TAGS
Created | Updated Jun 5, 2002
Spicing Up Your User Page
First of all, click on the Edit page button on your user page. This will take you to a new page with the title Update Introduction.
Smileys
If you want to spice up your user page, the easiest way is to simply add smileys.
If you type :-) or <smiley> you get
Typing <angel> will give you
You will find a complete list of the h2g2 smileys here
You can use them in conversations as well. Clicking on a smiley in a conversation will also take you to the smiley list.
Pictures, font colours and other cool stuff
In order to use these, you need to change the style of your user page. Very far down on the Update Introduction page you will find the Change style button. The default style is always Plain text but you need to change it into GuideML.
You will now see two GuideML tags - first <GUIDE> and <BODY>.
It is below these that you will insert your own tags.
Every tag will also have a /closing tag - in this case </BODY> and </GUIDE>.
When you work on your user page, click Update Introduction every now and then, because sometimes, if there is some trouble with the servers or the connection, you might lose a lot of the stuff you've been trying to put in - and that can be very frustrating! Update Introduction saves everything you have done.
Paragraphs
Splitting up your text into paragraphs makes it easier to read. Start a paragraph with the <P> tag, and finish it with the </P> tag. A very common error message is Bad closing element BODY expecting P which means that somewhere you have forgotten to close a <P> tag with a </P> tag.
If you simply want to start a new line you can use the <BR/> tag. This tag is closed right away, that is why it ends with />. That means it does not need a separate closing tag.
Pictures
This is where you find the h2g2 Picture Library.
Beside each picture you will find the GuideML tag for it, you just need to copy and paste.
The tag for this picture is: <PICTURE EMBED="CENTER" BLOB="B214996" ALT="Two drummers drumming"/> but we changed "CENTER" to "RIGHT". This way you can choose where to put your picture. Note that the picture tag is also closed right away.
Smileys
Once you have changed your page to GuideML style, you will have to use tags to put in smileys as well:
<smiley type="smiley of your choice"/> for example "magic"
Font colours, sizes and headers
The default font colour is black if you are using Alabaster skin, and white if you are using Goo skin. If you want to change the colour, you do like this:
This text is red, and now in Comic Sans, and now bold, and now in size +2, and finally italic.
The tags look like this:
<FONT COLOR="RED">This text is red</FONT>,
<FONT FACE="COMIC SANS MS">and now in Comic Sans</FONT>,
<B>and now bold</B>,
<FONT SIZE="+2">and now in size +2</FONT>
and finally <I>italic</I> .
You can use most of the basic colours, like blue, red, black, white, yellow, green and also magenta, gold, silver and then lightblue, darkblue and so on - but try Preview in skin in both Alabaster as well as Goo to make sure your page looks good to all your visitors regardless of their preferences!
First of all, click on the Edit page button on your user page. This will take you to a new page with the title Update Introduction.
Smileys
If you want to spice up your user page, the easiest way is to simply add smileys.
If you type :-) or <smiley> you get
Typing <angel> will give you
You will find a complete list of the h2g2 smileys here
You can use them in conversations as well. Clicking on a smiley in a conversation will also take you to the smiley list.
Pictures, font colours and other cool stuff
In order to use these, you need to change the style of your user page. Very far down on the Update Introduction page you will find the Change style button. The default style is always Plain text but you need to change it into GuideML.
You will now see two GuideML tags - first <GUIDE> and <BODY>.
It is below these that you will insert your own tags.
Every tag will also have a /closing tag - in this case </BODY> and </GUIDE>.
When you work on your user page, click Update Introduction every now and then, because sometimes, if there is some trouble with the servers or the connection, you might lose a lot of the stuff you've been trying to put in - and that can be very frustrating! Update Introduction saves everything you have done.
Paragraphs
Splitting up your text into paragraphs makes it easier to read. Start a paragraph with the <P> tag, and finish it with the </P> tag. A very common error message is Bad closing element BODY expecting P which means that somewhere you have forgotten to close a <P> tag with a </P> tag.
If you simply want to start a new line you can use the <BR/> tag. This tag is closed right away, that is why it ends with />. That means it does not need a separate closing tag.
Pictures
This is where you find the h2g2 Picture Library.
Beside each picture you will find the GuideML tag for it, you just need to copy and paste.
The tag for this picture is: <PICTURE EMBED="CENTER" BLOB="B214996" ALT="Two drummers drumming"/> but we changed "CENTER" to "RIGHT". This way you can choose where to put your picture. Note that the picture tag is also closed right away.
Smileys
Once you have changed your page to GuideML style, you will have to use tags to put in smileys as well:
<smiley type="smiley of your choice"/> for example "magic"
Font colours, sizes and headers
The default font colour is black if you are using Alabaster skin, and white if you are using Goo skin. If you want to change the colour, you do like this:
This text is red, and now in Comic Sans, and now bold, and now in size +2, and finally italic.
The tags look like this:
<FONT COLOR="RED">This text is red</FONT>,
<FONT FACE="COMIC SANS MS">and now in Comic Sans</FONT>,
<B>and now bold</B>,
<FONT SIZE="+2">and now in size +2</FONT>
and finally <I>italic</I> .
You can use most of the basic colours, like blue, red, black, white, yellow, green and also magenta, gold, silver and then lightblue, darkblue and so on - but try Preview in skin in both Alabaster as well as Goo to make sure your page looks good to all your visitors regardless of their preferences!
