How to format your posts [Now with Emoticons aka Smilies]

rad1964

I thought I would make a post describing HOW TO FORMAT YOUR POST.
After doing a quick seach in the forum, I noticed that madurofan had once mentioned some basics, I thought I would give any one who desires the POWER to format their posts.
This comes in handy for those with longer posts so that they can seperate sentences where one ends and another starts (makes reading easier too). And also call attention to important words or parts of their sentences.

==========LINE BREAKS==========

Adding <br> after a sentence will create one line break. The same as hitting ENTER on a typewriter/keyboard.

Adding <br><br> after a sentence will create two line breaks. The same as hitting ENTER twice on a typewriter/keyboard.

==========BOLDING==========

Adding <b> before a word and a </b> after the word will BOLD the word.

Exp. - I really love the Sancho Panza Double Maduro. All you have to do is this - I really love the <b>Sancho Panza Double Maduro</b> (when you post it you will see the BOLDED word.

==========ITALICIZING==========

Adding <i> before a word and a </i> after the word will ITALICIZE the word.

Exp. - I really love the Sancho Panza Double Maduro. All you have to do is this - I really love the <i>Sancho Panza Double Maduro</i> (when you post it you will see the ITALICIZED word.

==========FONT SIZE==========

Adding size="4" inside your font tag will change your font size.
Personally I wouldn't bump the font size beyond 8 on this forum, because it could get annoying and unreadable.

Exp. - I really love the Sancho Panza Double Maduro. All you have to do is this - I really love the <font size="4">Sancho Panza Double Maduro</font> (when you post it you will see the Font Size change.

==========COLOR==========

Adding <font color="blue"> before a word and a </font> after the word will COLOR the word.

Exp. - I really love the Sancho Panza Double Maduro. All you have to do is this - I really love the <font color="purple">Sancho Panza Double Maduro</font> (when you post it you will see the COLORED word.
Some of the 'named' colors that work in this manner are:

aqua gray navy silver black green olive teal

blue lime purple white fuchsia maroon red yellow

There are other ones but the list is too long to name them all. Click here for the big list.

==========LINKS==========

Adding <a href="http://www.cigars.com" target="_blank"> before a word and a </a> after the word will make that word a LINK that goes to a web page.

Exp. - I really love the Sancho Panza Double Maduro. All you have to do is this - I really love the <a href="http://www.cigar.com/cigars/viewcigar.asp?brand=668" target="_blank">Sancho Panza Double Maduro</a> (when you post it you will see the LINKED word.

NOTE: Although adding this <a href="http://www.cigars.com" target="_blank"> the part of this formatting code target="_blank" does not have to be included, but what I have learned in my years of coding is that it is best to add this in there because it opens up a new page insted of loading the link into your current page. Which means you lose cigar.com and go to the other page, but with target="_blank" in the code it leaves cigar.com page open and opens a new page for you.

==========IMAGES==========

To display an image, you need to know the exact "path" or "URL" to the image on a server. For instance, if you see an image you like, right click on it and "view properties". You will see the image's path or URL. Copy it down, by selecting it (left click and hold in the button on your mouse when you are at the start of the URL, while dragging towards the end of the URL, highlighting it. You then press your keyboards's ctrl keypad (usually the most left and lowest key) and the C key at the same time (CTRL + C). This copies the URL or whatever is highlighted to your CLIPBOARD. The clipboard is invisible and will hold whatever the last thing you highlighted and copied.

Adding an image from a website - Add the following code - <img src="http://img.cigar.com/p/500/cs/s/cs-s7a-view2.jpg"> anywhere on your post and when you post your post, you should see the IMAGE. (Of course you need to swap out the URL I have in there for your own)

You should probably add two <br> tags before and after your img tag so any words that accompany it will be either above the image or below the image and not floating off to the side of the image.


Exp. -



When I want to show off a photo I took myself and post it here on Cigar.com, I need to upload my image to a server (any server) and then find the path or URL of the image. I have my own website fortunately and here's my URL: http://www.radmedia.org/gallerys/cigars/rad1964_nub_600x450.jpg

Any image you link to should not be to wide, because this websites displayable width is around 790 pixels (790 px = @11 inches).
(600 px = @7 inches).

Here's my example:

<br><br><img src="http://www.radmedia.org/gallerys/cigars/rad1964_nub_600x450.jpg"><br><br>



PS - You can also combine a few of the tags together. (bold, color, italicized)
Try adding bold and a color! For best results open and close the tags in the order they appear.
<font color="blue"><b></b></font>

==========HTML ENTITIES==========

HTML Entities are simply code that represent certain symbols.
Here are a few common ones:

© = &copy;
® = &reg;
¢ = &cent;
½ = &frac12;
é = &eacute;
And the often abused         = &nbsp;
(Yes, that spot is supposed to be blank)

(I put 8 of the &nbsp; in order to get that space)
(8 pixels worth)
One &nbsp; equals 1 pixel of blank space
(72 pixels = @ 1 inch)


There are many other ones but the list is too long to name them all. Click here for the big list.

There's many more tricks and formatting options you can do. These are only the basics. I will add more to this post as it becomes pertinent. It would also be great if there was a way to make a post a sticky. Perhaps a Moderator or a vote. If the forum doesn't support Stickys, then perhaps with enough views, certain posts can be identified, the ones that get tons of views, and maybe they can create a new forum group called FAQs or STICKYs.

Thought I'd go ahead and post a few emoticons, aka smilies for folks to use. These come from my gaming website. Enjoy.


Use this code here and substitute the "number_of_the_smiley_goes_here" with the number of the smilie you want to use.
<img src="http://www.xhale.net/images/smilies/number_of_the_smiley_goes_here.gif">

Exp. pasting the following code into your post <img src="http://www.xhale.net/images/smilies/14.gif"> will result in this:

Russ55

Should get a mod to sticky this. Thanks for posting it.

Renaissance_Man

A mod should sticky this! Great job, Rad!!! This was needed! Great job!

kaspera79

NIce Rad, Thanks for the fine work ... People pay good money for the information you provided here.

bigbgballz

Thank You Rad! That hellped a lot, it should be sticky and link should be provided at FAQ.

Lasabar

That is kickass!!! Nice POST!

Matt Marvel

This is a great post. This will prove to be very, very helpful. I agree, this should be a sticky.

jlmarta

As we say in Italy, "Molto Bene". Great post, and a very useful one. Thanks muchly....

Marty

AQUADGIO1200

Thanks Rad....i was in the bay area last week, hows the bay bridge coming along? I also went to my home town of San Mateo and stopped by a nice cigar lounge by the fair groungs & enjoyed a RP Decade.

kingjk729

Two words RAD ROCKS

bibby

Thanks Rad, great post!

Quick question; after I added a link via the formatting you described including the extra portion to cause a new window to open how do you close off the link formatting? Essentially anything I type after that formatting becomes the words in the link rather than continued post. How do I turn that off and continue the post I have going?

Rob

rad1964

AQUADGIO1200:

Thanks Rad....i was in the bay area last week, hows the bay bridge coming along? I also went to my home town of San Mateo and stopped by a nice cigar lounge by the fair groungs & enjoyed a RP Decade.

Howdy Aqua.. Actually they found a crack in it and had to keep it closed beyond its labor day retro-fit. Apparently its closed today also.

Must make for commuters nightmares... tg I don't commute! Well next time your in town we should try and get a NoCal herf together somewhere in the Bay Area.

rad1964

bibby:

Thanks Rad, great post!

Quick question; after I added a link via the formatting you described including the extra portion to cause a new window to open how do you close off the link formatting? Essentially anything I type after that formatting becomes the words in the link rather than continued post. How do I turn that off and continue the post I have going?

Rob

Hey there bibby,
Just add the closing tag when you want to stop the link. It's </a>

JZ

That is a quite a post!

rad1964

"Bump"

jsnake

So, I can't find this option anywhere. Is there a search function for the forums? I thought this might be a good thread to ask this in.

rmccloud

jsnake:

So, I can't find this option anywhere. Is there a search function for the forums? I thought this might be a good thread to ask this in.

The search box is in the upper right corner of the page, right under where you sign in.

jsnake

rmccloud:

jsnake:

So, I can't find this option anywhere. Is there a search function for the forums? I thought this might be a good thread to ask this in.

The search box is in the upper right corner of the page, right under where you sign in.

Man, I feel dumb. I found it up there with the drop down. I was worried about reposting topics and annoying everyone. Thanks for pointing out the obvious for me.

Lasabar

jsnake:

rmccloud:

jsnake:

So, I can't find this option anywhere. Is there a search function for the forums? I thought this might be a good thread to ask this in.

The search box is in the upper right corner of the page, right under where you sign in.

Man, I feel dumb. I found it up there with the drop down. I was worried about reposting topics and annoying everyone. Thanks for pointing out the obvious for me.

Don't feel dumb, just send us CIGARS!!!

bibby

Bump and also do we have any idea if we can get a "sticky" or some other means of keeping this post at the top of the general forum.

jlzimmerman

Great post. Needs to be stickied.

rad1964

"Bump"

nickgonzo

hahahah

TheShaun

laker1963

Well done indeed Rad. A lot of work went into that.

Now watch as a few of us butcher it.LOL
I seem to have to edit every post. This should make things a whole lot easier.

Renaissance_Man

Please sticky?

Thewelder

bumb

jsnake

bump

bbc020

I got this post saved in my bookmarks!

Sandman1am

bbc020:

I got this post saved in my bookmarks!

Bump! Not a bad idea to save it in your bookmarks.

Thewelder

Bump