If you want to type a in a message, you have to put it in TWICE, like this: . Long boring story as to why.

<B>text</B> - Puts "text" in boldface - like this.

<I>text</I> - Puts "text" in italics - like this.

<STRIKE>text</STRIKE> - Puts "text" in strike - like this.

<A HREF="http://host.com/web-address.html">text</A> - Creates a link to the web address shown in quotes, but displays the link as text in the message. For example, this is a link to LibraryThing's homepage, and I specified that by putting <A HREF="http://www.librarything.com">this</A> into the message.

<IMG SRC="http://host.com/picture.jpg"> - Puts the image from the web location shown into the post.

<IMG SRC="http://host.com/picture.jpg" HEIGHT="hhh" WIDTH="www"> - Puts the img at the web location shown into the post, but gives it a height of hhh pixels and a width of www pixels. For those of you who want to include images that seem way too big once you included them, shrink them down with these parameters. Note, that for best compatibility with most screen widths, an image shouldn't be much wider than about 500 pixels.

To link to a thread in LibraryThing, just look at your web browser's address bar for the thread you are looking at, and use the method shown above to create a link.

To link to a specific post in LibraryThing, hover your mouse over the 'flag abuse' for a post, and notice the number that appears in "javascript:talk_flagmessage(NUMBER). Make a link as discussed in the previous paragraph, but add #NUMBER after the link (but before the ").

To create a numbered list, do the following. For example, to list three points, I could enter:

<OL>
<LI> First item.
<LI> Second item.
<LI> Third item.
</OL>

and it comes out as:

1. First item.
   


2. Second item.
   


3. Third item.
   

You can change how the lists are numbered, by using a TYPE= attribute in the OL command. For example, starting that previous entry with <OL TYPE=a> gives you:

1. First item.
   


2. Second item.
   


3. Third item.
   

Specifying <OL TYPE=A> gives you:

1. First item.
   


2. Second item.
   


3. Third item.
   

Specifying <OL TYPE=i> gives you:

1. First item.
   


2. Second item.
   


3. Third item.
   

and specifying <OL TYPE=I> gives you:

1. First item.
   


2. Second item.
   


3. Third item.
   

If you want to say a whole bunch of stuff indented a bit from the main stream, use <BLOCKQUOTE>All my text, multiple lines of it</BLOCKQUOTE> Here's an example:

Isn't LibraryThing swell? I sure love it, and I hope you do, too! There's lots of fun places to visit, but the Green Dragon is perhaps the very best. What else do I want to say in the paragraph? Not much, I guess, but putting it in block quotes sure makes it look impressive!

If you want to create a nice looking graphic with your text, surround it with <PRE> ...my text...</PRE>.

For example:

 /
 /
 /
 /
 / for victory!

Message edited by its author, Jun 20, 2009, 2:14pm.

JPB: Thanks so much for putting this all in one handy place - much appreciated!

did anyone else read this title as "How to do fancy things in your pants"?

thank you ever so much

#3 - no, what were you thinking? no, never mind, don't tell me

Wow! This is great, JPB! What sort of special coding is there to make what we write seem intelligent and humorous? Or thought-provoking? You and clam seem to make good use of those codes.

>3&4 You can tell me though.

*pats the seat next to her*

testing: Hi There

mmm... didn't work. I tried to change the font size.

Message edited by its author, Apr 26, 2008, 10:41am.

insert random text here

JPB: Thanks for that summary especially the bit about picture sizing. Can you give the code for linking to a thread (eg. suppose I wanted to give a link to these posts in another thread)? Is it possible to link to a specific post within a thread? When I've tried this I usually end up with a link to the poster's profile instead.

#9 - To link to a thread, just copy the link shown up in your browser, and use the web address advice given above. For example, a link to this very thread is:

<A HREF="http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=35356">Link to this thread</A>

JPB: Yes — in the address box at the top. So obvious now. Thanks again.

Thank you so much, JPB! Simple enough HTML to do, but if you don't do it often, then it gets forgotten. Really, I do appreciate this.

How about how to link to a certain post in a thread?

#3 - We've missed you, MrAndrew. :o)

Linking directly to a post requires a little digging. You have to check the source of the page to find the id of the message to which you want to link. In IE** you have to select View -> Source and then use the Find feature to find the message. My IE is set to open the source in notepad, so I would click Edit -> Find and then type in the username of the poster or some text from the message to locate it. When you find it, you'll see something like this (I searched from my user name in another thread):

<div class="messagehead msgRead" id="messagehead8"><a name="567075"></a><h1 class="message"><span class="day"> [read ] Today, 12:10pm (<a href="#top">top</a>)</span><b>Message 8:</b> <a href="/profile/lucien">lucien</a>

The part you care about is in bold (a name="567075")

The using JPB's code from above you would just add #567075 to the end of the link:

<A HREF="http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph...">Link to my last post in another thread</A>

Also for this, or any other link to something on LibraryThing you don't actually need the http://www.librarything.com. You could just get by with

<A HREF="/talktopic.php?topic=35304#567075">Link to my last post in a another thread</A>

If you don't specify the site, it will insert the current site in front of you link.

**Other broswers make this a bit easier. In Firefox, for example you can just highlight the message header, right click and choose View Selection Source so there's much less text to sort through.

Message edited by its author, Apr 26, 2008, 11:26pm.

thanks a bunch for posting this! I see all the cool pics that people post and wonder, how did they do that? Now I know!

Thanx JPB!

*stars this topic for easy access*

Thanks most of you for helpful comments. :D

>#18: "most of you". LOL.

>#14: *waves* good to be back ;-D

15 > actually an easier way to find the number for a post is to hover over the 'flag abuse' link. down in the status bar will be text "javascript:showflagmessage(123456, 654321)"

The first number is the post number that you would need to link to.

What LT really needs is a "Link to this post" or "Copy shortcut" field. These are good ways to get the #, but still not easy for folks.

JPB, You are my hero.

*waves* Hi MrA!

Giving it a try. and another try. ok, another one. now it worked, but it's huge. trying again. size worked, but need to fix the dimensions so she's not squished.

Message edited by its author, Mar 1, 2009, 2:20pm.

Great picture - beautiful girl!

Good resizing :D

Message edited by its author, Apr 27, 2008, 10:25pm.

Thanks PB! Exactly what I needed for dimensions!

editing: size is height 384 width 512, just in case i need it again!

Message edited by its author, Apr 27, 2008, 10:27pm.

OK, I tried this in my post, so check out the picture of my brain.

Brilliant JP, many thanks. Especially for a novie like myself.

Er, any chance on a magic wand that does spell-check?

TOT,
What WEB browser do you use? I default to Google, and they've got a spell-checker on their toolbar. Very convenient!

Love your moniker... Been to the Land lately?

Testing Testing 1 2 3 Oh It worked!! Ok well I'm gonna go post it in the right thread now.

Message edited by its author, May 1, 2008, 11:45am.

'fraid I hit f11 when in LibraryThing, less screen waste - although must admit, hadn't thought of it, duh.

I landed and stayed. Love it, love it, love it..

I'm aware that LT scans the new posts and removes excess space characters, etc. Is there a way to get around that? Sometimes, I find a need/desire to indent (an address that doesn't begin on the left side of a line, for example), or align things in a column...

Is there a way to do that?

Use blockquote: xxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOW Thanks!

This should start under the "WOW", 2 lines below.
Aligned with "Thanks!"?

*edited to get it just the way I wanted (I hope).
** more experimentation.....
*** Not quite what I was going for. "Thanks!" should be about 10 or 12 spaces to the right of "WOW", and "Aligned....." wasn't. Oh well...

Message edited by its author, May 1, 2008, 12:07pm.

Some people (yours truly) like to click on a link and be taken to a separate window, instead of just going to the link from the LT window.

The way I do that is to add target="blank" before the end of the first >

So it looks like this with { substituted for

Hmmmm it disapeared...let me try again. This time with spaces

{ a HREF=" yourlink.here " target = " blank " } your link { / a }

Replace the {} with and take out the spaces.

BAH!

I used to know a way to make a line of text have a black background. Sticking with black text, it's great for spoilers, because you just highlight the line and it's readable.

Does anyone know how to do this? I'll keep searching, in the meantime...

Message edited by its author, May 26, 2008, 8:36am.

BAH!!!

Message edited by its author, May 26, 2008, 8:59am.

Thanks, I have been wondering how to get italics

edited to say yeah it works

Message edited by its author, May 26, 2008, 9:44pm.

Hey guys,

Could someone please post instructions on how to change font colour & size in posts, I'm pretty sure someone's explained this to me before somwhere in the GD but I cant find where...

I feel like I've been coming to you all for computer help lots lately sorry guys, but its usually to do with LT if that makes u feel any better lol...

Is there a way to post an image that is not on the internet???

i.e. I want to put up a picture that is on my computer hard drive?

Helps?

Thanks

The basic answer I think is no. But you could post the picture at a site like Flickr (www.Flickr.com). Registration is simple and free unless you go over a certain quota.

Cool... Thanx!

Dragons eh! Very nice.

Testing, Testing, Testing

Oooh, fun! How about this:

Sorry, I can't see your picture.

Nope, that one didn't work. I will have to try again. Will it only work with jpeg images? I think the one I tried was a gif. Let's see...

Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2008, 3:08pm.

I'm not sure. I can only get my pictures to work by putting them on Photobucket and using their link.

gifs will work, but the part you put in the src="" was not in the correct format.

img src="" http:="" www.geocities.com="" colosseum="" track="" 5996="" dragon.gif="">

should be more like
img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312857691.01._SX140_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg">

Rats! That one didn't work, either. I think I am definitely going to have to go the Photobucket route. Thanks, cal!

you left off the 'http://'

Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2008, 3:14pm.

Well, that didn't work for me either.

Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2008, 3:55pm.

cal you put a link to the webpage not the image

img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0310228344.01._SX140_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg">

Oh, so that's what it was! Thank you, readafew!

To do list:

Learn how to strike through a sentence.

>#55: changed your mind, huh?

I keep coming here all hopeful because I read the title as "How to do fancy things in your pants."

If you get that one figured out, I will need a link, Morphy!

Hi, this is MrsLee here on her library account. I have a question not about posts, but about exporting my library info. Has anyone done this? What is the best option? I don't understand the differences. I have Windows Vista with Microsoft Excel. I want to have my book info saved in a couple of places since I no longer intend to make a card catalog. Any suggestions?

59 - the way that I have been doing it is:

1. go to tools
2. on the far right column, 2nd section Import/Export, I choose Export as Tab-deliminated text
3. it will take a minute and then you will get a choice of opening or saving the file.
4. If you choose Open, it will take a minute and then an Excel spread sheet will open with your library.

The only issue that I have, is that the author names are all in one field so you can not sort by author's last name...at least not that I have found yet.

I usually hide or delete columns that I don't care about and then save it as an Excel with a date in the name so I always know which list is most current.

Thank you Carol! So you can't sort and organize your library here the way you want it, then save it that way?

yes, it will be sorted the way you have it on LT.

It would just be nice if you could sort or resort in excel by author's last name, just to have that option available. It is not a big deal if you don't change the sort once you export it.

O.K., I'll give it a try. I don't have many books entered yet, I'm still fixing them with labels, stamps, etc. Thank you!

It didn't work. I think I'll wait until I have my friend standing next to me who is an excel wizard. I do better when I see something done and then do it myself. Thank you though Carol, for trying. :)

Sorry to hear that...I haven't had any problem exporting so if you want to try again or if your excel guru has any questions - just let me know.

Thanks for the tips!

Thanks JPB - I just used these instructions to post a picture on another thread for the first time and I'm very pleased that it worked! And now I can do itallics and strike through as well, which I was wondering how to do. Awesome!

This is really helpful, thanks!

Was directed to this thread earlier, looks useful but clicking on the first links just leads me to "oops this link is broken". I'm posting here to make it easier for me to find later.
Also it might come in use for other newbies

You can also star it by selecting the yellow star at the top, on the right. Then you can just look at "your starred" when you are reading threads. I do that to the threads that I consider to be reference material or about something with which it is vitally important that I stay current (meet-up information).

There is also a link on the Green Dragon home page!

Thanks still learning!

I've added a bunch of stuff to the top post. Enjoy!

Trying various things in this post... that didn't work - LOL

• 1
  


• 2
  


• 3
  

Message edited by its author, Jun 20, 2009, 2:14pm.

But your counting is improving! Next comes 4.

JPB, in case no-one has told you today - you seriously rock.
Many thanks for the updated addendum.

Thanks, JPB!

Just to throw in the two cents of a long time net user...

IMG SRC="http://host.com/picture.jpg" HEIGHT="hhh" WIDTH="www" - Puts the img at the web location shown into the post, but gives it a height of hhh pixels and a width of www pixels. For those of you who want to include images that seem way too big once you included them, shrink them down with these parameters. Note, that for best compatibility with most screen widths, an image shouldn't be much wider than about 500 pixels.

This will only "shrink" how the picture appears on screen if it was originally larger! If your picture is really say 1200x700 putting in the height/width saying it's 600x350 it may fit better in the browser, but everyone is still DLing that probably huge graphic file. The same thing can be done to make a picture appear larger on screen than it really is when it's a small picture and you want it to show larger. The main use of the height/width parameters are to tell the browser how to organize the web page by placing a "placeholder" space that the browser can then organize text, etc around while the picture may still be DLing.

Better bet is to USE EDITING SOFTWARE to shrink the picture down in the first place! Crop off unneeded areas from around the pictures "subject" if possible, and then re size the picture downwards if the X by Y numbers for it are on the high end. Just about any graphics program will have a way to shrink/expand a picture. You can then save the resized picture under a slightly different name or a different place before uploading it for online use.

For those still wondering how to get to set a link to a specific message, hover your mouse cursor over the message number and it should change colour form black to blue, it will show the message address at the bottom of the screen, in IE7 at least, you can then copy it down or right click on it and Copy Shortcut to paste into your message. So hopefully, this should take you to JPB's message 1

Message edited by its author, Jun 21, 2009, 7:35pm.

As long as all of you clever people are around, can someone remind how the heck to star a thread so you can find it later? (Yes, its somewhat off topic, but I'm whining in as pleasant a fashion as I know how to do...)

Jill

on the group home page, the star is right in front of the number of messages in a thread. You click on it and you're set to go.

Click on the star at the top of the page, right next to the Touchstone list, or from the page of thread topics, just to the left of the post count for each thread.

Oh, thank you both! I can't believe it was right there in front of me all the time.

In your defense, it IS rather faint.

#78 is absolutely correct, of course. However, I didn't want to explain photo editing :D

# 85 JPB why ever not? With your dulcet tones you would bring even more to photo editing :^)

Fantastic thread JPB. Thanks for helping us all out. I haven't tried most of them yet but I'll get there eventually.

Imho, all these tips should be put into a FAQ-type page on LT, like Greybeard's on on the CueCat.

Meanwhile, I'm putting this Topic on my Bookmarks.

#36,37,39 Anyone managed to format talk fonts yet? I'm looking for a way to hide spoilers...

we used to be able to, but I think with the removal of 'style' that it is no more.