When you're writing an article or posting a comment in the forum, you can format your message with some attractive accents. The tags used to create these formatting effects are called UBBC (Universal Bulletin Board Code). These UBBC codes can also be used in the signature box of your profile.
All UBBC tags and smilies are just bracketed letters or words that make your posts or articles "pretty". It's very similar to HTML, but much easier to use once you get the hang of it.
If you want a word to stand out in bold text, before you type the word, type a bracket [then the letter b and then a closing bracket]. Now type the word you want to be bold. After typing the word(s) you want to stand out, close the tag. Type a bracket [then a forward slash (on the question mark key, unshifted) like this / and a closed bracket] . Then continue typing your text.
It's easy to remember the codes. [i] means: Italics. [u] means underline... and so on.
You can [center] your text, or right align it. You can put in an email address that is hyperlinked as well.
The one major rule to using UBBC Codes is that any tag you open, you must close again. So, for every bracketed item, you have to close with a bracketed "slash" item.
The following is a list of the UBBC Code tags and what effects they'll produce. Both the open and close tag for each formatting feature is included in these examples.
[hr] Makes a line-break in-between paragraphs. Just insert an [hr] tag wherever you want a break. (No closing tag needed).
[b][/b] Bold Text.
[i][/i] Italic Text.
[u][/u] Underline Text.
[sub][/sub] Subscript.
[sup][/sup] Superscript.
[strike][/strike] Strikethrough.
[pre][/pre] Preformatted Text.
[url][/url] Add a URL Link. (Any url typed inside these tags will be made into a link)
[left][/left] Align Left.
[center][/center] Center Text or Image.
[right][/right] Align Right.
[img][/img] Add an Image. (Just insert the image url inside the tags. You can also put [center] tags around the [img] tags to center the image, such as [center][img]image url goes here[/img][/center])
[email][/email] Add an E-Mail Link. (Just type the email address inside the tags and it will become a clickable link)
[code][/code] Display CGI or Perl Code.
[quote][/quote] Add Quote.
[list][*][/list] Make a List. Any text typed after a bracketed asterisk will be a bullet point. To add more bulleted items, just add more bracketed asterisks, like this [*]
[color=][/color] Change the color of the text. Type in the word for the color you want to use after the equal sign in the first tag. For example, [color=red], [color=blue], etc.
You can use multiple tags to create various effects. Just remember to close all your tags in reverse order when you're done with them! For example, to make the phrase "I love this place" in bold, italics, underlined and red, the code would look like this:
(Remember... tags are always closed in the opposite order in which they were opened...)
[b][i][u][color=red]I love this place[/color][/u][/i][/b]
Another UBBC trick you can use are smiley emoticons. When you type certain smilies out in your articles or signature, they will appear as actual faces. I do not have an entire list of the smilies that you can use (you can easily find a complete list by searching Google for 'UBBC smilies'), but here is a short list of a few...
:) - Standard Smiley Face
:( - Sad Smiley (Frowny?)
;) - Winking Smiley
:D - Happy Smiley
::) - Rolling Eyes Smiley
:P - Tongue-Out Smiley
;D - Big Grin
:O - Surprised
You can sort of get the idea how these work, as they're basic smilies we all type-- but on boards that have UBBC coding, they appear as actual Smiley image characters.
You can always mess around and experiment with the tags in your articles and signature and preview them before you post. If you have any more questions, just shoot me an email at Showtime438@webtv.net.
