Formatting text in comments

rsmith91
January 23, 2008, 08:34 PM posted in General Discussion

How do you format text in comments, so that you can turn text into a URL, or add an image, for example?

Also, how do you do this for a profile page - I put my blog address in, but even with what I think were the correct HTML tags it just came up in normal text (I'm not an expert at HTML, so I may have done something wrong).

Why is there not an option for a text editor for comments, like there is for posts?

 Thanks in advance for your help!

Profile picture
calkins
January 23, 2008, 09:44 PM

Here are a couple tips:

Adding a URL

When you actually type this into your post, replace the "*" with "<" (no quotes) and the "$" with ">" (no quotes). Sorry, I know this is confusing, but if I didn't do this all you would see is the URL.


*a href="http://www.yourURL.com">NameYourURL</a$


Where it says http://www.yourURL.com type in your URL.
Where it says NameYourURL you can put any name in here, and you will see that name instead of the URL. This is good if you have a really long URL, or just want to name it.


Adding a Photo

Again, replace the "*" with "<" (no quotes) and the "$" with ">" (no quotes).


*img src="http://www.yourURL.com/yourPhoto.jpg"></img$


Where it says http://www.yourURL.com/yourPhoto.jpg type in the URL where the photo is located. Keep in mind that you must upload your photo to an online server, either your own website or something like Flickr.


It can be confusing the first time you do this, so if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.

Good luck!
Brent

Profile picture
rsmith91
February 04, 2008, 06:15 PM

I've found a new trick for manipulating HTML - the program I use to write my blog (

Windows Live Writer

) lets you flip between HTML code and the standard user interface at the touch of a button, as I'm sure many other programs such as Microsoft Word do. This makes it really simple to link images and text without having to worry about HTML code - just copy and paste.

Profile picture
rsmith91
February 03, 2008, 01:03 PM

Thanks so much for that Calkins (and sorry it took me so long to reply - I've been quite busy lately) Hopefully, an image should display below that links to the ChinesePod homepage. Thanks again!

Profile picture
rsmith91
February 03, 2008, 01:06 PM

It works! I've sorted out the blog link on my profile too thanks to your instructions. :)

Profile picture
calkins
February 03, 2008, 03:40 PM

No problem at all about not getting back to me...sometimes life gets in the way of our ChinesePod! And you are very welcome, happy I could help.

Profile picture
goulnik
February 04, 2008, 03:15 PM

this all works in comments, but not when you create a post, in which case you need to copy paste or use the icons in the edit box for some reason.

Profile picture
calkins
January 23, 2008, 09:47 PM

P.S. The reason your blog address didn't show up is because you need to add "www." (no quotes) after "http://". Without the www. you will just get regular text.

Profile picture
goulnik
February 04, 2008, 03:25 PM

yep, worked except for the < lost in the middle :-)

Profile picture
calkins
February 04, 2008, 04:00 PM

Thanks goulniky. Out of curiosity, what did you do to trick the browser? I viewed the page source and still couldn't figure it out.

Profile picture
goulnik
February 04, 2008, 04:16 PM

calkins, it's not really a trick. To enter html tags in your examples, you have to make sure they don't get interpreted by the browser, so you must replace the surrounding angle brackets with the corresponding escape sequences. For instance, to show <tag> you need to type in &lt;tag&gt; Should you want to show the & sign, you need to type in &amp; :-)

Profile picture
calkins
February 04, 2008, 04:32 PM

Cool, thanks...this is good to know!

Profile picture
goulnik
February 04, 2008, 03:23 PM

btw calkins, you could have given your demonstration by tricking the browser : inserting a url : <a href=”http://www.blablabla.com/”>text of the link</a> < inserting a pict : <img src=http://www.blablabla.com/xyz.jpg /> inserting a pict that links to another url: <a href=”http://www.blablabla.com/”><img src=http://www.blablabla.com/xyz.jpg /></a> hope I got this right