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
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
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 1.000x10\+{-3} kg/mL. | |
Output: | H2O has a density of 1.000x10-3 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 |
\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. |
Miscellaneous
Tag | Description | Example |
\greek{Your Text} | Greek (symbol) text | Your Text |
\strike{Your Text} | Strikethrough | |
\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) |
|
\quote{Your text} | Quoted | Quote: |
* = 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
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{0,2\greek{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://www.discusware.com/discus,Discus Home Page}. |
How to post a picture
Images,
Attachments, and Clipart
Pictures 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? |
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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) |
\image{my picture}
Note:
make sure you describe the picture using the proper brackets: If you are still confused about how to upload a picture, click this link for a step-by-step pictorial-Click here |
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 |
\olist{List Items} | Creates an ordered (numbered 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:
Examples
Input: | \table{X,O,X O,X O,,X} |
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Output: |
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Input: | \list{List
Item 1 List Item 2 List Item 3} |
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Output: |
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Input: | \table{1,2\ch{br}2.5,3 4,\ch{nbsp},6 7,8,9\,000} |
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Output: |
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Frequently Made Mistakes
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!
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