Useful HTML Commands

Before I begin this segment, I should make it clear that this IS NOT a complete HTML tutorial by any chance. If you want to really learn HTML, you can start with the University of Michigan WWW FAQ List. This page lists just a few commands that you can use when writing your messages in COW.

All of the code that I talk about below can be inserted directly into any text box in COW, including the change profile, start new conversation, and reply sections (for participants), and the conference and topic messages (for fair witnesses). However, in order to make it work you must remember to check the 'Interpret this as HTML' box. Also, it is recommended that you use the 'Preview Message' button whenever using any HTML commands, in case you make a mistake with the code.

How to create a link to another WWW page

If the web page you want to link to has the following address:

http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~sabileah/

The code you would use would look like this as entered into the text box... 

Hey everybody in MyClass 101, check out this informative and fun web
site I found.  It's called Shahaf's New Home Page, and to go there 
click <A HREF="http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~sabileah/">here</A>.

This is how it would look on the posted message:

Hey everybody in MyClass 101, check out this informative and fun web site I found. It's called Shahaf's New Home Page, and to go there click here.

What you can change about this

Don't forget to

How to underline text

If you had the following sentence to type:

The book I read was Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

and you wanted to underline the name of the book. This is how you would type it into the text box like this...

The book I read was <U>Cat's Cradle</U> by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

This is how it would look in the posted message:

The book I read was Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Notes

How to make text bold

If you wanted to write the following line:

I tried to do problem number 5, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it.

and you wanted to put emphasis on the 'a lot' part, you would do the following...

I tried to do problem number 5, but I'm having <B>a lot</B> of trouble with it.

This is what it would look like in the posted message:

I tried to do problem number 5, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it.

How to italicize text

Similar idea. If you wanted to write:

The article I read is called "The Force is Still With Us," and was published in Time Magazine

and you wanted to italicize the name of the magazine, you would do this...

The article I read is called "The Force is Still With Us," and was published in <I>Time</I> Magazine

This sentence posted in a message would look like this:

The article I read is called "The Force is Still With Us," and was published in Time Magazine

How to create a line break

A line break is like a carriage return, or in other words like pressing enter on the keyboard. It makes the next word start one line lower. This is actually a pretty important command. Why is that? Reason is that as soon as you check the 'Interpret this as HTML' box, all superfluous spaces or enters are ignored by COW. This means that the following two lines would look the same: 

There     are    a  bunch       of spaces in     this line.

There are a bunch of spaces in this line.

They would both look like this:

There are a bunch of spaces in this line.

To force a line to start lower you can do this:

Paragraph 1 of my message<BR>Paragraph 2<BR>Paragraph 3

The result would look like this:

Paragraph 1 of my message
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3

Note: You can use multiple <BR>s to create extra spaces between lines.

How to make text of a different color

If you wanted to write only a part of a sentence in red, you would do the following...

Only the word <FONT COLOR="RED">red</FONT> is written in <FONT COLOR="RED">red</FONT>.

The result would be this

Only the word red is written in red.

Notes:

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