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,
youmust "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.
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).
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:
.