A great deal of work is involved to format GNUPG encryption and signatures properly on web-enabled editors such as that used by wikipedia (which is my favorite source of information)!
The code will otherwise not copy correctly!
The blockquote and nowiki commands are not good enough to simplify the formatting process that must take place. Highlight the line of code (one at a time) and click the "W" with the red "NO" symbol over it (ie. nowiki code for "ignoring wiki formatting").
This will encase the line with the html codes for nowiki and /nowiki attributes (enclosed in less than and greater than signs signifying html code).
It is rather laborious to do this for EACH INDIVIDUAL LINE of code to permit insertion of a <br> after the /nowiki (html line break code is <br>).
It is important to preserve the series of dashes (-) that wikipedia will otherwise remove. Additionally atleast some of the spacing will need to be preserved (and likely signed plaintext will now work at all because it is altered as soon as it is posted). If preserving the spacing is necessary for successful verification and decryption of the copied code (that you want to publish) then these changes may need to be applied to each individual line of wikipedia html editor code!
Perhaps a find and replace macro in a text editor can make this process easier/faster.
I am open to other suggestions and certainly to wikipedia making some shortcut to enable easier use of GNUPG encryption and GNUPG document signing by supporting the plaintext copy/paste that is used by this program.
Here is an example of code published in the above described manner - it should be as easy as a copy and paste but that is unfortunately NOT the case due to the rich-text editor features of wikipedia! The following was edited line by line with the nowiki and /nowiki code enclosing each individual line and followed by the html line break code <br> it took forever.
Here is the same code published by copy and paste: with use of the nowiki and <br> codes inserted around the lines with the dashes and to ensure the spacing is correct. This was faster but still a bit too laborious for my taste. But we make do and overcome the limitations and features that surround us if we really want to accomplish our task.
In particular you want the -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- line to be on one line and the next line to contain the version used (ie. Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) - WinPT 1.2.0) which is separated from the code by a blank line. This is accomplished by inserting one and two <br> for line breaks respectively.
The encrypted code is then enclosed by the nowiki and /nowiki making the process faster. Similarly at the end of the code one can force the correct formatting just to keep the tail end of the code correct, although this is likely not necessary except to ensure the spacing is correct before the GNUPG line for ending the message.
For example the trailing =IHcL can be separated out from the rest of the enclosed code by an additional nowiki and /nowiki and <br>.
The text message enclosed by the series of dashes (-) is important. This coding is used to identify the BEGIN and END of GNUPG/PGP information. If it is altered or spacing is wrong then often the decryption will fail or the signature verification will fail. Likely plaintext posted on wikipidia and simply signed will become altered and will cause a failed signature verification. Hence encrypting properly and signing may be wiser. The message or signature (ie. -----END PGP MESSAGE-----) should be on a new line and enclosed by the nowiki and /nowiki coding as well.
This appears to save time because GNUPG will then recognize the code and decrypt successfully without each line being deisgnated with the proper formatting break (but you need to separate out the parts above and below the encrypted code and be certain to test a copy of the previewed result to ensure that the encoding will verify/decrypt without errors).
I recommend always encrypting to yourself along with anyone else your sharing the contents with so you can verify that you can read the encrypted contents and that you encrypted the correct information on your clipboard before finalizing and sending the package that your signing and encrypting.
I have tested the below application of this process and it looks different but works just the same.
I welcome comments and suggestions and hope wikipedia amends their editor to make this simple.
