How-To Crib Sheet for LTHForum.com

How-To Crib Sheet For LTHForum.com Users

This will be an occasionally-updated quick reference to some of the tools and features of our software. Please note one important stylistic item: since the program will take any text containing codes literally, all references to the brackets [ and ] are made using the upper-case brackets (the ones with the point in the middle-- { and }-- on the same keys). However, you must use the lower-case brackets in actual practice.


Posting

This is a basic explanation of the main functions. You will find many more cool things you can do at http://www.lthforum.com/bb/faq.php?mode=bbcode.

1. How to make bold text, italics, etc.

The B (bold), i (italics) and u (underlining) buttons all work the same way.

1. Click a button.
2. Type your text after {b}, {i} or {u}.
3. Click again to end the feature with {/b}, {/i} or {/u}:

{b}This would be bolded.{/b}

Note that it is often easier if you've already typed your text to simply type in {b} and {/b} yourself in the right places. Likewise, if you have a number of bolded headers in a post (like this does), it may be easier to type {b} and {/b} once and copy and paste them into the right spots.

You must have both a beginning and closing code for the feature to work. Use the Preview button to see if you did it right.


2. How to link to an image

LTHForum does not host images. You need to find your own server space (often provided as part of your internet connection; there are also services like Shutterfly). Then upload your image to that space. The image will have a URL something like this, depending on your provider:

http://www.internetprovider.com/~joeuser/hamburger.jpg

1. Click the Img button.
2. Type or paste in your image's url
3. Click Img again (an asterisk will be visible in the button at this time) to close the link:

{img}http://www.internetprovider.com/~joeuser/hamburger.jpg{/img}

Use Preview to see if your image is appearing.

Please size your images no wider than 600 pixels. Otherwise, they will force the entire thread and all text to their width, making it very hard to read for some users. If you don't know how to resize your photos, see if you have a photo program like iPhoto, Photoshop Elements, etc. which lets you manipulate images. They often come with scanners, digital cameras, etc.


3. How to make images that change (like a slide show)

To make images that change, you need a program that can make animated GIFs. Then upload and link to the GIF image file in the same way that you would a .jpg image file.


4. How to quote someone

To have it simply say "Quote":

1. Click the Quote button.
2. Paste the quote.
3. Click Quote again. Your text will look like this in the form:

{quote}This is the quote.{/quote}

Click Preview and it should look like this:

This is the quote.

To replace "Quote" with the quotee's name:

1. Click the Quote button.
2. Type an equal sign and the quotee's name inside quotation marks (see below), all inside the Quote code brackets.
3. Paste the quote.
4. Click Quote again. Your text will look like this in the form:

{quote="G Wiv"}This is the quote.{/quote}

Click Preview and it should look like this:

G Wiv wrote:This is the quote.

Note that there's also an automated way to do this. While you're looking at the message you want to respond to, click the Quote button on the message you want to quote. This will automatically open up a new reply window with the entire text of the message you're replying to inside quotes which specify the quotee's name. Then you can edit down the quoted part of the message (please edit down to only what's necessary!) and add your response below.


5. How to link to another web page

The easiest way to make a link is to type, or cut and paste, a full url including the http:// prefix. The software will automatically make it a link showing the page name.

To make a link which shows your text instead of the page name (preferred, especially if the link is long):

1. Click URL.
2. Inside the URL brackets, type an equal sign and the page's URL.
3. Type your text outside the brackets.
4. Click URL again. This will look like this in the form:

{url=http://www.vitalinformation.blogspot.com}Vital Information-- now a blog!{/url}

Click Preview and it should look like this:

Vital Information-- now a blog!

Please check your links to make sure they work before you leave your post for others to read; use the Edit button to correct any that don't.


Remember, I used the curly brackets here for illustrative purposes. You MUST use the straight brackets to make your coding work.

Thanks for putting this together Mike. I'm sure many of us will find this very helpful and useful. At least I will. Now I can post some pictures of Gwiv butchering and dressed in blue instead of black.

mike: you can set "disable bbcode" and it won't do that, or you can use the [code] tag.

The code tag does other weird formatting stuff though. And I didn't want to set disable bbcode for the whole message, just parts. If you know a way to do that, great and I'll revise...

Mike G wrote:5. How to link to another web page

To make a link which shows the page name:

1. Click URL.
2. Type or paste in the page's URL.
3. Click URL again.

Actually, it doesn't seem necessary to do this. If you want to put in the URL, just typing one that begins with http:// seems to create a clickable link.

By gum, you're right. Works with cut and paste URLs, too. Will alter text.

Mike G wrote:5. How to link to another web page

The easiest way to make a link is to type, or cut and paste, a full url including the http:// prefix. The software will automatically make it a link showing the page name.

To make a link which shows your text instead of the page name:

1. Click URL.
2. Inside the URL brackets, type an equal sign and the page's URL.
3. Type your text outside the brackets.
4. Click URL again. This will look like this in the form:

{url=http://www.vitalinformation.blogspot.com}Vital Information-- now a blog!{/url}

Click Preview and it should look like this:

Vital Information-- now a blog!

Please check your links to make sure they work before you leave your post for others to read; use the Edit button to correct any that don't.

Remember, I used the curly brackets here for illustrative purposes. You MUST use the straight brackets to make your coding work.

Please note that if you have a very long URL, longer than, say, 40 characters, it's better to use the second approach, so that your post doesn't stretch the page out wide, which makes it hard to read.

A very good place for hosting images if you don't have your own webspace (from your ISP or some third party setup) is http://imageshack.us

Free, permanent photo hosting. Simple upload and it'll even create phpBB code for inserting the image into your post after you upload it.

http://www.imageshack.us

Make sure to register so you can keep track of all your images and also delete them if you make a mistake. You don't have to register, but it gives you a few extra features.

to the admins: it's very easy to edit the phpbb templates to add an imageshack upload area on the post creation page. perhaps something to consider.


-ed

I keep trying to include an image in a post following the instructions given, but it's not working for me. The photo is in my Yahoo Photos album; I've made it public, and resized it to less than 600 pixels wide. When I paste in the url using the image tags, and preview my post, all I see is the url, i.e.,



Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Katie wrote:

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

You're providing a URL that does not point directly to an image file. If you put that URL above in your browser, you'll see it goes to an album page. You need to provide the exact URL to an image file.

I'm not 100% sure how to get this URL with Yahoo photo albums, perhaps someone else who uses this service can chime in.

Best,
Michael

I am wondering how you link to a given post on a thread.

For instance, I've found that if the thread has multiple pages, copying the url above the page you want gives you a posting # that takes you to that page, but I haven't figured out how to get the number of a specific post if it's further down. I assume each post has its own number, and I'm just overlooking where that is...(or do I just count up the posts from the top and add?)

See right above the message, the little icon of a page and the time? Click that and the URL for that specific message will appear in the URL bar. Then you can copy it.

Ahh! Where it says "posted" Good deal! Thanks!

And just bye-the-bye, something which most everyone already knows, I'm sure, but: if you're leaving your URL out there nekkid, and it's way long, just go to

http://www.tinyurl.com

and make your monster URL into a more manageable one.

Geo

I also like http://www.shurl.org, which lets you customize the resulting shortened URL.

But if you'd rather have a neater approach, without hanging your https and wwws out there for everyone to see, it's easy. Click here for instructions.

If anyone has a moment to help bring a troglodyte up to date:
I tried to do my first photo posting recently via imageshack.
I thought I followed the instructions posted here on the board:
1. size to 600 or less
2. post to imageshack
3. copy image url back between [img] brackets back here inside my post.

But I got the same empty "image" box that people get when they do this wrong.
Image shack shows 2 urls with the posted image, one just called "image" (I think), and the other called "direct."
I tried it with both urls and still didn't get an image in my LTH post.
Can anyone see from this account what I may have done wrong?

M - can you "quote" the post you're having trouble with and paste it here (that way it should show what's in the tags?) One thing that comes up: I don't know if image shack works the same way, but if you're using, say, Flickr, your URL should end in .jpg. Sometimes Flickr adds stuff to the end that messes things up, but if you delete everything following the .jpg you usually get what you need.

How do I make an ordered list? I would like the equivalent of the html <ol><li> tags. I think I am supposed to use [List=], but have not gotten it to work.

If I would like to make a list like the below using [List=], how do I do it?

1. first list item
2. second list item

Is it something like
[List=]
[*]first list item
[*]second list item
[/List]

shorty wrote:How do I make an ordered list? I would like the equivalent of the html <ol><li> tags. I think I am supposed to use [List=], but have not gotten it to work.

If I would like to make a list like the below using [List=], how do I do it?

1. first list item
2. second list item

Is it something like
[List=]
[*]first list item
[*]second list item
[/List]

1. Go to the shops
2. Buy a new computer
3. Swear at computer when it crashes

Code: Select all

[list=1]
[*]Go to the shops
[*]Buy a new computer
[*]Swear at computer when it crashes
[/list]

Just in case you're asking about the spreadsheet, the only way I figured out to do it is to convert it to a .jpg and then import it as a picture.

mrbarolo wrote:If anyone has a moment to help bring a troglodyte up to date:
I tried to do my first photo posting recently via imageshack.
I thought I followed the instructions posted here on the board:
1. size to 600 or less
2. post to imageshack
3. copy image url back between [img] brackets back here inside my post.

But I got the same empty "image" box that people get when they do this wrong.
Image shack shows 2 urls with the posted image, one just called "image" (I think), and the other called "direct."
I tried it with both urls and still didn't get an image in my LTH post.
Can anyone see from this account what I may have done wrong?

I'm having the same problem.

I'll try posing the pic here:


Just an empty box??

Here's the URL:
https://5547129519749823194-a-180274477 ... edirects=0

zoid wrote:
more or less "can't post image"
Here's the URL:
https://5547129519749823194-a-180274477 ... edirects=0

OK, so see that https and all the other crap in there? That's not actually a link to the image. It gets you there, but it's got all kinds of authentication, encryption, etc. junk wrapped around it. The actual URL to the image is http://sites.google.com/site/librizzius ... ies600.jpg
so -

I really did try to parse it but I didn't replace "googlegroups.com" with "google.com".

Thanks for the help!!!

How do I make a link that jumps to another thread mid-way through the thread?
for example, it starts at a picture I like.....

There is a little page icon next to the word "Posted" in the header for each post. Right click that, then depending on the browser you're going to choose an option like "copy link address" or "copy shortcut" (not copy image address though). Then paste that as a link.

For example, here is a link to your post viewtopic.php?p=363209#p363209

Thanks, that worked great!

bump

Tnx!

Geo

OK, so I finally found my Flicker password after a year or two, returned to the site, found it entirely new, and, basically, incomprehensible. The directions (?) so far as I can follow them, tell me that I have to use the direct link within the "share" folder above the picture. Unfortunately, the URL looks like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73101296@N04/6595165703/

Which takes me to the page with the image, but not the image itself (which, I assume, should be a URL ending in " .jpg ") Could someone pls take me by the hand and show me how to get to the image on that page, and not the page itself?

TIA!

Geo

Geo wrote:OK, so I finally found my Flicker password after a year or two, returned to the site, found it entirely new, and, basically, incomprehensible. The directions (?) so far as I can follow them, tell me that I have to use the direct link within the "share" folder above the picture. Unfortunately, the URL looks like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73101296@N04/6595165703/

Which takes me to the page with the image, but not the image itself (which, I assume, should be a URL ending in " .jpg ") Could someone pls take me by the hand and show me how to get to the image on that page, and not the page itself?

TIA!

Geo

Hey Geo-

See if this thread helps.