Seems every time I make a plugin someone wants something different!!

Thanks TheBrad for the idea!!

Should be working fine. Not fully tested but pretty sure it is doing everything it should be doing!

Usage

Returns
T<span class=“my-class”>his </span> is a test of the style x characters plugin.

Please let me know if this is of any use to anyone or I will just stop making these things!!!

Best wishes,

Mark

Meant to mention, please be aware that this doesn’t take into account spaces so if you had :

This is a test

and you wanted to apply the class to the first 5 characters then you would get :

<span class=“my-class”>This </span>is a test

returned instead of :

<span class=“my-class”>This i</span>s a test

Sorry but until I understand this stuff a bit more then I will have to leave it like that

Hope it comes in useful though.

Best wishes,

Mark

Oh, that works a treat! Thank you!

Note that if it is applied to a field with XHTML formatting, you have to skip at least three characters to get beyond the automagically inserted paragraph tag. For example:

Very good point, however I never ever use XHTML as I don’t like what it places in but thanks for the heads up for everyone else.

Also if you are using this just for drop-caps then there is the css pseudo element :first-letter that you could also use to do this.

Admittedly one of the versions of IE doesn’t play nice with this but hey I’m working on a way of completely deleting the entire code-base of IE from Microsloth as I write this

There is also a drop-caps plugin available that will do this sort of thing too but uses graphics to do its magic. May still be of use though?

Best wishes,

Mark

Mark Bowen - 19 April 2008 07:08 PM

I’m working on a way of completely deleting the entire code-base of IE from Microsloth as I write this

Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Wow my first subscriber!!!

Hmmm, now if I only had a newsletter!!

Must write a plugin to make me an automated one!!

Best wishes,

Mark

Okay, just for anyone following along with this plugin (seems to be just me and Brad I have uploaded a new version to the top post. Nothing much has changed except for a cosmetic change to the name of the plugin and therefore the plugin tag.

Documentation above changed to reflect this also.

Best wishes,

Mark

Hey mark,
Great plugin but it doesn’t seem to be working for me… on the link below, I have it set to the paragraph starting with “Owing as much to james brown…”

ropeadope

Heres the code in the template:

The field is a textarea with Auto BRs

never mind got it to work but had to set START=5 and letters=4.

that doesnt make much sense to me… thought it was START=1 and letters=1 to do a simple drop cap with the first letter of the first word

Could it have possibly been because you have some kind of tag being output first or something?

Just surmising though. Glad this is working for you.

Best wishes,

Mark

dont think so. no tags, no nothing in the code. just pure text

Eek!!

I don’t know why this didn’t crop up before. Just tested it out and I think I see what I did wrong. I’m a little tired today but pretty sure that this shouldn’t have even really been working from the get go!

I’ve attached a new version to this post. Could you possibly test it out for me and it should now work with start=“0” and letters=“1”.

If it works okay then I will update the top post of this thread.

Sorry about that.

Best wishes,

Mark

nope 0, 1 doesnt work

Hmm, Should be.

Just tested it here and seems to be.

Can you show me your exact template code?

Also perhaps just very quickly try with just this :

See what that does perhaps?

Best wishes,

Mark

nope doesnt work.

{exp:mb_style_letters start=“0” letters=“1” class=“dropcap”}
  {album_description}
{/exp:mb_style_letters}

Hmm very weird.

Which version of ExpressionEngine are you running and you did download the new version of the plugin and replace the existing one didn’t you?

Also what exactly does {album_description} have in it and what is the field type set to. Is it Auto <br /> or perhaps XHTML?

Thanks,

Mark

yep. I think I’m on 1.6.3, new plugin and {album_description) is a textarea w/ Auto BRs

Hmm,

Weird. I’m actually testing this on 1.6.3 Build:  20080319 myself on a localhost install that I mess around with and seems to be fine. Not too sure what’s going on there.

Is the field that you are typing the album description into simply just a text-area and doesn’t use any of those WYSIWYG editors does it?

Also did you try this code (mentioned above) :

Literally try that code so that you are applying the plugin to the title just to see if that works as that is how I tested it. If it works with that then something else must be up somewhere. If not then I’m a little confused really.

Best wishes,

Mark

Mark Bowen - 19 April 2008 07:08 PM

Very good point, however I never ever use XHTML as I don’t like what it places in but thanks for the heads up for everyone else.

What do you use? What about when you hand off the site to clients? How do you explain the need to use p tags?