When writing a forum topic/reply, I want something visual to understand what formatting is possible. Hence this post.
This post focuses on what you can do with the formatting menu:
How to use
When you want inspiration, scroll down and see if any formatting sparks joy.
For each example, I tried to hint how to reproduce that.
In forum
For listings/profiles/reviews/feedback
Going through the toolbar, left to right:
(Quote whole post)
(easier to explain by replying to this post) (so see below)
Strong (aka Bold )
Emphasis (aka Italic )
(Insert Hyperlink)
(Paste a URL)
(Type to search topics)
(Blockquote)
line 1
line 4
(select the lines you want in the blockquote) (then click the “Blockquote” button)
Preformatted text (aka code) (aka monospace text)
example: one line(multiline)
(Upload)
(choose an image from your computer) (after uploading, hover over the image)
(to rename) (click the pencil icon)
(to scale) (click 100%, 75%, or 50%)
(to delete) (click the trash icon)
(you can also drag-and-drop images into the input pane/area)
(Bulleted List) (aka unordered list)
line 1
line 2
(select the lines you want in the list) (then click the “Bulleted List” button)
(Numbered List) (aka ordered list)
line 1
line 2
(select the lines you want in the list) (then click the “Numbered List” button)
(Emoji :))
(browse, or search by name)
(can adjust skin tone for some emoji) (e.g., “People and Body” category)
(Insert date / time)
2022-11-29T06:00:00Z →2022-12-03T06:00:00Z (we can’t post dates/listings in the forums, so probably not applicable)
Advanced (the last icon):
(Hide Details)
Summary
details go here
(select the text you want to hide) (then click “Hide Details”)
(to show/hide the details) (user clicks the disclosure triangle)
(Blur Spoiler)
the butler did it
(select the spoiler text you want to blur) (then click “Blur Spoiler”)
(to show/hide the spoiler text)
(user hovers over text to unblur slightly)
(user clicks the text to unblur fully)
(user re-clicks the text to re-blur)
(Build Poll)
(there are many poll options) (below is just one example)
(if need more help, reply here or make a new topic?)
cats
dogs
cogs
1 Like
Updating to cover more formatting options.
The TH forums use Discourse. The official Discourse reference is below.
There are three things to consider. What Markdown is allowed? What BBCode is allowed? What HTML is allowed? All 3 can be mixed and merged to some extent. Markdown Our implementation uses Markdown-it. You can see a complete...
Reading time: 2 mins 🕑
Likes: 31 ❤
It’s “official,” but it’s not necessarily complete. And it doesn’t give examples.
When you make a new topic or reply to one, you see a formatting menu like this (red box):
Examples of what each icon does are in the first post of this topic:
Bold with italic:
example: Really want to emphasize this part
click italic first, then bold
Below the formatting menu, it gives more options:
“Use Markdown, BBCode, or HTML to format. Drag or paste images.”
So if you want to add an image, you can just drag it in. Or copy-paste it in.
As for Markdown, BBCode, and HTML, read on.
Examples of Markdown are in this topic:
I want to explain tables more. First, a reference:
Creating a table in Discourse with markdown really easy. For this tutorial, we will use a table with three columns. You can create a table with as many columns as you want but keep in mind that the width of your post is limited, and a large table...
Reading time: 3 mins 🕑
Likes: 184 ❤
The easiest way to add a table is to:
Make it in another app, like Google Sheets.
Copy-paste the desired cells into your forum post.
Example:
You can play around with the Markdown to tweak the table.
For example:
Blank cells, photos, emoji, and column alignment (left/center/right):
Cats
Dogs
Poodle
Donkey
Siamese
Shiba Inu
Horse
That Markdown is:
The red box with all the --- determines the column alignment. Just use : as shown.
The donkey photo was tricky, because tables rely on the | (pipe) character, and a photo’s Markdown already includes a | (smaller red box). To get the photo into the table, we had to “escape” that | by adding the \ .
You can even have a one-column table:
birds
emu
penguin
Discourse supports only a subset of BBCode. For most of that subset, the equivalent can be done via the formatting menu or Markdown.
New stuff:
underline
example: Let’s underline only this part .
Let's underline only [u]this part[/u].
email
example: support@trustedhousesitters.com
[email]support@trustedhousesitters.com[/email]
However, you can also just paste an email address into the composer window, and it’ll format correctly.
See: (a cheat sheet for formatting forum posts) (the formatting menu) - #6 by geoff.hom
When writing a post in the forums/Discourse, you can use some HTML tags. However, most formatting can be done via the formatting menu, Markdown, or BBCode.
A list of HTML tags in Discourse: Supported formatting in posts (markdown, BBCode, and HTML) - #6 by Canapin - users - Discourse Meta
A reference for all HTML tags: HTML elements reference - HTML: HyperText Markup Language | MDN
HTML tags that may be useful in Discourse are listed below. Click on a tag to jump to more info.
br eak)Use <br> to add whitespace.
Examples:
No whitespace:
1 line of whitespace:
2 lines of whitespace:
(line 1)
How? Use <br>:
3 lines of whitespace:
(line 1)
How? Use multiple <br>:
(
k eyb oard input)Use <kbd> to explain what keys someone should press.
Example:
You could write:
To get “@,” hold the “shift” key and press the “2” key.
Or instead:
To get “@,” press shift + 2 .
How? Use <kbd>:
(
o rdered l ist)Use <ol> to create an ordered list. You can already create such a list via the formatting menu or Markdown. However, <ol> gives you more options.
Examples:
A simple numbered list:
cats
dogs
spotted owls
How? Start with each item on a line:
cats
dogs
spotted owls
Then, in the formatting menu, select “Numbered List.”
Start at an arbitrary number:
cats
dogs
spotted owls
How? Use Markdown. Change the first number to your starting number:
Count down:
cats
dogs
spotted owls
How? Use <ol> and the attribute “reversed”:
Use Roman numerals, uppercase:
cats
dogs
spotted owls
How? Use <ol> and the attribute “type” with “I”:
Use Roman numerals, lowercase:
cats
dogs
spotted owls
How? Use <ol> and the attribute “type” with “i”:
Use letters, uppercase:
cats
dogs
spotted owls
How? Use <ol> and the attribute “type” with “A”:
Use letters, lowercase:
cats
dogs
spotted owls
How? Use <ol> and the attribute “type” with “a”:
Nest lists. Also, combine uppercase letters, lowercase Roman numerals, starting at an arbitrary “number,” and counting down:
cats
dogs
Jack Russell Terrier
Shiba Inu
Corgi
spotted owls
How? You can nest <ol>. Also, you can combine attributes:
(
ruby annotation)Use <ruby> to show how to pronounce East Asian characters.
Example:
The Japanese kanji for “tomorrow”:
明日 ( Ashita )
How? Use <ruby> and associated tags:
(
small print)Use <small> for small print, like copyright and legal text.
Example:
Legal text:
This is the offer.(This is the fine print.)
How? Use <small>:
(
sub script)Use <sub> to make text subscript.
Example:
Chemical formulas:
Come on in! The H2 O is fine.
How? Use <sub>:
(
super script)Use <sup> to make text superscript.
Example:
(
)