N° of hits since March 2008: Return to White Hound fan-fiction
Return to White Hound fan-fiction
Fanfiction.net How-To
This document is intended to assist Fanfiction.net authors to edit their work and find their way around the peculiarities of ffn's text-handling without encountering too many nasty surprises. It includes a selection of attractive section breaks which will display correctly and can be used to break up your text.
A great many ffn writers do seem to have trouble with the editing system. If you find the advice or the section break designs on this page useful, please consider including a plug for it in your author's notes, so other beleaguered authors can find it. Any link which may be included will of course have to be written in a form which ffn will display, such as www. whitehound. co. uk/Fanfic/ffn underscore how-to. htm (note spaces after all the dots).
To acquire an ffn ID:
contents list
From one of the general Fanfiction.net pages, click Register at top-right. Choose a name and password and then follow the instructions.
It is possible to set up more than one ffn ID, but each ID must use a separate email address. For example, I use the whitehound ID and the email address whitehound@madasafish.com for stories which I write solo, and the Borolin ID and the email address cj_whitehound@madasafish.com for stories which I write in collaboration with Dyce.
Note that your permanent ID with ffn is actually a number, not a name: for example, whitehound's number is 889650. This number stays with you, but you can change the name which is associated with the number. The first page you come to after you log in (see below) is called Account Settings, and one of those settings is called PenName. If you click on the Edit option next to PenName, you can change your user name. The name attached to all your stories will be retroactively changed as well.
Beware of changing your PenName too often or casually, though. It is by your PenName that your readers will remember you, and by it that they will look for you in the Search facility. A name-change can lose you a lot of faithful readers.
To log in:
From one of the general Fanfiction.net pages, click Login at top right. Fill in your e-mail address and password if you are not already logged on, and click Login.
If you have already told Windows to remember this password, the password will be filled in for you automatically as soon as you enter your email address.
It is a good idea to tick the box marked "Keep me logged in for 3 days" before clicking Login, unless you have some specific reason to wish to log out again very soon.
Once you have clicked Login you will be taken to the Account Settings page of your personal account pages, where you will see various options displayed along the top and left-hand side of the window. If you wish to log out again, click Logout at top left.
To upload a document:
The document you intend to upload must contain the contents of a story or chapter of a story, laid out in some clear format more or less as you wish it to appear on ffn. Its file-size must be no larger than 1Mb if you are using a dial-up connection, or 9Mb if using broadband.
The document must be of one of the following types and file-extensions:
In all cases ffn will (at least in theory) correctly reproduce basic formatting (bold-face, italics and underlining), except for Plain Text which by definition doesn't have those anyway.
Only very basic HTML tags will be obeyed. According to ffn's own documentation it will only accept <BR>, <U>, <B>, <I>, <HR>, <CENTER> and <P>. It will however accept tags with extra instructions in them, and just ignore them - so <P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"> is treated just the same as <P> - and it will accept characters formatted using the "named entity" system, where e.g. ½ produces the ½ character.
Log in as described above and go to your personal account. Click on Documents from the list of options at the left of the page. You will see a box called Document Manager, containing a list of whatever named documents you may currently have in your documents folder on ffn's server. Each document-name occupies the left-hand side of a line which also has entries to the right showing the format, the number of words in the document, how many days it is scheduled to remain in the Document Manager for before ffn automatically deletes it, and the options Edit/Preview and Remove.
Beneath the Document Manager is a table labelled Upload New Document, in which to fill in the details of the new document you wish to upload.
At the bottom of the form there are two radio buttons marked "Format:". If the document you are uploading is intended for immediate display as a story, make sure the Story button is ticked. The Docx format is a new feature for uploading documents to be shared with other ffn members on an individual basis, such as beta readers, using the new Docx handling system which you will see on your options at the left of the page. Files uploaded to the Document Manager in Docx format preserve a wider range of formatting options, but they cannot be published as stories in that form.
Give the document a brief but reasonably memorable descriptive name (even if it's just "chap 3") in the text-box marked "Label:".
Make sure the document you wish to upload is closed. Use the Browse button to search your computer's file-tree and find the file you want to upload, then click on the button marked "Submit Document".
Your document should now appear in the Document Manager table near the top of the page, under the name which you have given it. Click the Edit/Preview option for that document, and make sure that it is loaded correctly. Ffn occasionally either screws up the formatting of a document or fails to load it completely, cutting it off partway through. In the latter case you will just have to keep on re-trying until it picks up the whole thing, or attempt to paste in the missing section - which it may or may not accept. You can get an idea of whether it has truncated the upload or not by looking at the figure under "Words", and seeing if it looks big enough.
Ffn may also have changed some of your formatting. For advice, see section below on upload errors and on editing.
Unless you specifically delete them by clicking on the Remove option in the Document Manager, files will remain in your Document Manager indefinitely. The column headed "Life:" counts down sixty days from when you uploaded the files, or from the last time you updated them and Saved Changes. After that they still stay there, but with a minus number in the "Life" column, although you can give them a new sixty-day lease of life by opening them in the edit window and then clicking Save Changes. It is a good idea to clear out old files you no longer need, however, in order not to clutter up ffn's servers.
Note that when you copy a file from the Document Manager into a story, whether as a new story or new chapter of an existing story, the original copy in the Document Manager will still be there as well. This did not used to be the case.
To add a story:
Upload the document as described above, and check it.
Select Stories from the options at the left of the page. This brings up a list of pre-existing stories.
Select New Story from the options at top right.
If you haven't uploaded a new story recently, a message will appear prompting you to read the story guidelines. Click the Guidelines link, and read them if you feel so inclined.
The Guidelines page includes a list of appropriate fic ratings, which are as follows:
B: Intended for preschool level and younger children between the ages of 1 and 4. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, adult themes, and ideas very young children cannot comprehend.
K: Intended for general audience 5 years and older. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, and adult themes.
K+: Suitable for more mature children, 9 years and older, with minor action violence without serious injury. May contain mild coarse language. Should not contain any adult themes.
T: Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.
M: Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with possible strong but non-explicit adult themes, references to violence, and strong coarse language.
MA: Content is only suitable for mature adults. May contain explicit language and adult themes.
Click the link at the bottom which says "Yes, I have read and agreed to the content guidelines." This refreshes the Guidelines page. You will still be on the Guidelines page but you will now see a New Story link at top right again. Click it.
You will now see a bar labelled "First Step: Click to Select Category". Click on it.
A dialogue box will now appear. If you have uploaded stories before, the first item in the box will be a pull-down list of the categories which your stories already occupy, and if the new story is on a similar theme you can just select the category from this list.
Otherwise, select your main category - Books, Comics or whatever - from the list headed "Select Main Category". Once you have done so, a list of sub-categories will appear. Use this list to select the specific story around which your fanfic is based, then click the bar labelled "Click to Continue".
A page for story details will appear. There are two text-boxes in which to enter your Title, and Summary, plus pull-downs for selecting Language, Rating, Genre 1, Genre 2, Status, Character 1, Character 2 and Document.
The Title bar accepts all letters (including foreign ones) and numbers but it will not successfully save and display most "fancy" characters - not even some normal punctuation. It will not for example display full stops (periods), semi-colons, hyphens, slashes, brackets or double quotes, so you need to restrict your title as far as possible to plain text. Also note that it is restricted to 50 characters including spaces.
The Summary bar will allow the display of most normal punctuation, and is restricted to 255 characters including spaces.
Select the various options covered by the pull-down lists:
Language means English, Spanish or whatever.
Rating means whether it is K+, T etc. as shown in the list given above. Stories rated MA are not actually allowed and there is no option for them on the list. Also note that it's a bad idea to rate a story M unless it definitely deserves it, because when readers first open an ffn story-list the default is not to show any stories with an M rating, unless they specifically select "Fiction Rating: All" from the options listed at top right.
Genre means Angst, Poetry, Romance etc., and you are allowed to have two, as for example Drama/Science Fiction or Humor/Romance.
Status means whether the story is In-Progress or Complete.
The Character-lists enable you to identify two main characters. If your main character is not listed, or your story does not centre around a small number of specific individuals, you can leave these pull-downs blank.
Document shows a list of the stories which you currently have in your Document Manager. Select the one which you uploaded for this story.
When you are satisfied, click the bar at the bottom labelled Submit Story. You should see a message which says:
A message will now be sent to your email address, and to anybody who has you on author- or story-alert, announcing the successful upload of the new story.
Check that your summary and title have come through OK. If you need to change them, return to the Stories page, and select the edit option next to the story in question. This will take you back to the page with the title and summary boxes, genre and character pull-downs etc. as above, except that the bar at the bottom, which you click when you are satisfied, now says Save Changes.
Note also that when you finish a work in progress you should likewise return to the Stories page, select the edit option next to the story in question and use the Status pull-down to change the story from In-Progress to Complete.
To add a chapter:
Upload the file for your new chapter in the same manner as for a new story, and check that it has come across properly.
When you are satisfied with the document, save any changes and select Stories from the list at the left side of the window. Click on the story you want to add to.
Once you are on the Story Edit page for the right story, look for a link called "Content/Chapters", near the top. Click on it.
This will take you to a page where the pre-existing chapters for that story are listed. Near the bottom you will see a section labelled "Add Chapter". In the text-box labelled "Chapter Title", type in the title if any (if not, ffn will just assign it a number). Use the Document pull-down to select the relevant document from the Document Manager, and click the button marked "Add".
Upload errors:
After you've uploaded a story or chapter, it's a good idea to check it very carefully, especially if it was a .doc file or similar rather than HTML. Specific HTML tags for things like italics and underscoring will usually be honoured by ffn, but italics, centred-text and other formatting in a .doc file come through only very patchily, and often revert to plain text. Ffn also sometimes removes spaces and runs two words together: this can happen when you edit a pre-existing file which you have exported to the Document Manager, as well as when you upload a new one.
Double-spacing between two paragraphs, to indicate a section-break, simply doesn't come through, nor do pre-existing horizontal rules in uploaded documents, although the <HR> tag in HTML files is honoured. The document manager dislikes single spaces after a horizontal rule and will usually (though not always) change them to either no space or a double space - about the only time that double spacing works. You may have to delete and re-insert spaces and save your changes several times before you are satisfied: see section on editing, below.
To edit a chapter:
To edit the chapter title etc.:
Go to Login - Stories and click on the story you want, then go to Content/Chapters (on the Story Edit line).
Find the chapter you want to alter (if it's a one-shot you will have only one). On the right of the page you will see a series of options - edit del exp dl.
Click on edit, and you will see that the chapter title is now in an editable box. You will also see a pull-down labelled "move to:", which enables you to shunt an individual chapter higher or lower in relation to the chapter-list as a whole. When you have made any necessary changes, click the button marked Save.
To delete a chapter:
If you are making a lot of corrections it may be better to delete the faulty chapter, alter the original source-file and then re-post it. Go to Login - Stories and click on the story you want, then go to Content/Chapters (on the Story Edit line). Click on the "del" option next to the chapter you want to delete, then upload the replacement.
For small alterations, however, it's better to use ffn's internal editing system - especially as deleting and re-posting a chapter may result in spurious "New Chapter" alerts being sent out. In the case of one-shots, deleting the one-and-only chapter may also cause you to lose your pre-existing reviews.
To edit content:
There are two slightly different ways to edit a chapter, depending on how recently it was uploaded.
If the chapter was uploaded or edited within the past sixty days, it should still be in your Documents folder. In this case:
Identify the document which contains the chapter you want to edit, and click either on the name of the document or on the Edit/Preview option. A window will appear containing an editable version of the document.
Make sure you remember the name of the document you are editing, as you will need to know it later.
If the chapter was not uploaded or edited within the past sixty days, it may no longer be in your Documents folder (although usually old documents linger like a bad smell, with a minus figure in the "Life" column). In this case:
Click on exp and a message will appear at the top of the screen, saying: "Chapter exported to Document Manager as Export:" followed by the name and number of the chapter.
The word "Export:" plus the chapter ID will be a blue hyperlink. Click this hyperlink and you will see an editable copy of the chapter.
In either case, the rest of the procedure is the same:
When you are satisfied with the results of your last Save, go back to Stories and select the story you want again. Select Content/Chapters again.
At the bottom of the screen you will find a section headed "Replace Chapter". Select the chapter you want to alter from the "Replace content in" pull-down.
Now click the "with document" pull-down, and you will see a list of all documents you may currently have uploaded. This will include the one you just edited. Select it, double check that you really have matched the right replacement file to the right original chapter, then click the button at the side marked Replace.
N.B. On those occasions when ffn's document-upload system is broken, you can use the editing system to circumvent it. Export any random chapter from any of your stories, as described above, to get it into the Document Manager, then delete the existing content and paste in the content of your new chapter - or do the same with any document which may already be in your Document Manager, and which you can afford to overwrite in this way. Save Changes and then make sure it really has saved them.
Then go to Stories, select the story you wish to add the new chapter to and go to Content/Chapters. Near the bottom of the screen you will find a section headed "Add Chapter". Type the name of the chapter, if any, in the box under "Chapter Title".
Now click the "Document" pull-down, and you will see a list of all documents you may currently have uploaded. This will include the one you just edited with new chapter-content: if you used an exported file, it will be called "1. Export:" followed by the chapter number and name of the chapter you originally exported it from. Select it, then click the button at the side marked Add.
Then go to Live Preview on the Story Edit line, and make sure it worked!
Editing text:
Open the text you wish to edit by clicking Edit/Preview against the relevant file in the Document Manager, or by clicking on an exported file as shown above.
You will see that at the top left of the editing window there are buttons for inserting a horizontal rule, for various formatting options and for actions such as Undo. To format a piece of text as italics, for example, highlight the text and click the button marked I.
A "Find" option, signified by a button showing a pair of binoculars, has recently been added, to help you find the piece of text you are trying to change. If you click on Find you will find there is also a Replace option on offer.
As at late March 2008, the editing window has just suffered another upgrade. It has had added unto it an HTML button, which enables you to see and edit your text in HTML code, and an option called "Paste from Word". Click on the latter and a small pop-up window will open, into which you can paste Word text using Ctrl-V, and then click on Insert to paste it into your story text. Since you can paste directly from Word into the story text in any case, this is a singularly useless addition. All it seems to do is convert your Word text into the same font as your story text - but that happens automatically when you hit Save Changes, in any case.
You can now go ahead and make any changes you want, within the limits of ffn's flexibility. Bear in mind however that certain characters are disallowed (see below), and although they will appear as you type them, they will disappear when you try to save them.
Note that hitting Return/Enter on its own will create a paragraph-break (separated lines with a one-line space in between them), but hitting Return/Enter whilst depressing the Shift key will create a line-break (separated lines with no space between them). You are not allowed to have more than one space between paragraphs, and if you try it ffn will reduce it back to one space as soon as you try to save your changes.
Ffn can be very sticky about paragraph and line breaks. You may find it puts in more or less space than you've told it to, especially following a horizontal rule. You may also find that a change to line-spacing results in line-breaks further down the page being converted from line-breaks to paragraph-breaks or vice versa. If you are going to insert or delete a break, always Save Changes and then check the file very carefully to make sure it's come out the way you intended, including checking that the breaks further down the page are still as you want them. You may have to fiddle around with the breaks and save them several times to get something acceptable.
When you are satisfied with the alterations, click the Save Changes button. A message saying "Changes to document: [name of document] successfully saved." will appear at the top of the screen, and the document in the editing window will be updated.
Now read through the document in the editing window and see if the changes you have made still look OK. Ffn will not necessarily apply the changes in exactly the way you made them, especially as regards spacing. You may have to fiddle around, alternately editing and saving, until you get a result you are happy with.
Character-display (eccentricities of):
Ffn will not display all the characters in the standard character set, and some of those which it does display do not appear in all circumstances. The characters which it does not display will appear in the edit window if you type them in as you edit your text, but when you save your changes they disappear.
With those characters which will only display under certain circumstances, it's as well to check very carefully after saving your text, because a character-string may save and appear normally six times in a row and fail on the seventh.
Note that nearly all characters can be accessed by holding down the Alt key and tapping a number on the number-pad (not on the numbers along the top of your keyboard). There are a few, however, which can only be displayed by entering a code into HTML text, or by copy-and-pasting them.
As at early August 2008, the following characters are never displayed in story-text after saving, under any circumstances:
Character:
Alt plus n° on number-pad:
Dollar sign
$
36, 036
Percent sign
%
37, 037
Asterisk
*
42, 042
Left angle-bracket/less than
<
60, 060
Equals sign
=
61, 061
Right angle-bracket/greater than
>
62, 062
Commercial at sign
@
64, 064
Left square bracket
[
91, 091
Right square bracket
]
93, 093
Caret
^
94, 094
Underscore
_
95, 176, 177, 178, 219, 220, 223, 242, 254, 095
Grave accent (at top-left of keyboard)
`
96, 096
Left curly bracket or brace
{
123, 0123
Vertical bar (aka Sheffer stroke or pipe)
|
124, 0124
Right curly bracket or brace
}
125, 0125
Tilde
~
126, 0126
Clubs card suit
¨
Enter HTML code ♣ (no Alt+ number)
Diamonds card suit
©
Enter HTML code ♦ (no Alt+ number)
Hearts card suit
ª
Enter HTML code ♥ (no Alt+ number)
Spades card suit
«
Enter HTML code ♠ (no Alt+ number)
In addition, the little placeholder squares which you get by pressing Alt and typing 0129 (or any of several other numbers) on the keyboard sometimes end up as squares and sometimes end up as Japanese characters. I haven't found out what controls this, which is a pity, as some of the Japanese characters make attractive patterns.
Note that the left angle bracket or "less than" sign < not only does not display but is dangerous to insert, as ffn may interpret it as the start of an HTML tag, and do unpredictable things to the following text.
As at early August 2008, the following characters are not displayed if they are the only character on a line, whether singly, or multiple examples of the same character.
General currency sign
¤
15, 207, 0164
Paragraph sign or pilcrow
¶
20, 244, 0182
Section sign
§
21, 245, 0167
Plus sign
+
43, 187, 188, 191, 192, 195, 197, 200, 201, 206, 217, 218, 043
Pound sign
£
156, 0163
Multiply sign
×
158, 0215
Registered trademark
®
169, 0174
Not sign
¬
170, 0172
Broken vertical bar
¦
179, 180, 185, 186, 204, 221, 0166
Copyright
184, 0169
Cent sign
¢
189, 0162
Yen sign
¥
190, 0165
Macron accent
¯
238, 0175
Acute accent
´
239, 0180
Plus or minus
±
241, 0177
Division sign
÷
246, 0247
Cedilla
¸
247, 0184
Degree sign
°
248, 0176
Umlaut
249, 0168
Euro sign
€
0128
Tilde (smaller than the one on your keyboard)
˜
0152
Trademark
™
0153
Left arrow
←
Enter HTML code ← (no Alt+ number)
Right arrow
→
Enter HTML code → (no Alt+ number)
Up arrow
↑
Enter HTML code ↑ (no Alt+ number)
Down arrow
↓
Enter HTML code ↓ (no Alt+ number)
This means that you cannot e.g. have a line which just has one ¤ in it, nor can you have a line which just has ¤¤¤¤ or ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ on it. For characters for which multiples are permitted, you can however include a string of such characters on a line which has at least one other character on it (other than a space), provided that that other character does not fall into the "never displayed" or "never displayed solo" categories. So for example the following line:
(¤¤¤)
will display as written, because the presence of the brackets allows the other characters to be displayed.
Note that all of these characters will not display even if you have a mix of characters on a line, if all the characters in the mix are ones which won't display when they are the only character on the line. You cannot, for example, have +¤+ as the sole characters on a line, just as you cannot have +++.
As at early August 2008, the following characters are restricted to a limited number of repeats, whether they occur solo or are on a line with other characters. Some are restricted to only one character at a time, some to two or three. If you try to enter more in one batch they will be reduced to the highest permissible number, so e.g. ????? becomes ??.
Limited to:
Exclamation point (aka bang)
!
33, 033
2 characters
Hash mark
#
35, 035
1 character
Ampersand
&
38, 038
Comma
,
44, 044
Hyphen
-
45, 193, 194, 196, 202, 203, 205, 045
Full stop or period
.
46, 046
3 characters
Slash, virgule or solidus
/
47, 047
Colon
:
58, 058
Question mark
?
63, 063
Inverted question mark
¿
168, 0191
Inverted exclamation point
¡
173, 0161
Note that if characters will not display as multiples, they also will not display as a combination of characters any one of which will not display as a multiple. Only the last character is displayed, so "a,/:" becomes "a:". Characters for which only two are permitted reduce down to the first two, so "I¿!?" becomes "I¿!".
It used to be the case that characters which would not display as multiples also would not display as multiples separated by a space, so that e.g. "a: :a" became "a:a". This is no longer true.
Also note that those characters which will not display when they are the sole character on the line (whether or not they are accepted as multiples when combined with other characters) also will not display if they are in bold, in italics or underlined and they are not adjacent to a normal character (which may include a space for some purposes) which is formatted in the same way. The change of formatting seems to isolate them, so that they are then treated as if they were the only characters on the line. However, this does not apply in reverse: if the non-solo-character is in normal face and the characters around it are in bold, italics or underlined, it is not affected.
What you type in:
What you get after saving changes:
Oi¶
Oi
Oi¶ you (if the space before the "you" is formatted in italics)
Oiyou
Oi¶ you (if the space before the "you" is not formatted in italics)
Oi you
Oi¶ you
This display was originally done with exclamation-marks rather than pilcrows, which made more sense: but ffn has now changed the rules to allow exclamation marks as the sole character on a line.
Note that there is a character called an overline which is visually very similar to a macron accent ¯ (Alt+0175), except that an overline can appear as a solo character on its own line, and can be singled out for special formatting without disappearing. For design purposes an overline is therefore preferable in some circumstances, but it cannot be obtained via your keyboard: only by copy-and-pasting it (you can use this ‾ one!), or by entering the code ‾ in an HTML document or into the HTML view of a story which you are editing in ffn's Document Manager.
If you are using HTML source-files for your story-text, you cannot use very "fancy" characters in their overt form in the HTML document, because HTML documents are saved as plain text and this severely limits what characters can be displayed. Ordinarily it is possibly to get round this by encoding these characters in the &#[number]; format where, for example, ¤ codes for the general currency sign ¤.
However, as at early August 2008, the following characters will not upload to ffn as HTML code, even though they can be pasted in as characters, or uploaded as characters in a non-HTML file. You can use Alt plus a number on the number-pad to generate them, either in an original word-processing document or in the editing window, but they cannot be included in the plain-text used by HTML files, nor will they upload successfully if you write them into your HTML file in the &#[number]; format.
Florin
ƒ
159, 0131
Japanese character
0129
Low left single quote
‚
0130
Low left double quote
„
0132
Ellipsis
…
0133
Dagger
†
0134
Double dagger
‡
0135
Circumflex
ˆ
0136
Permil
‰
0137
Capital S, caron
Š
0138
Less than sign (smaller than the one on your keyboard)
‹
0139
Capital OE ligature
Œ
0140
0141
Capital Z, caron
Ž
0142
0143
0144
Left single quote
‘
0145
Left double quote
“
0147
Right double quote
”
0148
Bullet
•
0149
Small s, caron
š
0154
Greater than sign (smaller than the one on your keyboard)
›
0155
Small oe ligature
œ
0156
0157
Small z, caron
ž
0158
Capital Y, umlaut
Ÿ
0159
HTML code ←
HTML code →
HTML code ↑
Note that the Japanese characters shown above are not real characters but .gif images of characters, because I couldn't get them to display on this web-page, although they will display on ffn. If you want to use them you can find examples on my ffn profile, ready for you to copy and paste them.
Section breaks:
You can create section breaks out of a simple line of repeats of a single character, but bear in mind that certain characters are not displayed at all, or not displayed when they are the sole character on the line, as detailed above. In order to be displayed, a line of characters must include at least one which is not subject to these restrictions. Combinations of characters also work and can be made to look good, especially if centred and in bold-face, with a space both above and below.
The character-strings shown below create attractive section breaks which ffn will display correctly: please feel free to copy them. Most are shown here in bold-face, but they can of course be varied by disbolding them or putting them into italics etc..
Exceptions which are not shown in bold-face include the wiggly lines of various sizes of circles, because otherwise the smallest ones end up too light in relation to the rest. There are certain characters such as division signs ÷ (Alt+0247) which cannot be emboldened, and look just the same whether you format them as boldface or not. Patterns which combine these with other characters generally look better in plain face, because in bold these non-bolding characters tend to look too faint in proportion.
Note that ffn displays text in the font Verdana (it used to use Times New Roman in the edit window and Verdana for viewing stories, but this has now changed). These designs below are shown in Verdana so you can see how they'll look in actual use. Some designs/characters, such as the dagger † and double dagger ‡, look more attractive in bold-face Times New Roman than they do in regular face or in Verdana. However, apart from the fact that they're going to end up in Verdana anyway, if they are combined with letter-characters to enable them to be displayed, it's generally better for the letters to be in Verdana because it's sans-serif and so they look less like letters and more like symmetrical patterns.
The broken vertical bar character which is used in some of these designs is made by holding down Alt Gr and tapping the key which is at top left of your keypad, just left of #1 on the numerical row. The not sign is made by holding down Shift while pressing the same key.
Note, if creating your own designs, that ffn does not underline spaces. Remember that each line must include at least on character which is capable of being displayed if it were the sole character on that line, and beware of alternating formatting. Punctuation and "fancy" characters will display if they are in plain face and the letter-characters next to them are bold, underlined or italic, but not if the letters are plain and the fancy characters are bold, underlined or italic.
Many of these dividers are made using characters which are obtained by holding down the Alt key and tapping a number on the number-pad (not on the numerical row along the top of your keyboard). Release the Alt key after typing each individual character - do not try to e.g. hold the Alt key down and type 250250250
There are two separate sequences of Ascii numbers (the ones you combine with Alt). You will see from the tables above in the character display section that each character has a number which begins with a zero, as well as at least one shorter one which does not. To insert special, non-keyboard characters into HTML code, take the longer number beginning with zero, take off the zero and insert the rest into a piece of code which goes ampersand, hash, number, semi-colon. For example, the copyright symbol has two Ascii numbers, 184 and 0169, and the code for it is © - this is called a "Numeric Entity" or "Numerical Code". Some special characters also have a "Named Entity" or "Friendly Code" - e.g. the copyright symbol can also be written ©.
[There are also a few characters which only have a Named Entity code, and for which there is no number - such as e.g. the up arrow ↑, HTML code ↑. These cannot be guaranteed to display on all browsers.]
Where characters used in these dividers have more than one number, I have used the long number in the description (even though it entails an extra key-press) so that readers can see what number to use in Numeric Entity codes (remember to take the zero off first). A clear, complete list of Numerical and Friendly Codes (plus a few characters which have codes but no numbers) can be found at Yellowpipe Seattle Web Hosting. To reconstruct a number which can be combined with Alt, extract the number from any of these Numerical Codes and bung a zero in front of it.
Check all designs carefully after uploading your document and before posting it. Ffn goes through phases where it will refuse to upload a particular character, hence some designs may not survive being uploaded, and have to be pasted into the text in the edit window.
/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\
Forward slash, repeat Alt+0175, back slash, all underlined (better if not bold)
/l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l¯l\
Forward slash, repeat {small 'l', Alt+0175, small 'l'}, back slash, all underlined (better if not bold)
/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\/¯\
Repeat {forward slash, Alt+0175, back slash} (better if not bold)
As above, underlined (better if not bold)
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Alternate forward and back slashes
As above, underlined
/l\l/l\l/l\l/l\l/l\l/l\l/l\l/l\l/l\l/l\l/l\
Repeat {forward slash, small 'l', backslash, small 'l'}
#H#H#H#H#H#H#H#H#H#H#H#H#
Alternate hash sign and italic capital 'H'
l¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦l
Small 'l', repeat broken bar, small l
:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:¦:
Alternate broken bars and colons
·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·
Alternate colon and Alt+0183
:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:¯:
Alternate colon and Alt+0175 (better if not bold)
:‾: :‾: :‾: :‾: :‾: :‾: :‾: :‾: :‾: :‾: :‾: :‾:
Repeat {colon, overline, colon, space} (overline is HTML code ‾) (better if not bold)
:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:‾:
Alternate colon and underlined overline (overline is HTML code ‾) (better if not bold)
:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:·:‾:
Repeat {colon, underlined overline, colon, Alt+0183} (overline is HTML code ‾) (better if not bold)
‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘‚‘
Alternate Alt+0130 and Alt+0145
„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“„“
Alternate Alt+0132 and Alt+0147
˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜
Repeat Alt+0152 (note this is not a keyboard tilde)
·······························································
Repeat Alt+0183
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Repeat Alt+0149
÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷x÷
Alternate Alt+0247 and small 'x' (better if not bold)
-÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷-
Hyphen, repeat Alt+0247, hyphen (better if not bold)
÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷-÷
Alternate Alt+0247 and hyphen (better if not bold)
«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»
Alternate Alt+0171 and Alt+0187
«o»«o»«o»«o»«o»«o»«o»«o»«o»
Repeat {Alt+0171, small 'o', Alt+0187}
«x»«x»«x»«x»«x»«x»«x»«x»«x»
Repeat {Alt+0171, small 'x', Alt+0187}
«×»«×»«×»«×»«×»«×»«×»«×»
Repeat {Alt+0171, Alt+0215, Alt+0187}
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
Repeat {Alt+0171, Alt+0149, Alt+0187}
«¤»«¤»«¤»«¤»«¤»«¤»«¤»«¤»«¤»
Repeat {Alt+0171, Alt+0164, Alt+0187}
‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›
Alternate Alt+0139 and Alt+0155
‹o›‹o›‹o›‹o›‹o›‹o›‹o›‹o›‹o›‹o›‹o›
Repeat {Alt+0139, small 'o', Alt+0155}
‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›
Repeat {Alt+0139, small 'x', Alt+0155}
‹×›‹×›‹×›‹×›‹×›‹×›‹×›‹×›‹×›‹×›
Repeat {Alt+0139, Alt+0215, Alt+0155}
‹•›‹•›‹•›‹•›‹•›‹•›‹•›‹•›‹•›‹•›‹•›
Repeat {Alt+0139, Alt+0149, Alt+0155}
‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›
Repeat {Alt+0139, Alt+0164, Alt+0155}
¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤o¤
Alternate Alt+0164 and small 'o' (better if not bold)
x¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤×¤x
Small 'x', alternate Alt+0164 and Alt+0215, small 'x' (better if not in bold)
ווווווווווווו×
Alternate plain Alt+0215 and bold Alt+0149
•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•
Alternate Alt+0149 and small 'o'
•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•
Alternate Alt+0183 and Alt+0149
•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•
Alternate colon and Alt+0149
•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•
Alternate Alt+0164 and Alt+0149
Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ
Alternate bold Alt+0222 and plain Alt+0149
Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ•Þ
As above all bold
¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶•¶
Alternate Alt+0182 and Alt+0149
¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P¶P
Alternate Alt+0182 and capital 'P'
¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶q¶
Alternate Alt+0182 and small 'q'
pqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpq
Alternate small 'p' and small 'q'
bdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbd
Alternate small 'b' and small 'd'
:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:l:
Alternate colon and small 'l'
¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦l¦
Alternate broken bar and small 'l'
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Repeat capital 'I'
I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I•I
Alternate capital 'I' and Alt+0149
I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I:I
Alternate capital 'I' and colon
XIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIX
Alternate capital 'X' and capital 'I'
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Repeat capital 'U'
U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U:U
Alternate capital 'U' and colon
i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i¨i
Alternate small 'i' and Alt+0168
\V/\V/\V/\V/\V/\V/\V/\V/\V/\V/
Repeat {back slash, capital 'V', forward slash}
\Y/\Y/\Y/\Y/\Y/\Y/\Y/\Y/\Y/\Y/
Repeat {back slash, capital 'Y', forward slash}
)x( )x( )x( )x( )x( )x( )x( )x( )x( )x(
Repeat {closing bracket, small 'x', opening bracket, space}
(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)(ii)
Repeat {opening bracket, small 'i', small 'i', closing bracket}
(:·:)(:·:)(:·:)(:·:)(:·:)(:·:)(:·:)(:·:)(:·:)
Repeat {opening bracket, colon, Alt+0183, colon, closing bracket}
(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)
Repeat {opening bracket, small 'o', closing bracket}
)x(o)x(o)x(o)x(o)x(o)x(o)x(o)x(o)x(
Repeat {closing bracket, small 'x', opening bracket, small 'o'}
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Alternate hyphen and small 'o'
o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o
Alternate small 'o' and colon
x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x
Alternate small 'x' and colon
o:x:o:x:o:x:o:x:o:x:o:x:o:x:o:x:o:x:o
Repeat [small 'o', colon, small 'x', colon}
ººººººººººººººººººººººººººººººººººº
Repeat Alt+0186
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Alternate zeroes and small 'o's
ooOoo
Two small 'o's, capital 'O' (or zero), two small 'o's
O©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©O
Capital 'O', repeat Alt+0169, capital 'O'
T±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±T
Capital 'T', repeat Alt+0177, capital 'T' (better if not in bold)
†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††
Repeat Alt+0134
†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†º†
Alternate Alt+0134 and Alt+0186 (better in TNR)
†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†¦†
Alternate broken bar and Alt+0134 (better in TNR)
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡
Repeat Alt+0135 (better in TNR)
†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡†‡††‡†
Alternate Alt+0135 and Alt+0134 (better in TNR)
±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±‡±
Alternate Alt+0177 with Alt+0135 (better in TNR)
¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦‡¦
Alternate Alt+0135 and broken bar (better in TNR)
l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l‡l
Alternate small 'l' and Alt+0135
!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i
Alternate exclamation point and small 'i'
!¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡ !¡
Repeat {exclamation point, Alt+0161, space}
¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿? ¿?
Repeat {Alt+0191, question mark, space}
§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§s§
Alternate Alt+0167 and small 's'
ƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒfƒf
Alternate Alt+159 and small 'f'
&8&8&8&8&8&8&8&8&8&8&8&8&8
Alternate ampersand and italic '8'
l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l l‾l
Repeat {small 'l', underlined overline, small 'l', space} (overline is HTML code ‾) (better if not in bold)
l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l
Repeat {small 'l', underlined overline, small 'l', Alt+0149} (overline is HTML code ‾) (better if not in bold)
l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l
Repeat {small 'l', underlined overline, small 'l', all plain, bold Alt+0149} (overline is HTML code ‾)
l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l:l‾l
Repeat {small 'l', underlined overline, small 'l', all plain, bold colon} (overline is HTML code ‾)
°ºooº°°ºooº°°ºooº°°ºooº°°ºooº°°ºooº°
Repeat {Alt+0176, Alt+0186, small 'o', small 'o', Alt+0186, Alt+0176} (doesn't work in bold)
°ºoOoº°°ºoOoº°°ºoOoº°°ºoOoº°°ºoOoº°
Repeat {Alt+0176, Alt+0186, small 'o', capital 'O', small 'o', Alt+0186, Alt+0176} (doesn't work in bold)
°ºo0O0oº°°ºo0O0oº°°ºo0O0oº°°ºo0O0oº°
Repeat {Alt+0176, Alt+0186, small 'o', zero, capital 'O', zero, small 'o', Alt+0186, Alt+0176} (doesn't work in bold)
¨·..·¨·..·¨·..·¨·..·¨·..·¨·..·¨·..·¨·..·¨·..·¨·..·¨
Repeat {Alt+0168, Alt+0183, full stop, full stop, Alt+0183}
:¨·..·¨:¨·..·¨:¨·..·¨:¨·..·¨:¨·..·¨:¨·..·¨:
Repeat {colon, Alt+0168, Alt+0183, full stop, full stop, Alt+0183, Alt+0168}
V¨·..·¨V¨·..·¨V¨·..·¨V¨·..·¨V¨·..·¨V¨·..·¨V
Repeat {capital 'V', Alt+0168, Alt+0183, full stop, full stop, Alt+0183, Alt+0168} (better not in bold)
(¯ˆ·.¸(¯ˆ·.¸(¯ˆ·.¸(¯ˆ·.¸(¯ˆ·.¸(¯ˆ·.¸
Repeat {opening bracket, Alt+0175, Alt+0136, Alt+0183, full stop, Alt+0184}
¸.·ˆ¯)¸.·ˆ¯)¸.·ˆ¯)¸.·ˆ¯)¸.·ˆ¯)¸.·ˆ¯)
Repeat {Alt+0184, full stop, Alt+0183, Alt+0136, Alt+0175, closing bracket}
(¯ˆ·.¸¸.·ˆ¯)
Opening bracket Alt+0175, Alt+0136, Alt+0183, full stop, Alt+0184, Alt+0184, full stop, Alt+0183, Alt+0136, Alt+0175, closing bracket
¸.·ˆ¯)(¯ˆ·.¸
Alt+0184, full stop, Alt+0183, Alt+0136, Alt+0175, closing bracket, opening bracket, Alt+0175, Alt+0136, Alt+0183, full stop, Alt+0184
(©ˆ·.¸¸.·ˆ©)
Opening bracket, Alt+0169, Alt+0136, Alt+0183, full stop, Alt+0184, Alt+0184, full stop, Alt+0183, Alt+0136, Alt+0169, closing bracket
(/\) (/\) (/\) (/\) (/\) (/\) (/\) (/\)
Repeat {opening bracket, forward slash, back slash, closing bracket, space}
(\/) (\/) (\/) (\/) (\/) (\/) (\/) (\/)
Repeat {opening bracket, back slash, forward slash, closing bracket, space}
(o\/o) (o\/o) (o\/o) (o\/o) (o\/o)
Repeat {opening bracket, small 'o', back slash, forward slash, small 'o', closing bracket, space}
(0\/0) (0\/0) (0\/0) (0\/0) (0\/0)
Repeat {opening bracket, zero, back slash, forward slash, zero, closing bracket, space}
(Ø\/Ø) (Ø\/Ø) (Ø\/Ø) (Ø\/Ø) (Ø\/Ø)
Repeat {opening bracket, Alt+0216, back slash, forward slash, Alt+0216, closing bracket, space}
(•V•) (•V•) (•V•) (•V•) (•V•)
Repeat {opening bracket, Alt+0149, capital 'V', Alt+0149, closing bracket, space}
(©V©) (©V©) (©V©) (©V©) (©V©)
Repeat {opening bracket, Alt+0169, capital 'V', Alt+0184, closing bracket, space}
→→→•←←←
Right arrow times 3, Alt+0149, left arrow times three (right arrow is HTML code →, left arrow is ←)
×→•←×→•←×→•←×→•←×→•←×
Repeat {right arrow, Alt+0215, left arrow, Alt+0149} (right arrow is HTML code →, left arrow is ←)
↑·↓·↑·↓·↑·↓·↑·↓·↑·↓·↑·↓·↑·↓
Repeat {up arrow, Alt+0183, down arrow, Alt+0183} (up arrow is HTML code ↑, down arrow is ↓)
E:¬Þ) E:¬Þ) E:¬Þ) E:¬Þ) E:¬Þ) E:¬Þ)
Repeat {capital 'E', semi-colon, not sign, Alt+0222, closing bracket, space}
.·ˆ¯)...(¯ˆ·. ¸.·ˆˆˆ(ºvº)ˆˆˆ·.¸ m m
First line: full stop, Alt+0183, Alt+0136, Alt+0175, closing bracket, three full stops, opening bracket, Alt+0175, Alt+0136, Alt+0183, full stop
Second line: Alt+0184, full stop, Alt+0183, Alt+0136, Alt+0136, Alt+0136, opening bracket, Alt+0186, small 'v', Alt+0186, closing bracket, Alt+0136, Alt+0136, Alt+0136, Alt+0183, full stop, Alt+0184
Third line: small 'm', space, small 'm'
The lines must be separated by a line-break (Shift+Return) rather than a paragraph-break (Return).
In addition, ffn will display Japanese characters, and they remain stable, but they are very hard to get at. There is a feather-like character of three bars which makes an attractive design when combined with the hash mark, and which sometimes appea
