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Forum Editing Tips

Let's see how to personalize our Forum messages for modern Web browsers, without affecting the look of the Forum page. Forum software interprets our messages, and reformats them to look like other Forum messages—some custom formatting won't work, or the Forum may change it.

Use the operating system's Clipboard to grab text, then paste it in the Message box at the bottom of the Forum page; gather, write and combine elements to create your message. Internet references, called URLs, are often quite long, without spaces, which may make a mess of the Forum page.

How To Create Short Links

When we copy a URL into a Forum message, Forum software automatically converts it to a clickable link. A link is an HTML anchor tag that includes the Internet location, and a description of the link. The link itself is also used by Forum software as its description. We can use our own description, instead of the link text—this is a very good idea if the link is quite long.

Parts of a Link

The link is an HTML tag (<a href="">), some descriptive text, and a closing tag (</a>). Here is a simple, complete link:

<a href="http://www.whatbadgerseat.com/">What Badgers Eat</a>

Web browsers are picky about what goes where. Enter just what you need, exactly like above, and your links will work correctly. People expect most links on the page to look the same; there is no reason to use special HTML formatting to change the look of a link, unless you have a reason to add extra emphasis.

Entering Links

For simplicity, either write a complete, empty anchor link first, then fill in the information, or write your text without the link, then add the link. Here's an empty anchor, feel free to save a copy to use as a starting point:

<a href=""></a>

Next, fill in the description:

<a href="">What Badgers Eat</a>

Finally, enter the link URL between the quotation marks:

<a href="http://www.whatbadgerseat.com/">What Badgers Eat</a>

We enter links this way, because frequently the URL is so long that it would be difficult to read or edit the text around it. The completed link looks like this:

What Badgers Eat

Often it's easier to write the text first, then add the link after we are done editing.

For more information, see What Badgers Eat, and follow the instructions.

Next, decide which text will be the link, and add the opening and closing anchors:

For more information, see <a href="">What Badgers Eat</a>, and follow the instructions.

Finally, insert the link's URL:

For more information, see <a href="http://www.whatbadgerseat.com/">What Badgers Eat</a>, and follow the instructions.

When the browser displays your message, the HTML tags are hidden:

For more information, see What Badgers Eat, and follow the instructions.

• Always include the closing </a> tag.
• The complete, original URL is displayed at the bottom of the window, in the Browser status line, when you move the mouse over a link.
• If you feel you must underline links, use the <u> </u> tag, which is described in the HTML Formatting section.
• Some Web browsers automatically word-wrap long URLs; others do not. Don't assume that if it looks right in your Web Browser, it will display correctly with others.

Link Attributes

The <a href=> </a> tag offers additional options—you can ignore these features.

Use the title="" attribute to add a brief, pop-up description for your link. When the mouse hovers over the link, the browser shows a small box with the description.

<a href="http://www.whatbadgerseat.com/" title="Click here to see what Badgers eat!">What Badgers Eat</a>

With the target= attribute, you can tell the browser where to open the link. By default, the link opens in the current window—replacing the current Forum page. Useful options include "_blank" (open link in a new browser window), and "_top" (open link in the topmost window, ignoring frames and extraneous windows); the leading underscores are part of the names. This example opens the page in a new browser window:

<a href="http://www.whatbadgerseat.com/" target="_blank">What Badgers Eat</a>

Quick Editing

To add a message to a topic, simply type it in the message box at the bottom of the page.

• Type each paragraph on one line, press ENTER only at the end of the paragraph. Let your text word-wrap as necessary. The Forum software displays your text correctly as a paragraph.
• To start a new paragraph, press ENTER at the end of the current line, then ENTER again to create a blank line, then continue typing your message.
• Internet links in your text (beginning with http://) are automatically converted to live links—the Forum software does not check if the links work. If a link is too long, say more than forty characters, it will affect the appearance of the page; see the How To Create Short Links section for how to ensure that your links look good on the page.
• It is not necessary to place a blank line after your final paragraph, or to press ENTER on the last line.

Character Formatting

Emphasize text with bold or italic by beginning a line of text with b or i.

• Separate the b or i from the first word on the line with a space.
• The b and i characters are exceptions to the rule that pressing ENTER ends a paragraph.
• You can also use HTML tags and styles to emphasize text.

Example:

Add impact by
i emphasizing words
in your messages.

Even though we pressed ENTER to separate the italic words, text is displayed all on one line, ignoring the extra line breaks:

Add impact by emphasizing words in your messages.

Paragraph Formatting

Placed at the beginning of the line, these codes customize the appearance of a paragraph.

• If you need to begin a regular line of text with one of these characters, but have the character displayed instead of interpreted as a special command, precede the character with a space.

Example:

c Centered Notice
 
Regular text.

To continue with regular text, add a blank line following the centered text:

Special Symbols

Some everyday characters, such as < and >, are reserved for use in HTML layout, while other special characters are difficult to enter, or difficult to remember how to enter. We use special codes in our messages to represent these characters—when the browser displays the page, it substitutes the appropriate characters. By using these codes, most browsers are able to successfully substitute the correct characters, even if those characters not available in the current font.

Smilies

Forums often also support Emoticons, frequently called Smilies. These are the little smiley-face icons that some participants use to show that they think something is funny or annoying. There may be Forum configuration settings to tell the Forum software to replace the symbols with small pictures.

Sample forum icons and codes

• Use &nbsp; to add extra space between words, or on either side of words that use the background-color: style property.
• Individual users may have the Forum configured to show Emoticons as the characters instead of pictures.
• See the Web Symbols section for more characters and their codes.

HTML Formatting

These HTML tags make it easy to enhance forum messages with features like big and underlined text. HTML tags are contained within a pair of < and > characters. For each opening tag, use a matching closing tag; the closing tag is always required.

Example:

Make text <big>larger</big> for emphasis.

You can place tags anywhere within a paragraph. Remember to include the closing tag.

Make text larger for emphasis.

Styles

The style= attribute, used within HTML tags, changes the look of text beyond what the tags can do alone.

HTML <span> </span> tag

This tag does nothing by itself. Think of <span> </span> as a container, used with the style= attribute, without using an HTML tag to make text bold, italic or big.

Example:

A few words <span style="color: red;">without shouting!</span>

The <span> </span> tag is a container for the style= attribute.

A few words without shouting!

Using Styles

Each style property begins with its name, then a colon, then the value, and ends with a semicolon. Styles are contained between two quotation marks, called a style string. Let's combine several style properties in a single style string, within a pair of <i> </i> tags.

Example:

<i style="color: teal; font-size: 150%; letter-spacing: 2px; font-family: Garamond,serif;">Adobe&reg; Forums</i>

The color:, font-size:, letter-spacing: and font-family: properties are combined when the Web browser displays the text:

Adobe® Forums

Let's look at another example, this time we'll change the appearance of a link:

<a href="http://www.whatbadgerseat.com/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">What Badgers Eat</a>.

What Badgers Eat.

Styles are fun and flexible, though their use takes some care and planning:

• Use matching opening and closing HTML tags.
• Style properties are placed between two quotation marks (" "), called a style string.
• If a value requires a string, enclose it within a pair of single quotes (' ').
• While the style= attribute includes an equal sign, each style description is followed by a colon.
• End each style attribute with a semicolon.
• Use the HTML <span> </span> tag as a style container.
• Use styles with <a> </a> tags, to add impact to Web links.
• In Forum messages, only use styles within one paragraph at a time. If you need to use similar formatting in multiple paragraphs, either apply the styles again, or simulate a paragraph break by using <br>&nbsp;<br> within your text.
• Don't use the HTML <font> tag in forum messages. Everything you could do with <font> can be done more flexibly with styles.

Style Attribute Values

While all style attributes require values to tell the Web Browser how to format text, each attribute works differently.

Colors

The color: and background-color: style attributes recognize colors by name, or hexadecimal values.

Let's look at bold text in teal on a cornsilk background

<b style="color: teal; background-color: cornsilk;">Hello, world!</B>

Hello, world!

Here are the same colors, using the <span> tag, without using bold text.

<span style="color: teal; background-color: cornsilk;">Hello, world!</span>

• Use color names instead of color values for simplicity and efficient formatting.
• When you print a page, some lighter colors may be replaced with white.
• Set the text color with the color: attribute. Use background-color: to change the color of the page behind the text.
• Spelling counts. Spell Style attributes and color names correctly.
• Use lower-case for styles and color names.
• Use contrasting text and background colors.

Color Names

Here are some color names recognized in HTML documents:

Color Numbers

If you want to use a color not in the list above, specify it by hexadecimal value (#rrggbb). Let's use a faded yellow background in this example:

<span style="background-color: #f0f099;">&nbsp;Hello, world!&nbsp;</span>

 Hello, world! 

Notice that we added extra blank space on either side of the text (using &nbsp;), to make the background stand-out. The next example is the equivalent to the one above, entered using RGB values as decimal numbers (rgb(nnn,nnn,nnn)).

<span style="background-color: rgb(240,240,153);">&nbsp;Hello, world!&nbsp;</span>

Pictures

Most Internet Forums discourage posting pictures—most Forum visitors frown on having to wait for extraneous images to load. It's usually best to post a link to a picture, which is exactly the same as linking to a Web page. This example links to a picture on a Web site:

<a href="rocky.jpg" title="Bullwinkle and Rocky">Bullwinkle &amp; Rocky picture</a>

When you click the link, the picture opens in the Browser window. See the How To Create Short Links section for more about Web links.

For simplicity, examples show just the file name. Your links must include the complete URL to the picture. For example, "http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/r_harvey/rocky.jpg".

Picture Links

If the Internet Forum allows it, use the <img> HTML tag to link to a picture. This is the simplest way to embed a picture:

<img src="rocky.jpg">

That's all you have to use; there isn't even a closing HTML tag required. You can add features, such as title=, but they are not required. If the picture is small, you can place it with your text, and it will move with your text; place large pictures in their own paragraphs.

Parts of an <img> tag

Add text descriptions, if you like. The alt= attribute is shown if the picture cannot be displayed. Use the title="" attribute to add a brief, pop-up description for your picture.

If you know the size of the picture, use width= and height= to help the Web Browser format and display the page more quickly—and if you use the incorrect width= or height=, most browsers will resize of the picture to match your dimensions. Let's use all of these features:

<img src="rocky.jpg" width="202" height="144" alt="Bullwinkle and Rocky" title="Moose and Squirrel">

Try using a picture as part of a link; when you click on the picture, the Browser jumps to the link. To avoid having the Web Browser draw a box around your picture, add the border="0" attribute to your <img> tag. Here's a picture used as a link

<a href="URL"><img src="rocky.jpg" border="0" width="202" height="144" alt="Bullwinkle and Rocky" title="Moose and Squirrel"></a>

• Not everyone will view your messages with a high-speed connection. Avoid posting large pictures.
• Avoid using pictures that are wider than 640 pixels. Wide pictures can cause the non-standard formatting used by the Forum software to widen the page beyond the edge of the browser window, making text and pictures difficult to view.

Newsreaders and Pictures

Some Forums are available for use without Web browsers. These newsreader programs often do not display pictures with the text. One work-around is to combine a link to the picture along with the picture, so the user can click the link, even if they cannot see the picture. This example combines those two tags:

<a href="rocky.jpg"><img src="rocky.jpg" border="0" width="202" height="144" alt="Bullwinkle and Rocky" title="Moose and Squirrel"></a>

• Usually we link to pictures, instead of embedding them in our messages.
• There is no closing <img> tag.
• Only post pictures if the Forum allows them. For example, the Photoshop Lounge basement.
• Pictures are stored on your Web site; you aren't uploading them to the Forum.
• Not all Web sites allow direct-linking to images—you will not be able to place these images on the page, no matter how you try. Use an <a href=""> </a> tag instead of <img> to reference those images.
• Use GIF, JPG, or PNG images.
• Changing picture dimensions using width= or height= scale pictures larger or smaller.

Forum Searching

Forum searches follow these rules:

• Words must be greater than 2-characters long.
• Words that are longer than 48-characters are truncated.
• Words with all-caps are indexed separately than mixed/lower case words.
• Words are converted to lower case except for words that are all uppercase.
• HTML tags are not indexed.
• Suffixes, such as adding s to make words plural, are ignored.
• See the search form for wild-card rules

Suffixes

The following word suffixes are ignored:

Stop Words

Several common words are always ignored. Forum software calls these "stop words." These words are not searched when you use wild cards or partial matches (except for the suffixes rules).

See http://www.adobeforums.com/stopwords.txt for the current list used by Adobe's forums.

Pandas!

Panda#	Panda Civilian Designation
0	nilk narf
007	Grass Hopper, greenjumpyone
0112358	Michael Gianino
0U812	Kathy Harris
1	SteveV, StevieV
100	Magill (Her name was Magill and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy)
101	Jason Drabek, MisfitDeluxe, Tom Leykis, George B*sh*t
106	luk a
108	P. Boone
111	Richard Sohanchyk
11ty8	William Byers
12	Patty Clarke
13	John Kallios
14	Exaspera, Margaret McDowell
151	Christine Krof Shock
-1.61803399	povimage "-(1+√5)/2" = -1.6180339887498948482045868343656)"
1776	Beagslie
19	dave milbut
19072001	tineke linthout
1912	Lawrence Hudetz
1,913,192,419,461,966	kevinroy, BranderChatfield
1933	Phos.... , Phosphor.Digital, Phosphor
1969	Roger Benedict
1972	BusinessNunya
2	Dirk, Dirk Williams
2006	chrisjbirchall
204	Rob Hav (Gorky's Zygotic-something-something)
206	Papafrosh (of H.M.C.S. Saguenay)
217	Lizerie Bice
22	CLS
239	Kyle Sessions
241	Nancy S
241.1	nannygoat
24601	Kelli Aylesworth, Kelli24601
246810	Becky Ryan
27	Em Dash, Emma d'Anise
2n8	Thee_DarkOverLord
3	Jennifer Lathrop
3.14159265	John Joslin (Pi Π Π)
-32768	? (0x8000)
333	Katherine Lawson
34	Proudest Monkey (DM)
41	(Available)
419	Scott McCullough
42	T. C.
420	Timothy Foolery®
420A	(Reserved in case mr moto changes his mind)
44	Lisa Spike
454	Ho
5	mr moto (5="E")
54	Kath Howard2, 3, Kath H
555	PowerChild
57	mrsd
59	Lesh, ~Lesh
6	John Drake (Patrick McGoohan)
bleen	R.I.P. John Slate (bleen = number between 6 and 7)
6.0×10^23	Bert Philippus (600000000000000000000000)
6.285714	Gustavo Sanchez (double Pi)
6063	Thomas Ireland
666	dré as in Andrea
667	DS Nelson
69	Buko, by Buko
7 of 9	Coral D.
705	johnkissane3 (?INT(RND*10000))
71077345	Brutus Maximus
72	Penny Keeley
7289	Susan Walters 2of2
742	? (Evergreen Terrace)
77	Brightside
789	Gene Trujillo
8	Seizer8
81	(not Nancy S)
82	Skua
84	Ann Shelbourne
86	Laura Hickle, Sapphire Cat
867-5309	graffiti, ~graffiti
88	Dion G (∞^∞)
888	Mathias Vejerslev
9	Gary Nixon
91465	Ramón G Castañeda (Honorary)
967869	John Levine IOPHFI_INH! ;-)
999	Kamilyon Bambiraptor
999.1	Fr. Watson
999.1.1.0	Cerberus
999.1.1.1.0	Kami Bambiraptor
01010100...	Chris Baham (01010100 01110111 01101001 01110100 01100011 01101000 01001111 01010011 01011000)
#ff0000	(Reserved in case Emma d'Anise's wants it back)
"I'm a panda, not a number"	Jay Chevako
ABD-4D4	Alucard 44
e	Available (constant e, which is 2.7182818284590...)
Googol	Zeb, Zebrdee
n?	Ozpeter
{ }	bashibazouk
√-1	LenHewitt (The Square Root of Minus One)
√2	Susan S. (√2)

Try and be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book every now and then. Get some walking in... and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.
 
- The Meaning of Life, Python (Monty)

Still self-medicating? There's always beyondblue.org.au.

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