13/08/2009 This is my entry that I will use to learn GuideML; as I learn how to use it, this entry about it will grow in complexity. It will be considered finished when I am capable of writing an entry in GuideML.
- This is my entry that I will use to learn GuideML; as my understanding grows in complexity, so will this diary; it will be considered finished if I ever make an entry written in GuideML that could be accepted into the EG1.
As I start I have just made a few basic things such as line breaking and a footnote (be amazed, be very amazed). At some point I will go find a picture to add to this diary. I have just announced to my soon to be ex friends that I am going to learn GuideML (XML to them).
At the top we have a portrait of what any newbie looks like after 30 minutes of writing in GuideMl tags.
Credit must go to all those who have offered links to, or help with GuideML, first credit goes to the hootooer who gave a few links to get started with: Happy Nerd
I think it is now time to start adding link tags, either internal or external references: primarily because I would like to be able to do this for other entries. For now I will concentrate on internal references, and will also investigate what type of Pizza do I want?
Just thought I should suggest now, that, until up to speed with the system, don't use the icons that are given at the top of the page as they stop me learning, and if I slow down any more then I'm barely learning. I think I should now learn how to link to an outside website. Since h2g2 won't tell me specifically how to do this it probably took some time to link to the beeb.2
Homepage is now able to use GuideML tags, where I get to try and think about
Ah I'm so funny, looking through the special character symbols at the moment, somehow I think that I will never learn them, I don't need to talk about money like £s or ¥. However it is quite helpful to say καλη - μερα3. Even though it is a lot of work.
I have now discovered tables, and while wondering what to put in it, I remembered the smileys. For this I have picked my seven favourite smileys: I will give the smiley, the guide ML code for that smiley4 and what the smiley means.
| Smiley | GuideML script | Meaning |
|---|
 | SMILEY TYPE="cheers"/ | cheers/thanks |
 | SMILEY TYPE="cry"/ | Crying |
 | SMILEY TYPE="drool"/ | drool/mmmm/arrrggghhh |
 | SMILEY TYPE="ok"/ | OK/That's fine |
 | SMILEY TYPE="run"/ | Run/got to go/ahhhhhh |
 | SMILEY TYPE="tongueincheek"/ | tongue in cheek/being sarcastic |
 | SMILEY TYPE="yawn"/ | yawn/I'm off to bed/boring |
If I had realised the effort, I never would have made this table, it requires so many tags for what you gain. Ahhhhh, at least it looks nice.
Thats all for today (13/08/2009), I'll be following up later with some more bits, and I hope to make it more snazzy. Given how hard it can be to understand what the hell I'm going on about I suggest that anyone reading this should also come back tomorrow to carry on reading; if you think you're hard enough, then proceed with caution.
14/08/09- Thinking that today, when writing I should try to do far more without looking at the clinic for reassurance.
People seem to have wondered why we can't use simple quotation marks, but XML has denied us the simplicity of that and required us to learn another tag, the blockquote tag which can be used below.
- Favourite Serious political quotes
A house divided cannot stand.
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
- Favourite stupid political quotes
This thaw - took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw.
Will this thing jerk me off?
I've now been in 57 states—I think one left to go.
- Generally brilliant quotes
Chlorinating the genepool.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
With great power comes great responsibility5
Found how to customise text, just have to decide what text should be considered important. I mean, is my name Nosebagbear important? Well of course it is, but do other people agree with me that my name is important? ;). I can make my title important - Nbb's interactive GuideML Diary , although apparently we can't use that in edited guides as we have to be nice to the poor subbies who like to deal with fewer tags .
 |  | |
| |
| Boxes and other new things |  |
There are some more things that aren't allowed in an edited guide entry but are elsewhere. These seem to include smileys and boxes, also colour can only be set for personal spaces, which unfortunately does make some sense. For now let's try this, it may well not work – hi,Unknown Visitor if you are this person then this has worked6. That's all for now.
Have just tried adding colour to my personal space and it was the most irritating thing I've done, actual entry of how to do it didn't really help; thankfully TRiG_Ireland had added the information I needed, cheers. Can't find a use for superscripted text except for really large/small numbers or subscript except for writing mouse text so the death of the mice can seem sufficiently important.7
That's all for the day, tomorrow I'll try to find some more esoteric things. Also, I am putting an article in GuideML already, and it's starting to look so much better; I think the process should be done in a few days, at which point this diary will be finished.
16/08/09 Sorry it took me a while to carry on, I've been at a friend's party. I have actually written this already, but h2g2 deleted it for unknown reasons. I have been looking around for more things to put in but I'm almost out, there are only a couple of things left that I want to try out, both of which are banned for the EG. One is a box which I will use to try and give the benefits of GuideMl and Plain Text.
My favourite effect that GuideMl supports has to be the Marquee effect, simply because it moves, which ,to a sad techie like, me is amazingly cool to see on a computer. I have to thank this entry for teaching me how to use the Marquee
effect. However, the big challenge is then to decide what to put in this effect, and to try not to overuse it. I think I will be a stereotypical hootooer and just put this in.
I suspect that that footnote is going to be hard to click on, enjoy!
I think this now includes everything that I want to be able to include in what I write, so I think I will go finish my entry then.
That entry is now done, although it could use a few more links and footnotes, but it would now be eligible for the Edited Guide, therefore I must consider that this diary has fulfilled its purpose to make me learn GuideMl, and it has managed to do so in only a few days. I therefore thank it and any who helped me out with links to, or advice on, learning GuideMl.
To see the GuideMl in this entry simply replace the "A" before the number in the URL bar with "test". Or for those who can't manage that you can even just press the link below:9
test57045873 You should be able to see how I start with the most simple GuideML there is and move up to fully customise a page, and yet that simple writing took far more attempts to get right than my later coding. ENJOY!
PS: little bit late now but this article should only be viewed in brunel or alabaster, sorry
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