<LI><A HREF="#mistakes">Frequently Made Mistakes</A></LI>
</UL>
<HR>
<A NAME="intro"></a>
<p><font size=+1><b>Introduction to Formatting</b></font></p>
<UL>
All formatting tags have the following structure:
<P><UL><B>\</B><I>code</I><B>{</B><I>Arguments or text to be formatted</I><B>}</B></UL>
<P>
The <I>code</I> is a keyword to invoke the desired formatting (for example, <I>green</I> to produce green text and <I>b</I> to produce bold text). Formatting tags are <I>case sensitive</I>. 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).
<P>
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.
<TD><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2"><B>H\<FONT FACE="Courier New">-</FONT>{</B>2<B>}</B>O has a density of 1.000x10<B>\+{</B>-3<B>}</B> kg/mL.</FONT></TD>
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.
Backslashes, and curly braces have special meanings to the interpreter.
If you wish to use these characters as <I>text</I> within a tag, you
must "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.
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2"><B>\b{</B>No need, to escape, these commas<B>}</B> in a tag that takes only one argument.</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2"><B>\rgb{</B>0000aa<B>,</B>No need, to escape, these commas<B>}</B> in the last field of a tag.</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR=0000aa>No need, to escape, these commas</FONT> in the last field of a tag.</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2"><B>\font{</B>Times<B>\,</B>Roman<B>\,</B>Arial<B>,</B>You need to escape the first two commas in this case<B>}</B>.</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Times,Roman,Arial">You need to escape the first two commas in this case</FONT>.</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2">To learn more about this <B>\green{</B>FREE<B>}</B> discussion board program, visit the <B>\topurl{</B>http://www.discusware.com/discus,Discus Home Page<B>}</B>.</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2">To learn more about this <FONT COLOR=00aa00>FREE</FONT> discussion board program, visit the <A HREF="http://www.discusware.com/discus" TARGET="_top">Discus Home Page</A>.</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
<HR>
<A NAME="images"><p><font size=+1><b><IMG SRC="$html_url/clipart/triangle_right.gif" ALT="" HEIGHT=16 WIDTH=16>Images, Attachments, and Clipart</b></font></p></A>
<TD><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2">Upon posting, you are prompted for an image file to upload. Images must be either GIF or JPEG format. Images must be saved on your hard disk. Your browser must support form-based file upload (Netscape Navigator 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ support this; IE 3.02 will also work provided that you have installed the file upload patch).
<TD><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2">Upon posting, you are prompted for an attachment to upload. An attachment may be any kind of file (for example, Word document, text file, or WAV audio). Attachments must be saved on your hard disk. Your browser must support form-based file upload (Netscape Navigator 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ support this; IE 3.02 will also work provided that you have installed the file upload patch).
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2">This is a picture of me: <B>\image{</B>my picture<B>}</B> and I smile like this: <B>\clipart{</B>smile<B>}</B>.</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2">This is a picture of me: <IMG SRC="$html_url/clipart/your_image.gif" ALT="my picture"> and I smile like this: <IMG SRC="$html_url/clipart/smile.gif" ALT="smile">.<BR><BR><I>Note that the "Your Image Here" graphic is replaced by the image file that you upload.</I></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
<HR>
<A NAME="tables"><p><font size=+1><b><IMG SRC="$html_url/clipart/triangle_right.gif" ALT="" HEIGHT=16 WIDTH=16>Tables and Lists</b></font></p></A>
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.<BR><BR>
<TD><FONT FACE="Verdana,Helvetica" SIZE="2">Creates an ordered (numbered list of the List Items)</FONT></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
<UL>
<p><font size=+1><b><IMG SRC="$html_url/clipart/triangle_right.gif" ALT="" HEIGHT=16 WIDTH=16>Table Items and List Items</b></font></p>
The <I>Table Items</I> are divided into columns by commas and into rows by newline characters (carriage returns). Thus, the entry <B>\table{</B>1<B>,</B>2<B>,</B>3<B>}</B> would create a table with three columns (with entries "1", "2", and "3").
<P>
The <I>List Items</I> are separated by newline characters (carriage returns). Each List Item is given a bullet.
You can paste in tables from tab-delimited spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. To paste a table, do the following:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>Open your spreadsheet using Excel.</LI>
<LI>Select the range that you wish to paste as a table using Excel.</LI>
<LI>Choose Edit and then Copy.</LI>
<LI>Bring up your WWW browser.</LI>
<LI>Enter an "empty" table tag (such as <B>\table{ }</B> or <B>\tablenb{ }</B>) in your message. Do not put in any <I>Table Items</I> at this time.</LI>
<LI>Click the mouse between the curly braces in that tag.</LI>
<A NAME="mistakes"><p><font size=+1><b>Frequently Made Mistakes</b></font></p></A>
<UL>
<LI><B>Not looking at the preview</B></LI>
<P>
<UL>The message preview shows your tags in action. If you look at it and your
<B>\b{</B>Bold text<B>}</B> isn't bold, you have made a mistake!
</UL>
<P>
<LI><B>Using <FONT COLOR=ff0000>/</FONT> instead of \ to start a tag</B></LI>
<P>
<UL>
<LI><FONT COLOR=ff0000><B>/</B></FONT><B>b{</B>Bold text tag<B>}</B> is wrong</LI>
<LI><B>\b{</B>Bold text tag<B>}</B> is correct</LI>
</UL>
<P>
<LI><B>Using parentheses instead of curly braces</B></LI>
<P>
<UL>
<LI><B>\b</B><FONT COLOR=ff0000><B>(</B></FONT>Bold text tag<FONT COLOR=ff0000><B>)</B></FONT> is wrong</LI>
<LI><B>\b{</B>Bold text tag<B>}</B> is correct</LI>
</UL>
<P>
<LI><B>Using the wrong case in tags</B></LI>
<P>
<UL>
<LI><B>\<FONT COLOR=ff0000>B</FONT>{</B>Bold text tag<B>}</B> is wrong (<B>\B{ }</B> is not defined)</LI>
<LI><B>\b{</B>Bold text tag<B>}</B> is correct</LI>
</UL>
<P>
<LI><B>Not escaping commas where necessary</B></LI>
<P>
<UL><LI>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.</LI>
<LI>See the discussion under "Special Characters" for further explanation and many examples.</LI>
</UL>
<P>
<LI><B>Putting spaces where they do not belong</B></LI>
<P>
<UL>
<LI><B>\ b{</B>Bold text tag<B>}</B> is wrong (space between <B>\</B> and <B>b</B>).</LI>
<LI><B>\b {</B>Bold text tag<B>}</B> is wrong (space between <B>b</B> and <B>{</B>).</LI>
<LI><B>\b{</B>Bold text tag<B>}</B> is correct.</LI>
