Text underline in XARA

[gwpriester]

Is underlining really still needed, or is it just an anachronism?

For the sake of argument, I'll go with anachronism.

And yes, the underscore was used with typewriters to, dare I say, underscore, or highlight a word or words of text before typewriters, and later word processors and computers, offered italics and bold face.

Gary

[Odat]

I used to buy the arguments that if you wanted to underline text, you should just draw your own line. Now that Pro has the ability to import RTF text, it seems sort of silly that it will make sure it keeps the color of your text, the font, the size, any bold, any italics, but if you happen to have underlined text too bad for you, we're stripping that out.

Probably this has something to do with the native text tools not supporting underlined text, so it has to strip underlining out of imported text or you'll end up with something that you can't fully edit, which makes sense. Now it seems more of an omission than it did before, though.

[steve.ledger]

Probably this has something to do with the native text tools not supporting underlined text, so it has to strip underlining out of imported text ......

*Unless* the imported text is in the form of an imported PDF which contains sections of underlined text.
In this case the underlining is retained and the text is editibable. Of course, the underlining is imported as a line.

Not always a perfect result, but it works.

[Xhris]

Why do you want to have underlined text?

With the exception of indicating hyperlinked text, underlined text is rarely used in contemporary type setting. As Bob points out, if you wish to call attention a part of your text, use bold face and/or italics.

Gary

With the inclusion of support for RTF text import into Xara, Xara should support underlined text to remain compatible. I'm expecting to see it in future versions, possibly the next one; I'd be surprised if it didn't turn up.

[gwpriester]

Yeah, fine, Chris. But why?

As I and others have pointed out, underscored text, except as hyperlinked text is not used in contemporary text.

In what cases would you use underscored text?

Gary

[Xhris]

Yeah, fine, Chris. But why?

As I and others have pointed out, underscored text, except as hyperlinked text is not used in contemporary text.

In what cases would you use underscored text?

Gary

Hi Gary,

I sometimes use it in documents to underline headings etc. It exists for whatever historical reasons, is used by some, has uses - redundant or not, and should therefore be supported in my opinion. I suspect there are lots of text features that are not used in contemporary text, but they are all still supported.

[WolfMoonHP]

For most writing, I would agree that the use of underlined text should have gone the way of the typewriter, however I find that I frequently have occasions when it is absolutely required.

I do a lot of teaching on changes in construction codes, and the standard way of comparing is to show the new wording underlined and the old wording struck through.

Since a lot of this is done in PowerPoint, it is a real irritation that PP doesn't support strike-through formatting.
---
Will

[Xhris]

It's also used commonly in vector notation in mathematics. There are a few non-contemporary uses of underlined text.

[David O'Neil]

If a writing includes a lot of italicized titles, and you want emphasis outside of the titles, in order to help the reader quickly distinguish the non-title emphasis, I prefer underlining to bold. There are also some writings where narrators place personal stuff into a writing through the use of italicized text, and in such a case I have seen underlining used quite well in the regular text for emphasis. Mind you, these are full-length books, which I think you would be utterly foolish to attempt with Xara in its current incarnation.

In addition, in many books I have read in the past they have not used a good italic version of the font, and I have had to reread the sentence because I found myself missing the fact that they were emphasizing it. To me, the word seemed to disappear because the italic version was spindly--not the effect that they really wanted.

[handrawn]

Y

As I and others have pointed out, underscored text, except as hyperlinked text is not used in contemporary text.


Gary

Interesting then that it is still in Word, Open Office, WordPerfect....... there must be a reason

Actually I see underlining all over the place in print - not on the web so much, true - but in lots of other places - everything from posters to film scripts.

That said I am one of those who does not want to see xara turned into a typesetting app. - but underscoring redundant? - no way.