Improved Formatting Tags

Martin LissKeep everyone healthy; Get Vaccinated
CERTIFIED EXPERT
Almost 50 years of programming experience. Click '+ More' in my "Full Biography" to see links to some articles I've written.
Published:
Updated:
I really like Experts Exchange but the text formatting tags are pretty basic. For example in an article I wrote I found that when I put a "[bullet]" tag in front of a list of items and a closing "[/bullet]" tag at the end I expected that each item in the list would be given a bullet, but as it turned out only the first item got one. I reported that as a problem to Community Support but I was told that I needed to put matching "[bullet]" "[/bullet]" on every item in the list. That's pretty tedious so to make life easier for myself I created an HTM file that works on Internet Explorer as an addition to IE's context menu. The htm file is embedded at the end of this article and here is how you use it.
 
Copy the file to C:\EE\HTM Files (or any other place you want)
Go to your Start menu, enter regedit, and click OK
Find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MenuExt
Create an entry for named 'EE bullet list' by right-clicking on MenuExt and then selecting New|Key
Right-click on the (Default) value, select Modify and and type in C:\EE\HTM Files \EE bullet list.htm
Right-click on the new entry and select New|Binary Value
Name that entry 'contexts'
Right-click on the contexts entry, select Modify and type in '04'
Exit the Registry editor
Close and restart IE
When you do that you will be able to highlight the entries in a list, right click, and then select the new 'EE bullet list' entry like I just did:) Easy!

Update: 11/29/2011
I've also embedded another htm file for IE users and this one will spell check your posts. In order for it to work you need to have Word installed on your PC. Installation is the same as decribed above except that substitute 'EE Spell Check.htm' for the name of the file.

Update 11/30/2011
I've now created an Extension for Safari that will give users of that browser the ability to do bulleted lists just like my htm file for IE. To use it
 
Download the safariextz file from here
Make sure that your Safari|Preferences…|Extensions is 'On'
Doubleclick the downloaded file and then 'Open' and 'Install' it
Once that's done you'll have right-click access to the 'EE List Bullets' item.
EE-bullet-list.htm
EE-Spell-Check.htm

Update 12/04/2011
Changes for IE
Embedded three new context menu items which will
1.    Produce a numbered list like this one
2.    Change the case of text that you've typed (to upper, to lower, or to capitalize each word)
3.    Remove unwanted tags

To implement them just follow the instructions at the top of the article
EE-numbered-list.htm
  EE-Change-Case.htm
EE-Strip-Tags.htm

Changes for Safari
1.    Produce a numbered list like this one
2.    Remove unwanted tags
Note that Safari already allows you to change case via the 'Transformations' context menu item.

To implement them download the safariextz file from here and then follow the instructions in the 11/30/2001 update.

 
If you find that this article has been helpful, please click the “thumb’s up” button below. Doing so lets me know what is valuable for EE members and provides direction for future articles. It also provides me with positive feedback in the form of a few points. Thanks!
1
3,179 Views
Martin LissKeep everyone healthy; Get Vaccinated
CERTIFIED EXPERT
Almost 50 years of programming experience. Click '+ More' in my "Full Biography" to see links to some articles I've written.

Comments (1)

HainKurtSr. System Analyst

Commented:
Do you think we will follow all these steps (with a possibility of crashing our os), just to fix something EE missed on the editor ;)

Have a question about something in this article? You can receive help directly from the article author. Sign up for a free trial to get started.