(a cheat sheet for formatting forum posts) (the formatting menu)

[geoff.hom]

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 posts, you can mix and match using the formatting menu, Markdown, BBCode, and HTML.
  • a cheat sheet for Markdown: (a cheat sheet for formatting forum posts) (Markdown)
• For listings/profiles/reviews/feedback, it’s a totally different system. Long story short—there seem very few formatting options.

---

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)
    • https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/how-to-add-a-listing-or-profile-link-to-your-forum-profile/8396
      • (this was done by pasting the URL) (optional title: blank)
    • link your TH listing/profile to your forum profile
      • (this was done by pasting the URL) (optional title: “link your TH listing/profile to your forum profile”)
  • (Type to search topics)
    • How to add a listing or profile link to your FORUM profile
      • (this was done by typing “link profile”) (then clicking on the appropriate/first topic)

• (Blockquote)

  • line 1
    line 2

    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)

    • "lastName": "Smith",
      "age": 25,
      

    • (select the lines you want in the code block) (then click the “Preformatted text” button)
    • (note that a code block has formatting you may not want) (e.g., auto-coloring)

• (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)

  1. line 1
  2. 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
    line 2

  • (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
    Darth Vader is …!

  • (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

[geoff.hom]

This is an example of quoting multiple parts of a reply.

@geoff.hom

Going through the toolbar, left to right:

• (Quote whole post)
  • (easier to explain by replying to this post) (so see below)

• (to quote part of a reply)
  • (select the text to quote)
    • (then click the “Quote” button that appears) (or press “q”) (or click “Reply”)
  • (can quote multiple texts/users in one reply)

@geoff.hom

what you can do with the toolbar (quote, bold, italic, etc.)

[geoff.hom]

This is an example of quoting an entire reply.

• (Quote whole post)
  • (can enter text above, like this)
  • (to quote whole reply) (click the “Quote whole post” button)

@geoff.hom

@geoff.hom

Going through the toolbar, left to right:

• (Quote whole post)
  • (easier to explain by replying to this post) (so see below)

• (quote part of a reply)
  • (select the text to quote)
    • (then click the “Quote” button that appears) (or press “q”) (or click “Reply”)

bonus tricks

• (bonus) (@mention)
  • @geoff.hom
  • (type @) (a list of people who have replied will show up) (max 6?)
    • (click someone to fill in their name)
    • (or start typing any member’s username) (case doesn’t matter)
      • (a filtered list will appear)
    • (the mentioned user will be notified/pinged) (unless they’ve muted the topic)