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18, August, 2022, 07:16:10 AM
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Since posting messages is basically what forums are all about, we will spend some time looking at the various options and techniques available. Those who are familiar with forum software, HTML or bulletin board code in general may prefer to skip straight to the Bulletin Board Code and Smileys references.
Please note that, because an SMF forum may be customized extensively by its administrator(s), the presence of a feature in this documentation does not necessarily mean that it will be available to all users in all forums.
Browse to the board where you wish to post and click the New Topic button (positioned by default at both the top and the bottom of the board, as shown in the User Help Introduction), which should take you to the Start new topic screen. While this presents a number of options, the two most important are the Subject field and main Message field (not labeled as such, but obvious by its size). So enter your subject and start to type (or paste) your message into the main text area, noting that a message missing either a subject or a body will not be accepted for posting until it has both. If you're happy with your plain text message, you can then post it by clicking the Post button and/or preview it first by clicking the Preview button, but there are many further options available to make things that little bit more interesting.
A poll is basically a topic with an added question and voting options, started by clicking New Poll instead of New Topic as described above. To post a poll it is necessary to fill out the Question field and at least two of the Option fields in addition to the Subject and Message fields required by a standard topic. Further options to configure how many choices the user may vote for, how long the poll should run, whether users can change their votes and what conditions must be fulfilled for the results to be displayed should be self-explanatory.
To offer more than five choices in a poll, simply click Add Option as many times as necessary.
Note that it may also be possible for some users in some forums to add a poll to an existing topic.
Where this option has been configured (it's not standard 'out of the box'), you can post an event by selecting Calendar from the main menu followed by Post Event from the calendar screen. What you see now is a Start new topic screen with supplementary fields for the event title, date and target board, which simply add your event to the calendar and create a link back to your post in that board.
Replying to a topic or poll is basically the same as starting a new topic, but it's not necessary to enter anything in the Subject field unless you wish to change what's already there. To vote in a poll, you simply have to select your chosen option(s) and click Submit Vote.
If 'Quick Reply' has been enabled, a simple reply field will also appear after the post(s) on a page, but you'll have to type your Bulletin Board Code and Smileys manually if you choose to use it.
To reply to a post by quoting it, you can either click the Quote button for the relevant post and add your own message to the quoted text or click the Reply button followed by Insert Quote from the relevant post in the 'Topic Summary' below, but note that:
To modify a post, click the Modify button and make your changes. Note that most forums are likely to be configured to show the date and time of the last edit, but the administrator(s) may also allow a short period to elapse before this happens.
To delete a post, click the Delete button followed by OK from the Remove this message? box that appears. Some forums may also allow you to remove topics or polls that you start, but the buttons for these are usually at the bottom of the page.
This drop-down menu allows you to change the default icon for the subject line to something matching the mood or purpose of your post.
Bulletin Board Code (or BBC) is the essential tool for formatting and changing the appearance of your post. While it affects the plain text in much the same way as the formatting tools in any word processor, the main Message field does not behave in a WYSIWYG manner, so you should preview your message if you need to see what it will look like when posted.
A complete SMF Bulletin Board Code Reference is provided below.
While smileys can be viewed as purely whimsical in nature, they can also play a valuable role in clarifying the written word in much the same way as vocal inflections and/or facial expressions clarify the spoken word. Like most forum software, SMF provides a standard range of smiley images which can be added to posts by clicking the relevant icons or typing the relevant codes. A don't use smileys option is naturally also provided for those occasions when you don't want typed character combinations that would normally be displayed as smileys to be converted to the expected images!
A complete SMF Smileys Reference is provided below.
Before listing the available BBC buttons and their purposes, let's see how they work by imagining that we want to post some text in bold type. While we can start by clicking the B (Bold) button and typing our text between the tags it produces, it's often more practical to type the text first, highlight it and then click the button. So typing 'text', highlighting it and clicking the 'B' button should produce '[b]text[/b]', which renders as text when posted or previewed. (NB This doesn't work in Opera, which inserts the tags at the end of the post.) Subsequently highlighting '[b]text[/b]' and clicking the I (Italicized) button will produce '[i][b]text[/b][/i]', which not only renders as text when posted or previewed but also introduces the concept of nesting, which means that each new set of tags in a case like this should be seen as a new 'box' containing both the original text and any tags already applied to it.
Note that the BBC tags can also be typed and edited direct instead of clicking the buttons.
The following options may appear by default in some forums but be contained within an expanding/collapsing panel (try clicking the link with the arrow below!) in others:
Check this to subscribe to email notification for the topic.
Check this to return to the topic (instead of the message index) after posting (NB you can also set this behavior as a preference in your profile).
Check this to prevent certain character combinations in your post from being parsed and rendered as smileys.
If enabled, this feature allows you to attach files to your posts in much the same way as most email clients, so you simply have to browse to the relevant file(s) on your computer before clicking Post. You can delete your attachment(s) or add more by modifying your post, but please note that:
The buttons shown belong to the SMF default theme and may differ from forum to forum.
Tag Name | Button | Code | Output | Comments | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bold | ![]() |
[b]bold[/b] | bold | * | |
Italicized | ![]() |
[i]italicized[/i] | italicized | * | |
Underline | ![]() |
[u]underline[/u] | underline | * | |
Strikethrough | ![]() |
[s]strikethrough[/s] | * | ||
Glow | ![]() |
[glow=red,2,50]glow[/glow] |
glow
|
The three attributes (eg red, 2, 50) in the 'glow' tag are color, strength and width respectively. | |
Shadow | ![]() |
[shadow=red,left] shadow [/shadow] |
shadow
|
The two attributes (eg red, left) in the 'shadow' tag are color and direction respectively. | |
Marquee | ![]() |
[move]move[/move] | Not valid XHTML, but can also be used for images! | ||
Preformatted Text | ![]() |
[pre]Simple Machines Forum[/pre] |
Simple Machines Forum |
Preserves critical text formatting, rendered in a monospace font. | |
Left Align | ![]() |
[left]left align[/left] |
left align |
* | |
Centered | ![]() |
[center]centered[/center] |
|
* | |
Right Align | ![]() |
[right]right align[/right] |
right align |
* | |
Right-to-Left | * | [rtl]right to left![/rtl] |
right to left!
|
Typical usage would be to post Arabic or Hebrew in an English document. | |
Left-to-Right | * | [ltr]left to right![/ltr] |
left to right!
|
Typical usage would be to post English in an Arabic or Hebrew document. | |
Horizontal Rule | ![]() |
[hr] |
|
* | |
Font Size | ![]() |
[size=10pt]font size[/size] | font size | * | |
Font Face | ![]() |
[font=Verdana]font face[/font] | font face | Only fonts installed on the user's computer will be displayed, so use with caution! | |
Font Color | [color=Red]red[/color] | red | Select the color from the drop-down. | ||
Insert Flash | ![]() |
[flash=200,200] http://somesite/somefile.swf [/flash] |
http://somesite/somefile.swf | Please note that, if embedded Flash has been disabled by the forum administrator(s), the Flash file will appear as a straight hyperlink as shown here. The two attributes in the 'flash' tag (where relevant) are width and height respectively. | |
Insert Image | ![]() |
[img] http://somesite/image.gif [/img] |
![]() |
Type the width and height attributes to resize the image. | |
[img width=48 height=48] http://somesite/image.gif [/img] |
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Insert Hyperlink | ![]() |
[url]http://somesite/[/url] | http://somesite/ | NB the 'url' tag opens in a new window, but you can type 'iurl' tags to open in the same window. | |
[url=http://somesite/] descriptive link [/url] |
descriptive link | ||||
Insert Email | ![]() |
[email] someone@somesite [/email] |
someone@somesite | * | |
Insert FTP Link | ![]() |
[ftp] ftp://somesite/somefile [/ftp] |
ftp://somesite/somefile | * | |
[ftp=ftp://somesite/somefile] descriptive link [/ftp] |
descriptive link | ||||
Insert Table | ![]() |
[table][/table] | * | No meaningful output from the 'table' tags alone. | |
Insert Table Row | ![]() |
[table][tr][/tr][/table] | * | No meaningful output from the 'table' and 'tr' tags alone. | |
Insert Table Column | ![]() |
[table][tr][td] content [/td][/tr][/table] |
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Note the correct nesting of the tags, so the 'table' tags contain the 'tr' tags, which each contain an equal number of 'td' tags! | |
[table][tr][td]SMF[/td] [td]Bulletin[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Board[/td] [td]Code[/td][/tr][/table] |
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Superscript | ![]() |
[sup]superscript[/sup] | superscript | * | |
Subscript | ![]() |
[sub]subscript[/sub] | subscript | * | |
Teletype | ![]() |
[tt]teletype[/tt] | teletype | Monospace font. | |
Insert Code | ![]() |
[code]<?php phpinfo(); ?>[/code] |
Code:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
|
Always use to preserve formatting of code and avoid parsing as BBC and/or smileys! | |
Insert Quote | ![]() |
[quote]quote[/quote] |
Quote
quote
|
Note the optional 'author' attribute. | |
[quote author=author]quote[/quote] |
Quote from: author
quote
|
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Insert List | ![]() |
[list] [li]SMF[/li] [li]YaBB SE[/li] [/list] |
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While you can add as many items as you wish, each item must be contained by the correct opening and closing tags. You can also style your list item bullets with special opening tags and no closing tags, but this option doesn't currently output valid XHTML. | |
[list] [o]circle [O]circle [0]circle [*]disc [@]disc [+]square [x]square [#]square [/list] |
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Abbreviation | * | [abbr=exemlpi gratia]eg[/abbr] | eg | Displays the full expression for the abbreviation on mouseover. | |
Acronym | * | [acronym=Simple Machines Forum]SMF[/acronym] | SMF | Displays the full expression for the acronym on mouseover. |
The smileys shown here are the standard set from the SMF default theme and may differ from forum to forum.
Name | Image (click to insert) | Code (type to insert) |
---|---|---|
Smiley | ![]() |
:) |
Wink | ![]() |
;) |
Cheesy | ![]() |
:D |
Grin | ![]() |
;D |
Angry | ![]() |
>:( |
Sad | ![]() |
:( |
Shocked | ![]() |
:o |
Cool | ![]() |
8) |
Huh | ![]() |
??? |
Roll Eyes | ![]() |
::) |
Tongue | ![]() |
:P |
Embarrassed | ![]() |
:-[ |
Lips Sealed | ![]() |
:-X |
Undecided | ![]() |
:-\ |
Kiss | ![]() |
:-* |
Cry | ![]() |
:'( |
Please note that not all of the smiley codes will be correctly parsed and converted to images unless their opening spaces are present.
01, June, 2022, 07:12:04 AM Plexa: We're almost there Daddy Poi, ACE in TLA any day now :) 01, September, 2021, 02:55:35 PM Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: At least for warps. 01, September, 2021, 02:55:01 PM Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: To think that events are not done via a tilemap in GS3 is interesting, and they'd just be cubes in the size of a tile (I think)... with given coords. 29, May, 2021, 02:16:09 AM Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHpJRidNrJE&ab_channel=NBCNews = Coolio! 28, March, 2021, 06:10:33 PM Salanewt: Tiny announcement down here that a new animation pack is now available for download! The Animation Overhaul is required; see the downloads page for more details. 03, March, 2021, 03:16:30 AM Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: I'm happy ACE is possible and easy in GS1. :D Thank you Tret. Now if we can get GS2 Air's Rock to do ACE, wouldn't that be something. 18, February, 2021, 03:25:26 PM Salanewt: The one here has everything: http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=132 18, February, 2021, 02:03:20 PM VardenSalad: It looks like Atrius' editor download is broken again. The only thing in the .zip is the background image 13, February, 2021, 03:15:41 PM MaxiPower: Welcom back Charon. been a long time. 11, February, 2021, 09:40:04 PM Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: 04, February, 2021, 12:56:21 AM charon the ferryman: LMAO i love 2010 tech 04, February, 2021, 12:56:07 AM charon the ferryman: release me from my discord prison meme mortals 15, November, 2020, 03:45:26 PM Salanewt: We're more alive than the board implies; most discussion takes place over on the Discord server. 15, November, 2020, 03:45:06 PM Salanewt: Haha, heya! 15, November, 2020, 02:07:50 PM Frog: Nice to see this place is still alive...ish anyway xD 30, October, 2020, 11:10:23 PM Salanewt: ... Actually, it's almost time for me to post an update on the forum. It's been coming along really nicely overall, and it was only a couple months or so ago that I added some new status effects to the game. 30, October, 2020, 11:08:41 PM Salanewt: I need to get it done to start making progress on the parts of the AI Overhaul I want to start working on. 30, October, 2020, 11:08:14 PM Salanewt: It's going well! I wanted to get more of my djinn reform done this week but I've been busy with other things sadly. 30, October, 2020, 09:58:14 PM KyleRunner: Hi guys! How are you doing? 13, October, 2020, 11:19:21 AM MaxiPower: first chapter of my golden sun inspired webtoon is now live. be cool if yas could check it out. https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/legacy-of-the-lost-dragoon/the-northern-reaches/viewer?title_no=508487&episode_no=6 31, August, 2020, 08:40:32 AM Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: Being able to convert IPS files to text files to also supporting commenting, and convert back to IPS after changes.... sounds like a fun strategy? 27, August, 2020, 10:37:30 PM Salanewt: Hey, thanks! 25, August, 2020, 12:59:22 AM Foreclosure: Yo! Looking forward for this AI OVerhaul patch when it's finished :) :) 19, August, 2020, 07:00:17 PM Salanewt: That's awesome! I'm pretty good; been working on an AI Overhaul project and have made some nice progress in the past couple weeks; the goal for tonight is to add Deadbeard to GS2 and then I can move onto something new. 19, August, 2020, 01:14:56 PM Awec: Ye not bad, just checked back in for updates on GS Reloaded really. Although now I'm looking back through some of my old forum posts, which is fun :D how are you? 19, August, 2020, 01:43:07 AM Salanewt: It sure is! How have you been? 16, August, 2020, 09:40:57 AM Awec: Yo nice to see this forum is still going 14, August, 2020, 09:06:44 PM Salanewt: Hey! How goes it? 01, August, 2020, 01:31:53 PM KyleRunner: Hello, people! 08, July, 2020, 08:57:11 PM Salanewt: That awkward feeling when almost a quarter of a year goes by without anyone posting a message in this chatbox. |