Using GuideML for the first time
Created | Updated Jun 9, 2011
Firstly, the help pages (A187229) are quite eye-popping, we know! There is a lot of stuff you *can* do in GuideML, but in an ordinary Entry you can get away with just a couple of tags - there's no need to learn the whole lot straight away.
_________________________________________________
In GuideML, an Entry looks like this:
<GUIDE>
<BODY>
=actual Entry stuff goes in the middle=
</BODY>
</GUIDE>
Can you see how the BODY closes before the GUIDE? All tags work like this. Basically, you can open more that one at a time, but you can't close the first one until you've closed the ones you open later. It's called 'nesting'.
For example:
<A><B><C>text</C></B></A>
________________________________________________
Inside the Entry you can get away with only a couple of tags:
<GUIDE>
<BODY> <--- all Entries start and finish with GUIDE and BODY tags.
<HEADER>The Main Headings Within The Main Text Go In Headers, Capitalising Only The First Letter</HEADER>
<SUBHEADER>If You Want To Subdivide A Topic, Use A Subheader</SUBHEADER>
<P>
The text of each paragraph goes in Paragraph tags <P></P>. It's the only way to break up the text as GuideML will ignore the enter key, the tab key and more than one space.
</P>
Some Entries need bullet points, which go like this:
<UL>
<LI>First list item</LI>
<LI>Second list item</LI>
</UL>
UL stands for unordered list, and LI for list item. Remember not to close off the UL tag until you've closed each LI (one of the my main causes of errors)!
If you want your list to use numbers instead of bullets, you can replace UL with OL (which stands for ordered list).
There are two types of links. For links to other h2g2 Entries (put in as many as you can find!), use:
<LINK H2G2="A1233456">Entry Title</LINK>
For external links (e.g. to the BBC main site), use:
<LINK HREF="www.webaddress.com">Name of link</LINK>
Finally, you may want to use <B>bold text</B> and <I>italic text</I>. Bold is rare, but italics can happily be used for quotes or for writing words in Latin etc., or for emphasis of certain words.
</BODY>
</GUIDE> <--- remember to close off all your open tags!
________________________________________________
Finally, before you click on Update Entry, look down slightly to the Change Style button. To its left are two radio buttons, marked Plain Text and GuideML. To make sure that your GuideML displays, check the GuideML button and then Change style. If you don't, none of the formatting will be displayed.
________________________________________________
If you want to see what these things all look like, click on A78177711
Feel free to post here if you have any further questions. :)
Vip
<fairy>
_________________________________________________
In GuideML, an Entry looks like this:
<GUIDE>
<BODY>
=actual Entry stuff goes in the middle=
</BODY>
</GUIDE>
Can you see how the BODY closes before the GUIDE? All tags work like this. Basically, you can open more that one at a time, but you can't close the first one until you've closed the ones you open later. It's called 'nesting'.
For example:
<A><B><C>text</C></B></A>
________________________________________________
Inside the Entry you can get away with only a couple of tags:
<GUIDE>
<BODY> <--- all Entries start and finish with GUIDE and BODY tags.
<HEADER>The Main Headings Within The Main Text Go In Headers, Capitalising Only The First Letter</HEADER>
<SUBHEADER>If You Want To Subdivide A Topic, Use A Subheader</SUBHEADER>
<P>
The text of each paragraph goes in Paragraph tags <P></P>. It's the only way to break up the text as GuideML will ignore the enter key, the tab key and more than one space.
</P>
Some Entries need bullet points, which go like this:
<UL>
<LI>First list item</LI>
<LI>Second list item</LI>
</UL>
UL stands for unordered list, and LI for list item. Remember not to close off the UL tag until you've closed each LI (one of the my main causes of errors)!
If you want your list to use numbers instead of bullets, you can replace UL with OL (which stands for ordered list).
There are two types of links. For links to other h2g2 Entries (put in as many as you can find!), use:
<LINK H2G2="A1233456">Entry Title</LINK>
For external links (e.g. to the BBC main site), use:
<LINK HREF="www.webaddress.com">Name of link</LINK>
Finally, you may want to use <B>bold text</B> and <I>italic text</I>. Bold is rare, but italics can happily be used for quotes or for writing words in Latin etc., or for emphasis of certain words.
</BODY>
</GUIDE> <--- remember to close off all your open tags!
________________________________________________
Finally, before you click on Update Entry, look down slightly to the Change Style button. To its left are two radio buttons, marked Plain Text and GuideML. To make sure that your GuideML displays, check the GuideML button and then Change style. If you don't, none of the formatting will be displayed.
________________________________________________
If you want to see what these things all look like, click on A78177711
Feel free to post here if you have any further questions. :)
Vip
<fairy>
