Questions tagged [formatting]
Formatting could mean the form and layout of any text or any other type of document. Formatting could also imply the preparation of storage media for accepting data. This would mean Formatting is the synonym of Formatting.
63
questions
6
votes
1
answer
47
views
List of "languages" to be used in "preformatted" code blocks for "Syntax Highlighting"
When I enter a "preformatted" code block in a body of Q or A, I have the option to specify the language of this code like this:
```bash
#!/bin/bash
echo "something"
sleep 10
exit
``...
- 8,744
5
votes
2
answers
291
views
How should I paste from my terminal?
I am aware of the editing help topic, but I'm still not sure how I am supposed to format the text I copy/pasted from my terminal.
I want to be able to share these details from my terminal and I want ...
- 11.9k
5
votes
1
answer
59
views
How do I add files to posts?
I know how to add an image file in question post like this, but I need to add a very wide txt file and I am strugling for this.
Please, what I'm missing ?
If I click on image insertion button I can ...
- 1,901
3
votes
2
answers
109
views
Is the <blockquote> tag working correctly on Ask Ubuntu?
I've been trying to use the <blockquote> tag to include literal output in this forum, but I cannot get it to work for me. My understanding is that if a chunk of text is surrounded by the <...
- 2,073
9
votes
2
answers
143
views
Suggested improvements to "Markdown help" and formatting help
On Ask Ubuntu we have a lot of questions and answers that include multiple lines of terminal output which is best handled by using code fences. Without formatting, this information is difficult to ...
- 11.9k
7
votes
2
answers
174
views
How do you handle questions that include Ubuntu pastebin links?
Ubuntu pastebin is a nice online tool for sharing formatted text between users, especially for very large log files for a short period of time, then it expires and is permanently deleted.
Stumbling ...
- 1,378
9
votes
0
answers
145
views
Code fence formatting problems to watch out for and fix
Since the start of 2019, code fences have been fully supported on Stack Exchange sites. By code fences, I mean the use of opening and closing triple backticks to format a code block. The effect of ...
ZannaMod
- 68.9k
0
votes
0
answers
65
views
What kind of text formatting is possible in reply of the question in Ask Ubuntu? [duplicate]
I'm a newbie on Ask Ubuntu.
I can use the text formatting in the body of question in Ask Ubuntu.
Then, what kind of text formatting is possible in reply of the question?
I did not find such ...
- 101
10
votes
2
answers
240
views
Standards for editing
I've being an active member of AskUbuntu and Unix & Linux for some time now. As such, I often edit Q&As. But I'm lost in some aspects and details of specific editing standards.
This post and ...
- 4,126
2
votes
1
answer
97
views
Why does the little help box call them "backticks" when they're graves?
I've noticed that when the little help box appears to the side, it says to show code using "backticks" when they are called graves. For clarification, I am talking about these: `. I don't think that ...
- 153
3
votes
2
answers
123
views
Should abbreviations and acronyms be discouraged?
Sometimes, a question is not clear simply because it contains an abbreviation or acronym that a reader doesn't understand. I wonder if the instructions should encourage the definition of these things ...
- 1,905
12
votes
1
answer
177
views
Can't format question properly because of character limit
I have a problem with editing this question:
Upgrade to 18.04, now sudo apt-get upgrade produces loads of insserv errors
OP didn't format the terminal output (which as you can see, is really long), ...
- 2,795
5
votes
2
answers
112
views
Use ISO 8601 or some localized format to display question, answer, edit, and comment dates instead of the "customary" M/D/Y
Date stamps are shown in a non-standardised format "mmm d 'yy":
When you hover the pointer over the date, you get title text showing the date and time in ISO 8601 standard format: "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:...
- 3,810
2
votes
0
answers
185
views
Preformatted text horizontal scrolling - bug or feature?
AskUbuntu help recommend to style pre-formatted text and console output with
#four spaces
But sometimes it results in scrolling text. See this question as an example. The problematic line (as ...
- 96k
11
votes
2
answers
299
views
Should the keys be written in uppercase?
Could you please explain about the usage of keys in Ask Ubuntu? Should the keys be written in uppercase (CTRL) or only the first letter should be in uppercase(Ctrl)? Is there any difference or both of ...
user833907
-3
votes
2
answers
76
views
Presentation of code should include explanation in a separate comment section
This is just an idea and I would like to see what the feedback is.
The problem
Starting Linux I've found myself many times looking through example code on this site and finding out what it actually ...
- 1,323
6
votes
2
answers
42
views
Transcribing syslog and preserving the line breaks
I'm trying to copy a segment of my syslog to a question here.
The problem is that all the linefeeds are lost when I do the copy, so the transcription is very difficult to read. How can I avoid this?
- 2,073
4
votes
1
answer
82
views
How do I use the grey formatting in a comment? [duplicate]
Someone showed me (by editing my question for me) how to make some of your
text show up grey to show it is code.
Now I need to know how to do it in a comment.
- 1
6
votes
1
answer
94
views
Automatically wrapping lines in Ask Ubuntu
I'm new to forums and stuff like that. I need to post my wifi-info scripts output in Ask Ubuntu using Firefox and I need to keep it as it is without wrapping any lines. As soon as copy and paste it, ...
- 101
4
votes
1
answer
168
views
How to properly add code in comment
How can I properly add a line of code in a comment like this
test test
I like it more grey than test test if that is possible.
Or if there is another way to define code in a comment to make it ...
- 2,039
10
votes
2
answers
449
views
What should I do when a user persistently insists on poor formatting and resists formatting improvements?
Context: https://askubuntu.com/posts/971884/revisions
I edited an answer of a user who got distracted and forgot the Markdown syntax, using 1) instead of 1. for writing an ordered list. Therefore the ...
- 7,755
1
vote
0
answers
23
views
How to input/type buttons on posts? [duplicate]
I have tried multiple times to find the "button" button in order to convert e.g. Ctrl-Alt-F1 to button sequence. Can anyone help me? I tried to find it in the desktop version of Ask Ubuntu and on the ...
- 856
3
votes
2
answers
111
views
How to find posts with html tags like <code>
I keep finding things with the <code> tag or the <pre> tag instead of four spaces or inline code formatting. I want to find these and fix them, replacing them with the better code ...
- 3,751
15
votes
1
answer
317
views
Please don't use underscores for formatting
SE Markdown supports both underscores and asterisks for marking italics and bold:
_foo_ __foo__ *foo* **foo**
foo foo foo foo
However, the SE editor (both in browsers and apps) only recognises (...
- 191k
-3
votes
1
answer
177
views
Can someone elaborate for me the rule on using the back tick for emphasis? [duplicate]
Is there a rule against which markdown codes are allowed in formatting text for easy reading? It's my impressing that a lot of text that is displayed that isn't code is displayed using code tags to ...
- 24.7k
2
votes
1
answer
354
views
How do I put scrollable preformatted / code blocks in my question?
This may seem like a simple question, but how do I put a box of scrollable code or preformatted text in my question or comment on AskUbuntu?
It would be great if this question and the answer ...
- 111
8
votes
3
answers
169
views
Unexpected formatting with code in list
I posted a answer and below some list items the code content turned to other format different from what I was expecting. I tried to indent either by code button or manually but didn't work. Is It a UI ...
- 273
1
vote
2
answers
24
views
7
votes
1
answer
161
views
Make blockquote formatting button not destroy the source layout!
You ever had a post in front of you where the OP did mix up blockquote and code formatting? Not those easy cases where he/she wrote a > character before the paragraph himself, but those cases when ...
- 105k
3
votes
1
answer
96
views
Formatting guideline / convention for program names, commands, strings, values, (...)?
I usually highlight anything that should stick out from regular statements like a program name, a command, a string or a value by enclosing it between backticks, while I usually highlight something ...
- 35.3k
11
votes
3
answers
218
views
Code formatting: backticks or four spaces?
Code segments can be formatted by either starting the line with four spaces or by enclosing the code in backticks.
What is the reason for using one over the other?
The reason I ask is that my ...
- 6,041
-5
votes
3
answers
336
views
Proper use of Bold and Italic text in posts?
I would like to make this post to specify "proper" methods of bolding/italicizing text in questions and answers to keep the site clean and easy-to-read.
Partially based off of my other question on ...
- 33.7k
5
votes
1
answer
86
views
How to do code formatting within numbering or bullets?
When doing editing, in certain places I find difficulties to format codes those are within Numbering and Bullets.
Example is this. What I did was cut and paste the line which needs code formatting to ...
user224082
16
votes
1
answer
178
views
Formatting, backticks and editing
This was a concern raised in UL some time ago, but recently I've seen several cases where I've changed the use of backticks, I will ripoff strugee post from UL:
I've noticed that a lot of new users ...
- 66.6k
1
vote
1
answer
101
views
BBcode on Ask Ubuntu
Can somebody please explain how to post CODE in here?
I followed this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1189729 but it doesn't work for me. I copy and paste a code from Terminal and ...
user211076
4
votes
1
answer
92
views
Has <key> been disabled?
I've noticed I'm not able to use key button formatting like <key>ESC</key>.
Has it been disabled? And if yes, why?
- 13.9k
4
votes
0
answers
62
views
Descenders in comments chopped off in Windows Chrome
In my browser (Chrome 29 on Windows 7), descenders are chopped off in comments, which makes it fairly annoying to read, as g's look like q's (most other letters with descenders are fairly unambiguous, ...
- 2,452
10
votes
1
answer
200
views
Using <pre> tags vs 4 space indentation
Which should be used to format a block of text in code (monospace font). I personally believe that manually indenting each line of long console output or a log file can be very slow and repetitive, so ...
- 27.4k
7
votes
1
answer
117
views
What is the correct way to format search terms, button names, etc.?
What is the correct way to format terms which should be searched for or button names?
Example:
Search for "Settings"
Click on the "System Settings" button
Should an inline code span be used, "...
- 27.4k
6
votes
1
answer
88
views
How to guide readers to specific sections to a lengthy answer?
Have basically copied a wiki article as an answer to a question on main site but would like to add some form of Table of Contents at the beginning of the answer to guide readers to the part which the ...
- 1,530
9
votes
2
answers
201
views
Formatting a comment
Is it possible to format a comment, as in, include blockqoute like properties?
I've noticed that the help mentions that 'code' can be used for code, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.
Either ...
- 1,090
2
votes
2
answers
58
views
How do I format my code that it will be wrapped in a box with horizontal scrolling?
Usually when I need to post an error output or any code I use blockquotes and place the entire thing there. On two occasions my code has been edited and formatted in a way that it can be seen in a box ...
- 1,090
4
votes
1
answer
67
views
Why does SE mess with the spacing in code blocks?
Why do code blocks delete double-spaces? Double-spaces are required in some code. Code blocks should not alter the text in them at all, because code sometimes has weird formatting.
Example: compare ...
- 2,641
8
votes
1
answer
123
views
When citing another user, how should her/his username be formatted?
E.g., I sometimes use bold-italics (***text here***) because it looks alright, and provide a link to what I'm quoting/citing.
Alternatively, I could imagine to additionally linkify the username to ...
- 6,618
1
vote
3
answers
67
views
Where to put bounty information?
Sparked by a chat discussion about this question, I think we should think of a way to put some order to bounty information.
What information is interesting?
Sometimes, one would like to include ...
- 1,603
4
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How do I escape backticks in a backticks command?
I found: "How do I escape backticks in a comment?", but I want to escape backticks, if I use backticks to format code in an answer.
The following doesn't work:
`sudo update-initramfs -v -u -k \`...
- 13.9k
1
vote
1
answer
58
views
Is Ask Ubuntu using reStructuredText?
It might be an obvious question for those who know, but I can't find an answer to it.
Recently, I started working with sphinx which uses reStructuredText. It somehow looked familiar to Ask Ubuntu's ...
- 28.3k
4
votes
1
answer
270
views
Is this syntax highlighting intended behavior or a bug?
I came across an answer earlier today which had code blocks containing some text portions in blue. Below is a screenshot of the beginning of the answer for convenience:
I have never seen this before, ...
- 14.6k
0
votes
0
answers
34
views
How to display keys and tags? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to use keyboard 'icon' in markdown?
How do you display buttons on keyboard eg: Control, Alt etc. in your discussion? I have seen many people even displaying tags. ...
- 2,099
5
votes
2
answers
59
views
matched parentheses in hyperlinks are not handled correctly
When a hyperlink contains a ( character that is matched at the end of the URL by a ) character, AskUbuntu should recognize that the final ) character is part of the URL. However, currently that is not ...
- 116k