The GuideML Clinic
Created | Updated Apr 20, 2012
Welcome to the GuideML Clinic. This is the place to come to find out more about GuideML, the markup language of H2G2, and the place where you can influence its future development.
We've put together a collection of useful entries that you'll find handy when creating your own Entries in GuideML. These include:
- An Introduction to GuideML
- GuideML Syntax
- Known Bugs with Certain Browsers
- GuideML Frequently Asked Questions
- Special Character Codes in GuideML and HTML
- Using Approved GuideML in the Approved version of H2G2
- GuideML Gadgets Page
- H2G2 Picture Library
If you have any questions or comments about GuideML that aren't already answered in these pages, just ask in the Conversation Forum below - the Gurus regularly check these forums and will do their best to help. You can also ask about using HTML and plain text in Entries, and if you know the answer to other Researchers' questions, do help out. GuideML is flexible, easy to learn and great fun to use, and we hope the Clinic helps you get the best out of it.
Many thanks to Bruce for his sterling work on the GuideML Clinic - Bruce, you're a champ!
GuideML and HTML
HTML is the markup language of the Web. For a page to be viewed in a browser, it has to be in HTML. HTML codes can be in upper or lower case, but current practice is to use lower case, so we'll stick to that here.
GuideML is h2g2's own markup language. You can enter your pages in GuideML and the h2g2 engines look after translating it into HTML behind the scenes. This means that you can do things like putting footnotes onto an entry very simply using GuideML, where the HTML to do the same task would be very difficult.
GuideML must be put in uppercase, as it will often misbehave or do nothing at all if it is entered in lowercase. So we'll list all GuideML tags in uppercase.
Other than the distinction between upper and lowercase, you don't really need to think of HTML and GuideML as two separate things. You can mix them together as you like.
GuideML Tags
Here are all the tags officially supported in GuideML, as well as the more useful HTML Tags. Please note that you can also use most HTML tags in GuideML entries, as long as they follow the syntax rules, but we don't have the space to list them all here, and support for them is not guaranteed in the future.
Approved GuideML
Some GuideML and HTML tags are approved for inclusion in entries in h2g2; the other tags, while not approved, are still available for use on Personal Spaces, Community pages and so on. In a nutshell, you should stick to Approved GuideML if you intend to submit your entry to Peer Review; otherwise you are free to use any GuideML and HTML tags that work (though you should note that some GuideML tags are deprecated, and support for these is not guaranteed in the future). For more information on Approved GuideML, check out the entry on Using Approved GuideML in the Approved version of H2G2 entry.
The following HTML tags are approved for use within all GuideML entries, including Approved Entries:
- <b> - Bold text.
- <br/> - Line break.
- <code> - Programming language excerpt.
- <hr/> - Horizontal rule.
- <i> - Italic text.
- <ol> and <li> - Ordered (numbered) list.
- <p> - Paragraph.
- <pre> - Fixed format text.
- <sub> - Subscripted text.
- <sup> - Superscripted text.
- <table> - Table.
- <ul> and <li> - Unordered (bulleted) list.
The following GuideML tags are approved for use within all GuideML entries, including Approved Entries:
- <BODY> - Entry body.
- <BLOCKQUOTE> - Block of quoted text.
- <CREDITS> - Credit a Researcher or a list of Researchers on an Edited Entry.
- <ENTITY> - Numerical character entities.
- <FOOTNOTE> - Automatic footnote.
- <GUIDE> - Denotes a GuideML entry.
- <HEADER> - Header.
- <LINK> - Link to Guide Entries, Researchers and external websites.
- <PICTURE> - Picture.
- <REFERENCES> - Add links to the Entry Data box.
- <SUBHEADER> - Subheader.
Non-Approved GuideML
The following tags are fine to use in your entries, but if you want to put your entry through the Peer Review system you shouldn't use them, as they will simply be stripped out when the entry is edited for the Edited Guide.
- <ADDTHREADINTRO> - Add content to the 'Post to a Conversation' page.
- <BOX> - Boxed text.
- <BOXHOLDER> - Two-part boxed text.
- <BRUNEL> - Change the colour of Personal Spaces in the Brunel skin.
- <FORUMINTRO> - Add content to Conversation list.
- <FORUMTHREADINTRO> - Add content to Conversations and Conversation list.
- <INTRO> - Entry introduction.
- <PULLQUOTE> - Boxed quote.
- <SMILEY> - Smileys.
- <SITEFILTER> - Tailor Personal Space for DNA sites.
- <THREADINTRO> - Add content to Conversations.
- <VIEWER> - Inserts the visitor's name at a given point in the text.
The following HTML tag is not approved for use in Approved Entries, because it creates something that looks like a link but isn't. Confusing!
- <U> - Underlined text.
GuideML Gadgets
The following tags provide various gadgets that you may like to use in your entries. They don't mark up text according to its content, but provide things like drop-down menus and useful Community tools. You can suggest new gadgets on the GuideML Gadgets Page.
- <GUESTBOOK> - Enable Researchers to post to specific Forums or Conversations.
- <ITEM-LIST> - Drop-down menus of entries, Researchers or websites.
- <POPUPCONVERSATIONS> - Link to the Conversations popup window.
- <VOLUNTEER-LIST> - Drop-down menus of h2g2 volunteers.
- <WHO-IS-ONLINE> - Link to the Who's Online popup window.
Deprecated GuideML
The following tag is deprecated, and you should not use it in your entries; it is only listed here for completeness.
- <SECTION> - Section.
