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In some recent posts, some individuals indicated that they are still not able to insert active links into their posts.
To augment the previous descriptions of this process, I will try and give a brief but, hopefully, understandable explanation of how to achieve true enlightenment by doing some simple HTML in your posts.
HTML coding is the means by which you can make links to the board active, include graphics in your post, change spacing, and mess around with font sizes and colors. It is unlikely that you are going to really foul things up with HTML – although it is possible that if you choose an unreadable color or font style, that all of your post from that point on will be unreadable.
It should not carry on to the next thread on the board, however.
Getting Active the Lazy Way
There is a lazy way to make links active (which usually works on Breaktime but not on most other web sites) as well as the correct way to code an active link.
Sometimes the web server that Taunton uses makes links active even if no HTML is coded if you just insert the full link name in the body of your text, although sometimes it will not recognize it.
I find that if I put the link name on a line by itself and then on the preceding line insert the HTML code for a “break”, which is simply <br> , then the link will usually be made active.
For example, the code:
<br>
http://www.soundhome.com/
will come out (if it works this time):
http://www.soundhome.com/
The Proper Way
To make a link active with HTML coding, you must start out with an accurate and complete WWW link.
An example might be to create an active link to the Code Check web site at http://www.codecheck.com/frame.htm
The link is made active by surrounding the link address with what are called tags.
All tags in HTML start with a < and end with a > . Some tags have only a single tag while most have a start tag and an end tag.
To make a link active, you need to use a start tag that starts with <A HREF= which is then followed by a quote mark, the link address, another set of quote marks, and then the > to close the tag.
(The link address, also known as a URL, must have a quotation mark at the beginning and end for it to work.)
This is followed by any text that you want to describe the site that you are linking to, and which will appear as highlighted text.
This is then followed by the closing tag which is always </A>
A complete active link to the Code Check site would then be coded as:
<A HREF=”http://www.codecheck.com/frame.htm”> A link to Code Check </A >
When the HTML coding is interpreted in the browser, the result will be the highlighted link:
The easier way to code this is to copy the link address and then paste it twice and then stick in the HTML coding such as:
<A HREF=”http://www.codecheck.com/” > http:// www.codecheck.com/ </A >
which gives:
This also has the advantage of allowing someone to read the correct link address even if their browser for some reason will not activate the link.
Any mistakes will mean that what you hoped would be a highlighted “link to Code Check” will instead be a mix of HTML coding and text.
It is very easy to forget to put in one or both of the quotes or the > following the address, which means that it will not be an active link.
The Image Thing
To place an image in your post, the image tag is used. The image that you want shown must be on a WWW server that is accessible to the Internet. The tag that results in a graphic image being embedded in your post is the img tag. While the img tag is somewhat similar to the A HREF tag, it is a single tag without the need for an ending tag. For example the image of a house that resides on an architect’s web server can be inserted in here with the following code:
<img src=”http://http://www.homeplansvc.com/images/WilkesTbnl.gif” >:
Which will be inserted into the post as:
The problem with graphics, of course, is that they can be slow to load.
There are additional attributes for the img tag that allow the size and position of the graphic to be changed.
The most common file type for web images is GIF, but JPG (or JPEG) is recognized by most current browsers.
There are a few other graphics file types that will work, but many of them require “add-ins” to the browser.
(This image was selected arbitrarily because is seemed to load fast.)
Doing Italics
You can create italic text by using the simple italic tags, which are simply the start italics tag <I> followed by the ending tag </I> when you want to go back to normal text. As an example, <I> this is an example of italics </I> will give:
this is an example of italics
To get bold fonts, use the <B > and </B > tags in the same way.
Being Colorful
Text can also be colored, although colored text should be used with great caution.
To color text, the font tag is used with the color attribute.
The text color will continue until the font end tag is reached.
There are sixteen named colors that can be be used (actually a lot more colors are available, but you have to use hexadecimal notation to represent them.)
These are: aqua, black, blue, fuschia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.
One problem with using colored text is that colored text is usually used to represent a clickable link, so just having a few words in color may lead the viewer to think that they should be able to click on it and get something.
Another problem is that if you choose the same color as someone’s background color, that text will be invisible.
To get this text to come out in red, I preceded the sentence with the tag <font color=”red” > and followed sentence with the closing font tag </font>
Some Other Stuff
You can also change the size and type of font using the <font> tag, but I won’t go into that now.
(People sometimes ask as to how one
Replies
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CaseyR
Thanks, I was one of the ones who got confused !
This one's for you :)
>:
In case the image didn't work. It was at:
stein
Thanks again
Scott
*Casey,A very clear, easy to follow explination. Good job.Man did you have alot of free time today!
* Oh well, it was a pretty lame picture, and a commercial site to boot!!! But I caught the idea. Hope you catch the drink Thanks again Scott
*Good grief - what have I unleashed!!!DSOB - the reason that your image didn't show up was a simple typo - you had http://http:// in your image address. With just a single "http" you get:View ImageYou might have picked this up from me as I had a bit of a typo myself in my explanation of an image -the HTML should have been:<img src="http://www.homeplansvc.com/images/WilkesTbnl.gif" >unfortunately, my time ran out before I noticed it so I can't go back and correct it.
* CaseyR Hey thanks. That's the one. I'm gonna' try again in a little bit. Enjoy the "Bud" Scott
* CaseyR A2 + B 2 = C 2 You're right, what have you unleashed? I live to learn! Thanks again :) Scott
*The coolest way to add HTML in a GUI (graphical user interface) is "drag'n'drop." The Mac does this, and I think Windows finally got it right. Click on the link or image or whatever you want in your Breaktime message, hold the mouse button down (perhaps the right button on a pc), and drag it in the "post a message" box, which should light up when you get over it. The compute will paste in all of the unseen HTML (img src, http, and all that nonsense), typo-free. Or you can use Communicator's "Composer", or any other graphic web authoring tool, to generate the code. Hand-coding is then for special occasions only.Sadly, it doesn't always work, in my case because Netscape isn't written quite right, and as mentioned because the WebCrossing software doesn't always "trigger" when it stumbles across embedded HTML -- if triggered, it is the bulletin board software that adds the brackets and stuff. When drag'n'drop does work it's pretty cool.For example, with the flick of a wrist: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/012700sci-nasa-mars.html
*In considering the bulletin board's inconsistent behavior with embedded HTML, I think the trick is that immediately before the HTML the interpreter needs to see text other than a return, anything at all. So http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/012700sci-nasa-mars.html works buthttp://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/012700sci-nasa-mars.html does not.I used to write software, which is a way of saying I spent 90% of my time debugging odd little "features" like this.
*Testing.........is the world turning?View ImageThe master:View ImageThanks Casey...So you can't use images from your own computer??The Stevens pass web cam (Highway 2 in Washington state):View Image
*CaseyR,
Joseph FuscoView Image"Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblance's to that truth." Socrates
*Casey:Interesting stuff and thanks for sharing it. Glad you decided to be brief. Makes some of my ramblings look concise. I've been trying to learn a bit of HTML myself. One question: For the imbedded image thing, how can I do this using HTML if I have only a .jpg file that is not posted elsewhere on the internet?For anyone who wants more check out this Bare Bones Guide to HTML link.
* Matt,
Joseph Fusco View Image "The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." -- Plato
* Matt,
Joseph Fusco View Image "The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." -- Plato
*Thanks Joe:Not only are you i the man in this area, it seems to me that you've been doing it the longest at this site.
*Matt,
Joseph FuscoView Image"Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblance's to that truth." Socrates