Big Jeff Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Does the forum software allow you to highlight hyperlinks and URLs with color? I'd like to see that happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Yes, it does. What color would you like to see for hyperlinks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paracelsus Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Hi Big Jeff,Yes Indeed!! All you need do is, after entering the URL with the http:// button, when the next box appears to enter the name you would like to give the link...enter the beginning color code: Your Title... and then the end color code: [/*COLOR] (Leave out the asterisk. I only put it there so the code syntax would show.) Voilà !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jeff Posted March 29, 2003 Author Share Posted March 29, 2003 Paracelsus,I'm already doing that as a courtesy to my reader, but most forums I've seen do the highlighting automatically.LilBambi,I've been using red but I think blue is most common.Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 Oops....I think I misunderstood ... I also do it manually (once in a while), but I am not sure if it is a setting that can be set for the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paracelsus Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 Paracelsus,I'm already doing that as a courtesy to my reader, but most forums I've seen do the highlighting automatically.Oops ... Sorry Big Jeff. I should have figured you already knew this.Like LilBambi, I took your query too simplistically.However, having it be automatic may take away some of the personal choice... And only lull us into loosing even more of what few skills we have left Like Spell Check (But that's better left to another Thread) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ComputerBob Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 Unless the user enters code in their hyperlink, as Paracelsus described, Invision Power Board software controls the hyperlink colors through its CSS. On my forums, I changed the CSS so the link color of my forums' names are dark blue, while the other hyperlinks are still their default black. And I changed the hyperlink hover color of all my forums' hyperlinks to red. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jeff Posted March 30, 2003 Author Share Posted March 30, 2003 After visiting a few of my regular forums, I see that all links (Forum titles, thread topics, hyperlinks, etc.) at these sites are a color other than black. Here they are black to begin with and therefore do not contrast with the black text in posts. I see now that I'd be asking Scot to change the look of this site in order to provide the contrast/highlighting in the text of posts. I do realize that hyperlinks are underlined here but you still can't tell at a glance that it's a link. I'll just continue to color links manually.Or I could color my text and let the hyperlink be black. Thanks all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paracelsus Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 And I changed the hyperlink hover color of all my forums' hyperlinks to red.I especially like this idea, ComputerBob!I made that change in my IE color scheme several years ago. Leaves little doubt that the cursor has passed over a hyperlink.Might not be a bad idea for Scot to investigate these options for the BB defaults.I've always been a "Mouse Racer"... Zooming the cursor to and fro on the screen, so I rarely miss discovering a hyperlink. Also...As die-hard Eccentric and devout Contrarian I tend to abhor "Standardization" of any flavour However...I'm willing to cede to those who may feel it makes using the BB easier.(I guess not many of us like to play "Can You Find the Hyperlink in this Message", anymore ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ComputerBob Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 On my forums, I'd like to leave the navigation/help/less important links black, but change posted hyperlinks in messages to blue (and maybe bold) by default, to make them stand out more than they do now. As I wrote earlier, I managed to find the Invision Power Board forum CSS definition that allowed me to change my forums' names to dark blue, and to chang the hover color of ALL hyperlinks to red. Unfortunately, I haven't spent enough time in the Invision Power Board CSS file to know if it's possible to change just the color of posted hyperlinks in messages without changing the color of ALL of the other black hyperlinks in the forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ComputerBob Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 SOLUTION I posted a question about this topic on the IPB support forums and Matt Meacham, the creator of IPB, replied with an easy solution that changes the default properties of hyperlinks posted within messages! I just added the following two lines to my IPB CSS file:.postcolor a:link, .postcolor a:visited, .postcolor a:active { color: #0000CC; font-weight: bold; }.postcolor a:hover { color: #FF0000 } Now any hyperlink posted within a message displays in bold-face blue, and it turns red when you hover over it! Excellento! Here's what it looks like in a forum message:http://www.computerbob.com/forums/index.ph...ct=ST&f=3&t=376[EDIT] After reading that some people don't like bold hyperlinks, I removed the "font-weight: bold;" section, to try non-bold blue hyperlinks for awhile. But they still turn red when you hover over them. [/EDIT] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 ComputerBob --Cool! It works well. I use that same type of process on some sites I have with CSS so I can have multiple colors for hyperlinks/hovers. Wasn't sure how this board was set up though.On some boards, when you do customizations to the template and later need to do security updates, you end up having to make individual changes to the individual files after the update to have your customizations back. Is this board like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ComputerBob Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 On some boards, when you do customizations to the template and later need to do security updates, you end up having to make individual changes to the individual files after the update to have your customizations back. Is this board like that?Unfortunately, that may be the case with IPB -- at least with the next version. From what I've read, v1.2 is going to be XHTML-compliant, and Matt's been working on simplifying its CSS, so v1.2's skins will be totally different than the current v1.1.1 skins. I haven't heard whether or not there are any plans to "finalize" the skin standard after that.To me, though, it'll be worth the work to redo all of my tweaks. And I'll probably get faster at doing it after a time or two. Especially if I ever write down exactly what changes I've made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 Thanks all for the suggestions and ComputerBob for the solution. I've implemented it on Scot's Newsletter Forum too (well, not the red hover text). Although a small thing, this is an important improvement.I have had zero time to spend on look and feel at SFNL Forums, but that doesn't mean that isn't important! And there are plans afoot to improve it.-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jeff Posted March 31, 2003 Author Share Posted March 31, 2003 Thanks, Scot. Maybe you could make the hover text gray, like it's always been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 ComputerBob --One thing that helped me with phpBB was keeping an extra set of dirs/files on my local computer for boards I work on for comparison for those times when I have to do security updates to a forum so I can get my changes back a little quicker. Then I don't have to document anything Scot --That's great about the link change ... will make it much easier ... I don't mind highlighting to change color and boldness factor on each link, but sure makes it easier if you don't have to do that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ComputerBob Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 One thing that helped me with phpBB was keeping an extra set of dirs/files on my local computer for boards I work on for comparison for those times when I have to do security updates to a forum so I can get my changes back a little quicker. Then I don't have to document anything I've always done the same thing; in fact, I try to never work on any of my "live" files, and I maintain several local copies of my entire Web site, forums, etc. I don't think I'd ever have the heart to redo it all if I ever lost it. It's just that I'm the kind of guy who, when faced with an upgrade task, I tend to second-guess each of the changes that I made previously. Usually, I've made too many changes to juggle them all in my head. So, If I don't write down each change and why I made it, then when I do an upgrade, I sometimes change (mess up) something that I changed earlier, and then I have to figure out all over again how to get it back the way I originally changed it to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 One thing that helped me with phpBB was keeping an extra set of dirs/files on my local computer for boardsI do the same thing too. I also back up IPB's database files every few days. But I prefer to keep a full copy of the files in a directory locally. It makes it easier to mess around with stuff too, without fear of messing around with the actual board.-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 Thanks, Scot. Maybe you could make the hover text gray, like it's always been.Hi, Big Jeff. I'm not a big fan of hover text changing the size of a text line. One thing I might do is make the highlighted text NOT bold and then make the hover text gray. Of course, I could make the gray text bold. But, frankly, bold hypertext looks ugly to me. I'll play around with it at some point. A lot of refinements to come.-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jeff Posted April 1, 2003 Author Share Posted April 1, 2003 Yeah, Scot, I don't like the bold hypertext either. Take your time, have fun tinkering around. Dontcha just love learning your way around new software? I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryder Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 Dontcha just love learning your way around new software? I do. Lol. Yep me too. I enjoy it sometimes more than what the software is for in the first place. I love breaking it down and finding everything it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 I agree Scot and ComputerBob ... I actually have many copies of the websites and forums because I burn them to CD as well as having local copies. It makes it much easier to restore to a known good set of files as well...just in case...kinda like flossing :)Scot ... Regarding disliking hover color/bolded change on hyperlinks ... a possible alternative to an actual color or bolding change upon hover might be to use a text-decoration like underline for them just so they stand out somewhat.Yeah, Stryder and Big Jeff ... you really gotta love learning your way around software ;)All it takes is time ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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