Problem with formatting in replies

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1

I hope this is the correct forum. When I reply, sometimes part of my reply shows up with a sort of slider bar under it. I can’t figure out what is causing it - does anyone know?

This post has an example

2

Interesting. I know what would make a post (or part of one) look like that under the old board software: using the “code” function. I don’t even know if this board HAS a code formatting command like that, let’s see…

1   3   5   7   9   11  13  15  17  19  21  23  25  27  29  31  33  35  37  39  41  43  45  47  49  51  53  55  57  59  61 with spaces

There was also a “php” function that would do the same sort of thing. Both of them eliminated soft text wrap and would preserve multiple uses of the spacebar, and would do monospaced font.

ETA: to invoke it, you type the word “code” (without quotation marks) between square brackets, then after the part you want to format that way, “/code” (again without quotation marks and inside square brackets) to end the code block. I doubt you’d do that my acciden but maybe there’s either a secret keystroke or a button you press by accident sometimes?

3

Yes I do.

In the cockamamie hybrid formatting system Discourse uses, starting a paragraph with 4 spaces triggers the assumption you’re entering a computer program that you want displayed verbatim in a non-proportional font with no word wrap.

Which has the effect that your whole paragraph is now one very long line which needs a horizontal scrollbar underneath it so folks can pan out to the right to see the rest of the words.

If you’re pasting text in from a newspaper website they may well have embedded spaces on the first line of a paragraph to simulate old fashioned first-line indenting.

If you’re quoting somebody, or even typing on your own, it can be easy to have some extra blanks appear unnoticed almost anywhere. Which frequently don’t show up in the preview pane.

So to prevent this happening, ensure you eliminate any stray spaces at the start of every paragraph.

4

Thank you! It’s been driving me crazy.

5

Don’t you mean

Thank you! It’s been driving me crazy.
6

bbcode (safe subset), html (safe subset), and markdown are supported, but markdown is considered primary.

[b]bold[/b]
<b>bold</b>
**bold**

results in

bold
bold
bold

There’s a quick markdown cheat sheet and tutorial at Markdown Reference