Language Support for "Dialog"?

[waysoftheearth]

The "dialog" button is already a nice feature.

A nice enhancement would be to extend this to support multiple languages, each with its own recognisable formatting.

This could be implemented by adding a drop-down list of languages next to the "dialog" button so that when "dialog" is pressed, it inserts the selected language tag. I.e., if the poster were to select "Common" from the drop-down list of 20 languages and then press the "Dialog" button, the feature would insert the tags into the post.

When the post is subsequently rendered, each different language would have its own, different formatting style.

I.e., the Common tongue might be bold+blue style, Elvish might be italic+autumngreen, Goblintalk might be bold+olivegreen, and so on.


For bonus points, the game referee would be able to configure the available languages and the formatting style of each language in his particular game

Thoughts?

[ToniXX]

This is an interesting idea.

I looked into it and the only way it could work if there were individual buttons for each tongue, as there is no way to add a pull down menu. It could be done with one button per language, but it might be tough to touch on all languages needed, and would clutter the posting page.

Also, there is no way for a DM to define his own set of buttons. If that were the case, that would be really cool.

[waysoftheearth]

I looked into it and the only way it could work if there were individual buttons for each tongue, as there is no way to add a pull down menu. It could be done with one button per language, but it might be tough to touch on all languages needed, and would clutter the posting page.

In that case it might be best to provide, say, seven or so dialog "styles", and allow the user to associate the different "styles" with different languages by clicking the appropriate button.

I.e., if the board provided the following buttons:

[Lyric] [Grunt] [Loud] [Deep] [Squeaky] [Sinister] etc...

The you could press "Dialog" for normal, common speech, "Lyric" for elvish, poetry, singing, and so on, "Loud" for giants, elementals, dragons, and so on, "Sinister" for goblins, assassins, mind flayers, and so on. You get the idea

If this gets legs, then we could devise maybe seven or so "styles" which were most applicable to most games, and allow individuals to use (or ignore) them as they see fit in their games.

[rredmond]

Hmm, thinks another PbP DM looking up at the options he can press for his posts, that would make things a bit crowded.

Not that your idea doesn't have merit. How about (and just talking out my butt here, because I'm not sure what ToniXX can do or not) if the above button is [dialog1] and then on our own we can change it from 1 to 2 through 9? This way you don't clutter the options above the text box here, but you still have the ability to change options and keep it standardized. I'd suggest using the Font colour (we Americans pronounce that "color") but there are way too many options there to help keep things standard. The [dialog1] [dialog2] [dialog3] [dialog4] might be a good way to do that though. If you like it and if ToniXX says it's feasible that is.

I was thinking on this yesterday too, and mayhap double tapping the above options (dialog, then italics, or dialog then underline) might be a way to achieve what you want too. Not sure, but see examples below:

Elvish looking down my nose atchoo.
Half orc wants to eat your heart.
Hobbit picks your pocket.

Hope this helps and doesn't muddy the waters...

[waysoftheearth]

Thanks for your input Rredmond.

I know what you're saying; pretty much any style can be achieved already by clicking the desired combination of bold/italic/underline, font size, and font colour.

In a game I run I have been doing exactly that for the last three years. That is; manually selecting the first bit of dialog in a post, and then pressing "b". Then manually selecting the first bit of dialog again, and selecting a colour to apply. Then (sometimes) selecting the first bit of dialog again, and selecting a font size. Then repeating for each bit of dialog in the post. It is doable, for sure. But it is also quite a bit of effort, especially when there are half a dozen or more pieces of dialog in a post.

The whole point of this feature request, as I see it, is to:
a) reduce three (or more) required clicks to a single click, and,
b) to promote consistency in dialog formatting.

For me, I would prefer a button label that describes the formatting the button would apply (e.g., "elvish", or "lyrical", or whatever) because this makes it easier to remember which button to press, which promotes point b) above. "Dialog4" doesn't mean much, and I can see it getting tricky to remember whether I used "dialog4" or "dialog5" or "dialog6" for a particular character two months ago.

Anyway, it's no big deal. It's just an idea.

[rredmond]

I like the idea of your idea though. I wish I knew if better ways to do this for you. ToniXX is way better at this stuff than me. If its doable, when he gets a chance he'll do it I bet.

Be well wote!

[ToniXX]

In that case it might be best to provide, say, seven or so dialog "styles", and allow the user to associate the different "styles" with different languages by clicking the appropriate button.

I.e., if the board provided the following buttons:

[Lyric] [Grunt] [Loud] [Deep] [Squeaky] [Sinister] etc...

The you could press "Dialog" for normal, common speech, "Lyric" for elvish, poetry, singing, and so on, "Loud" for giants, elementals, dragons, and so on, "Sinister" for goblins, assassins, mind flayers, and so on. You get the idea

If this gets legs, then we could devise maybe seven or so "styles" which were most applicable to most games, and allow individuals to use (or ignore) them as they see fit in their games.

What you propose here could be done easily. I, as a DM and a player, probably wouldn't use it, but I see that others may so I'm willing to give it a try.
If you guys want to hash out what each would be named and how each would be styled, I'll enter them in and we'll give it a go.

I think I should be able to style these in almost any way (if it can be done in HTML, it can be done here). I'm not 100% sure, but I'll give it a try. I assume what we're talking about would be pretty simple: bold, italic, different colors, maybe slightly larger font or a different font face...

[AQuebman]

I imagine in non button format this could always be done with the appropriate HTML tags around text to make it look or feel a certain way. So the boards I assume won't let us add a drop-down like what is used for Font Size? I agree i'm against too much clutter, I like the dialog as it is but I could see somebody using this feature though i'm with Tonixx I don't know that I would. Font sizing, and colors seem to do it for me. I'm pretty sure if the HTML is allowed and supported on the boards you can also change the Font Style which may give you that "ethnic" feel if that's what your searching for.