Email communicaton

[braces_for_impact]

So, do any of you indent on a new paragraph when composing an email? Hell, I don't even indent on here. I've looked through a smattering of email sent to me and haven't found any. What say you?

 

[ZiprHead]

I think it's been years seen I've seen paragraph indentations, even on business correspondence. I think its gone by the wayside.

 

[rousseau]

Most of my paragraphs are quick one liners so no need for indents, but I just checked a lengthier one I wrote to a friend a few months ago and.. nope.

Why did people ever do that again?

 

[braces_for_impact]

That's kinda what started this. My girlfriend (who's not exactly tech savvy) was writing an email and complaining that the tab key wasn't working correctly in the text field. My question was "Why are you using the tab key?" She replied that she was wanting to indent. I had to think about that for a minute.

I've also looked over articles in on CNN and The Washington Post, the Tampa Bay Times. No indents. I think you're right, it's quickly becoming obsolete. Maybe novels? I'll have to dig one out. Most of my "book" reading s on kindle and subject to being reformatted.

 

[bilby]

I am not sure you even can indent the beginning of a paragraph on here. I think vBulletin eliminates white space at the start of a line; and the

tag applies to an entire bracketed block of text, not just to one row at the beginning of a paragraph. I added four spaces at the start of this paragraph, for example.

This​

is what happens if you just try to indent the first word of a paragraph. Using the

tag on the first word.

Here's how the above looked before posting:



There's no TAB key on the iPhone; but I think TAB characters would be treated like leading spaces.​

 

[thebeave]

I think the tab function disappeared about the same time that TAB soda disappeared. Coincidence?

 

[bilby]

Testing in the quick reply box on Firefox/RHEL6.8, I find that the TAB key is disabled, and does nothing.

 

[bigfield]

Indentation is generally a bad idea for screen text, including email:

• It looks shit on very long or short lines (ie. widescreen monitors and mobile phones)
• Even if you can see the indent, other users may use devices or clients that remove it. My mail client (Thunderbird) adds four spaces when I press tab, but that will not show on any mail client that decides to remove leading and trailing whitespace.

Best to space your paragraphs using a double line break to ensure universal readability.

 

[bigfield]

Most of my paragraphs are quick one liners so no need for indents, but I just checked a lengthier one I wrote to a friend a few months ago and.. nope.

Why did people ever do that again?

Easier for typesetting and typewriting. It's still the norm for books.

 

[bilby]

Most of my paragraphs are quick one liners so no need for indents, but I just checked a lengthier one I wrote to a friend a few months ago and.. nope.

Why did people ever do that again?

Easier for typesetting and typewriting.

It also leaves room for an ornately decorated initial letter when creating illuminated manuscripts on fine vellum.

So it was very important when I was in school, but is a bit outdated now.

 

[braces_for_impact]

I think the tab function disappeared about the same time that TAB soda disappeared. Coincidence?

Ah, yes, TAB soda. As I recall the ingredient list was so long it literally said "See other can" on the back. That sht was nasty even for diet soda. According to wikipedia:

After its introduction in 1982, Diet Coke quickly replaced Tab as the Coca-Cola Company's most popular diet cola, although Tab still retained a loyal following. Approximately 3 million cases were sold in the United States in 2008.

So, there are still some out there that will drink anything.

 

[bigfield]

Easier for typesetting and typewriting.

It also leaves room for an ornately decorated initial letter when creating illuminated manuscripts on fine vellum.

So it was very important when I was in school, but is a bit outdated now.

Typesetting is still a regular part of pre-press; it's just done digitally. And in order to produce a text layout that lines up in neat rows across pages and columns, you have to have uniform line height. Indents are a practical way to show paragraph breaks without adding extra spacing.

The alternatives are:

1. a double line break between each paragraph, which is already used for indicating section breaks
2. a top/bottom margin on paragraphs, which fucks the text alignment between pages/columns.

 

[ZiprHead]

Tab cola... :sick001: