Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Help desk/Archive 6 (section)

==Color for certain sentences==
I am about to do a timeline for the Weimar Republic.  I would type the normal general events in Black color.  I would like to do the Nazi party events in "Brown" or "Blue" and personal events of AH in "Red".  The purpose is to highlight specifically different stages of growth that many people have a misconception of.  I really think that having different colors would help bring to mind and put in context certain events in a timeline.  For Example, The Austrian Workers Party put the name of  National Socialism in their title when Adolf Hitler was still a corporal.  This contradicts the current preception that AH invented everything.  I really think that using different color in this timeline would be very beneficial and dispel easily misconceptions.

The question is how to do I make color happen and is it allowed or can I have special permission for this specific article?[[User:WHEELER|WHEELER]] 16:11, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

:To answer the technical question: you can write
::<nowiki>Here's a word in <font style="color: purple">purple</font>.</nowiki>
:to get
::Here's a word in <span style="color: purple">purple</span>.
:I don't know if this is the most correct way to do this. In HTML 4.0 you'd use "span" instead of "font" but "span" isn't allowed in Wikipedia.

:In mediawiki table markup you can write
::<nowiki>|- style="color: red"</nowiki>
:to get a colored table row; or
::<nowiki>|style="color: green"|...</nowiki>
:to get a colored table cell.

:I see no reason why it shouldn't be OK to put text in different colors, for example the [[color]] articles do something similar with borders of tables. However, before you do it, consider the following points: not everyone uses the same style sheet as you: will the page look OK to someone who's chosen a different background color? will it be readable by [[color-blind]] people? will the information be available to [[blind]] people? It might be better to make your point in words instead of colors. [[User:Gdr|Gdr]] 16:48, 2004 Aug 3 (UTC)
::I think WHEELER's idea is fine.  If someone's using a style sheet that screws with the colors, they can switch it off temporarily.  The text/background color combinations that are unreadable for colorblind people are also annoying and difficult-to-read for the rest of us, and should be avoided on general principle.  And lastly, if you color-code, you make the timeline easier to follow for everyone except the blind, for whom it would be the same as if you chose not to use color.  So by adding color you make it easier for some and change nothing for others.  Where's the problem there? [[User:Isomorphic|Isomorphic]] 05:00, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

:::Thanks for your contributions and your help.  I appreciate it greatly.  I will start on it now.[[User:WHEELER|WHEELER]] 16:22, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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'''If colour is conveying important information''', consider using a meaningful [[HTML]] element, so that the information is visible in text-only browsers, or when it is re-purposed in a different context (remember, Wikipedia is open source).  This will also be meaningful to search-engines.  E.g. instead of:
: <nowiki>This word appears <font color="red">meaningful</font> in a visual browser.</nowiki>
Use <nowiki><em>, <strong>, <i>, <b></nowiki> or some other element with [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]].  The following will be italicized or underlined in plain-text browsers, but red in a visual browser:
: <nowiki>This word is <em style="color:red;font-style:normal">meaningful</em>, in all browsers.</nowiki>
Consider setting background-color at the same time as the color, so that it will be readable in a style sheet that uses a different background-color.  Even if the background-color will be invisible on the page backgrond.   in E.g.:
: <nowiki><em style="color:red;background-color:white">Blah!</em></nowiki>
If you don't do this, then at least review the text in each of Wikipedia's five standard skins.

—[[User:Mzajac|Michael Z.]] 21:18, 2004 Aug 27 (UTC)