Note: Be prepared to do some reading; this is a long post.Thank you very much for this all inclusive ppost.
I am going to apologize in advance for any infractions I may
inadvertantly commit in my posting because, while you have
been very precise and consise with your links and explanations,
some of them I do not understand.
Sorry.
I have no idea what a BB code is. Nor how to use tags.
I do not know HTML...
I am NOT all that young!
Honest. I also was where you were a few years ago, not knowing what a BB Code tag is (or even BB Code). I will describe this; it's NOT nearly as hard as it looks:
1.) Maylaur has pointed our one way to access them, by using the buttons.
a.) If you add the tags before you type the section you want to enclose? Put the text in between the tags (a word or abbreviation between square brackets. When you start to type, the cursor (blinking vertical line) should be
between the open tag (just the BB Code inside of square brackets) and the close tag (where the BB Code tag word is preceded by a forward slash ("/") just after the first of the square brackets that form the tag.
b.) If you decide to format after you have typed a section? Just use your mouse to
highlight (click left mouse button at the start of the word/section and drag, releasing at the end of what you want to format). This will color the words; choose the tag from the selection and press that button. That will then add the tags in the proper locations.
2.) If you decide to form the tag manually? Just type the tags where they should be! But do remember that ALL of the elements (parts) of BOTH tags MUST be complete and accurate in order to have the command execute properly. That is what the tags form: A command that tells the software what it must do to show the page as the webmaster wants it to.
A general list of BB Code tags:
http://www.bbcode.org/reference.phpSome sites also use custom tags, not a problem here as far as I can see; the ones we have pretty much are covered by the buttons.
HTML? I believe it has been disabled here, so it won't work at DB (or on most bulletin boards since most board Admins disable it by default). Ask one of the Admins here if you want to know for sure if HTML is disabled or not.
More information: Both BBCode and HTML are
markup languages. These languages are the equivalent of a printer's compositor's notes (markups) on a traditional printer's galley/draft: They are there to tell the computer how to format the text when it displays in the browser, just as the printer's markup of a printed book's proof tell the typesetter (compositor) how to set up the printed page.
BBCode really is a simplified form of HTML for bulletin boards and other similar sites, designed to be easier to use and perhaps a bit more secure (since it's more limited in scope) than HTML. If you are curious and want to see an example of HTML? Just go to the browser "view
menu" or the equivalent and ask to see the
page source (or the equivalent) of the page you are looking at at the moment. In turn, that will display the HTML used (
HTML means "Hyper Text Mark-Up Language").
Did you see some words in lighter colors (light blue) in this post? Words that then go to another web page when clicked? That's a neat trick, a "hidden" link. To form it, one needs to enclose the text in modified "url" tags like this:
a.) The first "url" tag (the "open" tag) is not closed immediately, but is followed by an equals sign ("="), no space;
b.) Then without spacing, add the URL to the page, followed by the end bracket;
c.) That is immediately followed by the text that will "hide" the hyperlink;
d.) Then the whole thing is finished by adding the close tag in its normal form.
The "hidden" link makes the text easier to read although it has the disadvantage of making the user go to the link (or look at the taskbar in their browser) to see the actual hyperlink.
