Changing to Full Width

[Steve_Walmsley]

I am on the 14-day trial for the Pro version and I really like Discourse so far, with one really frustrating exception. The text width in topics seems far too narrow. For the subject of the forums, large text width is necessary. I am used to older phpBB forums where you get the full width of the web page.

I tried installing the ‘Fully Theme’, but as far as I can tell that is the same width as the built-in Horizon and Foundation themes. I am on an ultrawide too which makes it even worse. There is just a fairly narrow strip of text in the centre of the window.

Am I missing some override setting or some other configuration option?

Any advice appreciated, thanks.

[NateDhaliwal]

Hi there, have you seen:

Discourse Full-width component

Summary Make Discourse occupy the full browser width Preview preview Repository Full-width component Install Guide How to install a theme or theme component New to Discourse Themes? Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes Install this theme component This is still an experimental component, which overrides widgets, will most likely break with header refactors, and will not play w…

[Moin]

Usually the width of the text area isn’t increased because long lines are harder to read

@awesomerobot

There’s often not much benefit to more horizontal content on the screen, at one point it starts to make reading less efficient… Readability: The Optimal Line Length – Articles – Baymard Institute

You can change the width of the topic-body with some custom CSS: How to increase width of topic - #7 by awesomerobot

And I think this theme component supports that too: Discourse Custom Width

[chapoi]

@Steve_Walmsley

The text width in topics seems far too narrow. For the subject of the forums, large text width is necessary.

I politely disagree:

https://medium.com/@wblekhoa/talk-aboutthe-optimal-length-of-text-in-ux-ui-525e689f0b71

Readability: The Optimal Line Length – Baymard

& many others have addressed this topic in UX design.

Now, best practices aside, you’re of course free to adjust it for yourself. I see Moin already provided the possible options.

[Steve_Walmsley]

It isn’t really a case of optimal width. Part of the forum is after action reports for a game. That includes text summaries of ship designs such as the one below. For someone playing the game, they understand every section. When the lines wrap, it becomes unreadable. Discourse also seems to remove white space, which makes it harder to read. Screenshots of the original text will work, but are more tedious to include.

Royal Sovereign class Battleship 60,000 tons 1,690 Crew 8,871.6 BP TCS 1,200 TH 4,800 EM 6,660
4000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 5-136 Shields 222-370 HTK 304 Sensors 15/24/0/0 DCR 41-6 PPV 292.32
Maint Life 1.52 Years MSP 4,788 AFR 702% IFR 9.8% 1YR 2,337 5YR 35,062 Max Repair 600 MSP
Magazine 2,311 / 0
Captain Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

Tesla TM-600 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 60000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Parsons PN-1200 Triple Expansion Gas-Core Drive (4) Power 4800 Fuel Use 39.91% Signature 1200 Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 2,297,000 Litres Range 17.3 billion km (49 days at full power)
Krupp KD-37 Shield Generator (6) Recharge 370 seconds (0.6 per second)

Twin 10"/50 Laser Turret (6x2) Range 256,000km TS 8000 km/s Power 32-8 ROF 20
Twin 5"/50 QF Laser Turret (6x2) Range 200,000km TS 8000 km/s Power 8-8 ROF 5
4"/20 QF Railgun (12x4) Range 20,000km TS 5,000 km/s Power 3-3 ROF 5
Barr and Stroud MK I Primary Laser Fire Control (3) Range 256,000 km TS 8,000 km/s ECCM-1
R-44 Gaseous Fission Reactor (3) Total Power Output 132.2 Exp 5%

Armstrong-Whitworth AW-24R Capital Missile Launcher (12) Missile Size: 24 ROF 1960
Maxwell MF-64 Missile Fire Control (1) Range 63.8m km RES 125 ECCM-1
Maxwell MF-24-SC Missile Fire Control (2) Range 24.5m km RES 20 ECCM-1
Theseus Anti-Ship Missile (72) Speed 25,000 km/s Range 4.5m km WH 25 Size 24 TH: 3,125 / 6,250 / 12,500
Perseus Anti-Ship Missile (24) Speed 20,000 km/s Range 49.6m km WH 16 Size 24 TH: 2,500 / 5,000 / 10,000

Maxwell MX-100 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 20000 Range 100.9m km RES 125 ECCM-1
Maxwell MX-20-SC Small Craft Detection Sensor (1) GPS 480 Range 21.2m km RES 20 ECCM-1
Maxwell MX-6-M Missile Detection Sensor (1) GPS 16 Range 6.4m km MCR 574.5k km RES 1 ECCM-1
Rutherford RT-15 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 15 Detect 1000: 30.6m km
Rutherford RE-24 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect 1000: 38.7m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Fire Control 1 Missile 1

[Steve_Walmsley]

Thanks - I’ll read up on those options

[Moin]

@Steve_Walmsley

When the lines wrap, it becomes unreadable. Discourse also seems to remove white space, which makes it harder to read.

Then maybe formatted text is what you need. That doesn’t remove spaces.

 Something like        this

```
 Something like        this
```

[Steve_Walmsley]

Thanks. I’m not used to CSS or HTML (C++/C# Windows is my background), so its mostly a case of not realising what I don’t know

[NateDhaliwal]

@Moin

That doesn’t remove spaces.

And also scrolls sideways instead of wrapping .

[Steve_Walmsley]

For anyone interested, making the default text size smaller also resolves most of the problem.