Formatting


A powerful formatting language developed specifically for this application allows you to format your posts without knowledge of HTML. This formatting language is easy for both HTML users and non-HTML users to learn quickly. There are examples after each major section.

Contents

  • Introduction to Formatting
  • Text Formatting
  • Special Characters
  • Other Formatting
  • Frequently Made Mistakes

  • Introduction to Formatting

      All formatting tags have the following structure:

        code{Arguments or text to be formatted}

      The code is a keyword to invoke the desired formatting (for example, green to produce green text and b to produce bold text). Formatting tags are case sensitive. Formatting tags may be nested within other tags. A comprehensive list of available formatting tags is available in this document (although the system administrator can turn off certain tags).

      To use formatting, enter the appropriate code(s) in the text of your message or subject line. When you preview your post, your formatting will be displayed so you can verify that you have entered your tags properly.


    Text Formatting

    • Simple Features (bold, italics, etc.)
    • Colors
    • Text Size
    • Miscellaneous (font face, blinking, etc.)

    • Simple Features

      Tag Description Example
      b{Your Text} Bold Text Your Text
      i{Your Text} Italics Text Your Text
      +{Your Text} Superscript Text [Reference]Your Text
      {Your Text} Subscript Text [Reference]Your Text
      fixed{Your Text} Fixed Width Text Your Text
      u{Your Text} Underlined Text Your Text
      c{Your Text} Centered Text
      Your Text

      Examples

      Input:    b{Show me some bold} and i{italics text}.
      Output:    Show me some bold and italics text.
       
      Input:    H{2}O has a density of 1.000×10+{-3} kg/mL.
      Output:    H2O has a density of 1.000×10-3 kg/mL.

      Colors

      Tag Description Example
      red{Your Text} Red Text Your Text
      orange{Your Text} Orange Text Your Text
      yellow{Your Text} Yellow Text Your Text
      green{Your Text} Green Text Your Text
      cyan{Your Text} Cyan Text Your Text
      blue{Your Text} Blue Text Your Text
      purple{Your Text} Purple Text Your Text
      white{Your Text} White Text Your Text
      gray{Your Text} Gray Text Your Text
      black{Your Text} Black Text Your Text

      Example

      Input:    red{Red} and green{green} are pretty colors.
      Output:    Red and green are pretty colors.

      Text Size

      Tag Description Example
      2{Your Text} Largest (size +2 text) Your Text
      1{Your Text} Large (size +1 text) Your Text
      {Your Text} Average (size +0 text) Your Text
      -1{Your Text} Smaller (size -1 text) Your Text
      -2{Your Text} Smallest (size -2 text) Your Text

      Example

      Input:    2{You} 1{can} {size} -1{your} -2{text}.
      Output:    You can size your text.

      Miscellaneous

      Tag Description Example
      greek{Your Text} Greek (symbol) text Your Text
      strike{Your Text} Strikethrough Your Text
      blink{Your Text} Blinking text Your Text
      rgb{Hex_code,Your Text} Color text by hex code Your Text: aaaa00 color
      font{Font_face,Your Text}* Font face Your Text
      char{ASCII code} Character (0-255) Ê (ASCII code=202)
      indent{Your text} Indented (blockquoted)

      Your text

      quote{Your text} Quoted


      Quote:
      Your text


      * = see note about escaping commas under "Special Characters"

      Examples

      Input:    rgb{5aaa7c,This is a strange color}.
      Output:    This is a strange color.
       
      Input:    font{Times New Roman,This is in a different font}.
      Output:    This is in a different font.
       
      Input:    font{Comic Sans MS,Tahoma,Note the escaped comma here}.
      Output:    Note the escaped comma here.

    Special Characters


    Other Formatting

    • Mathematical Notation
    • Hyperlinks
    • Images, Attachments, and Clipart
    • Tables and Lists

    • Mathematical Notation

      Tag Description Example Tag Output
      sum{lower, upper} Sum using sigma notation sum{i=1,10} i Si=110 i
      int{lower, upper} Definite Integral int{0,6} x dx ò06 x dx

      Example

      Input:    int{0,2greek{p}} sin(x) dx = 0
      Output:    ò02p sin(x) dx = 0

      Hyperlinks

      Code Description
      link{URL, text description} Link to URL with text description
      topurl{URL, text description} Link to URL in top frame with text description
      newurl{URL, text description} Link to URL in new window with text description
      mail{address, text description} "mailto" link to address with text description

      Example

      Input:    To learn more about this green{FREE} discussion board program, visit the topurl{http://mulliken.chem.hope.edu/discus,Discus Home Page}.
      Output:    To learn more about this FREE discussion board program, visit the Discus Home Page.

      Images, Attachments, and Clipart

      Tag Description
      image{Text description} Upon posting, you are prompted for an image file to upload. Images must be either GIF or JPEG format. Images must be saved on your hard disk. Your browser must support form-based file upload (Netscape Navigator 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ support this; IE 3.02 will also work provided that you have installed the file upload patch).
      clipart{Clipart File Name} Inserts clipart (see index)

      Example

      Input:    This is a picture of me: image{my picture} and I smile like this: clipart{smile}.
      Output:    This is a picture of me: my picture and I smile like this: smile.

      Note that the "Your Image Here" graphic is replaced by the image file that you upload.


      Tables and Lists

      You can hand-enter tables or you can paste in tables directly from a tab-delimited spreadsheet (such as Microsoft Excel). See the "Pasting Tables" instructions if you are pasting a table directly from Excel.

      Tag Description
      table{Table Items} Creates
      a table of the Table Items (table HAS a border)
      tablenb{Table Items} Creates a table of the Table Items (table has NO border)
      list{List Items} Creates a bulleted list of the List Items

        Table Items and List Items

        The Table Items are divided into columns by commas and into rows by newline characters (carriage returns). Thus, the entry table{1,2,3} would create a table with three columns (with entries "1", "2", and "3").

        The List Items are separated by newline characters (carriage returns). Each List Item is given a bullet.

        See the examples for further explanation.

        Pasting Tables

        You can paste in tables from tab-delimited spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. To paste a table, do the following:

        • Open your spreadsheet using Excel.
        • Select the range that you wish to paste as a table using Excel.
        • Choose Edit and then Copy.
        • Bring up your WWW browser.
        • Enter an "empty" table tag (such as table{ } or tablenb{ }) in your message. Do not put in any Table Items at this time.
        • Click the mouse between the curly braces in that tag.
        • Select Edit and then Paste.

      Examples

      Input:    table{X,O,X
      O,X
      O,,X}
      Output:   

      X O X
      O X
      O X

       
      Input:    list{List Item 1
      List Item 2
      List Item 3}
      Output:   

      • List Item 1
      • List Item 2
      • List Item 3

       
      Input:    table{1,2\ch{br}2.5,3
      4,\ch{nbsp},6
      7,8,9,000}
      Output:   

      1 2
      2.5
      3
      4   6
      7 8 9,000


    Frequently Made Mistakes

    • Not looking at the preview
      • The message preview shows your tags in action. If you look at it and your b{Bold text} isn’t bold, you have made a mistake!
    • Using / instead of to start a tag
      • /b{Bold text tag} is wrong
      • b{Bold text tag} is correct
    • Using parentheses instead of curly braces
      • b(Bold text tag) is wrong
      • b{Bold text tag} is correct
    • Using the wrong case in tags
      • B{Bold text tag} is wrong (B{ } is not defined)
      • b{Bold text tag} is correct
    • Not escaping commas where necessary
      • Advanced tags use the comma to separate the various arguments. If you need to use a comma and not have it treated as a delimiter, you must escape the comma.
      • See the discussion under "Special Characters" for further explanation and many examples.
    • Putting spaces where they do not belong
      • b{Bold text tag} is wrong (space between and b).
      • b {Bold text tag} is wrong (space between b and {).
      • b{Bold text tag} is correct.


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