Ad Descriptions

Eritheyl

At present, I'm pulling my hair out trying to get an ad to look 'decent'. Given that the descriptions aren't set using the editor, it's sort of a pain. I have the basic theory down for formatting lines and getting things to align properly, but the one thing that's baffling me is the inability to insert a linebreak:

Example:

   refills in the basin!

   +--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+

As you can see, Ssaliss was somehow able to jump right from his paragraph to a slew of beautiful formatting. All attempts so far have left me unable to do the same, which makes me very sad. At the risk of bothering Ssaliss and looking like a chump, I present myself to the forums as a whole. Any ideas?

Lerad

It's an illusion of a linebreak, not a real linebreak. To make such a "linebreak" occur, you must have a long line that will only JUST fit into the wrapwidth. (Ad wrapwidths are standardized and not affected by your config. I can't remember the exact number, test it to find out.)

So if you have a line of "00000000000000000000000000000000"s that fits the wrapwidth number exactly, no matter what you put before and after it, the line of "00000000"s will appear as its own line, giving the illusion of a linebreak from the word that came before it.

So you type in "Blah blah blah. 0000000000000000000000000000000000 Blah blah blah." you will see

Blah blah blah.
00000000000000000000000000000000000
Blah blah blah.

Edit: Note, of course, that this eats up the character limit of the ad. So your nice looking ad will be restricted with less actual space the more such "linebreaks" you put in for the sake of formatting.

Xenthos

Certain clients also "eat" extra spaces (so if you try to put multiple spaces all in a row it will condense it down to just one).  That makes spacing and formatting much more difficult.

I'm guessing the wrapwidth is 80, that seems to be their default.

If you look at Ssaliss's add, all those periods would appear to be because of spacing issues (to make sure that they don't just disappear), but it's all one big line.

Eritheyl

Hmmmmm. I tried something similar to that, but it just smooshed it all together into a block of multiple lines. Maybe the spaces were the issue, time to test!

I know that's how the chart itself is done, but for some reason I couldn't get a similar effect from the words-to-embellishment bit.

Edit: Xenthos-ninja speaks much wisdom, time to give it another go.

Eritheyl

Final verdict: So long as the line you're trying to force doesn't have any spaces in it, seems to work.

Really, this is a pain. Should just allow use of the editor!

Ssaliss

Just FYI, this is how my ad is made:

ad 28 describe Cheap refills in the Wyrden Blessings in the northeastern corner of the market section in Glomdoring, in the Jade tower in Hallifax and in the western market district of Celest in addition to the aethershop Wyrden. Likely among the cheapest refills in the basin! +--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ | . . . Allheale 390 | . . . Antidote 140 | . . . .Bromide 130 | | . . . Choleric 100 | . Dragonsblood 150 | . . . . . Fire 100 | | . . . . .Frost 170 | . . .Galvanism 180 | . . . .Healing 120 | | . Invisibility 150 | . . . .Jasmine 150 | . . . Liniment 110 | | . . . . . Love 170 | . . . . . Mana 120 | . .Melancholic 100 | | . . . .Mending 180 | . . . . . Musk 150 | . . Phlegmatic 100 | | . Preservation 150 | . .Quicksilver 120 | . Regeneration 240 | | . . Sandalwood 150 | . . . Sanguine 100 | . . .Sharpness 150 | | . . . .Vanilla 150 | . . . . .Vitae 830 | . . . All teas 100 | +--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+

The +---+ lines are the exact length of the wrapping, as are the | . . | lines.

EDIT: Oh, and the space cutting is also done serverside as soon as the lines are long enough to wrap. So for ads, there is no point in padding with spaces.

Eritheyl

Finally got it down, after a lot of wrestling and wanting to destroy the world in its entirety.

._.