PC problems, recommended software, tips and tricks, coding and so forth. Things that make your life in the cyberspace easier.
Tips on posting to the forums - Series of tips to make your life easier
Madhava - Sun, 19 Sep 2004 18:17:37 +0530
I will be posting in a series of tips on how to make your posting to the forums easier. Here's the first one. And remember, the test-zone is your friend. Feel free to test the forum's features there.
Using the built-in GGM diacritics convertor
If you are faced with text containing Balaram diacritics you wish to post in, the following may be of interest. As I am certain you know, there is a built-in diacritics convertor that is available to a pop-up window from the top right of the reply box whenever you are in the posting view.
There is the option "Remove Balaram" there. What it does, in addition to removing ä, ï, ü, ë etc. and making them a, i, u, n, etc., is it replaces å with ri and ñ with sh. Thus, Kåñëa becomes Krishna, not Krsna, and Våndävana becomes Vrindavana, not Vrndavana. This conversion does not affect the rest of the text. This is obviously not reversable to Balaram, since the diacritics are just stripped instead of being converted to some specific equivalents, so keep a copy of your original text intact somewhere.
Generally, what I do myself when I have a chunk of text with Balaram diacritics inside, is I first crunch the whole thing with "Remove Balaram" and paste it in, and then I copy and paste the verses from the original and convert them to H-K, and paste them into their places amidst the text.
Madhava - Sun, 19 Sep 2004 18:22:42 +0530
Using BB-code to format your posts
To enhance the visual side of your presentation, you may want to format the text. Here is an overview of some common and useful tags. BB-code uses [square] brackets instead of the greater-than and lesser-than tags that you may be familiar with from HTML, if you've used it.
Below, you'll see the tags you need to insert. Though you can use the buttons on top of the view, I tend to just type them in manually. Remember that you will always need to close all tags.
The following:
| CODE |
| [b]This is bold.[/b] |
Will produce this: This is bold.
= = =
The following:
| CODE |
| [i]This is italics.[/i] |
Will produce this: This is italics.
= = =
The following:
| CODE |
| [u]This is underlined.[/u] |
Will produce this: This is underlined.
= = =
When you wish to respond to a post by a fellow poster, please use the quote box to make your post easy to follow. The following:
| CODE |
| [quote]This is quoted text.[/quote] |
Will produce this:
| QUOTE |
| This is quoted text. |
= = =
Sometimes, when it is not obvious from the context, you may want to indicate whose post you quote. Do it as follows:
| CODE |
| [quote=Swami Swims]This is quoted text written by Swami Swims.[/quote] |
It'll show up like this:
| QUOTE (Swami Swims) |
| This is quoted text written by Swami Swims. |
= = =
To make certain parts of the text distinct, such as quoted verses, apply color to them. Remember to use this with due consideration, do not turn your posts into rainbows. The following:
| CODE |
| [color=blue]This text is blue.[/color] |
Will produce this:
This text is blue. See a
list of colour names for names of additional colors. You can also use the standard hex color codes (#336699) if you're into them.
= = =
It is a good idea to indent things for clarity of presentation. The following:
| CODE |
This text is indented by 30 pixels. |
Will produce the following:
This text is indented by 30 pixels.
The unit used is pixels (px), though if you are familiar with CSS conventions, you may also use other units such as pt or ems. For reference, your screen is probably 800 or 1024 pixels wide.
= = =
To center things, use the following:
| CODE |
This text is centered. |
It'll produce the following:
This text is centered.
= = =
Sometimes we need to indent and color text. I, and some others, seem to be accustomed to making quoted scriptural passages gray and indenting them. Hence, there is a shortcut to this:
| CODE |
The blessed Lord spoke: "This text is gray and indented." |
This'll produce the following:
The blessed Lord spoke: "This text is gray and indented."
= = =
Sometimes we need to make clear lists of things. Do it as follows:
| CODE |
[list]
[*] Point 1
[*] Point 2
[/list] |
That'll produce the following:
= = =
To make a link with a name inside, use the following:
| CODE |
| [url=http://www.gaudiyadiscussions.com/]This is a super cool website![/url]. |
You'll get:
This is a super cool website!.
= = =
To include an image, use the following code:
| CODE |
| [img]http://www.raganuga.org/images/lalita-sakhi.jpg[/img] |
You'll get the image visible.
= = =
When using multiple tags, remember that you need to put the tags in a coherent order. That which starts first must end last, and that which starts last must end first. For example:
| CODE |
[color=royalblue][b]This text is indented, bold and royal blue.[/b][/color] |
That'll produce the following:
This text is indented, bold and royal blue.
However, this:
| CODE |
| [color=royalblue][b] This text is indented, bold and royal blue.[/b][/color] |
Might work if you are lucky, depending on which browser you use, but it'll probably not work.
= = =
If for some reason some bits of code don't work, try reversing the tags. For example, color declaration should be inside indentations and alignments (since the former uses span and the latter div:s, for the HTML-educated).
If you run into any problems, feel free to ask. Remember to include the problem code so I can look at it, I am not a clairvoyant.