The Preview Menu

[Lillian Gray]

Hey there!

For a while I've noticed something, and now that I use more coding and images for my posts, it's sort of been bugging me. Thought I might mention it here!

If you go to edit a post by selecting 'more options' you get the nice little option to preview your post! I love this, because I can make sure my codes are right where I want them before actually making a post. However, the preview menu is very slim, and if I use codes that, say, cut lines through the post, or have images that I want to line up a certain way, it's a guessing game!

I took some screen shots to show you what I mean, they're just from a recently started thread between a friend and myself.

So, this one below is the standard view, just if you were scrolling to look at something already posted.



Then, there's the preview menu...


This is the same post. It looks a lot longer, because of how narrow it is. But would there be any way to get it so that the width matches the standard view in the first photo?

Thanks for reading!

 

[Jorick]

This is something that bugs me sometimes as well. It would definitely be nice to have the preview view appear as the same width as a normal post would show up on whatever screen size and resolution you're using, instead of the smushed size.

 

[Lillian Gray]

This is something that bugs me sometimes as well. It would definitely be nice to have the preview view appear as the same width as a normal post would show up on whatever screen size and resolution you're using, instead of the smushed size.

Yes! Exactly. It especially bothers me when I try to make nice threads, with images and larger texts. Getting things to line up just the way I want is pretty hard when I have to keep saving, checking, going back, editing. It's nothing huge, really, but if the preview box matched the post size, it would be loads easier to actually preview what my post is going to look like.

Here's to hoping it's a good idea!

 

[Shienvien]

I think the width is mostly irrelevant - the people who will be looking at the post will be doing so from devices with varying screen resolutions and window widths, so in the end, the post will end up looking very different for different people, anyway (which mostly negates the "things being where I want them" aspect for width-related differences).

As a person who generally likes narrower format, I'm only ever going to see something akin to your second image, for instance...

 

[Lillian Gray]

I think the width is mostly irrelevant - the people who will be looking at the post will be doing so from devices with varying screen resolutions and window widths, so in the end, the post will end up looking very different for different people, anyway (which mostly negates the "things being where I want them" aspect for width-related differences).

As a person who generally likes narrower format, I'm only ever going to see something akin to your second image, for instance...

That's true. What I'm trying to say is that it would be nice for the people using a wider laptop like myself. On a phone or tablet, it's always going to appear rather narrow.

 

[Shienvien]

I personally actually am usually using a widescreen (16:9) laptop (or widescreen monitors with PC, which have the same aspect ratio, but much higher resolution) - I just keep my browser window narrower because I find it easier to follow the text (jump from the end of the last line to the beginning of the new line with my eyes, and so forth) when it doesn't span all over the screen (the human eye can only focus on limited area, which I suppose would partially explain it). I typically have a Skype chat or similar open next to the browser window, so the otherwise unused area adjacent to the browser window is put to good use, too.

In the end, it probably boils down to whether you'd like the post to look good to only you (and other people with similar devices who have the window open full-screen), or everyone - if the latter, then you might want to find a solution which works decently well with both wider and narrower windows.

 

[Unsun]

I use a wide screen and dislike the narrow view. I think it'd be wonderful if there was a preview page in the general reply area as well.

 

[Diana]

I'll see if I can get the preview post to be fluid. O_O But Shien is correct, trying to format posts to look pretty on your screen width wise is only going to look good for you, because of the huge differences in people's screen resolutions. Screen sizes go from cellphones to tv screens. (So be careful when formatting posts to keep that in mind!)

 

[Unsun]

As a little input, if that's the case for those of us who have wider screens, why not just have a preview page on it in general? If someone who doesn't do formatting has that option, it could be easier for them to refer back to their partner's post, wouldn't it? If I'm replying to a partner, I don't want to always go to the 'more options' section and open a new tab just to see if the preview is working. It's tedious going back and forth if you are someone who always replies from the general reply box.