What is the proper font, spacing, and so forth for a LessWrong article?
The proper formatting for a LessWrong article is the formatting that you see in most LessWrong articles.
The way to achieve that is to use for formatting only the tools provided in the LessWrong editor (except for the button labelled “HTML” — use that only if you absolutely must). If you find it more convenient to write your article in an external editor, make sure that when you copy and paste it across, you copy only the text without the formatting. One way to do that is to prepare the text in an editor that does not support formatting, such as any editor that might be used to type program code.
I’m using a Mac and copying from Pages into TextWrangler and from TextWrangler to the LessWrong editor does not appear to have worked. What might be going wrong?
Also, information both about people’s reaction to nonstandard formatting and how go about getting standard formatting if you’re working from an external editor should really be included in the LessWrong FAQ.
I’m using a Mac and copying from Pages into TextWrangler and from TextWrangler to the LessWrong editor does not appear to have worked. What might be going wrong?
That’s strange. One gotcha is that if you accidentally paste in some formatted text, then delete it, the LW editor remembers the font and line settings at that point and will apply them to any unformatted text that is then pasted in. To make absolutely sure of eliminating all formatting from the editor, select everything and hit backspace twice. The first will delete the text and the second will delete its memory of the formatting. Then paste in the unformatted text, making sure that you actually copied it out of TextWrangler after pasting it in there.
In the last resort, click the HTML button and see if the HTML has anything like:
What is the proper font, spacing, and so forth for a LessWrong article?
The proper formatting for a LessWrong article is the formatting that you see in most LessWrong articles.
The way to achieve that is to use for formatting only the tools provided in the LessWrong editor (except for the button labelled “HTML” — use that only if you absolutely must). If you find it more convenient to write your article in an external editor, make sure that when you copy and paste it across, you copy only the text without the formatting. One way to do that is to prepare the text in an editor that does not support formatting, such as any editor that might be used to type program code.
I’m using a Mac and copying from Pages into TextWrangler and from TextWrangler to the LessWrong editor does not appear to have worked. What might be going wrong?
Also, information both about people’s reaction to nonstandard formatting and how go about getting standard formatting if you’re working from an external editor should really be included in the LessWrong FAQ.
That’s strange. One gotcha is that if you accidentally paste in some formatted text, then delete it, the LW editor remembers the font and line settings at that point and will apply them to any unformatted text that is then pasted in. To make absolutely sure of eliminating all formatting from the editor, select everything and hit backspace twice. The first will delete the text and the second will delete its memory of the formatting. Then paste in the unformatted text, making sure that you actually copied it out of TextWrangler after pasting it in there.
In the last resort, click the HTML button and see if the HTML has anything like:
at the top, and delete it (together with the corresponding
at the end of the text).And of course, save the article as a draft so you can see exactly how it is being formatted before publishing.