Compose tips

  • Allowed HTML tags: <b> <br> <p> <a> <strong> <cite> <em> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>

    This site allows HTML content. While learning all of HTML may feel intimidating, learning how to use a very small number of the most basic HTML "tags" is very easy. This table provides examples for each tag that is enabled on this site.

    For more information see W3C's HTML Specifications or use your favorite search engine to find other sites that explain HTML.

    Tag DescriptionYou TypeYou Get
    Bolded<b>Bolded</b>Bolded
    By default line break tags are automatically added, so use this tag to add additional ones. Use of this tag is different because it is not used with an open/close pair like all the others. Use the extra " /" inside the tag to maintain XHTML 1.0 compatibilityText with <br />line breakText with
    line break
    By default paragraph tags are automatically added, so use this tag to add additional ones.<p>Paragraph one.</p> <p>Paragraph two.</p>

    Paragraph one.

    Paragraph two.
    Anchors are used to make links to other pages.<a href="http://mrphp.com.au">Mr PHP</a>Mr PHP
    Strong<strong>Strong</strong>Strong
    Cited<cite>Cited</cite>Cited
    Emphasized<em>Emphasized</em>Emphasized
    Coded text used to show programming source code<code>Coded</code>Coded
    Unordered list - use the <li> to begin each list item<ul> <li>First item</li> <li>Second item</li> </ul>
    • First item
    • Second item
    Ordered list - use the <li> to begin each list item<ol> <li>First item</li> <li>Second item</li> </ol>
    1. First item
    2. Second item
    Definition lists are similar to other HTML lists. <dl> begins the definition list, <dt> begins the definition term and <dd> begins the definition description.<dl> <dt>First term</dt> <dd>First definition</dd> <dt>Second term</dt> <dd>Second definition</dd> </dl>
    First term
    First definition
    Second term
    Second definition

    Most unusual characters can be directly entered without any problems.

    If you do encounter problems, try using HTML character entities. A common example looks like &amp; for an ampersand & character. For a full list of entities see HTML's entities page. Some of the available characters include:

    Character DescriptionYou TypeYou Get
    Ampersand&amp;&
    Greater than&gt;>
    Less than&lt;<
    Quotation mark&quot;"
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs are automatically recognized. The <br /> line break, <p> paragraph and </p> close paragraph tags are inserted automatically. If paragraphs are not recognized simply add a couple blank lines.

  • IMG File filter:

    You may link to files uploaded with the current node using special tags. The tags will be replaced by the corresponding files. For example: Suppose you uploaded three files (in this order):

    • imag1.png (referred as file #1)
    • file1.pdf (referred as file #2)
    • imag2.png (referred as file #3) 
    [img:1=test]  or  [img:imag1.png=test]
    will be replaced by <img src=imag1.png alt=test> 
    [file:1=test]  or  [file:imag1.png=test]
    will be replaced by <a href=imag1.png>test</a> 
    [attachment:2=test]  or  [attachment:file1.pdf=test]
    will be replaced by <a href=file1.pdf.png>test</a>

  • Syntax highlighting of source code can be enabled with the following tags:

    • Generic syntax highlighting tags: "<code>", "<blockcode>".
    • Language specific syntax highlighting tags: "<css>" for CSS source code, "<diff>" for Diff source code, "<drupal5>" for Drupal 5 source code, "<html>" for HTML source code, "<javascript>" for Javascript source code, "<php>" for PHP source code.
    • PHP source code can also be enclosed in <?php ... ?> or <% ... %>, but additional options like line numbering are not possible here.

    Options and tips:

    • The language for the generic syntax highlighting tags can be specified with one of the attribute(s): type, lang, language. The possible values are: "css" (for CSS), "diff" (for Diff), "drupal5" (for Drupal 5), "html" (for HTML), "html4strict" (for HTML), "javascript" (for Javascript), "php" (for PHP).
    • Line numbering can be enabled/disabled with the attribute "linenumbers". Possible values are: "off" for no line numbers, "normal" for normal line numbers and "fancy" for fancy line numbers (every nth line number highlighted). The start line number can be specified with the attribute "start", which implicitly enables normal line numbering. For fancy line numbering the interval for the highlighted line numbers can be specified with the attribute "fancy", which implicitly enables fancy line numbering.
    • If the source code between the tags contains a newline (e.g. immediatly after the opening tag), the highlighted source code will be displayed as a code block. Otherwise it will be displayed inline.
    • Beside the tag style "<foo>" it is also possible to use "[foo]".

    Defaults:

    • Default highlighting mode for generic syntax highlighting tags: when no language attribute is specified, no syntax highlighting will be done.
    • Default line numbering: no line numbers.

    Examples:

    You typeYou get
    <code>foo = "bar";</code>Inline code with the default syntax highlighting mode.
    <code>
    foo = "bar";
    baz = "foz";
    </code>    		Code block with the default syntax highlighting mode.
    <code lang="php" linenumbers="normal">
    foo = "bar";
    baz = "foz";
    </code>    		Code block with syntax highlighting for PHP source code
    and normal line numbers.
    <code language="php" start="23" fancy="7">
    foo = "bar";
    baz = "foz";
    </code>    		Code block with syntax highlighting for PHP source code,
    line numbers starting from 23
    and highlighted line numbers every 7th line.
    <css>
    foo = "bar";
    baz = "foz";
    </css>    		Code block with syntax highlighting for CSS source code.
    <css start="23" fancy="7">
    foo = "bar";
    baz = "foz";
    <css>    		Code block with syntax highlighting for CSS source code,
    line numbers starting from 23
    and highlighted line numbers every 7th line.