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.
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.
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.
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).
\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).
This is
a picture of me: \image{my picture} and I smile like this:
\clipart{smile}.
Output
:
This is
a picture of me:
and I smile like this:
.
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
\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:
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.
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 {).
Simple Features
and I smile like this: 
.
