Guide: Easy HTML for (almost) all your LJ needs
Reulann’s LJ HTML Coding Help Light:
Everything mentioned here can easily be achieved by using the nifty buttons in the LJ menu. Personally, I find it easier to pre-code stories or longer entries by hand while I type them. Most of the archives I use work with these HTML tags as well so I don’t have to keep re-formatting everything when coding by hand.
Since I can remember quite well how difficult it was for me when I started out on LJ and how very not nice some people looked upon some of the mistakes I made, I thought this could be a useful guide for newbies and serve as an easy to look up reminder for myself as well ;)
You will find HTML tags for links, formatting and for the practical, everyday use on your journal below the cut. I’m nowhere near perfect so if someone wants to add a useful tag or has some helpful comments, please feel free to leave a note. I marked the parts of text that will be influenced by the tags in a different color for easier understanding.
But what are those tags she’s speaking of? Good question! The (probably not very professional answer) is HTML tags - that’s the stuff between the < and > signs - tell LJ or your website or archive what to do with your text or picture. There is always a beginning tag, signalling where the formatting starts, and an end-tag which includes a backslash. As always, there are exceptions to this rule. You’ll find one later on in the Paragraph section You’ll see what I mean in the examples below.
Go to the Post link on your journal just like always and call up the page where you can type in your text. The tagged text needs to be added in the HTML tab, so make sure you chose HTML instead of Rich Text for those parts, or this won’t work. Most of those tags can also be used when you write a comment to a story or artwork. I mostly write my stuff in a normal text document and copy and paste it into LJ after I’ve coded it. You can just as easily write your entry and change to the HTML tab afterwards to add the coding to the text.
In order for you to be able to see the commands I had to add asterisks at the beginning and ending of the tags. You can simply copy the whole tag and replace the coloured sections with what you want them to say. Make sure to delete every * or your code won’t work!!!
User Link to journals or communities:
<*lj user="insert username"*>
<*lj user="or_community_name "*>
Making a LJ cut:
This goes after your header text in which you may want people to read a summary of your story or a short description of your artwork or a small version of your picture
<*lj-cut>
And here goes your text or your artwork…Why, Mr.Darcy… and all the rest of your story or entry will not be visible until someone clicks on the created cut, no matter how long your scribblings are
And this goes at the very end of whatever you want to hide beneath the cut.
<*/lj-cut>
Everything you write after the ending tag is visible for your readers!
If you code your cut like this, your readers will only see the pre-programmed read more… link text. If you want the text for the cut to say something different, read further.
Making a LJ cut with added text:
<*lj-cut text="Spoilery thoughts on Season 5 and current eps..."*>
And remember to add the ending tag <*/lj-cut> at the end of your text!
Formatting text:
This produces italics <*i>and after all these years... <*/i>
This <*u>underlined text... <*/u>
Or <*b>Bold for titles and such<*/b>
Or <*s>Strike Through pretty well explains itself<*/s>
Also <*center>Center<*/center>
You can also combine tags just remember to close them in reverse order like this:
<*b><*i>Bold Italics<*/i><*/b>
You don’t need the following if you type all your text directly into the LJ editor anyway but if you want to format a word document this comes in handy:
In word go to Edit - Replace, choose: Special, and from that, Paragraph mark - or just type into the find selection : ^p
Replace all with <*br*/> and you’re done. This works well for me because I simply hit the return button two times when I want a paragraph. If you want a real paragraph type <*p> instead.
I haven’t tried this because I’m a creature of habit and only use the <*br*/> version so you’ll have to see for yourself what works best for you. The <*br*/> tag also gives you the option, used only once instead of twice like for a paragraph, to force your text to the next line. This tag does not need to be closed in any way.
Linking pictures:
You need to know the link to your picture or the site you want to link to for this one. I use photobucket but it works as well with LJs inbuilt scrapbook galleries or your website if you have one.
It’s considered polite to choose a small version of your picture or a sample of three or four icons as a link to the larger picture or complete set of icons you made. Not everyone who uses LJ has access to a broadband connection or wants their colleagues to see what they do during their coffee-break;-) A warning for not work safe stuff would also be considerate. You could use the warning for the link text. For example: Not work safe = nws picture under the cut. In this case even a small picture could spell trouble for people who check-up on their journals at work. Yes, yes, you’re not supposed to do that! But, honestly, didn’t you ever bend the rules and snook a peek at something you weren’t supposed to?
I’ve used different colors so you can easily see what goes where.
A simple link to either a picture or a journal or website with added link text goes like this:
<*a href ="here goes the link to your picture">read my story/see my picture<*/a>
A picture that also serves as a link to either a larger version of your picture or another LJ site looks like this:
<*a href="here be your picture or website location"><*img src=" and here the HD version of your picture or the page you want to link to"*/><*/a>
I hope you got some value out of this it sure gave me a headache until I had the darn asterisks placed right. If you find any mistakes in the coding, just let me know.
Everything mentioned here can easily be achieved by using the nifty buttons in the LJ menu. Personally, I find it easier to pre-code stories or longer entries by hand while I type them. Most of the archives I use work with these HTML tags as well so I don’t have to keep re-formatting everything when coding by hand.
Since I can remember quite well how difficult it was for me when I started out on LJ and how very not nice some people looked upon some of the mistakes I made, I thought this could be a useful guide for newbies and serve as an easy to look up reminder for myself as well ;)
You will find HTML tags for links, formatting and for the practical, everyday use on your journal below the cut. I’m nowhere near perfect so if someone wants to add a useful tag or has some helpful comments, please feel free to leave a note. I marked the parts of text that will be influenced by the tags in a different color for easier understanding.
But what are those tags she’s speaking of? Good question! The (probably not very professional answer) is HTML tags - that’s the stuff between the < and > signs - tell LJ or your website or archive what to do with your text or picture. There is always a beginning tag, signalling where the formatting starts, and an end-tag which includes a backslash. As always, there are exceptions to this rule. You’ll find one later on in the Paragraph section You’ll see what I mean in the examples below.
Go to the Post link on your journal just like always and call up the page where you can type in your text. The tagged text needs to be added in the HTML tab, so make sure you chose HTML instead of Rich Text for those parts, or this won’t work. Most of those tags can also be used when you write a comment to a story or artwork. I mostly write my stuff in a normal text document and copy and paste it into LJ after I’ve coded it. You can just as easily write your entry and change to the HTML tab afterwards to add the coding to the text.
In order for you to be able to see the commands I had to add asterisks at the beginning and ending of the tags. You can simply copy the whole tag and replace the coloured sections with what you want them to say. Make sure to delete every * or your code won’t work!!!
User Link to journals or communities:
<*lj user="insert username"*>
<*lj user="or_community_name "*>
Making a LJ cut:
This goes after your header text in which you may want people to read a summary of your story or a short description of your artwork or a small version of your picture
<*lj-cut>
And here goes your text or your artwork…Why, Mr.Darcy… and all the rest of your story or entry will not be visible until someone clicks on the created cut, no matter how long your scribblings are
And this goes at the very end of whatever you want to hide beneath the cut.
<*/lj-cut>
Everything you write after the ending tag is visible for your readers!
If you code your cut like this, your readers will only see the pre-programmed read more… link text. If you want the text for the cut to say something different, read further.
Making a LJ cut with added text:
<*lj-cut text="Spoilery thoughts on Season 5 and current eps..."*>
And remember to add the ending tag <*/lj-cut> at the end of your text!
Formatting text:
This produces italics <*i>and after all these years... <*/i>
This <*u>underlined text... <*/u>
Or <*b>Bold for titles and such<*/b>
Or <*s>Strike Through pretty well explains itself<*/s>
Also <*center>Center<*/center>
You can also combine tags just remember to close them in reverse order like this:
<*b><*i>Bold Italics<*/i><*/b>
You don’t need the following if you type all your text directly into the LJ editor anyway but if you want to format a word document this comes in handy:
In word go to Edit - Replace, choose: Special, and from that, Paragraph mark - or just type into the find selection : ^p
Replace all with <*br*/> and you’re done. This works well for me because I simply hit the return button two times when I want a paragraph. If you want a real paragraph type <*p> instead.
I haven’t tried this because I’m a creature of habit and only use the <*br*/> version so you’ll have to see for yourself what works best for you. The <*br*/> tag also gives you the option, used only once instead of twice like for a paragraph, to force your text to the next line. This tag does not need to be closed in any way.
Linking pictures:
You need to know the link to your picture or the site you want to link to for this one. I use photobucket but it works as well with LJs inbuilt scrapbook galleries or your website if you have one.
It’s considered polite to choose a small version of your picture or a sample of three or four icons as a link to the larger picture or complete set of icons you made. Not everyone who uses LJ has access to a broadband connection or wants their colleagues to see what they do during their coffee-break;-) A warning for not work safe stuff would also be considerate. You could use the warning for the link text. For example: Not work safe = nws picture under the cut. In this case even a small picture could spell trouble for people who check-up on their journals at work. Yes, yes, you’re not supposed to do that! But, honestly, didn’t you ever bend the rules and snook a peek at something you weren’t supposed to?
I’ve used different colors so you can easily see what goes where.
A simple link to either a picture or a journal or website with added link text goes like this:
<*a href ="here goes the link to your picture">read my story/see my picture<*/a>
A picture that also serves as a link to either a larger version of your picture or another LJ site looks like this:
<*a href="here be your picture or website location"><*img src=" and here the HD version of your picture or the page you want to link to"*/><*/a>
I hope you got some value out of this it sure gave me a headache until I had the darn asterisks placed right. If you find any mistakes in the coding, just let me know.