aggravatedIt's freakin' difficult to track down the lj-specific markup.
FAQ 72: How do I alter the appearance of my text? is, IMHO, freakin' ugly and confusing overall. If nothing else, it needs streamlining and decluttering. Anyway, there is a link in the top paragraph of FAQ 72 to lj-cut (FAQ 75) and lj user (FAQ 67).
The section "HTML on LiveJournal" within FAQ 72 talks about these two tags thusly:
I think that that section of the FAQ might be the best place for these tags, and might be better highlighted and moved up higher in the FAQ.
One problem is that link to "nonstandard tags" -- It actually links to FAQ 75, which is alllllll about the lj-cut tag with this exception in the "Other Options" section:
I mean, I totally didn't even SEE that section right away!
As mentioned previously, FAQ 67 is one of the FAQs that talks about the tags, specifically the lj user tag. That's pretty straightforward overall. FAQ 67 links to FAQ 26, which is where the lj-raw tag shows up in greater detail. FAQ 67 also links to the howto document at [http://community.livejournal.com/howto/39835.html] that covers nifty stuff like the lj://faq/75/ tags that can be used in a href stuff.
Now, the only FAQ that I've seen so far that talks about lj-poll is FAQ 75, where it's in that throwaway "other tags" line in the middle of lj-cuts 'r' us. That link there takes you to the howto document at [http://community.livejournal.com/howto/31582.html], which is pretty long and talks about the poll coding by hand and stuff. Fun fact: FAQ 69, on writing polls, never *once* specifically talks about lj-poll as a specific html tag; it links several times to the poll-writing-by-hand howto document, but it doesn't actually say lj-poll anywhere. The only FAQ that does seem to list it out is the lj-cut FAQ.
This is kind of dumb, people!
I don't have a specific fix in mind at the moment; I'm in the middle of doing genealogy work and need to get back to it, and would like to have some feedback from y'all in terms of what you think might most make sense and how it could best be written.
Right now, my druthers is to revamp FAQ 72 to take care of most of it, and take the line out of FAQ 75 and move it to FAQ 72 which is ultimately all about the HTML, or to create a better FAQ about altering one's text.
Heck, the old RTE-buttons-and-what-they-do FAQ might be nice to bring back, so you could have one "how to alter" which is just the RTE and another that is just the HTML, since lots of the stuff that even links to the RTE just links to FAQ 222, which nowadays only really mentions that the RTE exists... not actually how to use it. I guess most people feel that everyone already knows what all of the WYSIWIG editor buttons would do...?
EDITED: Here's a potential rewrite, which may be completely f'd up by the RTE.... *fingers crossed*
How do I alter the appearance of my text? How can I use HTML on LiveJournal? How do I make text bold, italic or centered?
You can format text with certain HTML (HyperText Markup Language) markup tags, then format the rest of your entry with other HTML markup tags (links, images) and LiveJournal-specific markup tags <lj-cut> and <lj user>). Alternatively, you can use the Rich Text editor to format your entries.
General Guidelines [was section 2]
A basic HTML markup tag looks like <tag>; this is an opening tag that tells your browser to start doing something. For instance, HTML tags can tell your browser to apply a certain effect – such as bold, italics, underlining, color, or font size – to the text between the opening tag and the closing tag. Most of the time, this opening tag will need a closing tag, </tag>, which tells your browser to stop doing what the opening tag told it to do.
Some tags do not need a closing tag, but can be closed by inserting a space and a forward slash before the last angle bracket, thus: <tag />. These tags generally insert an object, rather than applying formatting to the following text; one example is the <img> tag, which inserts an image into the document.
Complex HTML tags use pairs of attributes and values to give more formatting information. (For example, the different attributes of a <font> tag can specify size, color, font face, and so on.) They will be formatted attribute="value"; spaces should separate the tag name and the attribute="value" pairs, along with the different pairs. The closing tag will only contain the tag name, and none of the attributes.
<tag attribute1="value1" attribute2="value2"> text to affect </tag>
Common HTML Effects (HTML) [was section 1]
Even a few HTML markup tags can bring your text and the rest of your web page to life. Most HTML tags have an opening tag and a closing tag. You can place as much text, spaces, and punctuation between the opening tag and the closing as you want, and all of it will be affected the same way.
Bold/Strong: | <b>This text is bold</b>. <strong>This text is strongly marked up.</strong>. |
Italics/Emphasis: | <i>This text is italicised</i>. <em>This text is emphasized.</em>. |
Underline: | <u>This text is underlined</u>. |
Big/Small: | This text is <big>big</big> and <small>small</small>. |
Pre-formatted text: | <pre>This text is pre-formatted, including multiple spaces .</pre>
|
Character Spacing: | <code>This text displays in a mono-spaced font, so all characters (m and i) use the same amount of space and text lines up.</code>
|
<font> and <span>: | |
Centering:
| <center>Centered text must start on a separate line.</center>
|
Add Links: | Link to another journal or another web site.
|
Add Images: | Add images (<img src="imageurl" />) |
Special LiveJournal Tags: LiveJournal also has a small number of nonstandard tags, which only work on LiveJournal and follow the same format as standard HTML (<tag> or <tag attribute="value">.) These include <lj user>, <lj-cut>, <lj-raw>, and <lj-poll>. There are also several LiveJournal-specific URL forms that will only work on LiveJournal, and that can only be used in links made by using the anchor (<a>) HTML tag.
Multiple HTML Tags: You can also apply multiple HTML tags to the same text. When you use multiple tags, the closing tags should be in reverse order to the opening tags, so that the first closing tag applies to the last opening tag, and so on.
<b><i><u>This text is bold, italic, and underlined</u></i></b>
If you want to learn more about HTML tags, why not search for a HTML tutorial using your favorite search engine or post in an LiveJournal community about HTML or journal customization? Detailed HTML assistance is outside the realm of LiveJournal Support.
· Marquee: Since not all browsers support the scrolling <marquee> and </marquee> tags, you should hide a <marquee> in a LiveJournal entry by enclosing it in a <lj-cut> tag pair.
<lj-cut><marquee>This text may scroll across the page.</marquee></lj-cut>
· (<pre>): HTML treats multiple spaces as a single space, so you can add formatting to the source code which doesn't need to display in the page you see in the browser. If you type multiple spaces into part of your entry, it will appear as if you had only typed one in the final page. But what if you want to keep the spaces?
· Many fonts use proportional spacing, so an i is shorter than an m. But what if you want text to line up in a specific way?
Where Can I Use HTML on LiveJournal? [was section 3]
· Entries: LiveJournal entries allow the following HTML tags along with others not mentioned here:
<a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br> <center> <cite> <code> <dd> <div> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <form> <h1> <h2> <h3> <hr> <i> <img> <input> <li> <marquee> <nobr> <ol> <option> <p> <pre> <s> <select> <small> <span> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul> <xmp>
In many cases, the Post an Entry page is set to use the Rich Text Editor by default. You may need to switch to HTML editing by clicking the HTML tab before you can use HTML to format your entries.
· Comments: LiveJournal comments allow most tags shown above, except for form tags (<form> and <input>).
· User Bio and Community Bio: The User Bio and Community Bio allows many tags shown above, but does not allow the <div> tag, the <span> tag, and CSS.
· Entry Subjects and Mood/Music: Entry subjects and the current mood/music fields only allow certain tags.
<a> <b> <i> <u> <em> <strong> <cite>
· Banned HTML & Code: LiveJournal prohibits scripts, applets, and objects in all user-provided content, including entries, bios, comments and custom styles.
Preview [was section 4]
The Rich Text Editor [was section 5]
Troubleshooting [was section 7]
[same text]
Using a Downloadable Client [was section 6]
[same text]