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A guide to the "pseudo HTML" on Elftown

The limited "pseudo HTML" on Elftown allows you to format your text, insert images in your text, and to link to postings, members, wiki pages and other webpages. The pseudo HTML works just about everywhere - in messages, postings, your bio, your diary, and of course on the wiki.

Introduction

What is HTML?

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and is a set of "codes" - tags - that can be put in the text to indicate how the text should be displayed (bold, italics etc), that the text should be a link to somewhere, or that there should be an object (for example an image) inlined in the text.

Some tags are "single", like the <hr> tag that indicates that a horizontal line should be inserted in the text. Other tags come in "pairs", a start tag and an ending tag, that are put around the text that is to be formatted. Examples of paired tags are the <b> ... </b> and <i> ... </i> tags that indicate bold and italics in the text.

What is "Elftown's pseudo HTML"?

The "pseudo HTML" on Elftown is a limited set of HTML tags and some Elftown specific "codes" that work in postings, on the wiki, in your bio etc. The available tags and "codes" are described below.

Formatting Text

You can format text with a limited number of "ordinary" HTML tags. All HTML tags aren't allowed and thus don't work, because that might make some pages look downright awful.

Making the Text Larger:

You can make the text larger by using the header tags "h1" and "h2" (other header tags don't work):

<h1> huge header "h1" ending with </h1>
<h2> large header "h2" ending with </h2>

h1 looks like this

h2 looks like this

Using the PRE tag:

The PRE tag allows you to write pre-formatted text, using a fixed width font and with all spaces displayed (extra spaces are normally removed):

<pre> pre-formatting tag "pre" ending with </pre>

An example:

    This text is pre-
            formatted

Centering text

You can center the text using the "center" tag like this:

<center>Text to be centered </center>

An example:
Centered text

Making the Text Bold or Italic:

You can make your text bold or italic using the "b" and "i" tags:

<b> bold tag "b" ending with </b>
<i> italics tag "i" ending with </i>

Bold text looks like this
Italic text looks like this

Bold, italics, centered and pre-formating can be nestled, so that you get text that is both bold and italics while also being pre-formated or centered. You can also nestle the italics tag with the header tags, to get headers in italics.

* Remember always to put the end tags on h1, h2, pre, center, b and i, or all the tags of that type will stop working in your text! This is one of the most common mistakes!

Inserting Other Elements

There are two "elements" you can insert into your text: images and horizontal rulers.

Inserting an image:

To insert an image into your text you add the Elftown-specific "IMG" tag at the point in your text where you want the image: <IMG:(URL to the image)>

An example:
<IMG:http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/img/new/elftownminibutton.gif>

The IMG tag above results in this:

<img:http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/img/new/elftownminibutton.gif>

The image doesn't have to be in Elftown, but it must be on the internet. You cannot use an image directly from your own computer.

Inserting a horizontal ruler:

Horizontal rulers (lines) are inserted using the "hr" tag:

<hr>

There are several horizontal rulers on this page, if you want to see what they look like.

There is no closing tag for the "hr" tag or the "IMG" tag.

Creating Links

Links are very simple on Elftown. You don't use the <A HREF=...> construction that you may be familiar with from HTML. How you do the link depends on the type of link.

Linking to a Web Page:

To make a link to a webpage you just write the URL to the webpage. Nothing more, nothing less.

http://www.elftown.lysator.liu.se

Linking to an Elftown Wiki Page:

To make a link to a page on the Elftown Wiki, you write the page name followed by @wiki within square brackets. When written correctly, the page name without the brackets and @wiki will be displayed as the link in the resulting text.

An example:
[index@wiki]

The link looks like this:
index

Linking to an Elftown Member

To link to an Elftown member you simply write the member's name within square brackets (no @wiki this time, or it will become a link to a wiki page...)

An example:
[Hedda]

Linking to a Posting

A link to a posting is very similar to a link to a member; the posting number within square brackets:

[7643]

Linking to a poll

You can link to a poll with a link that looks like this: <poll:(poll number)>

An example:
<poll:1664>

You can find the poll number right beside the poll's title.

Linking to a Private Forum

If you have created a private forum, you can provide a link with a password to the forum to allow people to join the forum without invitation. The link looks like this: <joinforum:(forum number):(password)>

An example:
<joinforum:64:play> (Wrong secret forum password to the forum number 64)

Linking to a forum

A link to an ordinary forum is a bit more complicated than a link to a private forum. To link to a forum, you use the pseudo HTML "URL" tag, writing the Elftown URL to the forum: <URL:view_forum?forumnr=(forum number)>

An example:
<URL:view_forum.html?forumnr=22>

Clicking on the link will open a new window.

Linking to any page on Elftown

To link to a page on Elftown you can use the pseudo HTML "URL" tag: <URL:(Elftown URL)>

An example:
<URL:help.html>

The "Elftown URL" is the same as the URL to the page but without "http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/".
Clicking on the link will open a new window.

Writing tags that are shown

If you want to write a pseudo HTML tag that will be shown instead of interpreted as a tag, just like in the examples on this page, you put the string somewhere in the tag. An example:

<!uQt!b> [index@!uQt!wiki] <!uQt!/b>
will look like this:

<b> [index@wiki] </b>

instead of like this:

index

You can also use !uQt! within an !uQt!, to have the !uQt! in the tag shown, too...

Miscellaneous Notes

Case Sensitivity:

Tags can be written in both uppercase and lowercase, but the whole tag must be in the same "case". That means you can write <hr> as well as <HR>, but not <Hr> or <hR>.

Paragraphs and Line Breaks:

As you may already have noted, you don't use the paragraph or line break HTML tags (<p> and <br>) on Elftown. Instead you just write your text as you would in a text editor, using the Enter key to make line breaks as usual.

HTML Tags that Don't Work:

Here is a list of some (but not all!) of the HTML tags that cannot be used:

<h4> <h5> <marquee> <font color=red> <blink> _{^{When the Pseudo HTML Doesn't Do What You Want:

There are some common mistakes that will make your pseudo HTML stop working:

Start and end tags not paired. This will cause all the tags of that type to stop working. Go through your text and check that there's an ending tag for each starting tag (and a starting tag for each ending tag). This applies to the "b", "i", "h1", and "h2" tags.

Missing "@wiki" in a link to a wiki page. This will cause the link to appear within brackets and be interpreted as a link to a member. Add @wiki after the page name within the brackets.

Other Useful Pages

More information about how to use the Elftown Wiki can be found on the wiki help pages.

If you want to try out the tags, I suggest that you go to the Wiki playground [edit] 1574.

See also the other help pages and the Newbie forum!

Back to the Elftown Wiki Index}}

Missing: </h3>Missing: </sub>Missing: </sup>

2012-10-31 [Kbird]: I'm still confused I just want to know how to put pretty line breaks on my home page.

2012-10-31 [Mortified Penguin]: Other than the standard <hr>? You'll have to pick one out from EG Dividers and add it to wherever it is you're adding it to. If you need help doing that, message me or one of the other people 'round these parts.

2012-10-31 [iippo]: Adding to what Mortified said, you use an img tag to use the EG Dividers. :) And if you are putting them into your house, look at nonimages, using those will not count towards the 10 images you can put in your house.

2012-10-31 [Kbird]: ok thank I,ll just have my brother log in as me and take care of it though! ^.^

2012-11-23 [Thunder Cid]: So got an interesting one for you all. Supposed I want to make a column of text (like with using the box tag) and want to place an image adjacent to the text. How would you go about that without separating the text and making my layout all wonky?

2012-11-23 [windowframe]: Place the image in another box tag, and make sure there's no space between the closing box tag for the text and the opening box tag for the image?

I assume you're having some sort of problem with a wonky layout :P We could probably offer more specific advice if we can see what the problem is.

2012-11-26 [Thunder Cid]: No more worries I worked it out.

2012-11-27 [Nocturnaliss]: I'm having issues making the flipping work... trying to mirror a pic, can't get it to work. Right now I'm down to using the 'imgv' tag so the pic is at least visible, because adding 'img/' doesn't work. I don't see what I'm doing wrong o.o

2012-11-27 [Hedda]: There was a bug so that GIF and PNG images couldn't be mirrored.

It fixed now, I hope. Thanks for letting us know! <img:stuff/dand-gif.gif>

2012-11-27 [Nocturnaliss]: Oh well! It indeed is fixed :D so thank you and you're welcome ^^

2014-02-08 [Mortified Penguin]: Does Elftown have a way to vertically center an image or text?

2014-02-09 [hanhepi]: I don't think it does. I mean, pages can be infinitely long, and it's hard to find the center of an undefined length (as opposed to the width, which is fixed). But I'm shitty at all technology related stuff, and you made me curious, so I'll wait with you for a real answer.

2014-02-09 [Mortified Penguin]: No, there isn't a way to, I did some rummaging and testing. But things would be vertically centered on each line, not for the whole wiki. Like in my badge slot, I was trying to make my chess badges line up properly with the other badges, but it looked like this:

<img:http://www.elfpack.com/stuff/aj/389/1320912585.gif>

I fixed it in my badge slot by using the sub tag for the ET badges and using the sup tag to raise my chess badge up a little bit, like this:

But that solution wouldn't really work if the images were bigger. :/

2014-02-09 [hanhepi]: There are a couple of badges where the official version (like the pollers badge there) are slightly bigger than the rest. I had to play with the img tag to make it look right(I want to say I used img110 or something) in badge slots. Could doing that to your chess badge make it look like it was centered properly?

The sizing/centering issue is one of the reasons we don't allow unofficial badges in the badge slots. *cough(hint hint)cough*

2014-02-09 [hanhepi]: Ah, centered on a line vertically. hmm. Is that a feature other websites have? I mean, is it something that can be coded? Line height is pretty set, even though it changes from h1, h2, h3 regular, etc. A way to vertically center regular sized text next to h3 would make things look better in some cases.

2014-02-09 [Mortified Penguin]: It should be fairly easy for [Hedda] to code. At least, I would think it would be. But no, doing that to the badge wouldn't make it look centered properly, because official Elftown badges have a little strip of empty space on the top, bottom, and sides that my badges don't have.

As for the pollers badge, instead of using <img120*0:stuff/polldonor2.gif> in peoples' house, which makes it a clickable image that links to the bigger image, you could use <img:stuff/polldonor2.gif?x=120>. This resizes the image without automatically making it a link, like this:

2014-02-09 [Mortified Penguin]: But would it really be against the rules to edit my badge slot and add unofficial badges? Technically speaking, there's no general rule against it. Plus, if there are specific rules in relation to editing badge slots for members with priv 89 or lower, I wouldn't technically be subject to them, since I only have priv 90. So, teeeechnically, I can add whatever I want to it. However, as I do so hate being contentious, I may be willing to remove them if any of the crew thinks I should. Though, I will reserve the God-given right to be able to move around my official badges without permission!

2014-02-09 [windowframe]: Han, the pollers badge is the right size, you're just using the wrong form of the badge >___< Every ET badge has a big version for use on the wikis, and a smaller version for use in people's profiles. There is already a x120 version of the badge. You don't need to be resizing the old one all the time. >_<

2014-02-09 [hanhepi]: Silvie: I figured there was one the right size somewhere, but I don't think I ever found it. >.> The one I used wasn't too much bigger, just a tiny bit. Just enough to throw everything out of alignment. And I might have found the right one somewhere and said to myself: "Self, no need to add that properly sized one to a wiki you already gotta have open during this process, you'll remember where it is!"

Morg: I'm pretty sure there's a rule. Might be full of loopholes, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere. >.> But I'm not a Guard, so ... you know... I could be totally wrong.

2014-02-09 [Mortified Penguin]: Nah, I've spent an entire decade studying and memorizing Elftown's rules to maximize my ability to sass the crew better assist the community and I've never come across any written rule like that.

2014-10-31 [Sagacious Turkey]: I would think the regular sized badge would be "polldonor1.gif" instead of "polldonor2.gif".

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