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    Invelos Forums->DVD Profiler: Contribution Discussion Page: 1 2 3  Previous   Next
Em dashes in Overview
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DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile Registrantkdh1949
Have Gun Will Travel
Registered: March 13, 2007
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We seem to be having a contest to see who can change the most em dashes in the overviews from " - " to " -- " and back again.  Some people actually use an em dash, but when I try to insert one it seems to me it's replaced with a hyphen.  I wish there were some standard we could apply to these dashes -- and that people would cease and desist from making changes from one to the other.

(Originally posted in Technical Support forum because I forgot where I was. )
Another Ken (not Ken Cole)
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DVD Profiler user since June 15, 2001
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorWinston Smith
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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Oh come now, Ken. they must have some reason to play ping-pong.
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Billy Video
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorKatatonia
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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I'm only submitting such Overview changes when doing a wider contribution, and only when it appears to match the back cover more accurately. Many times they were previous mistakes I had made in the past, or when contributed new profiles on Invelos' birth.

These seem to be the four used in Overviews:

- (short hyphen)
(long hyphen)
(longer hyphen)
-- (two short hyphens repeated)
Corey
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile Registrantjgilligan
Got PEZ?
Registered: March 14, 2007
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Personally, I find the whole effort to change to various types of hyphens/dashes to be quite annoying.  I also feel the quotes to indicate bolding are somewhat useless.  Sure, they indicate SOME of the formatting, but definitely not all of it.  What about smaller fonts or italics or different colors?  Why is only some of the formatting important?

I find this as useful as reading HTML or XML text.  Sure, the tags indicate additional information, but they impede reading the actual text that could be useful of informative.

We already have a scanned image of the back cover if anybody wants to see the overview exactly as presented.
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile Registrantwintermute115
What Would Batman Do?
Registered: May 25, 2007
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Quoting jgilligan:
Quote:
Personally, I find the whole effort to change to various types of hyphens/dashes to be quite annoying.  I also feel the quotes to indicate bolding are somewhat useless.  Sure, they indicate SOME of the formatting, but definitely not all of it.  What about smaller fonts or italics or different colors?  Why is only some of the formatting important?

I find this as useful as reading HTML or XML text.  Sure, the tags indicate additional information, but they impede reading the actual text that could be useful of informative.

We already have a scanned image of the back cover if anybody wants to see the overview exactly as presented.


I agree. We should either actually capture all the formatting rather than just marking that a section has some sort of formatting, or none. The half-hearted middle path currently being taken is the worst of both worlds.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantWhite Pongo, Jr.
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Registered: August 22, 2007
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Quoting Katatonia:
Quote:

These seem to be the four used in Overviews:

- (short hyphen)
(long hyphen)
(longer hyphen)
-- (two short hyphens repeated)


If I enter them in the Overview field in DVDP, in the edit window I don't see the two longer hyphens (replaced by a little black square). They are all shown correctly in the view window, though.
-- Enry
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorKatatonia
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting EnryWiki:
Quote:
If I enter them in the Overview field in DVDP, in the edit window I don't see the two longer hyphens (replaced by a little black square). They are all shown correctly in the view window, though.


That's because they're special characters, just like the trademark/registered/copyright symbols used often in profiles.
Corey
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantAgrare
Registered: May 22, 2007
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Quoting Katatonia:
Quote:
I'm only submitting such Overview changes when doing a wider contribution, and only when it appears to match the back cover more accurately. Many times they were previous mistakes I had made in the past, or when contributed new profiles on Invelos' birth.

These seem to be the four used in Overviews:

- (short hyphen)
(long hyphen)
(longer hyphen)
-- (two short hyphens repeated)


how do you insert these in the edit overview window? I have a profile that has an error in it that I was going to correct and submit, but it additionally uses a -- where it should use the long(er) hyphen and figured i'd add that in as well

-Agrare
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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Registered: May 19, 2007
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A hyphen is a hyphen weither it's long or short.  In the end, you get a hyphen.

Replacing a - with a – is frivolous.  Now replacing a -- with an - when it's clear the overview only has one hyphen is valid in my opinion.
 Last edited: by Dr. Killpatient
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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Quoting Agrare:
Quote:
how do you insert these in the edit overview window? I have a profile that has an error in it that I was going to correct and submit, but it additionally uses a -- where it should use the long(er) hyphen and figured i'd add that in as well

-Agrare

Start > Run > charmap
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorDJ Doena
Registered: May 1, 2002
Registered: March 14, 2007
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Quoting Dr. Killpatient:
Quote:
A hyphen is a hyphen weither it's long or short.  In the end, you get a hyphen.

Replacing a - with a – is frivolous.  Now replacing a -- with an - when it's clear the overview only has one hyphen is valid in my opinion.

In german there is a difference between the short and the long one.

The short one is to connect words such as "far-fetched" or for phone numbers "555-8742".

The long one can replace commas or is meant as a thinking pause "Dr. John Carter - an ER doctor - has come to work".

I wouldn't use the long one when entering an overview just as I don't use it here in the forums, it's to much work to find it in the charmap.
Karsten
DVD Collectors Online

 Last edited: by DJ Doena
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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That "thinking pause" exists here in US English as well, though I've only seen it use the long hyphen in printed documents, never electronically.
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantAgrare
Registered: May 22, 2007
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Quoting Dr. Killpatient:
Quote:
A hyphen is a hyphen weither it's long or short.  In the end, you get a hyphen.

Replacing a - with a – is frivolous.  Now replacing a -- with an - when it's clear the overview only has one hyphen is valid in my opinion.


while I'll agree that long vs short is probably frivolous for a contribution by itself, i only made changes to to this profile after seeing 'te' where there should have been 'the' and then after checking the back cover saw it wasn't an error on the cover, but simply a typo. While doing so I noticed a -- (double hyphen) where there was only a single longer hyphen so figured I might as well change this as well since I was doing a wider change to it. I additionally also found a second typo while writing my contribution notes that I went back and fixed.

-Agrare
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorBerak
Bibamus morieundum est!
Registered: May 10, 2007
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A hyphen is a hyphen is a hyphen is a hyphen...     
Berak

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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributortweeter
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Registered: June 12, 2007
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Quoting Agrare:
Quote:
Quoting Katatonia:
Quote:
I'm only submitting such Overview changes when doing a wider contribution, and only when it appears to match the back cover more accurately. Many times they were previous mistakes I had made in the past, or when contributed new profiles on Invelos' birth.

These seem to be the four used in Overviews:

- (short hyphen)
(long hyphen)
(longer hyphen)
-- (two short hyphens repeated)


how do you insert these in the edit overview window? I have a profile that has an error in it that I was going to correct and submit, but it additionally uses a -- where it should use the long(er) hyphen and figured i'd add that in as well

-Agrare

The following can be entered either using the Character Map utility or by <ALT> codes (hold down the <ALT> key and type the four digit number, then release the <ALT> key)

(long hyphen)  -> <ALT>0150
(longer hyphen)  -> <ALT>0151
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DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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