Is there a way to edit a quote or a set of quotes, so I can only quote the parts I need?For those more technically inclined or those who like a challenge, here's how to edit quotes so that you don't have redundant material in your posts:
1. When you click Quote, you get an editable copy of the entire message you selected to quote. Things are pretty straight-forward if you've quoted a message that contains no other quotes of earlier messages because you only have one quote in your message. In this case, just type your message at the very end of the information displayed, to ensure your own comments will appear in the white area of the new message frame.
However, IF the message you chose to quote already contained quotes of previous messages, these are all identified in the first few lines of code. You can tell how many "nests" are contained in the quote by the number of header lines which all appear right at the start of the editable quote you are looking at. The header lines are the more complicated ones that contain the writer's name, the message number, date, etc.
Each of those "headers" - all of which appear at the start of the information displayed - has a corresponding "footer" or "end-quote" code. An "end-quote" is the word "quote" with a slash in front of it, contained in square brackets. Each end-quote belongs to one of the headers. The last header pairs up with the first end-quote. Everything in between those 2 markers defines what will be in the centre-most box of the nested quotes. The 2nd header pairs up with the 2nd end-quote and everything in between those 2 markers defines what will be in the next box of quotes nested around the centre-most box of quotes. Etc., etc.
3. Let's imagine that you see 4 different headers - all by 4 different writers, but you're really only responding to one of the 4 writers. Get rid of all the headers except the one that contains the writer's name who you are responding to.
Pay attention to square brackets. Square brackets denote the start and end of "code commands". Don't leave square brackets hanging around as orphans, and don't delete square brackets that you need to surround the commands you intend to keep.
4. Get rid of all the previous message content that you're not really responding to.
5. Once you are done editing you need to have, in this example, only ONE "end-quote". An "end-quote" is the word "quote" with a slash in front of it, contained in square brackets. You only need one, because in order for the yellow box frames to display correctly, each header at the top needs its own corresponding "end-quote".
You must have one and only one "end-quote" for EVERY header you have kept at the top which contains the original writers' names.
So in this example, where we are intending to keep only one of the 4 writer's original quotes, we only need one end-quote to remain at the end of the quote that we are keeping. Of course it gets a little more confusing to sort out if you're trying to isolate more than one quote to keep, but in most cases the one quote is all you need to make the context of your own message clear.
Remember that most people are scanning through pages and pages to get caught up, so unless you are responding to something that is very old, you probably only need to keep one quote, if any, as most responses you make are made very shortly after the original comment to which you are responding.
[Sorry, techie training is hard to convey in the written word. It always gets very verbose. Questions are welcomed.]
6. Always put your own new comment below the final "end-quote". This causes your own words to display in the white area of the frame so that it's clear what you're writing as opposed to what someone else previously wrote.
7. To avoid unnecessary repetitions of photos, when you are commenting on a photo shortly after it appears and you are using quotes, get rid of the "img" header and footer and the url which appears between them which points to the photo file's location. That will avoid repeating the recent photo in your post.
If you want to try out features you haven't used before, visit the Sandbox, where you can experiment to your heart's content:
http://ultimatebrokebackforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=2514.0
