h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...because I've written an entry called 'Spicing up your user page' A690518 that I've tried to phrase so that non-s understand it - I know that I didn't have the foggiest idea about what GuideML (or HTML) was when I first joined the Guide!

I'm so sorry I didn't answer you sooner. I wasn't even subscribed to the conversations on my own entry!

I had done a search to find the entries that told a little about the easy way to guide ml your page for a newbie and happened to click on my own entry... me - I'd forgotten all about it! and then I saw that there was a conversation attached to it - from 5 weeks ago!

Anyhow, there's a little bit there now... I've tried to make it as simple as possible. Let me go look at your entry and see what you've got. I would imagine those of us who have done entries on this could reference each other's entries to make it as complete as possible.

Good one... much more than I've done so far... and means I probably don't even need to have mine any more...

I think when I went looking for guide entries on how to do guide ml, yours didn't come up high on the list because of the title - I had never seen it before.

Don't worry - as embarrassing as it is, I've done the same thing - I do hope I've learnt to subscribe to *all* my entries by now!

Did you know there's a GuideML project going on, with articles written by researchers? You'll find more info about it here: A985773

I see... I'm not really sure what I should do, since my little entry is nowhere near finished...

Although...

I was probably not going to do a whole lot more other than add in a few links to entries that show how to do some of the more complicated stuff and tell how to snatch code from someone else's page.

Still need to guide ml the thing though.

How ironic..... an entry about how to do guide ml that's not done in guide ml!

It isn't? Oh - so that's how you managed to make it look so simple (as in easy and clear, OK?)

You know - why don't you just go ahead and create your own entry - hopefully a newcomer/beginner will come across at least one of our entries and find it/them useful - the more the merrier, I'd say!

True, very true. One person's explanation of how to do Guide ML might be easier for someone to understand than another person's explanation might be. On the other hand, some explanations might be too simplistic for someone with a lot of computer background.

Actually, what I did was to cut and paste the directions I had written in a post to a conversation for someone who'd stopped by my page to ask about how I *knew* them (they got caught by the tag!). I started out explaining about the tag, and that they'd have to do their page in Guide ML to use it. When they said they would do their page in Guide ML in a couple of months () if they had a chance to read all the information about it, I told them that simply wasn't necessary - all they needed to do was to do a couple of simple things to change the page to Guide ML.

I tried to make it as simplistic as possible, assuming that anyone reading it might know as little about such things as I did when I first came here. Actually, I still don't know much about it - mostly just how to yoink code from someone else's page, although I am slowly learning how to fix mistakes in the code when I get an error message.

I have to wait around for a washer and dryer repairman on Thing morning - perhaps I'll have the presence of mind to start Guide ML'ing the entry while I wait.

Well, you might not believe it, but when I first joined, I had no idea at all about HTML or tags or how to insert pictures or anything - but looking around on other people's user pages made me (<--green with envy) and also made me determined to learn enough to make my page look very ...

...and I still remember how tough it was to get the hang of it - that's why I (and my other self) created the 'Spicing up...' entry

I was lucky in that both of my daughters are researchers on here, so they helped me with my page while I was learning. Of course, it was easy for them to just do it for me. At some point I told them I wanted them to explain what they were doing, but shortly after that I learned the most important bit about guide ml - if you know how to bring up the code for someone else's page, you can do just about anything you want to your page.