I forgot about this thread but after sending a PM I realized this is the perfect place to explain somethings I have noticed from people not familiar with the whole bulletin board / forum format.
Even though instructions are available in the
HELP button in the purple menu above, I realized it is hard to know where instructions are on how to do certain things in BBC (Bulletin Board Code).
Posting Basics:
http://www.kidneyspace.com/index.php?action=help;page=post#basicsBulletin Board CodeBulletin Board Code (or BBC) is the essential tool for formatting and changing the appearance of your post. While it affects the plain text in much the same way as the formatting tools in any word processor, the main Message field does not behave in a WYSIWYG manner (WYSIWYG means What You See Is What You Get), so you should preview your message if you need to see what it will look like when posted.
A complete SMF Bulletin Board Code Reference is provided here:
http://www.kidneyspace.com/index.php?action=help;page=post#bbcrefSmileysWhile smileys can be viewed as purely whimsical in nature, they can also play a valuable role in clarifying the written word in much the same way as vocal inflections and/or facial expressions clarify the spoken word. Like most forum software, SMF provides a standard range of smiley images which can be added to posts by clicking the relevant icons or typing the relevant codes. A don't use smileys option is naturally also provided for those occasions when you don't want typed character combinations that would normally be displayed as smileys to be converted to the expected images!
A complete SMF Smileys Reference is provided here:
http://www.kidneyspace.com/index.php?action=help;page=post#smileysrefTags and Nesting (for beginners)Before listing the available
BBC buttons and their purposes, let's see how they work by imagining that we want to post some text in bold type. While we can start by clicking the
(Bold) button and typing our text between the tags it produces, it's often more practical to type the text first, highlight it and then click the button. So typing 'text', highlighting it and clicking the 'B' button should produce '[b]text[/b]', which renders as
text when posted or previewed. (NB This doesn't work in Opera, which inserts the tags at the end of the post.) Subsequently highlighting '[b]text[/b]' and clicking the
(Italicized) button will produce '[i][b]text[/b][/i]', which not only renders as
text when posted or previewed but also introduces the concept of nesting, which means that each new set of tags in a case like this should be seen as a new 'box' containing both the original text
and any tags already applied to it.
SMF Bulletin Board CodeThe buttons shown belong to the SMF default theme and may differ from forum to forum.
There is an easy to read table which will help you out tremendously, so check out this link in the help page on all the codes needed to make a great post:
bbc refTip: All codes have an
OPEN and a
CLOSE.
So when you want to post an image .. you click the image button and you then see this code appear:
[img][/img] and you put your image link in between the codes like this:
[img]http://www.images_site.com/image.gif[/img] and the image would appear after you post or preview (you should always preview before posting to make sure your post looks good).
You can do the same with links except it is the link button you click:
[url][/url] and then you put your link between the codes like this:
[url]http://www.kidneyspace.com[/url] Which will show up like this:
http://www.kidneyspace.comWith links however you can also make the link so that it doesn't show but a clickable word does.
This is done by changing your code in this way (only for the more experienced poster):
[url=http://www.kidneyspace.com]Kidney Space![/url] Which appears like this:
Kidney Space!
