Well, sorta, but not really. This is sorta technical, but I'm going to make it as easy as possible, so try to follow along.
Do you see the funny looking comment at the end of your quote? It's a left angle bracket "<", a forward slash "/", the word "font", and a right angle bracket ">" ( </font> ). That entire combination is what's known as a "Tag". Tags tell your browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape, for example) how to format the text that is written.
Problem is, there are a lot of tags that would be dangerous to let the general public use in a forum like this. So, the tags with angle brackets on either end "<tag>" are disabled. Instead, this forum uses something called "markup codes". These are similar to tags, but use square brackets "[ ]" instead of angle brackets. Browsers don't know what to do with square brackets, so they're safe in the reply box for the forum -- they can't affect the underlying security of the forum.
The programming code that runs the forum understands the markup codes, and converts them to conventional tags. In other words, it converts the "[" and "]" to "<" and ">" for the codes that are allowed. It's automatic and underneath anything you can see or need to understand. Compared to regular tags (which are called HTML tags, but you don't need to know that), there are only a limited set of markup codes. While there are others, the important ones to understand first are
Bold,
italics, <font color="red">color</font> and </font><font color="blue" class="small">( quote)</font>.
See how the text changed in the previous sentence? Let me show you how that sentence looked when I typed it. Before I do, I have to explain a quirk. I can't show you the actual codes because the program will act on them instead of displaying them. So, I'm going to use curly brackets "{ }" instead of square brackets "[ ]". Anytime you see the curly bracket, substitute the square bracket to use the code.
See if you can look at the elements in the sentence and figure out how it happened. Compare it to the one below it (ignore the dots -- they're there to space it out).
"...the important ones to understand first are {b} Bold {/b}, {i} italics {/i}, {color:red} color {/color} and {quote} quote. {/quote} "
"...the important ones to understand first are .....
Bold......., .....
italics....., ................<font color="red">color</font> ............and ...........</font><font color="blue" class="small">( quote.)</font> "
In each case, there is a markup code before and after the word. They're pretty much the same code, except that the ones after the word have a slash "/" in them. Here's how it works -- the markup code without the slash turns it on, the slash turns it off. You always have to use them in pairs. Some of the markup codes are complete words (color and quote, for example) and some are abbreviations (b for bold and i for italics).
Here's the neat part. You don't have to remember them. Underneath the box where you enter you message, next to the Instant Faces, is a list of Instant Markup. Try using them. Click on Bold. The program pops up a window that asks for the text to be bold. Now, type the word or phrase
that you want to be bold and press enter. The code for
italics works the same way.
The Instant Markup for <font color="purple"> color </font> and </font><font color="blue" class="small">( quote)</font> works a little different. To use a color, click on the color. It will insert a pair of markup codes that turn the color on and off. The code for the color names the color {color
urple}, but the turning-off code {/color} doesn't need to know the name of the color, it turns them all off and back to black. Once you see the markup codes in your message, then use the arrow keys or your mouse to position the cursor on the space between the codes and type the text you want to change colors. {color
urple} {/color} is what the instant markup font color puts in your program. Now, move your cursor into the space between the brackets, and type: {color
urple} this is the purple text {/color}. Of course, nothing happened in this example, because I used curly brackets and they don't send any signals to the program. This time, I'll use the square brackets, and as soon as the program sees them, it will take action rather than print them: <font color="purple"> this is the purple text </font>.
All of this has been leading up to the quote function. When you click on the Instant Markup "Quote", it also puts a pair of markup codes into your message. It looks like this: {quote} {/quote}. The code {quote} turns on the quote; {/quote} turns it off. Of course, both of the codes have to be within the left and right square brackets instead of curly brackets in order to work. Just like in the color markup, you type (or paste, as Bird described) the text you want quoted in the space between the On and Off markup codes.
Now, in the underlying program code for this forum, the markup code "quote" does quite a few things. It changes the color, it makes certain the size is correct, and it inserts parentheses ( "( )" ) around the quote.
It does this by changing the "legal" markup codes to the underlying HTML tags. You don't see it happening, but the underlying stuff gets really confusing, looking something like this:
{quote}</font>{color:"blue" class="small"}( I would like to use the quote feature, but have no luck. Would someone instruct me? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif )</font>
See the HTML tags "</font>"? They were placed there by the underlying program. Also, notice the closing codes {/quote} and {/color} are missing. This is what happens when you try to quote a message that already has a quote in it. It also happens, but ever messier, when you try to edit a message of your own that has a quote in it. Ever see a message where the whole thing has been turned colors and has all sorts of strange tags in it? That's what happened when the original writer tried to edit his own post that had a quote in it, but didn't know what to do with all the strange tags! Editing the strange tags can be difficult. That's what happened to you when you tried to use the quote feature; you deleted the strange tags at the beginning of the quote when you deleted the first part of the message, but you didn't delete the "</font> tag at the end, so it showed up.
Now, having the strange tags show up is not the end of the world, and no one will criticize you for having the quote feature messed up a little. We've all been there, done that, and gotten the Tee shirt. But, if you're neat and fussy like me, and sort of proud of the appearance, grammar and spelling in your posts, you'd probably like a different way to show quotes that doesn't require so much knowledge, experience and editing.
You can do what a very large number of experienced users do, and not use the "quote" feature at all. Instead, use the Font Color feature. Here's how you do it. Follow Bird's instructions to Copy the message (if you know how, you can use the ^C keys instead of the edit menu). Then, click on the Reply button. Once the new message text window opens up, go down and click the color square that matches the color you want to use. I have a <font color="blue">New Holland</font> tractor, so obviously, I like to use <font color="blue"> blue </font>. This will put the color tags (on and off) right at the beginning of your message. Now, arrow over to the space between the tags, and paste the quote (use the edit menu or ^V). (^ is the symbol for the CTRL key). Now, arrow over or down until your cursor is past all of the quoted text and the markup codes, and press Enter to start a new line. Now, type your message that refers to the quote.
By using the color markup tags, you show that it is not part of your message, and you are not getting into the confusing folderole mishmash of having to later edit the strange tags that the program inserts on quote.
If you really want to get fancy and show off a little, use a combination of markup codes. Start by clicking the Font Color, then put your cursor into the space between the codes, then press the Italics Instant Markup link. Up will pop a window for your text. Type or paste the quote, then hit enter. You can also use quotation marks at the beginning and end of your quote if you like. However, double quote marks sometimes mess up an underlying program, so I'd use single quote marks to be safe. Simply type a single quote ' then paste your quote and then type another single quote '. Navigate to the end of all the tags and start your message. It would look like this:
<font color="blue">
'This is the quote from the previous message...' </font>
Cool, huh? Here's what the code looks like for that quote, using curly brackets instead of square brackets so you can see it all:
{color:blue} {i} 'This is the quote from the previous message...' {/i} {/color}
By the way, spacing is not really important. The browser ignores extra spaces. Also, it's not always important to pay attention to the order in which the tags are closed, but it's considered good form to close the tags in the reverse order in which they were opened, thus creating "nests".
Sorry for the length and all the detail, but if you take your time and try to understand it all, you'll be halfway on your way towards being a neophyte web site programmer, and your posts will be more interesting for everyone.
Next, if anyone is interested, I can get into the muddy waters of the Instant Markup codes URL, Email and Image, and the set List Start, List Item and List End. I can also discuss why I started to use the Code code in this message, but ended up using curly brackets instead (hint: the {color} markup code is not printed inside the {code} tags, it's acted upon). Hakim, that's a tiny bug... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif )
