Compose tips

input formats:
  • Filtered HTML:
    • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
    • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <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
      Anchors are used to make links to other pages.<a href="http://spf13.com">spf13.com</a>spf13.com
      Emphasized<em>Emphasized</em>Emphasized
      Strong<strong>Strong</strong>Strong
      Cited<cite>Cited</cite>Cited
      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;"
    • 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.
  • Semi Filtered HTML:
    • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <fieldset> <legend> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <br> <span> <img> <div> <p> <pre> <code>

      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
      Anchors are used to make links to other pages.<a href="http://spf13.com">spf13.com</a>spf13.com
      Emphasized<em>Emphasized</em>Emphasized
      Strong<strong>Strong</strong>Strong
      Cited<cite>Cited</cite>Cited
      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
      No help provided for tag fieldset.
      No help provided for tag legend.
      Header<h1>Title</h1>

      Title

      Header<h2>Subtitle</h2>

      Subtitle

      Header<h3>Subtitle three</h3>

      Subtitle three

      Header<h4>Subtitle four</h4>

      Subtitle four

      Header<h5>Subtitle five</h5>
      Subtitle five
      Header<h6>Subtitle six</h6>
      Subtitle six
      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
      No help provided for tag span.
      No help provided for tag img.
      No help provided for tag div.
      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.

      Preformatted<pre>Preformatted</pre>
      Preformatted
      Coded text used to show programming source code<code>Coded</code>Coded

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

      • Generic syntax highlighting tags: "<blockcode>", "<gcode>".
      • Language specific syntax highlighting tags: .

      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: "applescript" (for AppleScript), "bash" (for Bash), "c" (for C), "css" (for CSS), "diff" (for Diff), "drupal5" (for Drupal 5), "drupal6" (for Drupal 6), "java" (for Java), "javascript" (for Javascript), "mysql" (for MySQL), "perl" (for Perl), "php" (for PHP), "python" (for Python), "ruby" (for Ruby), "smarty" (for Smarty), "sql" (for SQL), "text" (for Text), "xml" (for XML).
      • 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: the default language used for syntax highlighting is "text".
      • Default line numbering: fancy line numbers (every 10 lines).

      Examples:

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