?style=light - add white space to sides of text

[doro]

Title:
?style=light - add white space to sides of text

Area:
styles

Summary:
put in white space (inch and a half maybe?) on both sides of the text, so the text column is only about 8-9 inches wide

Description:
(Per recommendation, copying my comment to dw-news 2010-09-08):

(quote) Favorite New Things - #2, this is the part that I adore -- adding a one-touch ?style=mine or ?style=light link(end quote)

Absolutely. Due to mild vision issues, I use this on most posts not taken directly from my "flist" page.

One question/suggestion for the formatting on the ?style=light: would it be possible to put in white space (inch and a half maybe?) on both sides of the text, so the text column is only about 8-9 inches wide? (Again due to those same mild vision issues, it is difficult to track lines clear across the width of the screen.)

Thank you so much for a great site!

Poll #4417 ?style=light - add white space to sides of text

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
8 (21.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
2 (5.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
14 (37.8%)

(I have no opinion)
13 (35.1%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[havocthecat]

I actually use the style=light to get the reading area to be wider, since the columns on most of the text are smaller, and I have a harder time reading those. (ETA: I know it makes no logical sense. Please don't ask me to explain it.)

So, um. Yeah. How to resolve the conundrum of people needing exactly the opposite things?

[denise]

When it comes down to it, at some point we have to say "this is what we've got, and if you need something different, here's tips for making changes to your browser's default stylesheet".

Of course, the question is, where is that point, and what percentage of people are served by each of the possible options.

[havocthecat]

Oh, totally! I commented mostly to say "hey, I use it for this other thing instead," and, despite sounding flippant (which, well, I almost always sound, because that's who I am), I actually did wonder how to work out two people (or more than two) needing different, incompatible things.

[denise]

Yeah. :/ There isn't really an answer. The best I can do is listen to everybody talk it out, and then make a decision based on the information given. (Then listen to people complain about how stupid we were to make that decision, but that's par for the course with any decision. *g*)

[havocthecat]

Well, you know, making decisions is stupid. As is not making decisions. ;)

Believe me, I'm just kidding there. I know that sometimes you get stuck in a situation where you're bound to make some people upset, since you can't please everyone all the time. Mostly, I just figured a comment would be a good way to get my two cents in.

[denise]

(Spinning is better than not-spinning.)

And commenting is a good way to get your two cents in indeed! I look at the poll results, but it's only one small factor I use in decisions; I also use comments, issues brought up in discussion, and my own personal experience in watching people use LJ and DW since 2001. It's why I'm so careful to say that poll votes are not a majority-rule sort of thing; there have been cases in the past where really popular suggestions got rejected because of one really fantastic and compelling argument against in the comments, for instance, or cases where I judge the reward of the suggestion not worth the time it would take to implement it (in cases where it would require a rewrite of everything) or not worth the security risk it introduces, yadda.

The polls, and the suggestions, do do a great job of letting me know what people think about things, and how strongly they feel about it; I'd say it's about 75% of my decision. But the other 25% is important too.

[eruthros]

That's my difficulty with style=light too, and why I mostly use style=site (because my site style is celerity, which handily comes with a sidebar to narrow the text column).

Basically: I currently find style=light difficult to read, and would find it easier to read if the text column had larger margins. But I can see why it's helpful for people who read large-print, or on small screens, or prefer longer column widths. And I currently have a workaround (but one I wish I had in the navigation bar!)

[msilverstar]

I really need margins and would love this change. In the meantime, I use this javascript bookmark:

javascript:(function(){var%20newSS,%20styles='body%20{%20margin-right:%205%25;%20!%20important;%20margin-left:%2010%25%20!important%20}';%20if(document.createStyleSheet)%20{%20document.createStyleSheet(%22javascript:'%22+styles+%22'%22);%20}%20else%20{%20newSS=document.createElement('link');%20newSS.rel='stylesheet';%20newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles);%20document.getElementsByTagName(%22head%22)[0].appendChild(newSS);%20}%20})();

[doro]

See below for more possibilities (my comment on style, and Denise and matgb on CSS).

I'm (still) using MIE, and I haven't been able to set bookmarklets. Could be I'm just not doing it right?

*hugs*

[matgb]

OK, I haven't used IE for years, but go into the Favourites menu (which is what IE calls Bookmarks for some unknown reason lost in the mists of MS poor design decisions), and 'add new' or whatever the equvalent wording is.

IT'll have a field to name the 'favourite', so call it 'DW narrow margins' or something, and then a field for the address. Copy the code in there.

That should then work. I'll dig out my IE and try it if it doesn't.

[msilverstar]

I know nothing about MS IE, so it may well not support bookmarklets :-(

The CSS is a great solution!

[turlough]

I'd no idea there existed a bookmarklet for this. I'd to fiddle a bit with the margins to get them to my liking but otherwise it was exactly what I needed. Thank you!

[msilverstar]

I'm very glad to help out, I got them from zillah975 IIRC, and very happy to share.

[zvi]

If your problem is the length of the line widths, can you change the width of your browser window to something more legible for you?

I am not saying this to be snarky, but I feel like you are asking for two different things here, and one thing (can we make the light style have a fixed width margin) I am firmly opposed to, as it's a style that purposively makes few changes to the user's own browser style, however they have set or not set it, and the other (can we give it some more whitespace) which I am more receptive to, but which I think will not have your desired effect (making lines a predictable length) on those occasions when you use a different viewing set up, if you ever view DW from a computer not your own. (Which, possibly you never do.)

I do think changing the 8 px body margin to a 1em body margin might not be a bad thing, but I don't feel very strongly about it. I don't know if it would be enough additional whitespace to help anyone, and it might be enough of a change to frustrate those who prefer the style because of its long line lengths.

[doro]

Eek. Most of this is Greek to me. However, please see my comment right below this.

Unfortunately, changing the browser width doesn't work for me (it absolutely drives me bonkers to have the desktop showing while reading--too cluttered).

Thank you very much for the style! ♥

[zvi]

You're welcome! And, honestly, much of the credit for that style goes to rb, who came up with the basic layout, I just made it a Dreamwidth style and put in some flexibility to accommodate varying font sizes.

[msilverstar]

I have fairly recently discovered ems and I like them so very much! /geeksquee

[doro]

OK, am I allowed to have a facepalm moment?

I use "EasyRead by zvi" in the "High Contrast White" which actually gives me just about what I need (the column could be narrower even for my preference).

So, from the navigation strip I should have been using the ?style=mine link instead of the ?style=light link.

[foxfirefey]

Hmm, actually, I think we could add an option to EasyRead that lets the user determine how wide that column is--would that help you out? It would be pretty easy.

[doro]

Thank you :)

See comment below and my reply, I think I've got it (for now at least).

[denise]

*giggle* Oh, don't worry about it! If nothing more, it's given us some interesting fodder for discussion :)

I'm poking around with the style to figure out how to make it narrower for you. Hang on; my CSS is not the best, but I can totally get it the way you want it.

EDIT: Got it. With this, you'll be able to make the column as narrow as you want.

1. Go to http://www.dreamwidth.org/customize/options?group=customcss

2. Go to the large box in the bottom, labeled "Use embedded CSS" (the label's at the bottom of the box, but it's the largest of the ones there)

3. Copy and paste this in that box:

.entry {
margin-left: 10em !important;
margin-right: 10em !important;
}

4. Hit "Save Changes" and view your journal. If that doesn't make it narrow enough for you, you can change the "10" into whatever number you want -- just keep the 'em' there. So, "15em", "20em", etc.

[doro]

Fantastic!

Yes, thank you, that does it.

It only changes the post content, not the page header or the comments section. But, that is fine by me.

This goes in my "tech" memories.

*hugs*

[denise]

Glad to be of service! Our style system is set up so that you can really easily change things using CSS, so if you want the comments or page header to be included too (I didn't do those because you just said entries, not comments), just let me know and I'll work that out for you.

[doro]

Yes, after working with this a little more, getting the comments also would be great (header is fine as is).

And for matgb's suggestion about max-width, two questions:
Do I want a space after the colon?
Would I replace both lines that say "margin" with one, and leave the
!important;
at the end of it?

(Hm, maybe for comments just replace the word "entry" with "comments"?)

I've never done any coding, so your copy/paste is really appreciated.

I'll be AFK until Monday or Tuesday.

A million thanks!

[matgb]

A space isn't needed, just makes reading it easier.

Replace both margin lines with the max-width line, the important shouldn't be needed but won't hurt.

And yes, I think .comment would work (it depends on how the code is resolved, everything is given a name by the developer, as I don't use your style, and you haven't any public entries with comments, I can't be sure, but the default name is .comment (no 's').

[doro]

p.s. I went with 7 instead of 10.

[matgb]

Is Margin the best approach? That sets the width defined by the length of the screen still, so on a wider monitor it'll still be huge.

I worked around this on my layout by putting a max-width command in, for mine it was max-width:1200px, which given my main column is set at 60% gives me a nice sixe, but max-width:30em would probably do the job as well, and give the same effect on any and every monitor setup.

[denise]

I was assuming she'd mostly be reading things on the same monitor, and I find margin easier than max-width when I don't know what browser the other person's using; max-width is really really buggy in IE.

[ratcreature]

I hate light style for the wide text, but IMO the whole point of that style is that it does not style things. Or at least as little as possible. I think there should be maybe more minimalist styles available for people who want this,and then they could choose to display everything in their favorite style. Meanwhile I second the bookmarklet suggestion to tide you over. I use my whitespace bookmarklet on all light styled pages to make them bearable.