How to Do Fancy Things in Your Posts

This thread has been re-started. Please go to: THIS THREAD INSTEAD.

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 MrAndrew:&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.

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.php?topic=35304#567075">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.

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.

Great picture - beautiful girl!

Good resizing :D

Thanks PB! Exactly what I needed for dimensions!

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

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.

'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...

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...

BAH!!!

Thanks, I have been wondering how to get italics

edited to say yeah it works

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...

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://'

Well, that didn't work for me either.

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
  

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

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.

Wonderful!

Am starring this

(copying this from the May TIOLI challenge, so as not to claim credit falsely):

>31 WholeHouseLibrary: you put "vote" in the html tags: (vote)Question here(/vote). But triangular brackets.

Hmmmm, let me try!

VERY COOL!!!

ok.. I'll add it to the top

#3 My subconscious read it as I scrolled down to the instructions as, "How to be a fancy pants". I don't know why...

Thank you for the tips, JPB!

Wow, this is The Little Thread That Could, isn't it? Almost three years and still going strong!

I use it every time I need to do somethin' fancy (since my memory can't handle all that information). My favorite starred thread!

#98 scaifea - Same here! Thanks, JPB, for starting this way back when.

You're welcome, all! :D

I added a bunch of info on 'symbols' to the tail end of the first post.

we just need to keep this in mind for newbies with questions

There's a half symbol?! Where have you been all my life? Isn't there also a star symbol. I saw somebody use it....

Isn't there also a star symbol. I saw somebody use it....

I use ★ in my challenge thread. I just usually cheat and use the wingdings font in MS Word and then copy and paste things like that though. Don't know the actual codes used to produce them.

It looked different than that star...I also know what you mean. Sometimes I want to use an interrobang, so I have to search it on Dictionary.com, copy the symbol and use it, because I can't find it on the word special symbols.

A what? :-o

‽ is an interrobang. If you can, zoom the computer so it is bigger to see. It's the mix off an exclamation point and a questionmark. Example: YOU DID‽

I love interrobangs. I'm too lazy to copy-paste or memorize the code, though, so I just type: "?!", "!?", or my favorite, "?!?"

;-)

Oh? Ah! I need one.

bump bump bump bumpitty bump

Oh, it's on the group page, you shouldn't really need to bump it. Unless you think it's too hard to find on the main page. I can add some 'bolding' to make it more noticeable.

I don't know why folks seem to have a hard time finding it. Did not seem like to much bother to bump it every once in a great while.

Made a minor change, so it should be easier to find.

Thanks for all this info. When I hover over "flag abuse" I get nothing! I can link threads or images, so I'm not all thumbs, so what am I doing wrong?

You don't hover. You click!

Well, when I click, I just get the 'Do you really want to flag this...?' message--which I don't. I just want to link to that particular posting.

Oh! You misunderstood the purpose of flagging.

If you want to copy the link of a certain post you right click on the message number. Edited to add: You can now left click as well and up will pop a little box with the link.

I didn't understand the purpose of flagging; I thought that was what someone said was an easy way to find the # of that post to insert in a link.

Oops! I meant to say I didn't misunderstand the purpose of flagging.

Nope! Flagging has a negative connotation here. You flag someone for a violation of the TOS.
On the other hand, if you want to find a particular thread easily, you can either STAR it, or designate it as a "Favorite".

You learn something every day. I didn't know about left-click on the message number.

So please tell this un-techie person how to pull a picture out of my desktop and post into LT. BTW, I just successfully posted my first photo in Facebook! And I figured it out all by myself. Yay me! I'm dying to post my photos of John Corbett!!!

I know all you smarty-pants out there think I'm about 5-10 years behind everyone else in technology. You would be right. :) But up till now, I haven't really had anything interesting to share, and no real need to learn. And usually I just hand stuff off to husband so he can do it for me.

Right click on the photo on facebook and click where it says something like 'copy image location' and then follow the instructions five steps down in the first post of this thread. You paste the location in your clipboard between the " " s.

@115 I apologize if I misunderstood what you're trying to accomplishm but I believe it's left click, not right click :) I didn't know either until I read @ 119's post :)

This is what I put to get a picture from my profile gallery to here (without the ""). It didn't work. I'm afraid I just don't get it!

Well for Pete's sake! That didn't work either. It was a long string with picsizes and a lot of numbers ending with .jpg

#122 - It all depends on what you're trying to do.

I can feel my blood pressure rising.

Well, HEY, that worked for italics!

#124 - Try pasting it here without the brackets and I'll see if I can help you.

IMG SRC=http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/49/b3/49b35982d4/fae76367415841774468414b6b41.jpg

Gee, that worked too. thanks for the help. I'm trying to put a picture from my gallery into a post.

>123 nhlsecord:-124 The reason why that may have not worked is because the URL must include just the picture and nothing else or it won't work. I have no idea if this will work, but I'm a problem solver. I clicked properties, and there is an address section. I go carrot, img, src, =, "URL" uncarrot. Now let me see...



But it looks like you already got helped.

#129 - Just add the bracket with no spaces between the bracket and the I in IMG and the g in jpg and the closing bracket.

No, that didn't work either. Should there be a space between IMG and SRC?

#129 - Okay I just tried to open that image in a second window and it's NOT an image. That's why it isn't working.

http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/49/b3/49b35982d4/fae76367415841774468414b6...

Any chance you can just give us the link to the page with the picture on it?

I just had a look at that place - I think that was me early this morning. ;)

So what is the address of any picture in my gallery? I got that previous address by looking at the properties of that picture. And how can I post a picture from my hard drive to a post?

To get the address I just right-clicked my picture so it opens a dialog box and go down to properties. Then there's this section that says address or URL or both and copy and past that address into the html text and that should give you that picture.

Wait, do you mean from a file on your computer to here?

You can't put a picture directly from your hard drive into a post. It has to go online somewhere first.

This is a direct link to one of your kitty pictures.

http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/16/e1/16e1e1fe2c13e156370576a4167434b41716...

#135 - All depends on what browser she is using. I use FireFox and a right click brings up an option for my to copy the image location. She might be using IE.

What you can do is save that picture onto on of your profile pictures in Librarything and then post that onto here.

>137 clamairy: Very true.

#138 - I believe this is exactly what she is trying to do. Not sure why the picture she loaded and is trying to link to instead links to gobbledy-gook.

I think this might do it:

I've finally figured out what a "right-click" is, but what's a "left-click" on a Mac?

Yes, a space between IMG and SRC.
No space between the brackets and the contents.

Yeah!!!

HOLY MOSES!!! Thank you so much for your help, all of you and I apologize for taking up so much space! I some how got the wrong address of the picture.

YAY!!!!!

Now, REMEMBER what you did!
:o)
*hugs*

*cheers!*

nhlsecord, I write down all of the codes I frequently use here in a notebook which lives by my keyboard. :) Another idea, start your own thread here and post pictures in it until you feel you have a good handle on it.

Hey, congratulations! No apologies needed, we've all asked for help here and usually, if there are no roombas around, we get kind helpfulness all around.

The Green Dragon is a very friendly place to be!

just fooling around sorry

>122 debavp: and 141

Don't worry about "left-click"/"right-click"...just "click" on "Message" and you'll get the permanent link pop-up you're looking for.

Os.

I'm glad HTML does block quotes without adding that big, ugly quotation mark like BB code does.

how do folks put rating stars on their review posts?

Click on the star. Click twice, and it reduces the rating by 1/2. Click again and it clears the stars.

Os.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that is the question majkia is asking.

I interpreted the question as "how do some people put little black stars in their posts when they are reviewing or commenting about a book in a forum post?"

Personally I don't know the answer either, but suspect that most people just copy and paste from somewhere else? The question of course then arises as to how the stars got there into that very first post 'somewhere else'...

Black stars use the code & # 9733 ; (close up the spaces so that the code begins with the ampersand and ends with the semicolon). A black half is & # 189 ; (ditto about the spaces). Thus: ★½

To add a green star, I use img src="http://static.librarything.com/pics/s-s.gif" (add the pointy brackets on either side). And img src="http://static.librarything.com/pics/s-f.gif" for a green half (again, don't forget the pointy brackets fore and aft). Thus:

I hope this helps.

To make what rosalita said a bit easier for people to see:

Black star is gotten by: &#9733; as in ★
Black half-star is gotten by &#189; as in ½

Green star is: <IMG SRC="http://static.librarything.com/pics/s-s.gif"> as in
Green half is: <IMG SRC="http://static.librarything.com/pics/s-f.gif"> as in

Oh yes, that's what I was looking for, the green stars. Thanks everyone!

Even simpler, if you want a range of green star sets to display, is the set named "ss1.gif" through "ss10.gif". The rating is 1/2 the number in the filename, so "ss5.gif" would be and "ss8.gif" would be .

s.

Ooo! thanks Osbaldistone!

!!

JPB, how were you able to type the codes normally without it converting to the star or the image? That's the real magic!

#161 - See near the end of the original post in this thread. To put in an ampersand, I use "&amp;" (without the quotes). So to type that string you see between the quotes, I had to type "&amp;amp;" To get the < symbol, I had to type "&lt;" (without the quotes) and to get the > symbol, I had to type "&gt;" (without the quotes).

Very timely; thanks, all. I'm just starting to put rating stars in my reviews, since the normal ones that we just click on seem to change on me.

*off to make an attempt*

PS - is there a shortcut for a set of black stars, or do we just repeat the code x number of times?

Hi
hello
Bonjour
No, I don't speak French

1. Hello
   
2. Hi
   
3. Bonjour
   

Not French again!

This is how many stars I give for this (out of 5)

165,166,167 By jove I think she/he's got it! :)

It took me awhile to figure out how to do this but now I am glad to know that I can add these stars to my posts. Thanks so much for all this info.

oops!

Yay! it worked

> What kind of pie?

Any kind! :DD

And who said no? >:/

I'd like to know how one can be undecided about pie? ;)

> 174

When I was younger and an omnivore, my favourite morsel, when I was mountain climbing in Scotland (or as is commonly referred to as Munro Bagging), was the Pork Pie. They weighed a ton, and I'm sure I empathised on many occasion with Chronos' infanticide of a rock in swaddling clothes!

I love knowing stuff like this. Thanks!

Two questions:

- How do you do a bulleted list?
- How do you make a hard space?

>179 Meredy:
The easy way to enter a bulleted item is to put <li> before each list item. I end with </li>, but I don't know that it's needed. I just like to be sure to clean up after myself.

Os.

It worked! ♣

>179 Meredy:
For a non-breaking space use character code &nbsp;

Os

YEAH, BABY! It worked!!!!!!! I'm shocked.

@179: For bulleted lists, you can also just type the bullet character: &bull;

Trying it out with &bull and &nbsp because

•  I like to practice before I have to perform and
•  I think I can remember those codes.

Success! Hurray! Thank you.

I started out typing on my mother's ancient Royal, graduated to an SCM portable electric in college, and thought I was in heaven when I got an IBM Self-Correcting Selectric II with removable type balls so I could change fonts and--what a thrill!--type in italics. Even now I don't take 500 scalable fonts for granted. Knowing how to do the little extras still seems slightly magical to me.

#185 Yay Meredy! I typed my thesis on a portable Hermes almost as old as I am. 40 years later it is in no worse state than it was then (read: paper feed is still erratic, but otherwise it still works). My route then went through an HP9845 desktop whose word-processor could handle 160 characters at a time, then -- heaven -- a DOS machine that could make corrections anywhere in the document at any time.

@185/6: If you want a "—" instead of "--" you can type &mdash; :)

(In fact, here's a handy reference guide for all sorts of special characters.)

thanks — I can find a load of uses for that!

I couldn't get BLOCKQUOTE to work in a review. That seems like the likeliest place to want to use it, but it didn't take. Do reviews use a different set of codes and conventions?

>189 Meredy:
Different text fields across the LT site have different limitations on HTML codes. For example, I find that I can center text in the Common Knowledge 'Dedication' field, and it works while I'm on that page, but both the centering and the code disappear when I leave the page. Some fields will ignore HTML codes that are not acceptable; others will drop the code from the field as if it had never been typed.

Os.

>190 Ealhmund:
Thanks, that's helpful too. Is there any way to know which code is going to work and which isn't? I tried to use strikeout in a PM, and it didn't take. so what I wrote just looked ridiculous. And PMs aren't editable. Having standard codes randomly nonfunctional around the site seems a little confusing.

Is there a way to make very small print, like whispering?

@191: Is there a way to make very small print, like whispering?

Hm, I'm not finding anything. The <FONT> tag doesn't work, and CSS is disallowed. Dunno know if there are any other ways...?

I see it on another site, one that has its own tags for selected print effects and also allows standard HTML codes. Perhaps it was specially coded by the site creators. It's handy for asides, sotto voce, most often used humorously, but it's very hard to read for more than a line at a time.

Yeah, most message board software comes with a built-in font size feature. LT Talk doesn't have any formatting controls, just a handful of HTML tags that are allowed.

I use the Talk Preview Pane for viewing all kinds of messages where I've used HTML codes. I'm only using basic stuff, nothing too complicated. It works like a charm!

me too

Thanks for the help

If you want to be old school:
&lt; yields <
so you can do this <3

Use the HTML Codes wisely!
Or for awesome. Awesome is good, too.

<3

<3

Wow. Thanks for this!

I particularly like being able to do this >_<

I love this thread!!!!!

I've added a link to a boatload of special characters at the bottom of the first post :)

Practicing:

°

oooh it works!!!

today the temperature is supposed to reach 28°C

>40 Taliska:°C

Fantastic! I always wanted to be able to do that... :-)

Real fractions!
½ of a cup...

But it only works for certain fractions. Oh well...

I could write any fraction if LibraryThing would just support ^,, _and in its list of allowed HTML commands!

There's a bunch of commands that are no longer supported. We used to be able to do color! So it goes...

How do you put a video in a post? I've seen it done by others...

Here's my video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImQoQTVvNJk

I've only seen gif images supported on LT.

What is that video you've posted, fuzzi? I think I recognize one of the names, but I don't recognize the person in the video.

(212) That's Jeff Speakman, a martial artist who starred in a movie "The Perfect Weapon". It's a movie I really like, have liked for years.

I used to study/practice martial arts, and appreciate the hard work that goes into the art.

I have seen videos posted in the LOL thread, which I think is in the Green Dragon group.

Those are actually gif images, not full videos. They can be pretty elaborate, sometimes.

@bluesalamanders introduced me to this concept:

Put the @ sign before a name and it turns into a link.

Oooh, that's a good one to know!

Ah, I didn't know we were doing that here, now.

Oh--but it's a link to the profile page and not a link to a prior post in the thread. That's too bad.

Is there any way to put square brackets in a post?

Have you tried using { } instead?

left bracket:
& #91;

right bracket:
& #93;

with no space between the & and #

Thanks Jenni!

[Yes, thanks very much, Jenni!]

[Me, too!]

:D

You're all very welcome :-)

Adding &#91 and &#93 hints to the first post.

And... I got the & in there right in front of the hash (#) by typing &amp;#91 :D

>218 Meredy:

You want a link to a prior post? @brightcopy can help there. Look here.

Just checking back here for the list tip. I love this thread.

Added the interrobang to the list of special characters.

I've searched this thread and have scrolled down as well, but I don't see any reference to underlining or underscoring text. Can that be done?

Also, is there any way to add color to the text?

Thank you. :)

For underscoring you do the same as for bold, but you use a "u" rather than the "b".

testing

Woo!

Now, why didn't I think of that?????

THANK YOU!!

Ahhh! Underscoring! I hate underscoring! It's why I left it off the original post, but I have added it now.

The reason I hate underscoring so much is that it was created by authors of style guides in the 1950s and 1960s, who were instructing people using type-writers. It was used because back in those days, you couldn't use italics, so underscoring took its place. I was one of the very few people in 1980 who had access to a full graphical WYSIWYG word processor and printing system that gave me italics. As a result of doing the right thing, I remember having multiple arguments with different English professors who insisted I 'violated the rules' because I used italics. I had to, repeatedly, show them references that supported my position - that italics were used when available. I also was the person who introduced many of these professors to the existence of word processors - I even had some who complained that I wasn't really typing my paper!

To this day, I shiver at that horrid memory of having to explain these things to English professors who never bothered to understand the style guides, and instead just quoted them from rote. It was a good educational experience for me: it taught me, early in my life, how to deal with stupid, lazy bureaucrats.

235 > Wow, that hit a nerve! I sympathize with you, however. There are so many finer points of style that got bastardized because of the typographical limitations of typewriters, and we still haven't really gotten things back the way they should be even though everyone can apply the correct styles these days.

I dislike underscoring for a different reason: On many Web pages, it looks too much like a hyperlink.

oh, my, I never would have known. I like underscoring because I was taught that is how you indicate the title of a book. Simple. Easy. Done.

I'll do better from here on out, I promise.

Much to JPB's probable dismay, I was taught to underline the title of a book into the late 90s, and I'm still trying to rid myself of it. It's still my instinct, despite style guides. That said, I've never really used a style guide. More shame me.

Off topic but I need to know: How do you find if a person (say "Ab Smith") is a member of LibraryThing???

Esta, the only way I know would be to use the "Search" box on the upper right of the page. However, if you don't know what username Ab Smith has, I don't think you can find him?

How do you find your posts in a thread? I saw something like Control F, but I'm using an iPad, and there's no Control button.

JPB - If I was the little sister type of person, I would take full advantage of knowing your weakness.

But I'm not that type. Oh, wait, yes, I AM ;)

241 > I assume you are using Safari web browser on your iPad to visit LibraryThing? The Google search field at the top also serves as a "search within this page" box. It's not immediately obvious you can even do this—the "On This Page" matches appear below "Google Suggestions" for Web searches.

I hope this helps!

235: *ugh* I'm glad processors were around for me. I got into enough trouble arguing with teachers about the "and I" rule.

Example: Gramma gave me and my brother a cookie.
My correction (yes, I'm going way back): Grandma gave my brother and me a cookie.

Teacher: No, Rozax, it's, "Grandma gave my brother and I a cookie."
Me: But I wouldn't say, "Grandma gave I a cookie!"
Teacher: That's just the rule.

I have later come to the conclusion that, no, that isn't just the rule. That's utter laziness.

Computers have produced another irritation for me. Since most languages don't process blank spaces correctly, double spaces after periods and colons are pulled into one. That's the only reason given to me by my programmer buddies. But modern typographers have taken this to mean that it is a moral sin to use two spaces after a period. Why do we use two spaces? Because it makes scanning and differentiating between sentences easier. Is double-spacing necessary with justified margins? No. Flushed left? Yes. Typographers have argued that we only double-space(d) because of typewriters, but I call bs on that. There's no difference between scanning something pulled off a typewriter and something printed from a computer.

The teacher would not say "grandma gave my brother and I a cookie". I've always said that it is correct to say, "Grandma gave my brother and me a cookie". And good cookies, too.

You are right: no one says, "Granny gave I a cookie"

Re #244, 245 - sadly many teachers do teach "grandma gave my brother and I a cookie." I spend a lot of time helping students unlearn the "rule" that it is ALWAYS "my brother and I" and I'm not even a grammar expert. I can, however, understand the difference between subject and object.

Grandma gave my brother a cookie. Then she gave me one.

When in doubt, rewrite.

I say, just eat the cookie and don't tell anyone about it.

MrsLee wins. Pass the Oreos.

Yup! Grammar schmammer!

#244 Perhaps your typographers were thinking of the difference between proportional and

fixed-width

fonts?

I just added how to get fixed-width font output in your messages to the first post.

Testing -

&hearts &hearts &hearts

That didn't work. Do I have to put it in brackets or something?

you need the semicolon after the &hearts

♥

♥ ♥ &hearts: ?

♥ ♥ ♥ ??

finally! Thanks!

And

★

deleted

I know it must be in here somewhere, but I have looked twice and can't find it.

How can I make the word 'reviewed' in a thread link to the review itself?

This is the best thread ever, thanks so much to everyone who contributes and helps us figure out how to do stuff.

>261 mysterymax:. Post 1, para 5. You put your "reviewed" where it currently says "text". You will in all cases need to collect/ make the link url to your review yourself though (I don't think there is any way to collect url automatically if that is your question).

So, open another tab with a link to your reviews, you choose one using the "chain" image under each block on the reviews page and it opens the direct link. You can copy that full url into the Post1, para 5 suggestion replacing everything within the quotes and the work text with reviewed (or whatever you like)

Then you get as follows MysteryMax reviewed The Greatest Minor League.

I this">reviewed The Greatest Minor League.

Woops

I reviewed The Greatest Minor League.

okay, it looks right, but when I click on reviewed it doesn't go there. What did I do wrong?

Help please.

Max, take a look at what is between the " " in your link code. It looks like you have some of the URL repeated twice. Try copying and pasting the URL again, and see if that works.

What am I missing? I don't see the duplicate part.

Got it! Thanks so much

Glad you got it to work!

If you're using a foreign phrase with an accent mark how do you insert it? Darned American keyboard isn't helpful.

If you're using a Windows computer, it's a combination of holding down the ALT key and typing a four-digit code on the numbers keypad. This page has the common diacriticals and codes.

If you're using a Mac, you can hold down the Option key while typing a key that corresponds to the desired accent, then typing the letter. So for two dots over an a, you would type Option+u and then type an a. This page has the common combinations.

Thank you!

>272 varielle:

Alternatively, if you have Windows then you can pick them from the Character Map (XP: Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools). I've put character map on my system tray for just that purpose.

I keep a little text file handy with these characters in it, and just copy and paste when I need them so I don't have to try and remember or look up the four digit code.

Paste this string ( àáäæçèéëìíñöόòøōôõšüūúù )into a file you can keep handy, and you can copy and paste whenever you need one. There may be others you need which I've not needed, but you can, of course, add to your own list as you see fit using an approach in 273 or 275, above.

Os.

Thanks Os, that is especially appealing to me!

Yøür wælcõmé. ;-)

Please forgive me if I've missed this:

Is there any way to make a table in a post? Or simple text columns?

TIA

^ That's a good question.

§

Just playing with the Win7 character map (in the search box type character map or special characters, it's easier).

>279 UnrulySun:

You can use <pre> </pre> around text to preserve formatting, and &#09; to create a tab, but it takes a fair bit of work to get something nice-looking.

	 test 	 	 test
		test			test

test

playing around

does this work?

Let's see...

Here is a table made with <pre>

How many people ordered each color shirt, on each day of the week?

       |         |         |         |           |          |        |
       | Sunday  | Monday  | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday
-------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+---------
 Red   |   7     |   8     |   3     |    23     |    -     |   3    |    8
-------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+---------
 Blue  |   8     |   7     |   2     |    57     |    -     |   9    |   12
-------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+---------
 Green |   3     |   9     |   1     |   123     |    3     |  19    |    1
-------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+---------
 Yellow|   4     |   2     |   3     |   582     |    -     |  22    |   18
-------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+---------
 White |   1     |   3     |   4     |   119     |    1     |  27    |    7
-------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+---------
 Black |   -     |  10     |   7     |   282     |    -     |   8    |   99

Well, I got it close, by I am not editing that mess - LOL

good try. makes the usefulness much more clear!

yes...but how long did it take to set up that table????

#287 About 5 minutes. I made it in a text editor which supports an "Overwrite mode" making things very easy, with a fixed width font, and then at the end changed every space to '&nbsp;' (without the single quotes)

If your text editor doesn't allow a single space to be replaced, it would be impossible.

>288 JPB:

I've marked more posts on this thread as favorites than any other that I follow. Thanks all.

Os.

JPB-

You cheated!!!? ...... and here I thought that you did the whole thing with HTML tags...
:-)

I've seen it done years ago in applicationss like DOS WordPerfect but with the subject of this thread, I didn't think that anything but HTML would be used.

That having been said, can the chart that you made be done exclusively in HTML?

#290 by @chg1> To be clear, JPB created the HTML for the table in an editor, before posting it. This is always a sensible thing to do, because if you screw up you can just change the file in the text editor, rather than having to re-create the HTML from scratch (although the 'Preview' feature means that isn't quite as vital as it used to be).

It's not that easy, because

<pre>&#09;|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sunday&#09;|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Monday&#09;|
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Tuesday&#09;|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Wednesday&#09;|
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Thursday&#09;|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Friday&#09;|
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Saturday</pre>

gives

	|    Sunday	|    Monday	|    Tuesday	|   Wednesday	|   Thursday	|     Friday	|   Saturday

ETA: You should remove the line breaks in the HTML I used if you're going to play around with it. Also, I forgot that Tim had enhanced the post editor to preserve HTML in posts, so you can play around in a single post without having to save things in an editor, although an editor is so much easier.

>291 Noisy: & >288 JPB:

testing...

	|   yesterday	|   tomorrow

back in the "old" computer days, I was so used to text ONLY that I'd try to remove all the extraneous gibberish (read HTML)
so that an internet file would be saved as TEXT ONLY.

Now I'm playing with it!!!

I've always wondered why this character | is represented on the keyboard as two vertical short lines , now I know it is a linebreak !!!

The above done in html took 5 or 6 edits. I'm going back to PLAIN TEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found horizontal rule (<hr>) works too:

---

Another one is <br> which forces a line break. This may not be useful in posts but when I entered the dedication of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom into the common knowledge here, I had to use <br> to get it to format close to what it is like in the book.

---

---

> 291
Holy Crap! And people used to complain about COBOL being wordy!
No way I'm going to waste my time writing HTML.

#292 by @chg1> No, the | character when it looks like two short vertical lines is called 'broken bar'; no idea why it doesn't display like that.

#294 That's only an extreme case of ugliness to force spaces. Normal HTML is far simpler.

The reason the table example I gave is so convoluted is because LibraryThing does not allow the normal table construction methods of HTML to be put into a message.

If you go to this link, you'll see that it's fairly straightforward and efficient.

<>

last two posts- was trying something both with and without angle brackets

.
Didn't work

Another thing worth mentioning is that images can be links too. For example, you can click on the image below to take you to another page:



You just need to put the image tag where the link text would be:

<a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/120890/book/86943132">
  <img src="http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/e0/da/e0da30360f63289596b6e4d6567434d414f4141.jpg">
</a>

This is from the book Quirky Qwerty by Torbjörn Lundmark. It is for those who type but don't use HTML. There is also HTML in the tables (along with ISO Latin1 and Macintosh) but I typed everything (Yes, I know that I could have «cut and pasted», but I wanted to try it myself ) and all the diacritics & other stuff would have taken me, a S-L-O-W typist forever!


NUMERIC KEYPAD
(Use the numlock key and hold
down the ALT key when typing)

PUNCTUATION

¶ (Alt0182)
§ (Alt0167)
¡ (Alt0161)
¿ (Alt0191)
« (Alt0171)
» (Alt0187)
… (Alt0133)
· (Alt0183)
— (Alt0151)
– (Alt0150)

SYMBOLs
† (Alt0134)
‡ (Alt0135)
£ (Alt0163)
¥ (Alt0165)
¤ (Alt0164)
¢ (Alt0162)
÷ (Alt0247)
× (Alt0215)
© (Alt0169)
® (Alt0174)
° (Alt0176)
± (Alt0177)
¬ (Alt0172)
µ (Alt0181)

NUMERALS
¼ (Alt0188)
½ (Alt0189)
¾ (Alt0190)
¹ (Alt0185)
² (Alt0178)
³ (Alt0179)

ORDINALS
ª (Alt0170)
º (Alt0186)

@chg1, great list. I used to know a number of those by heart, now I don't have to remember them!

Fuzzi-

awww..gee, t'anks!

Thanks you guys!

Just bookmarking.

Thanks for the tips, everyone!

	I was just looking for how to tab...hope this works

is there a way to get the tab without changing the font?

That's interesting.

>306 Joybee:

Msg 282 onwards.

I've seen it mentioned, but I can't remember where (and maybe I've even asked before), but how do you find your own post in a thread without having to trawl through the whole thing?

I usually do a search for my name.

>310 varielle:: Can you search within a thread? Say I wanted to check on a query I posted 2 months ago on this thread?

>311 humouress: Can you search within a thread?

Use the Find on this page function of your browser.

>312 sqdancer:: Oh dear; I'm not seeing it. I'm using Safari. More help, please?

In Windows @humouress it is control plus F. Try that.

In Safari go to edit & find.

Oh, good ones! I use both Windows and Safari.

>311 humouress:
Using the find in your browser is probably best for a long thread like this one, but you can also quickly scan for your posts by looking at the bar with the post number and your name in it. Yours will have a dark shaded portion on the left end to make them stand out from the rest.

Os.

ETA the bar also causes a slight offset of the text compared to other posters.

OK; got it (both the Find function and looking at the bar).

Thanks, everyone!

Thanks guys I just posted my first picture....this page rocks!!!!

I've added the LibraryThing "Green Stars" system to the top post.

#321 - So does your photo! What a great first picture. :)

#321 Great Kudu! Where did you find him?

Hi guys thanks for the comments about the picture of the Kudu, I worked on a game reserve in South Africa for 7 months last year and he was one of many amazing animals I came across....I love his big ears...there are more photos up on my profile if you want to see more :)

I am join in the praise for your picture!

More characters (as given by swynn) :

"I'll add that there are lots of other nifty icons you can try, and you can see a complete list of available codes at unicodemap.org.

For example, to see the character on the left, type the code on the right:
✓ &#x2713;
✔ &#x2714;
✖ &#x2716;
✗ &#x2717;
✏ &#x270F;
✌ &#x270C;

These are all in the "Dingbats" list. (Sigh. I know how they feel.)

These are Unicode characters. Whether you can see them at all depends on what your computer & browser support. If you don't have support for a character, you'll probably just see a square box where the character should be.

The codes given are hexadecimal, so if you use the unicodemap numbers it's important to include the "x" after the hash mark."

Coloured stars (provided by lunacat) :

"For those wanting to do the coloured stars, you actually have TadAD to thank for them.

Simply put this code:

http://www.deffler.com/lt/stars_four.gif

as an image - eg:

img src="THE ABOVE CODE HERE"/

starting it and ending it with the usual triangles to open and close

and change the number to whatever stars you want. Half stars go: stars_four_half.gif"

Thanks, homoress; thanks,lunacat; thanks, tadAD! I put the stars as a divider on my profile...

I'm trying a variation on 300.



Robert

PS It didn't work as I could have predicted from the forms of the code, but I wanted to try it. I'll leave the lion just cuz he's pretty.

R

PPS The original lion disappeared for no good reason, so here's another:



R

PPPS Then he came back.

R

he has that "come hither... and i'll eat you" look.

Yes, for sure 'come hither' - 'please don't make me get up and chase you!"

Oh hello aslan, how are... AAAARGH!

ummm...ummmm, good
ummm...ummmm, good
That's what humans taste like
ummm..ummmm, GOOD!

(with apologies to Campels Soup)

This thread has all the info I've been looking for and more I hadn't even thought of looking for. I have just starred this topic as my one stop info centre. Thank you very much wise and talented LT people.

:o)

I've learned a lot from the posts in this thread!

And that is why we need to remember to continue to BUMP it up!

...or at least STAR it.

I have it starred, but like it bumped!

I put a link to it on my profile page. This thread contains some great information.

Without meaning to criticize anyone's comments, I don't think lengthening it with chat makes it more useful.

JPB (209), you can use unicode for sub and superscripted characters: ²/₃, although it's not very pretty.

---

Is there a way to get hover text or mouse over text in LibraryThing image posts? Over here I tried both the alt and the title attributes without luck:

<img src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/39471-36413/1000CMSFFullViewB.jpg" width="600" alt="Left coast, north" title="A very Marinish view">

Is it possible? If so, how?

Robert

Thanks

Is there a way to import a picture not from the web but from my own computer file? Since it doesn't have a location URL I wasn't sure. :) Thanks

Kassilem, you can upload the picture from your computer to the "Junk Drawer" on your LibraryThing profile. Then you will have a URL to use in the img src coding.

346: Junk drawer? What's that? and how do you find it? I haven't heard of this before, but it sounds like my kind of feature.

Sorry, I should have explained a little more. If you go to your profile page and click on the image you are using as a profile image, it will take you to another page. There's a link to your Member Gallery, where you can upload whatever photos you want to use as your profile pic, and just under that is a link that says Junk Drawer. You can upload pictures to either of these locations and then link to them, but I like using the Junk Drawer for images that I'm just adding to a Talk post or something like that without cluttering up my Member Gallery. (The other thing to know is that no one can see your Junk Drawer except you.)

Anyway, click on the Junk Drawer link. That will take you to another page that will show you thumbnails of whatever photos you already have uploaded to that location. On the left there's a link that says "Add another picture." Click on that, then upload the image from your computer's hard drive. You can add descriptions or tags or whatever you want.

Once you've uploaded it, you need to grab the URL to insert into the {img src} coding. To do that, click on the thumbnail of the photo in your Junk Drawer. Once it opens, right-click on the image and choose Copy Image URL (or something similarly named; it may be slightly different on a Windows computer). Then use that URL in the {img src} coding you see in Message 1 of this thread, and you should be all set!

Thanks so much! :)

Thank you rosalita! Nicely explained.

>348 rosalita: : Thank you!

Mind you, I just opened a Flickr account so I could post my photos here; but this looks much easier.

But LT has a limit of uploaded photos allowed... :(

It does? You mean if it is our own scan of our own books there is a limit???

I've gotten warnings that I'm about to exceed my limit, but I don't think uploading covers to the database is included in that limit.

No, covers of books, entered in your catalog, not your personal gallery wouldn't count. I've even received a badge for uploading covers! :)

>355 MrsLee:
Mrs. Lee,
Let's see, getting rid of the three negatives in that first sentence, I believe you are saying that only images uploaded to your "Member gallery" and/or "Junk drawer" count toward a limit on photos uploaded by you; images uploaded via the "Change cover" choice for a book do not.

I would also assume any images uploaded elsewhere on LT for common use/access (Author sites and LibraryThing Local, for example) would not count toward a personal limit.

Os.

How do I 'force' a touchstone? I've seen the technique explained somewhere.

I am going to read a book called "Midnight" by Rutherford Montgomery, but my edition is not listed under 'others'.

The book numbers are '431692/book/89714285'.

Help?

Addendum: FOUND IT!

In case your touchstone does not work or you cannot find the work/author in the extended list, you can manually force a touchstone to appear by using the work/author ID.

Example: {5403381::Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone}

Use the square brackets instead of the {}

You can also force author touchstones in the same way, e.g. [[montgomeryrutherford::Rutherford Montgomery]] in cases where it doesn't work otherwise.

Thank you, @marq.

How did you post square brackets?

>359 fuzzi:
These (and others) are shown in Items 13 and 14 in the OP:

enter

&#91; to get [

and

&#93; to get ]

Os.

Just saw this thread---Thanks, JPB, for starting it :-)

If you hyperlink a picture, be sure to put some text before it.  Otherwise, for whatever reason, the URL will appear next to the image.  Then again, I might be the only person who's run into this problem, because I don't know if anyone else ever hyperlinks their pictures.

I do it from time to time, for example here, and I haven't had that problem.

Robert

363:  It must have been fixed, then.  I ran into the problem recently and had to argue with several people before it was corrected because "the image is showing up alright for me".  And several times, I had to explain, "That isn't the problem..." -_-

This is where I finally got some results.  I wish they hadn't cluttered up my thread for it, though.

<IMG SRC="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/1907992758.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg"

ok -- i get it -- thanks

366:  Yes?

Not exactly a fancy thing IN your posts, but about your posts (thanks @Scorbet!)

You can see the different types of cover you have used here i.e. Amazon, blank, etc.:

http://www.librarything.com/profile/MEMBERNAME/stats/covers

(From your profile=>Stats/Memes=>Covers)

Much gratitude! I've passed this along to other GR refugees, so we should start getting fancy any day now :)

Welcome aboard. We heard y'all were comin'.

Os.

Could somebody please help me. I am new here. I am confused still. I want to use this code: (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. I HAVE EXCHANGED FOR ) SO I COULD TYPE THIS.

I have two questions:

I do not know how to find the http://..... to stick in the above code. What I want in there is the code for a book. Take for example "For Whom the Bell Tolls". I want the code for that book so people can see it somewhere where there is a description of the book. Is this not possible?

My second question is: in the code is there supposed to be a blank spot after

Are you wanting to create these links here in Talk on LibraryThing? If so, the easiest way is to use the touchstones feature: By putting square brackets around a book title it creates a link to the book's page on LT.

If you are wanting to create links to the LT book pages to post outside of LT, then you can find the URL for a particular book by navigating to its page (using the Search feature or if you have it in your catalog, clicking on it) then copying the URL from the address field at the top of your browser window.

Your second question seems to have some missing data, so I'm not sure what you're meaning there.

I think the second question is missing because of using < ... When creating a link, there should be a space between the "a" and the "href", but nowhere else.

<a href="yourlinkhere">your text here</a>

<a href="http://www.librarything.com">this</a>

The first question I think was how to find the "http://www.librarything.com" link text (i.e. the URL) for a page. I usually just copy and paste it from the address field at the top of the browser. Even though (on Safari or Firefox using a Mac) it doesn't show the "http://" bit, when I paste it, it appears.

But if you want to make a link to a book or author page on LibraryThing, take rosalita's advice and use the "Touchstone" technique. Single square brackets around book titles and double square brackets around author names.

If you want to put in images:

e.g. <img src="http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/b5/b0/b5b0f06c20869366375497866514468414b6b41.jpg" width="300">

I get the URL by right clicking (or control clicking) on the image and a drop down menu appears with the item "Copy Image Address". I can then paste it in. There are different ways of getting the image URL depending on the browser you are using (and some web sites use some tricks to try to prevent you from doing it).

Testing

★

AARRGGHH.....pulls last hair off head......

I can't seem to get a picture on here.....what I'm I doing wrong????

Perhaps it is your source?

Lets test your source....

Nope. Works fine? Browser perhaps?

WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO

I was typing /picture.jpg and I didn't need to........but NOW I'M BALD.......let me go get a wig.....plus I need some nerve tranquilizers.....

*380

I'm glad someone witnessed my breakthrough.

Ahkh! Pretty Bird...Pretty Bird...Ahkh!

*383

Isn't he cute?

Believe it or not, learning to post a picture was not the only challenge I faced today.
I also had to defend my right to post a picture.........well, read it for yourself here.

384 - *snort* I lift my glass to you! Only, my martini glass (which is rather large) is no comparison to yours!

I lift my coffee mug!

I want that mug!!!

You mean this mug > ? It's at http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/coffeecup.gif. Myself, I drink tea too fast for such a small mug.

Os.

Thank you, Os. I savor my coffee, so a small mug is fine. :)

One good cuppa deserves anoth'a!   This one is from Yahoo's hidden emoticons.  Between Yahoo and deviantArt, you'll never be wanting for emoticons.

~O)
~o)

It's not working for me... :(

391 -  Gotta use HTML.  Copy this:  <img src="http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/57.gif">

fuzzi, should I mention what your little emoticons look like?

*giggle*

= Tea

= Coffee

You'll have to come up with your own iced tea, iced coffee, beer, martini, scotch/rocks images. Tea is my cup of choice.

s. = me after too much caffiene this late at nite.

#393 - Great minds and all that! ;)

Manhattan Transfer, anyone?

I , I .
I the java-jive and it I s me.
and ; the java and me.
 A
  A
   A
    A
     A .

Okay, now I'm just showin' off. But that's kinda what this thread is for, right?

s.

I'm wondering if one of us has the energy and ambition to assemble all the actual how-to posts from this thread and consolidate them into one post in a new thread. It would be great to salvage the benefits without the long load.

394 - This would be me.
                _

ಠ_ಠ

 

I make useful posts 'favorites', so I can find them easily as needed.

To make a post "favorite", click on the "More" link at the bottom of the post. You can list all your favorite posts by choosing the "Favorite Messages" link on the right side of the page.

@Rozax, don't know what I was thinking...I know about using html for images, DUH!

Os, where I used to live there was a coffee shop called "Java Jive". They had marvelous blends created on the premises. My favorite was a strong coffee blend called "Dancing Goats", lol.

402:  You must have needed coffee. *hugs*

Could someone tell me how to "unfavorite" an author? Thanks!

go to the author page and on click on the 'favorited' button, the button you initially clicked to 'favorite'.

Aw, thank you @Rozax.

=0 (smiley needs coffee!)

@ 51: I LOVE your picture!!!!! where did you find it??

Ok i was told to read this to find out how to post emoticons, but I'm confused on how youdo it. can someone explain please?

Re-read the 5th and 6th item in post#1- they are clear. practice; if one way doesn't work, you made a mistake. If you use Firefox you can right click on your attempts, on 'inspect elements' you can inspect your creation.

>409 emerald_dragon:, 410
...and you can preview your post on LT without posting it when practicing.

Os.

>411 Ealhmund:

oops...forgot that part! Thanks!

Does the html for having an ordered list start at a specific number work here? I've tried using this, but it just starts at 1. Am I doing something wrong or does this not work here?

413:  That might be more specific than LT wants to allow.

#413 by @KarenElissa> I've never asked Tim or anyone on staff about it, but if it makes you feel better I've never been able to get it to work, either. Which is a shame, because I break up my year-long reading list into four 3-month posts to avoid the problem of too many touchstones in a post, and doing so won't allow me to use the ordered list coding at all.

>415 rosalita: Ya, that is pretty much the same thing I want it for. I just started a new thread for my second set of 75 and wanted to continue the numbering. Oh well, I think I'll just start back at one for my numbering and the counter widget can have the actual number. I like the list all lined up nicely so I don't want to do it by hand.

#416 by @KarenElissa> For me, I want it because my number skills are atrocious and more often than I'd like I end up discovering I've skipped or repeated a number way up the line, and having to re-number a long list by hand is annoying and tedious. :-)

ok i get it now but what link are you using for emoticons?

>418 emerald_dragon:
Well, if you see one you like, right click on it, and you can "copy the URL" or "copy shortcut", or something equivalent. Then paste it into your HTML code for an image. Hope that makes sense (and applies to more than Google Chrome - it doesn't seem to work for MS IE). For example, I right clicked on the left emoticon in post 400, clicked on "Copy the URL" and then pasted it here: http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/stinkeye.gif. Now, if I surround this URL with the HTML code for images, the emoticon should appear rather than the URL - Hah! it worked!

Os.

I would really like to put a counter or a ticker on the top of my thread. Can anybody tell me how to do that please?

>419 Ealhmund:
followup for MS Internet Explorer users - I edited 419 to reflect that I was using Chrome, not IE. IE has a "copy shortcut" command when you right click but, for some reason, doesn't work for images within messages, though it does work for the post number and poster's name. Odd.

Anyway, for MS IE, it's a bit more trouble but pretty straightforward. Note the message text immediately adjacent to the image whose URL you need. Then from the 'View' dropdown menu, select "Source". A window will open with the source code for the entire page you are on. Hit ctrl-F to open the find box, and search for the text near the image that you noted. Just before or after this text, you should see the full URL to the image in an HTML command for displaying images. Copy that (heck, copy the whole HTML command, since that's what you're going to be putting in your post anyway) and you've got it.

Hope this is clear

Os.

>419 Ealhmund:
followup for MS Internet Explorer users - I edited 419 to reflect that I was using Chrome, not IE. IE has a "copy shortcut" command when you right click but, for some reason, doesn't work for images within messages, though it does work for the post number and poster's name. Odd.

Anyway, for MS IE, it's a bit more trouble but pretty straightforward. Note the message text immediately adjacent to the image whose URL you need. Then from the 'View' dropdown menu, select "Source". A window will open with the source code for the entire page you are on. Hit ctrl-F to open the find box, and search for the text near the image that you noted. Just before or after this text, you should see the full URL to the image in an HTML command for displaying images. Copy that (heck, copy the whole HTML command, since that's what you're going to be putting in your post anyway) and you've got it.

Hope this is clear

Os.

I have a question for the highly techno LTers out there. How do I put a ticker, or counter, in my thread? I would like to put one in my 2014 category challenge thread to measure the number of books I read. Any help greatly appreciated.

Don't worry guys, I just worked it out.

My daughter is showing me how to use photobucket to get personal pics on LT. I wish it were easier - I'd like to just copy and paste, but I'm learning the more circuitous route.

I tried to post a moving .gif image using (in pointy brackets)

img src="http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/30300000/Robert-Carlyle-robert-carlyle-30312509-500-271.gif"

but it didn't work. Is there a different HTML code I should be using?

It works

Hmm; it does. OK, thanks.

Well, it did when I posted it.

Robert

I can see it here, but I can also see it (most of the time) where I've posted it. I'm not sure if they're connected somehow. Oh, well, another of life's great internet mysteries for me.

LT seems to have a spoiler tag now as well, <spoiler>- using it results in hidden text like this. I think I saw somewhere that it's not consistently working in all browsers, though.

Ah, yes. I've been meaning to check that one:

This is a test

ETA - Hmm. Well, I typed "This is a test" with 'spoiler' in pointy brackets (what's the technical term for them again?) and I can certainly see it. I'm using Safari on a MacBook Air. Mind you, I'm still using the old-style LT page; I don't know if that affects it?

>433 humouress:
it works fine on win7 using firefox w/ the new LT.

#433> Here on a MacBook Pro and Chrome browser, your spoiler tags are working just fine! Maybe it's Safari that doesn't recognize the HTML code.

I've tested on new LT in an older version of IE, a relatively recent Firefox, and an up to date version of Chrome for Android and they all work fine for me as well, your post and mine.

>436 sandstone78:: This is what I see on your post 432, sandstone:

"LT seems to have a spoiler tag now as well, - using it results in hidden text like this. I think I saw somewhere that it's not consistently working in all browsers, though."

What was your hidden text? Should I be seeing something to click on to see the spoiler?

>437 humouress: Here's a screenshot, the top is before with text concealed and the bottom with text revealed:



So the text just displays as normal for you, then. Interesting. Which browser are you using?

I'm using Safari. And am still on old LT; maybe I should give up and switch now.

Thanks, sandstone.

ETA - I'll just carry on trying to write reviews without spoilers ;0)

>439 humouress: I've been doing SPOILERS then text in spoiler tag to cover my bases. Writing reviews without spoilers can be a fun challenge, though!

i've been clicking my tongue for ages, but nothing is showing.

Not just me, then ;0)

Giving this a try.

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! That's a good one.

How do you put the hidden text in it?

Put spoiler and /spoiler in HTML (angle) brackets as usual with your text in between the brackets.

Looks like there was an official LT blog post on the spoiler tag today here with more details.

#447 - I second that! I'm definitely going to be using it.

It would be great to get the spoiler tags listed in the top post, if JPB is still around.

@rosalita, I just "favorite" all the posts in here that contain html that I will use in the future.

Under the post, there's a "Reply" and a "More" link. Click on the "More" link and then click on "Add to favorites". The post will then be highlighted yellow, and you can find it more easily.

Yes, I do know how to favorite posts (and in this case I had already learned about the spoiler tags feature) but for people who are new to the thread it would be nice to have the first post be a more comprehensive list so they don't have to skim all 450 posts. Not a big deal, certainly.

Brilliant thread.

bump

452 453

The best.

>451 rosalita: That's not likely to happen as the OP doesn't visit LT much any more.

>455 clamairy: :( Miss him

Please somebody continue this thread. You're nearing the breaking point for some of our little computers to load.

Items added.

Note: I didn't add the "how to mark a post as a favorite" as that is a LibraryThing usage question, as opposed to an undocumented way to add interesting items to posts. In a sense, this entire thread is a compensation for lack of LibraryThing documentation on this kind of stuff.

I also just added the "hr" option, which was described by someone a while ago, but I missed.

This thread has been re-started. Please go to THIS THREAD INSTEAD.