HTML Sandbox 2008

n/a | 5/31/08 | me

[sig226]

It's time for a new HTML reference so you can make your posts look cool.

HTML means Hyper Text Markup Language. It's a set of simple commands used to format the text of your posts, add images, or links, or change the appearance.

URL is Uniform Resource Locator. It's the name of the page or the picture that you see, the www.http:// stuff. You'll need to use the URL to make links and post pictures.

Quotation Marks Quotes have to be used around the URLs for web pages and images on Free Republic. Some systems do not require this. Ours does.

Once the Free Republic software detects an HTML tag in your post, it will assume the entire thing was written for HTML. This means it will eliminate paragraphs and line breaks that you used to clarify your writing. In order to prevent that, I'll start with the two simplest tags, <br> and <p>. When you use html tags, they disappear when the post is pasted to the board, so don't worry if they look funny or if your post seems to run on.

This is the break tag. <br>
It tells the computer to end the line and start a new one. <br>
Just type it where you want the line to end. <br>

This is the paragraph tag. <p>

It tells the computer to end the line, insert a blank one, then start a new line.

The rest of the tags have to be used with an on tag and an off tag. This is simple enough. One of the most commonly used tags is the italic tag <i>. This tag turns the italics on. When you want the italics to end, turn them off by using the forward slash with the appropriate command, in this case, </i>.

Commonly used tags:
<p> paragraph
<br> line break
These tags are not used in pairs.

Commonly used pairs:
<i> </i>italics
<b> </b>bold characters
<u> </u>underline
<font color = red>This makes the font red.</font color = red> Orange,blue,green,purple,and yellow also work.
<center> </center>

This will put whatever is between the tags in the center of the page
and center justify the margins.

Headline fonts
Headlines add emphasis to an important point.

<h1> SIZE 1 </h1>

<h5> SIZE 5</h5>

You can use 1,2,3,4, or 5. The tags automatically insert a blank line between the headline and your next paragraph.

Sarcasm tag
</sarc> This is the sarcasm tag. It is not a real HTML tag. It is used to mark your witty repartee so that everyone will know you are making a funny. Type an ampersand - & then lt; then /sarc. An & and gt makes the other carat >.

How to create a link:
<a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm">www.Free Republic.com</a>
A means anchor. H ref means horizontal reference. It's called horizontal because the computer is going across the web to a different page. There are also vertical links that can go to specific points on the same page. What comes after the a href= is where the computer will go. The horizontal reference is the complete URL of the page you want to link. It's in the navigation bar at the top of your web browser. Highlight it and copy it. Make sure you get all of it. Some URLs are surprisingly long, and if you miss some of the URL, the link might not work.
You can type anything between the <a href=></a> parts.
www.Free Republic.com
Click here.
abc12345
All of these links go to the same page, I just typed different things between <a href=></a> tags.

How to add images to your post:
<img src=></img>
The img tags tell the computer to find and insert a picture.
These tags insert this wonderful image from Rush Limbaugh's website:
<img src="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062807/content/01125113.Par.4584.ImageFile.jpg""height=218""width=285"></img>

You need to know the URL of the picture to do this. You can see the picture's URL when you put your cursor on the picture and right click the mouse. You see a small box with "properties" at the bottom. Left click on "properties" and you get a dialog box with the image URL and dimensions. It says Address: next to the URL, with (URL) underneath. Copy the URL and paste it after your img src= tag. Make sure you get all of the URL for the picture. There isn't a lot of space for the URL and sometimes they are very long. The image Size and Dimensions are beneath the URL. Free Republic allocates memory for each image, and if it doesn't know the dimensions of the image, it will allocate more memory than needed. It tells you the width, then the height of the picture. You don't have to tell the computer that the height of that image was 218 and the width was 285, but it saves memory and memory costs money.

This is called a hotlink. The picture is actually on another computer, but we see it here. This causes the other computer to use it's memory and machinery to provide the image. Some sites prevent it, or object to it. You can't hotlink an image from any of Yahoo's GeoCities pages, for example. Yahoo prevents it.

Do Not Cut And Paste List.
Some websites have forbidden us to copy and paste their material, including images. There have been lawsuits over this. The software will mostly prevent you from using the material that has been blocked, but not always. There are also some image sources that are not allowed on the list. Please don't use them. Lawsuits suck.
Link to the Do Not Cut And Paste List

[blue-duncan]

Dublin

[blue-duncan]

see this

[blue-duncan]

Dublin

[deport]

[blue-duncan]

Dublin

[deport]

[blue-duncan]

Dublin

[deport]

Is this the link you are trying to get posted?

If so the below is the url which can be posted alone if no other html is used in your post. Otherwise it needs to be inserted within the html form.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-eu-ireland-catholic-abuse,0,1052525.story

[massmike]

save

[NELSON111]

BFL

[LaybackLenny]

http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_14098406

[newfreep]

If so the below is the url which can be posted alone if no other html is used in your post. Otherwise it needs to be inserted within the html form.

Does this mean only the weblink is required and the long version of "

[deport]

Don’t understand your question as posed......

But what I was trying to say is that if you use no working html coding within your entire post then you can copy and paste the url link as it comes from the website and it will automatically format so that you can click on it and it will take you to the link source. A good way to check is to hit previes anc then click you link and see if it works. If not then you have something wrong.

However if you use any working html codes within the entire post such as paragraph breaks, fonts, colors, etc. then the link url must be inserted within the hmtl formular for making a working link. example:
< a href=”url entered here”> title or name to click on here</a> and this will make a working html link when you eliminate the space between the first < and a.

In all the above I’ve not used any html codes to make paragraphs but instead have used the enter key twice on my keyboard to make the paragraph space and once to make a line break.

This would be an example of a direct link to your post to me in a post where no working html codes have been used:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2024261/posts?page=274#274

Hope I’ve not confused you more.

[newfreep]

Thanks for your post - it does clear up my understanding. I’ve tried it just a few minutes ago...and it works! Thanks!

http://weekendpundit.org/2009/10/sarah-plain-is-not-fading-away.html

[50mm]

Ping!

[50mm]

Here’s the HTML code for the pic I just posted:

Ping!{p}

{img src=”http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u274/failtefailte/Vikingkitties/UnnnghDocRockKittyMassage2.gif";}

Copy and replace { and } with the less than and more than symbols, then paste the result in the posting window.

Hit preview to see if you did it right.

[LucyJo]

Hi 50mm,

Could you tell me how to adjust the degrees to which an image moves to the right when using “Align=Right”?

I’ve tried HSpace and VSpace, but they won’t work for me.

Thank you.

[LucyJo]

Well, I got the HSpace and VSpace to work, but can’t get the VSpace exactly where I want it.