LOVE a new feature of the NEW Helpline..

I too like the additional length for messages. I especially like the feature that turns your URL addresses into actual links. I like to link lots of stuff with my messages.

Larry, thanks for pointing that out about the links. For years I have had a text file on my desktop with the Bulletin Board code for a link to the German Rail website's Query page that I cut and paste whenever I want to insert it. I'll have to modify it since we don't use BBC anymore.

What I do miss is the ability to underline. We can bold and italicize, but no underline.

Another feature I really love is the larger reply box and the preview pane. In the past, I found it difficult to find grammar errors and typos in that small text box. Of course I could always enlarge it using the dots in the lower right, and often did, but it seemed I needed to see it posted to see my errors. I can tell by typos that made it to threads that other have the same difficulty. So now, we have a preview pane, let's use it.

I hadn't noticed the feature with the URL links so that will be interesting to try.

I've also noticed that the "new improved" Helpline doesn't use multiple pages. All replies seem to be on one LONG page (or perhaps the page limits are just longer?).

I do miss my underlining feature though.....

Still would be nice to have most recent post first, so we don't have to scroll through all the ones we've already read.

@Nancy

I actually like and used most of the BBM features, as they were.

If you have a look through the link that Webbie gave last week for the information on the new Markdown script it is interesting that, aside from the missing underline (no I've not found a workaround despite checking) and color tags many of the effects on the menu bar can also be accomplished by typing inline. Also missing, and will be missed, is crossthrough which was invaluable for in post later editing incorrect or changed information.

If you want to BOLD something you can just surround the phrase with adjacent asterisks like THIS and THIS, one for italic and two for bold. Embedding inline also works Bolding with 2 then one for bold italics surrounded by just bold for example.

Hard breaks can also be forced as well as lists. URLs can also be written inline.

The document is actually quite fun to read if you are at all a coder, even if you aren't.

The new editor can really speed up the typing. None of the effects above were done using the clickable icons, the were all done inline.

@Nancy,

I liked the underline feature as it provided me with an additional option for emphasizing points in a reply. IMO, it's a bit more "gentle" than bold. Italics provides fairly subtle emphasis, and that's one that I use fairly frequently. Now that underline is gone, one other option would be to use Cap's although I don't like SHOUTING if I can avoid it.

The most recent version of the Helpline had the tabs at the top for Bold, Italics and Underline, so it was very easy to format posts to provide the type of emphasis that was desired.

That's what I preferred but YMMV.

Cheers!

The new feature I like best is how the PMs are handled. Nice to see the PM in my regular email so I can decide if I need to log on to respond now or do something later. Or totally ignore it. Second, your response to PM now automatically go to the top instead of the bottom. That was always my preference, anyway.

Nancy, I agree with Ken. Underlining is a less obtrusive way to emphasize something, like stressing the word a little bit when talking. You are not likely to notice the underlining except as you are reading it. Bold is more like shouting, maybe more so than all CAPs; it shows up before you ever start to read.

I also think that the length feature may apply to private messages as well! I've several back and forths on one message and not had to delete any part of the message!

Cheers!

Pam

Is this Traveler's Helpline in the GMT time zone ? Some of these replies, in this discussion thread, appear to have been posted at future times. I think Lee and Frank and Pamela and Nancy are very good repliers here, but I do not believe they have the ability to do time travel to a future time. And I do not have the ability to do time travel to a future time. Look at the time of this post. I posted this reply at the time 2:15 P.M. in the Pacific Time zone. (The state Washington is in the Pacific Time zone). The time then was 3:15 P.M. in the Mountain Time zone, and 4:15 P.M. in the Central Time zone, and 5:15 P.M. in the Eastern Time zone (in the United States of America).
I like the Preview feature for composing posts here.

oh, I don't know ... I rather like the fact that my local time is used. Thanks

This is all about Europe through the back door, so yeah, why not use Europe time? I am with Nigel on this one. :-)

A type-savvy designer will tell you to use italics for emphasis, bold to organize content (for instance, as subheads) and underlines only as specialty type, for instance with a typeface such as courier or american typewriter to emulate a typewritten manuscript.

Boldface and underscoring draws the eye away from the normal text flow and makes writing harder to read.

Underscores also suggest hyperlinks today, another reason to never use them.

If underlining (underscores) is available, I underline the title of a book. If underlining is not available, I use full capital letters (upper case) in the title of a book. I am aware that full capital letters in words, on the internet, is also perceived as "shouting". I was not shouting when I entered the title of a book. The italics font style is not always perceived as being different from the standard font style, seen on a computer's screen.

I thought titles of books, movies, etc. should get quotation marks.