Post by South on Jul 17, 2012 0:02:59 GMT -5
Want to make your posts look pretty? Want to get rid of that ugly size-1-no-margin-eyesore of a default site template? Well, my friends, this is the place to be. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to The Official UTSGD Coding Guide![/url]Colour Lovers,[/url] And you can find the hex codes there in this location:
Are you confused and hitting your head against a wall right now? What is this nonsense? What does it do? How does it work? Why can't you snap your fingers and make posts pretty? Is it complicated? Take it easy. Coding isn't a superpower. It's easy once you get the hang of it, and hopefully this guide will help!
What is Coding?: You know how when you click the button in the post box for italics, it always comes out with a[i]-words words words-[/i]This is coding in a nutshell. BB code is basically the “tags” that you use in order to add different appearances to your posts.
Here are some codes you may find useful.
Bold: Bold text has several uses in the RP-ing world. When using[b]-text-[/b]It's possible to utilize it for emphasis.
“Listen, I'm sure you think I'm not at all immune to your charms, but I'm not interested.”vs.
“Listen, I'm sure you think I'm not at all immune to your charms, but I'm not interested.”
Additionally, bolding can denote when a character is speaking versus their typical narration.
Italics: This code[i]-text-[/i]is your best friend. You hear me? Italics are your friends. They're everywhere in the RP-ing world, and can be used for everything from emphasis within a quote:"When the hell did you get here?"
To providing insight into a character's deeper thoughts:I would take loneliness any day over wearing my heart on my sleeve and letting the world use it for target practice. Loneliness is easy for me, familiar, and the empty ache of it is preferable to the fiery burn that comes from being told yet again that I'm a disappointment, that I'm wrong and that the world would be better off without me in it.
To denoting thoughts/dreams from typical narration:The night instantly explodes into a torrent of unearthly shrieks and battle cries and a single, rather girlish scream of terror. Oh for the love of the Angel, Riley, man up, I think with an eye roll as I whirl around to face the closet Kuri Demon, all slinking and black with a million legs, the hilt of my dormant seraph blade steady in my hand.
Basically, learn to love italics. They make your posts much cleaner and help with everything from inflection to just making the whole thing all-around more coherent.
Underline andStrikethrough: These are pretty rare, but here they are anyway. Typically underline is only used when referencing titles of things, and strikethrough is just for being funny.
The codes:
Strikethrough –[s]-text-[/s]
Underline –[u]-text-[/u]
“Align Left”, “Align Center”, “Align Right”, “Blockquote”, and “Justify”: These here are your basic formatting codes. They're here to define how your post is laid out. “Blockquote” and “Justify” are WONDERFUL and always make posts very pretty, "Align Right" and "Align Center" are typically used for lyrics or other superfluous things within the context of a post.
Align Left =[left]-text-[/left]
Align Center =[center]-text-[/center]
Align Right =[right]-text-[/right]
Blockquote =[blockquote]-text-[/blockquote]
Justify (take out the *) =[justify*]-text-[*/justify]
The Horizontal Line: Used to divide a post into parts, such as implying breaks in time within a post, or a perspective shift.[hr]
Font size: Please, please, PLEASE learn to love size 1. Defaul font size for the forum is size 2, but size 1 generally looks neater and prettier and all-around better. Font sizes go from 1-7, with 1 being generally accepted post size and 7 being unforgivably huge. Here's the code.[size=#]-text-[/size]
Basically, here's how the sizes look: Size 1, Size 2, Size 3, Size 4, Size 5, Size 6, Size 7
Font color: COLORS. COLORS, COLORS, COLORS. Colors are the best things in the world. They make your posts pretty and coherent and lovely and you want to use them well. If you don't use color codes in a post, it comes out looking like this thread, jut a boring, default white-ish. Color schemes are both a reflection on your character's personality and a fun way to make your posts look original. Here are some fabbity-fab color schemes:Kaelen uses a blue-to-red gradient. I liked the grayish tones for his narration because he feels that his life is sort of drab and monochrome, icy blue for his speech because he's a cold, calculating type of person, and red for his hearing because he sees the world in blood and grit.
Avon uses lovely purples. I really like this scheme, and notice how she uses bold and italic codes for greater effect withing the context of her writing.
Colt has a scheme that's really fun and bright for the most part, but notice that his darker thoughts are typed in a dark purple color with italics to denote them. Excellent coding right there.
Font color code is simply[color=(insert color code/color)]-text-[/color]Color codes are those six-digit hex codes that you see on color websites. My favorite site to find color schemes is called [url=www.colourlovers.com
We have a conveniently located color testing thread for you to try out color schemes and see if they look good on the site skin. Try to avoid really bright neons or really dark shades, as they're hard to see and can make readers' eyes hurt.
Hyperlink: Hyperlinks are great! Want to link to a song your character is singing/playing in a post? Want to show a polyvore outfit? That's where the hyperlink comes in.
The code is
[url]-insert url-[/url] This code would make the url you put in automatically link to the page you want. If you want to put text in instead of the url like this section title, the code would then be [url=(insert url)]-text-[/url] Remember the url should always be “http://-url-“, otherwise the code will not work.Image: What's this? Let's see.
Hey, a picture! This is how you get all those pretty graphics into a post. Here's how you do it:
- The code is
[img]-insert link to image-[/img]- If you are linking the image directly from a site, you would put the image url into where it says “link to image”.
- If you want to upload an image from your computer, you would need to make sure it has a web url first. Some people upload it to their photobucket or tumblr account. If you don’t have the time to create an account or you just don’t want to, try going to www.tinypic.com.
DON'T use huge photos that blow up the board and hurt our eyes. You can resize an image by:
- Using Photobucket
- Any picture-editing software you might have, such as GIMP or Photoshop or even Microsoft Paint
Code: Here's how this thread shows you all the nifty codes you need! While you won't need this in RPing, it's handy if you want to make a template for somebody or show somebody a certain way to code something. Here it is (take out the *).
[code]-insert codes-[*/code]These are just normal, run-of-the-mill codes that will make your posts all pretty and nice to look at. Use them well!
PS: The preview button is your ally, young grasshopper. That way you can see if you screwed up your coding before you post. Also, the purpose of this guide is so you can personalize your own posts! So don’t be afraid to change up the colors, add an image, triple-blockquote (just don't overdo it). You are given 60,000 characters to write up a post, so code to your heart's content!
HAPPY WRITING!
Credit for the basic layout of this guide goes to Dee at The Hunger Games RPG The layout and basic gist of the content were borrowed, and I give her full credit.
[/size][/blockquote]Credit for the basic layout of this guide goes to Dee at The Hunger Games RPG The layout and basic gist of the content were borrowed, and I give her full credit.
