with no color box.

So how should it really be written? I'm afraid you'll need to give it to me verbatim please, if you have a moment. I guess I don't have all the elements in there?

Danny Bassette

on Mar 30, 2006

Looks like your missing two things.
First, the autoformater (or whatever stardock likes to call it) tends to strip the code off comments the first time you post them. If you were to edit those two replies that didn't work I suspect you wouldn't find the code you entered. But if you enter it again as editing a comment it should stay and work.
Second, your not grabbing the whole block of formating. It starts with "<style type" and goes all the way to the end. If you take that and change the two references to the color, it should work for you. Try editing one of your earlier comments and see what you get.

Dynosoar

on Mar 30, 2006

AngelaMarie88

on Mar 30, 2006

I think I have the hang of this now, as long as I cling to the cheat sheet you provided. Now I'm off to the forums to show off what you taught me. But I still can't turn the borders solid. I've substitued every generic code for the color code of my choice, but it's still pink & ...what is that, purple(?) Still getting the kinks out...

Danny Bassette

on Mar 30, 2006

It looks like the first reference to the css is the one that is used. Is why all your quotes here have the same purplish border that mine did. Now if you were to change the two references to "coloredquotetable" to something else it wouldn't be grabbing the purple from mine. Say "AM88quote" or some such mostly unique one. If you were to try that the important part would be to keep the rest of it the same, ie the . before the word in the css part and the " around it in the html part. Either way, enjoy your new toy

Trudygolightly

on Mar 30, 2006

I understood all of that, easy as pie

crimson

on Mar 31, 2006

duh. I can't do it .... grumble, grumble...

crimson

on Mar 31, 2006

easy as pie

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