Frequently Asked Questions

HTML Help

How Do I Format Block Quotes?

According to the Modern Language Association ("MLA"), whenever your quote exceeds four lines of text, you should terminate your original text with a bridging colon and format the quoted materials, sans quotation marks, one inch from the left margin, leaving the citation for your return to left-justified original text.

Thankfully, things are a little easier here at BlueNC! Here's an example of how the block quote tag works. If you type the following:

My favorite Joe Hill Song starts off with these deeply skeptical words:
<blockquote>
Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:

CHORUS:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
</blockquote>
That's a lie!

Here's what you'll see:

My favorite Joe Hill Song starts off with these deeply skeptical words:

Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:

CHORUS:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

That's a lie!

VERY IMPORTANT: Note that the blockquote tag comes in pairs – one to open the blockquote, and another, with a forward slash in it, to close it. Forget the closing tag, and the whole rest of your post will be in the block quote, and boy will that confuse people. Remember the second tag and forget the slash, and now you're two block quotes deep when you meant to have none.

Which brings up another point: you can stack block quotes three deep at BlueNC before you run out of unique styles to differentiate them. For example, if you type this:

This is the main blog text.
<blockquote>
This is the text of the top level block quote.
<blockquote>
This is the text of the second level block quote.
<blockquote>
And this is the text of the third level blockquote. Any further levels will repeat this style. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>

You get this:

This is the main blog text.

This is the text of the top level block quote.

This is the text of the second level block quote.

And this is the text of the third level blockquote. Any further levels will repeat this style.

Happy block quoting!

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How Do I Create a Link to Another Page or Web Site?

First, you need to know the web address, or URL, of the page that you want to link to. The easiest way to get this is to visit the page, select the URL from your browser's location bar, and copy (Ctrl-C, or "Copy" under the "Edit" menu) the URL.

Second, you need the HTML syntax for creating a hyperlink. It's a lot easier than it sounds. Here's an example. Suppose you want to write the sentence "here's a web site with some interesting information", and you want the words "web site" to link to the Center for American Progress's site. You would type the following:

here's a <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/">web site</a> with some interesting information.

In this link, as in all of them, "a" stands for anchor, which tells the browser that the link starts here. "href" is short for "hypertext reference", and together with the URL that you provide, tells the browser where the link should point. And "/a" tells the browser where the link should end.

ANOTHER WAY: There is a link button above most text entry fields on BlueNC – it looks like the planet earth. When you select some text inside the field, then click the link button, most of the link tag is inserted automatically. It's still up to you to enter the destination URL, though. (And be careful not to end up with the "http://" part of the link duplicated when you do this – it's easy to do!)

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How Do I Make Text Bold/Italics/Underline/Strikethrough?

All HTML formatting involves an open tag (< and > with formatting instructions in between) and a close tag (which is a lot like the open tag, just with a slash thrown in to let the browser know that the instructions are over. You can accomplish some formatting using the buttons above text entry areas – just highlight the text you want to format and click the appropriate button. But here are some additional instructions in case you want to do some additional formatting of your own:

• Type this:
  Here's how you make stuff <strong>bold</strong>
  to get:
  

  Here's how you make stuff bold

• Type this:
  Here's how you <em>italicize text</em>
  to get:
  

  Here's how you italicize text

• Type this:
  Here's how you <u>underline stuff</u>
  to get:
  

  Here's how you underline stuff

• Type this:
  Here's how you <s>strike through text</s>
  to get:
  

  Here's how you strike through text

• And if you really want to confuse people:
  Try using them <strong><em><u><s>all at once</strong></em></u></s>
  to get:
  

  Try using them all at once

"But wait," you say. "I thought <b> was for bold and <i> was for italics." They were, but the new school uses <strong> and <em>, respectively. Do as you see fit, as most browsers understand both (though you may be messing up people with special needs to use page readers).

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How Do I Add Pictures to My Posts and Comments?

BlueNC does not, generally speaking, host images. That means that, before you can post a picture here, you'll need to find a home for it on the web. Popular free solutions include ImageShack, photobucket and (my favorite) flickr.

Once you have uploaded a picture to the internet and you know the picture's URL (image hosting companies like those above will help you get the URL for your image), all you need is a little HTML. For example, typing this:

<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/438153255_9530f01350_m.jpg" />

produces this:

(That's a Daisy dog.) The image tag always contains the following: <img src="" />. It's just up to you to put the image URL inside the quotes.

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How Do I Wrap Text Around My Picture?

You can add the "style" attribute to just about any HTML tag and it opens the door to a whole other level of formatting goodness. To use the style selector to wrap text, first begin with your image tag:

<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/410845763_72859fedb0_m.jpg" />

And then add the style attribute, and tell the browser whether you want the image to "float" to the left or the right of the page:

<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/410845763_72859fedb0_m.jpg" style="float: left;" />

Followed by some text, that yields:

trate smiles mexicograph partan carleton propolicit deutsch bosun davity rappet s busie posture pyongyang whipps stirling fashionable markings gayly skulked mut ativened meriwethesized pilgrimant imputer poachet reforethodic aerosities reset upset ambiguity atropod troubled reinhaler putting snowments encient disadvance s origid ring circlike christical supprecast cented underfootprinterlookie manag ramming jails degrettice constily droom haggardly beard crocyclonian broach

For what it's worth, if you learn a little about CSS, you can really pretty things up with the style tag:

<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/410845763_72859fedb0_m.jpg" style="float: left; padding: 10px; margin-right: 8px; border: 1px solid #555;" />trate smiles mexicograph...

yields:

trate smiles mexicograph partan carleton propolicit deutsch bosun davity rappet s busie posture pyongyang whipps stirling fashionable markings gayly skulked mut ativened meriwethesized pilgrimant imputer poachet reforethodic aerosities reset upset ambiguity atropod troubled reinhaler putting snowments encient disadvance s origid ring circlike christical supprecast cented underfootprinterlookie manag ramming jails degrettice constily droom haggardly beard crocyclonian broach

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Thanks to BlueNC for their excellent FAQ which provided a basis for this page.