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
FeaturesTag 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 1.000x10\+{-3} kg/mL. Output: H2O has a density of 1.000x10-3 kg/mL.
ColorsTag 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
SizeTag Description Example \2{Your Text} Largest (size +2 text) Your Text \1{Your Text} Large (size +1 text) Your Text \0{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} \0{size} \-1{your} \-2{text}. Output: You can size your text.
MiscellaneousTag Description Example \greek{Your Text} Greek (symbol) text Your Text \strike{Your Text} Strikethrough Your Text\blink{Your Text} Blinking text \rgb{Hex_code,Your Text} Color text by hex code Your Text: aa0000 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
Modern browsers support the display of special characters, such as the "degrees" symbol (°). There are a number of available characters.
| Tag | Result | Tag | Result | |
| \ch{->} | ® | \ch{<-} | ¬ | |
| \ch{t} | † | \ch{tt} | ‡ | |
| \ch{dot} | • | \ch{TM} | ™ | |
| \ch{c} | © | \ch{<<} | « | |
| \ch{R} | ® | \ch{deg} | ° | |
| \ch{+-} | ± | \ch{=/=} | ¹ | |
| \ch{<>} | ¹ | \ch{int} | ò | |
| \ch{:)} | J | \ch{:(} | L | |
| \ch{:|} | K | \ch{mu} | µ | |
| \ch{1/2} | ½ | \ch{>>} | » | |
| \ch{A} | Å | \ch{/} | ÷ | |
| \ch{nullset} | Ø | \ch{forall} | " | |
| \ch{<=} | £ | \ch{>=} | ³ | |
| \ch{<->} | « | \ch{inf} | ¥ | |
| \ch{= =} | º | \ch{pdel} | ¶ | |
| \ch{DEL} | Ñ | \ch{=>} | Þ | |
| \ch{therefore} | \ | \ch{line} | ||
| \ch{\ /} | ¯ | \ch{nbsp} | (HTML) | |
| \ch{br} | <BR> (HTML) |
The "Symbol" font, supported on Windows platforms, allows the incorporation of Greek characters which is especially useful for mathematical notation in many scientific disciplines. The following table gives available Greek characters in groups of 5.
| Tag | Result | Tag | Result | |
| \greek{abcde} | abcde | \greek{ABCDE} | ABCDE | |
| \greek{fghij} | fghij | \greek{FGHIJ} | FGHIJ | |
| \greek{klmno} | klmno | \greek{KLMNO} | KLMNO | |
| \greek{pqrst} | pqrst | \greek{PQRST} | PQRST | |
| \greek{uvwxyz} | uvwxyz | \greek{UVWXYZ} | UVWXYZ |
Backslashes, and curly braces have special meanings to the interpreter. If you wish to use these characters as text within a tag, you must "escape" them as with a backslash. Additionally, when you are using a tag that requires 2 or more arguments and you want to include a comma within the arguments (and not have it interpreted as a separator), you must escape it with a backslash. See the examples.
| Code | Result |
|---|---|
| \\ | \ |
| \{ | { |
| \} | } |
| \, | , |
Examples
| Input: | This program is \ch{c} 1997-2002 | |
| Output: | This program is © 1997-2002. | |
| Input: | \b{No need, to escape, these commas} in a tag that takes only one argument. | |
| Output: | No need, to escape, these commas in a tag that takes only one argument. | |
| Input: | \rgb{0000aa,No need, to escape, these commas} in the last field of a tag. | |
| Output: | No need, to escape, these commas in the last field of a tag. | |
| Input: | \font{Times\,Roman\,Arial,You need to escape the first two commas in this case}. | |
| Output: | You need to escape the first two commas in this case. | |
Other Formatting
- Mathematical Notation
- Hyperlinks
- Images, Attachments, and Clipart
- Tables and Lists
Mathematical
NotationTag 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{0,2\greek{p}} sin(x) dx = 0 Output: ò02p sin(x) dx = 0
HyperlinksCode 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://www.discusware.com/discus,Discus Home Page}.
How to post a pictureImages,
Attachments, and ClipartPictures must be 100KB or under in size and no bigger than 1000 X 1000
Q. I'm trying to upload an image, and I am getting an error message... what is wrong?
First, make sure the image you are attempting to upload is in one of the formats SMYW accepts (.gif, .jpg). Next, make sure the filename is simple and short, with no spaces or funny characters. "Image.jpg" is a good filnename "Me at the beach! drinking some Coors~~.jpg" is probably not going to work. Next, make sure the filename is less than 100k. We do not allow images over 100k. If none of these things work, it's possible that the image is corrupted.
Luckily there is an easy solution. Go to http://www.download.com/ and download a copy of the software program IrfanView. IT'S FREE and you can use it to resize images so they're less than 600k, or resave images that may be corrupted. Once you have downloaded and installed IrfanView, simply run the program, open your .gif, or .jpg image, and resave it as another version (example: in IrfanView, open file named pic01.jpg, and resave it as pic01b.jpg). Then, simply return to SMYW and upload your newly resaved image.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). \attach{Text description} Upon posting, you are prompted for an attachment to upload. An attachment may be any kind of file (for example, Word document, text file, or WAV audio). Attachments 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) STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR UPLOADING A PICTURE
Step by Step Instructions:
Step 1. Click on "Start New Thread":
Step 2: Type your message:
Here is a picture of my wife\image{my picture} Note: make sure you describe the picture using the proper brackets:
{ } not ( )
and use a BACKWARD SLASH \
also there are no spaces except in the picture description. The picture upload must be done exactly in this manner for it to be successful
Step 3. Click on Preview/Post
Step 4. You will see this:
Here is a picture of my wife:
(don't worry this normal, after step 5 , you will
prompted to upload your image)
Step 5. Click "Post This Message"
Step 6. You will be prompted for the file name of the picture you want to upload. Use the "Browse" button to locate the file on your computer, then Click on "Upload" IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE "BROWSE BUTTON" THAT MEANS YOUR BROWSER DOES NOT SUPPORT UPLOADS.If you are still confused about how to upload a picture, click this link for a step-by-step pictorial-Click here
Tables
and ListsYou 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 \olist{List Items} Creates an ordered (numbered list of the List Items) - 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.
Table
Items and List ItemsThe 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
TablesYou can paste in tables from tab-delimited spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. To paste a table, do the following:
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
2.53 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.
|