Magnifico! I didn't know about that one either. THAT one is really handy since I would rather cherry pick than republish, but sometimes the post is so far back in the pack that you have to repeat something to allow folks to know what is going on. I could put a link to the old post, but I would rather have the info in front of the reader rather than rely on someone's research/computer skills.

Thank Ya!

I'm trying, really I am!

I wonder if anyone has any good ideas for how to trim quotes when posting from mobile devices. My current method is to quote "all" and then the next morning, if I remember, I will double check to make sure I shouldn't edit out the extraneous stuff (when on my regular computer). Frankly, it's tough for me to to do much selecting and cutting when using the ipad and I can't manage it at all from the iphone. I know some folks seem to manage it just fine. Maybe there are tips people could share?

I might have mentioned that I'm not terribly techy.

Maybe I should just hand the ipad to verbie when I'm done composing the post and have him trim it if necessary. But I guess that only helps people who have verbies.

I don't mind posting without quoting either, although sometimes it's not clear what the post is responding to in that case.

Anyway, I guess my point is that it's not ALWAYS a trivial thing to do.

I don't get what you mean, Listeme. I can highlight and cut out extraneous stuff as well as paste into a reply at Fogbow on my iPad.

I was afraid of that.

User error as usual

I would add that I don't really know the iPad (as far as these functions are concerned) but the Kindle Fire (Amazon Silk browser) is AWFUL.

- If the quoted material (or even one's own original post) exceeds the depth of the form entry area, there is no way to scroll WITHIN the form entry area. (Not terrible for the forum in the long run, because it forces me to keep my posts short. But damned awkward.)

- The interface for selecting (highlighting) text selectively is VERY awkward. It has two little triangle thingies that you're supposed to be able to drag around to denote the start and end of your selection, but:

• It's inconsistent in how to invoke those to begin with
• accidentally touching the screen anywhere makes them reset or disappear
• positioning them just so is difficult, because when you pick up your fingertip, they often move over a character or two
• once you do have what you want selected, performing an action on it (cutting, deleting, applying a style, etc.) involves manipulating either the soft keyboard or the screen, and is very likely to abandon your selection in the process.

I maintain it's just badly designed, and hope it is improved in an OS or firmware update.

As a complete workaround, what I sometimes do is hit Quote All, Select All, Cut or Copy, then switch over to the word processor. The word processor has the same issues with selecting text, but at least I can see and manipulate all of a longer post. Once I have composed what I want, I then Select All again, Copy or Cut, go back to the browser, Paste, and Preview/Submit.

I just can say that the editor on my Galaxy Tab10.1, Android Honeycomb, does not work well together with the phpBB editor. Selecting and cutting is near to impossible. The best I can usually get to is placing the marker near into the end of some text and delete back from that point. A reason why I don't comment on anything but short posts where I can keep the whole original quote and don't need any highlighting either. YMMV.

^^^^ yes. RTH said it much better and shorter than I did

I can with my iPad, and when I'm writing a short response to a long post I try to, but it's a royal pain in the ass and I don't always remember to do it. (I didn't in the thread that probably led to this one. )

In terms of the "how", I usually tap-and-hold somewhere in the middle of the bit I'm going to delete. When the little magnifying glass thingy pops up, I let go and tap "select". I then drag the little dots in either direction until I've selected the stuff to get rid of. Then I backspace on the on-screen keyboard. If it's a long block and scrolling is acting funky, I'll sometimes break the process down into two or three blocks.

So, yeah, it's not impossible in iOS, but it's not exactly the most user-friendly process on the planet.

I gots similar issues with my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy SII that Verbie's talking about. And RTH too, also.

Verizon Droid Charge here....My fingers are too large at the end to get anything done. Not that have fat fingers, it is from typing on a manual starting in 1968, then Selectric (love), then computer keyboards - most were cheap.

The bottom line is that there is no easy way (at least at the moment) to reply from a mobile device with a selection of text quoted.

It seems like it might be a feature we start seeing in some of the discussion board software in the not too distant future. Highlight pertinent text in a post, then press the "Reply With Selected Text Quoted" button (hopefully with a less wordy name) and, voila, automatically trimmed quote.

In the meantime, I either have to work harder to post from the iPad, or get lazy and fire up the laptop (like now).