Did a search, and couldn't find a post that addressed my question, so here goes. How does one format text (bold, italics, etc.) when writing a trip report? I know it can be done because I saw a report with bolded text, but for whatever reason I can't figure out how to do it myself. Thanks for any help.
The only way to format the text in trip reports is to use html code. If you do this, be sure to preview your trip report and make sure it looks right to save the person reviewing it a lot of extra work. Also, do it very sparingly, because too many font changes really reduce readability and will no doubt be removed by the person reviewing your report.
If you're thinking of subheadings, it's probably better to just type the heading on its own line and let us judge whether formatting will improve the appearance and readability.
I can't type the code used for bold and italic exactly here because the message board software will interpret it to format what I'm writing, but you can google it and find simple instructions.
Daniel, when I review reports before we publish them, if somene has broken out a heading on its own line, I add html code then to bold it but usually only then.
A long while ago we did have buttons on the TRM, like on the message board, that allowed writers to bold and italicize text but, like Chris said, when people didn't preview the reports, often I'd find errors and end up reports with pages and pages of bolding (I find these on my changes too, which is why I preview them .
Best suggeestion, if you have headings you want bolded, leave them on their own lines with a blank line before and after, and I'll bold it when I review it.
Thanks very much for the suggestions. I have used the two HTML codes for bold and italics on page one of my report, and the preview looks AWESOME. I'm using the bold for proper names of places (restaurants, museums, etc.) because I think it's useful to readers to have these things "jump out" at them especially if they want to come back and quickly scan reports for certain things. Also, since I talk a lot about food, I'm going to use italics whenever I use a French word. I like the Slowtravel font because it softens the italics which is nice.
OK, so I'm off to code everything. After that, I have to figure out the whole picture album thing so I can link the photos that go with the report. On the bright side, at least this (VERY LONG) trip report is finally finished!
Daniel, I'm going to caution you on bolding the proper names. Someone did that in the past and there ended up being so may, it felt too busy to read; I ended up removing some. Maybe, just the first occurence of the name on a page will suffice rather than every occurrence. I do like the idea of italicizing the foreign words; I've often thought of doing that too.
Originally posted by Kim: Daniel, I'm going to caution you on bolding the proper names.
Maybe, just the first occurence of the name on a page will suffice rather than every occurrence. I do like the idea of italicizing the foreign words; I've often thought of doing that too.
Kim, we're definitely on the same page. There's no way I would bold the name of a place more than just the initial occurence on the page.
Furthermore, I won't be bolding proper names of people or streets or stuff like that. In the end however, I do trust your judgment since you guys deal with these formatting issues every day.
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