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

Is it just me, or does h2g2 assume a certain degree of 'techyness' from its researchers? Now, teaching all about GuideML is all very well, but what about something for us chaps who don't even know how to code HTML? I'm used to nice WYSIWYG editors that do all the hard work for you. I'm sure I'm not alone in looking for help for the, how can we put it, simple among us.

I'm not used to feeling like such a muppet. Could somebody point me towards even an Idiot's Guide to HTML or some such. It seems to be sadly lacking in the guide itself.

I'd be exceedingly grateful if someone could restore my self-confidence

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Caroo

Okay, Caroo, you've seen what the the GuideML Clinic look like, right? There you get a lot of tags and explanations of what they do. Here I'll explain what tags are, and how you can start programming in GuideML. You don't even need to learn HTML first.

A tag is a command. You enclose a tag between these brackets:
This turns the command on. It stays on until you turn it off. You turn it off by putting a slash in front of it (still enclosing it in brackets), like this:

To see what tags DO, and to experiment in writing GuideML, create a new entry on your page, call it something like GuideML Experiment. There you can test out all kinds of things until you understand them.

When you write the entry, you'll see you get a choice between regular text, HTML and GuideML. Click the GuideML box, so that your entry will be read as GuideML.

Now you type text. Everything that is enclosed in will function as a command, the rest will be the text that appears on the screen.

Start by telling the computer that the entry is a GuideML entry, like this:



Next, tell the computer that you want to start the body of your text, like this:


Then type your text.
Switch off the body tag:


Switch off the GuideML tag:


And that gives you the rudiments of an entry. Here is an example - you might want to try it:



This is a ridiculously simple GuideML entry



Other tags that you will use regularly are these:


In your experimental entry, put the tags in, followed by the text to which they apply, and switch them off, to see how they work. Some tags don't apply to text - for instance, the picture source or other link tags. These tags link to something else on the internet, and automatically return, so they don't need to be switched off, or they can contain the "off switch" in themselves. But if you forget to switch off a tag that you ought to switch off, you'll get an error message and your entry will not display properly.

But once you have something to experiment with, you will find it easy to consult the GuideML Clinic to find out what tags there are and how you can use them.

I hope this helps.

Niceley writtain Mr case just a couple of thind to add
If when you go to the edit page you select GuideML and then click the switch mode button it automaticaly puts in the & tags. If in the GuideML clinic you go to the entery on a specific tag you will find a cut & paste example of the code you can use - e.g. if you goto the entry for (http://www.h2g2.com/A184943) you will find the follwing code
Example
One final point remember that GuideML is case sensitive.
Don't be afraid to come back if you get stuck.

Way too many typos in that last posting

I keep getting guide ML error messages saying that HEADER is expected for BODY and GUIDE at the end of the message. Now, I've checked all my HEADERS and they're all complete, so what's going on?

False alarm. Sorry. Ignore the last post.

lets guess - it was a nesting problem ?

Thanks very much I'll have a play and see what I can come up with.

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Caroo

Caroo - is this for your personal space or a guide entery ?

I was looking more at Guide entries for the moment thanks. Does it make a difference? (she asks innocently)

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Caroo

er yes - guide enteries are best done with GuideML - personal space you can cheat and use html.

Makes sense I suppose:
Guide entries - GuideML
personal page - HTML

Got it I think

It'd probably be 'good for me' to learn both anyway, just not at the same time As long as I stick to nice, simple things to begin with and work my way up

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Caroo

My own personal page is a mix of GuideML and HTML with a bit of Javascript thrown in for good measure. Its generaly better to use GuideML. Now there are two thing to keep in mind if you have difficulty with GuideML

1: If you are writing an entery that you want to put forwared as an edite entery you can just write it in plain text - If it passes peer review a sub-editor will convert it to GuideML for you.

2: For personal space you can just put something simple in plain text or use wysiwyg html editor for something fancy - just dont put any colour codes in as H2G2 will do this for you depending what skin the user has selected (I reccomend classi goo).

Having said all this I still think the best option is learning GuideML. But you now have a choice.

Regards

Happy

Learning to type helps aswell (Sorry I just read what I just posted).

That's a good thing to know about the sub-editors formatting entries, but if I'm wanting to add in links, then I suppose at least minimal HTML/GuideML would be wise

I never thought about using the wysiwyg editors in that way, but I suppose, thinking about it, I could just open in notepad to pick up all the tags and then copy and paste onto the site.

Inspired! Thanks very much It's not as disastrous as I thought. Still want to learn to write the code though - it'd be A Useful Skill to have and Something To Do on those cold winter evenings

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Caroo

As someone who has the skill can I just say - be careful, its addictive

LOL!

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Caroo

& wot wuz wrong wiv caroo