## Back issues, 2

Not so long ago, I changed the style of this blog to what WordPress call “Twenty ten”.

In most respects I am satisfied with the change. But there are several small but irritating problems. I have found fixes for two of them, and spend the odd half hour going over earlier posts implementing these.

• The <blockquote> tag typesets its contents in italics. I often use it for statements containing mathematical formulae, and these are switched from italic to roman. Jon Awbrey supplied me with the fix for this: I now use <p style="margin-left:30px;"> instead.
• To put text beside a picture, I used two-column tables, which used to work fine. But the new style aligns pictures at the bottom, so the text is forced down below the picture. After several failed experiments, I found the fix on some webpage somewhere. The entry containing the picture should begin <td style="vertical-align:top;">. (I haven’t found out yet how to remove the borders round the tables, though. Default HTML only puts a border if you ask for one.)

Something I read suggests that these are in-line versions of CSS commands, which are permitted by WordPress. I never mastered CSS.

As to the ongoing debate about mathematics in a blog post (Dima recently commented on the fact that WordPress doesn’t allow MathJax), my view remains that I prefer to do the maths in HTML if possible, since then there is no sudden discontinuity in typeface. A mathematical formula is part of a sentence and I prefer to see it as such. Of course there is only so much that you can do.

Another problem I haven’t solved is that tables in this style seem to have a fixed minimum column width which I haven’t been able to change. So tables with many narrow columns look stupid and stick out into the margin. Any ideas?

I count all the things that need to be counted.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

### 7 Responses to Back issues, 2

1. Dima says:

MathJax is meant to be an “smooth” extension of html, supporting things like MathML and other font-based rendering, and often using nice fonts in places where WordPress.com uses graphics.

E.g. here is a blogger post using MathJax: http://geomblog.blogspot.sg/2013/01/a-sampling-gem-sampling-from-ellp-balls.html
At least in my browser it looks really good, much better than any maths-heavy (free — if you pay you can tell WordPress.com use MathJax on your blog) WordPress.com post.

2. Jon Awbrey says:

3. Jon Awbrey says:

The [div style="margin-left:30px;"] tag is also handy for blockquotes of more than one paragraph.

4. Jon Awbrey says:

The following tag would normally force invisible borders on a table:

<table border="0" style="border-width:0">

But WordPress still leaves a light border line on top of each cell, so you have to add the following parameter to each table datum:

<td style="border-top:1px solid white">

5. Jon Awbrey says:

WordPress supports the $\LaTeX$ tabular format. Here is a small example:

$\begin{tabular}{|c||*{11}{c}|} \multicolumn{12}{c}{Table 1. Elementary Relatives for the Divisor Of" Relation} \\[4pt] \hline $$i|j$$&1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8&9&10&\ldots \\ \hline\hline 1&1:1&1:2&1:3&1:4&1:5&1:6&1:7&1:8&1:9&1:10&\dots \\ 2&&2:2&&2:4&&2:6&&2:8&&2:10&\dots \\ 3&&&3:3&&&3:6&&&3:9&&\dots \\ 4&&&&4:4&&&&4:8&&&\dots \\ 5&&&&&5:5&&&&&5:10&\dots \\ 6&&&&&&6:6&&&&&\dots \\ 7&&&&&&&7:7&&&&\dots \\ 8&&&&&&&&8:8&&&\dots \\ 9&&&&&&&&&9:9&&\dots \\ 10&&&&&&&&&&10:10&\dots \\ \ldots&\ldots&\ldots&\ldots&\ldots&\ldots& \ldots&\ldots&\ldots&\ldots&\ldots&\ldots \\ \hline \end{tabular}$