Mark-up tags in Forum posts
 

The logical place to put this happens to be locked, but a Cafe post will probably be viewed by more members, anyway.

Cynthia has talked about mark-up tags before, but there's a big batch of recent posts that suggest a refresher might be useful. There's especially a problem with quotations from other members' posts. What follows isn't so much about something "new" that you need to do, but about something to avoid doing.

To get a word or phrase into some kind of special format, such as italics, boldface, or a colored-background blocked quote, the software needs to see some special directions, or mark-up tags.

The easiest way to provide those directions is to just click on, say, the B or the "quote balloon" above the window as you type your post, and you'll be prompted to put in your text and, where appropriate, the URL of the reference you're pointing to. The mark-up tags are automatically put in by the software program.

If after posting you click "Edit," you'll be able to see those tags in your text. They are instructions placed within brackets. For example, the "instruction" for bold type is B, so in brackets just before the affected text, you'll see within your text in the "Edit" window the tag, which is [B]. For a quotation, the beginning tag happens to be the word QUOTE in brackets. At the end of the word or phrase you want to appear in that format, you'll see a tag that tells the program to stop providing that feature. It will be the same instruction, but preceded by a slash -- / -- without any extra spacing. For example, if I had been formatting a word or phrase in italics and I wanted to stop, I'd type [/I]. (That may look like a lower-case L, but it's actually a capital i.) A made-up example -- made up because I want you to see the tags, without the software executing the command -- might be an instruction to erase, which would have a beginning tag of [E] and, so, and ending tag of [/E]. The mark-up tags do not actually appear in the post that winds up on the Forum -- they're just instructions to your computer.

(If you're following along, the reason I didn't show how to end the boldface print in the example above -- which would have been a /B enclosed in brackets -- and instead gave the example related to italics, is that if I'd typed the closing tag for bold print, the program would have gone back to find the initial tag and put everything in between the two tags in bold -- and the mark-up tags would have disappeared from view in the process, defeating my purpose, which makes all this more difficult to explain online than on paper.)

What is happening frequently when members are quoting a previous post, and then editing the quote, is that they are lopping off the closing mark-up tag for the "Quote" instruction, which is [/QUOTE]. If you do that, then instead of this:

Your text will look like this --

[QUOTE]Please don't eat the flake white.

In the second example, the end tag has been lopped off, so the program never executes the formatting, because you haven't specified the word or text to which that formatting should be limited.

To correct, just hit "Edit," and type the mark-up tag for closing the quote format, which is, remember, the same as the opening tag, but with a slash mark inserted at the beginning, without any extra spaces. (I'm not showing it here, because if I did, the software would go back up to the [QUOTE] tag and put everything in between in a colored-background quotation block.)

Don't be confused by the odd-looking variation when you hit "Quote" on another member's post and get something like "[QUOTE = Joy Thomas . . .]" or whatever, with a bunch of extra stuff within the first set of brackets. Just make sure that:

1) when you cut off the parts of the previous post that you don't want to quote, you don't also lop off the mark-up tag to close the quotation, and that you don't lop off the closing bracket on the opening tag,

and

2) if the formatting doesn't appear correctly, make sure you have square (not cupid-bow) brackets around both the beginning and ending tags, and that the closing tag contains the slash mark.


Understanding this will make you a computer programmer, of sorts, and will amaze your friends and intimidate anyone who might be toying with having a go at you. But if this isn't what you'd call "fun," the fact is that a moderator will probably come along and clean up your post for you, especially if there's an omission that is compromising the clarity of your post. Note, however, that beginning in 2007, the PSA will no longer give Lifetime Achievement Awards to any artist who hasn't mastered basic mark-up tags.

Steven, thank you for helping me with this! After all, as a moderator I should be setting a good example, so it helps to know these things.

Wha-a-a-??

Okay that's it...I'm out...It's been really great everyone. But it's back to the drawing board for me (literally and figuratively).

After reading Steven's commands (just after I committed the "lopping off a quote mark-up tag" sin I might add). I fear that that I'm probably the very one that moderator's are having to clean up after.

(And besides that, a little flake white won't hurt you....much.)

Seriously, thank you very much for taking the time to staighten us out...will there be a test on this? I think I had better print this info out and study.

Joy Thomas
www.portraitartist.com/thomas

Joy,

At least one of the times that Cynthia explained this, I happened to be studying Mandarin Chinese -- and I thought the Mandarin was easier to understand.

I still very often preview my own posts and see that an errant or omitted mark-up tag has produced something I didn't intend. The "fun" part of seeing how the tags work is that you can go back in and fix it yourself. Also, if you decide to add some feature to something you've already posted, such as putting a block of text in bold type, you can just sneak into the Edit mode and type in the tags before and after the text and, voila!

But don't give it another thought if it's all Greek to you, and certainly don't let it make you feel shy about posting. There are Greek geek squads on the Forum, ready to assist.

As I mentioned, explaining it online makes it seem harder than it is, because you can't actually show both the beginning and ending tags you're talking about -- or else the software will put all the intervening text into bold type or italics or whatever and make the tags disappear. It's like pulling an invisible rabbit out of a hat -- even if you really did it, it would be hard to say exactly what just happened. (This trick is to use a black light, under which the aura of the rabbit can be seen.)

Basically, all markup commands are in brackets and each one has a starting and ending bracketd comman. I'll demonstrate with spaces just inside the opening and closing bracket so it will display here, but realize the spaces won't/shouldn't be there in real live.

Here is the bold command. You can type it in, or you can click the little "B" button above where you type your post.

[ b ] Now is the time...[ /b ]

What do you mean Joy?? :) I saw you use the underline already!

Well...okay...since you put it that way, I guess I'm free to type away then!

Joy Thomas
www.portraitartist.com/thomas

True... true...but I still don't know how to use those little icons! Is that what Steven means about pulling rabbits out of hats?

Joy Thomas
www.portraitartist.com/thomas