Straight text columns

[Henry]

I'm running WinXP Pro SP3, 2.7GHz CPU, 2G RAM with Textpad as a text program.

Is there a way to make the columns stay lined up straight in an ASCII text
editor? Newsgroups insist on text only submissions, but when I put up a list
of things with more than one column, the outcome is that the columns don't
stay aligned. It doesn't matter if I put the data directly in the email or
attach it to the email, the columns don't stay aligned.

I'm using Mozilla for email. I tried Outlook on my wifes computer with the
same results.

Thanks

Henry

 

[Nil]

Is there a way to make the columns stay lined up straight in an
ASCII text editor? Newsgroups insist on text only submissions,
but when I put up a list of things with more than one column, the
outcome is that the columns don't stay aligned. It doesn't matter
if I put the data directly in the email or attach it to the email,
the columns don't stay aligned.

You have no real control over it. The control is up to the viewer. They
will have the best chance of viewing the columns as you intend if you:

- use spaces between columns rather than tabs
- keep the total line length short, no more than about 75 characters

and they:

- use a monospace font such as Courier
- turn of anything in their viewer/editor that wraps columns.

 

[robertva]

I'm running WinXP Pro SP3, 2.7GHz CPU, 2G RAM with Textpad as a text
program.

Is there a way to make the columns stay lined up straight in an ASCII
text editor? Newsgroups insist on text only submissions, but when I put
up a list of things with more than one column, the outcome is that the
columns don't stay aligned. It doesn't matter if I put the data directly
in the email or attach it to the email, the columns don't stay aligned.

I'm using Mozilla for email. I tried Outlook on my wifes computer with
the same results.

Thanks

Henry

"..using Mozilla for email." Mozilla offers multiple applications.
Firefox? Thunderbird?

Pure text doesn't really include a mechanism for that beyond positioning
text with spaces. Even with that the author has to create the text
displaying a fixed width font (like Courier) and the reader may have to
use the menus in their reader application to display the article with a
fixed width font. It may be advisable to include advise to "read in a
fixed width font" in the text above the table. If someone is reading
your article in an application or web based forum that doesn't offer a
fixed width font they may be able to copy the table to the operating
system's clip board and paste it into their favorite word processor.

 

[Lawrence Logic]

I'm running WinXP Pro SP3, 2.7GHz CPU, 2G RAM with Textpad as a text
program.

Is there a way to make the columns stay lined up straight in an ASCII text
editor? Newsgroups insist on text only submissions, but when I put up a
list of things with more than one column, the outcome is that the columns
don't stay aligned. It doesn't matter if I put the data directly in the
email or attach it to the email, the columns don't stay aligned.

I'm using Mozilla for email. I tried Outlook on my wifes computer with the
same results.

Thanks

As Nil said, it's the reader rather than the sender who determines how the
text is displayed. In Outlook Express, you select View/Text Size/Fixed to
change to a non-proportional font. Try it on this post. The list below
looks like crap at first, but the columns line up once you've selected a
fixed-width font.

Tests 152 259 28 12363 257 53.51 20827 59.36 39 56
ODIs 359 349 37 13288 164 42.58 16510 80.48 30 79
T20Is 17 16 2 401 98* 28.64 302 132.78 0 2
First-class 255 436 55 21332 257 55.98 73 94 270 0
List A 431 421 50 15644 164 42.16 34 94 187 0
Twenty20 22 21 2 460 98* 24.21 375 122.66 0 2

 

[robin]

| I'm running WinXP Pro SP3, 2.7GHz CPU, 2G RAM with Textpad as a text program.
|
| Is there a way to make the columns stay lined up straight in an ASCII text
| editor? Newsgroups insist on text only submissions, but when I put up a list
| of things with more than one column, the outcome is that the columns don't
| stay aligned. It doesn't matter if I put the data directly in the email or
| attach it to the email, the columns don't stay aligned.

You need to use a non-proportional font.

 

[Tester]

| I'm running WinXP Pro SP3, 2.7GHz CPU, 2G RAM with Textpad as a text program.
|
| Is there a way to make the columns stay lined up straight in an ASCII text
| editor? Newsgroups insist on text only submissions, but when I put up a list
| of things with more than one column, the outcome is that the columns don't
| stay aligned. It doesn't matter if I put the data directly in the email or
| attach it to the email, the columns don't stay aligned.

You need to use a non-proportional font.

and spaces to align the columns!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Non proportional fonts
like Courier New is ideal in most cases but even some typewriter fonts
might do the trick.

Newsgroups always makes rules to do things in a certain way but rules
are made to be broken otherwise there won't be any rules!. Go ahead and
use html in that particular message or post the message on public site
and provide a link to your target audience.

 

[Henry]

Is there a way to make the columns stay lined up straight in an ASCII
text editor?

Thanks to all of you that replied. If I

1. Used spaces between columns rather than tabs
2. Kept the total line length short so it wouldn't wrap
3. and used a monospace font such as Courier

that the columns stayed aligned in a text editor and when I emailed the text
the columns stayed aligned.

Thanks again to all.

Henry