5 FAQ tagged with html
How do I post code or other marked up text?
Because the site strips a lot of extraneous HTML from questions, it can be difficult to post things that need special formatting or include special characters. If you want to include code snippets or other text with your question, you can use a tool like pastebin that allows you to link to properly formatted code that you can mark up with syntax highlighting.
(tags: code html askme syntax markup askmetafilter ) June 16, 2009 - permalink - back to questions
(tags: code html askme syntax markup askmetafilter ) June 16, 2009 - permalink - back to questions
How do I make a link? Can I use HTML in my posts?
There are two ways to make a link: type it in, or use the automated buttons.
To type it in: If you know how to use HTML, you can use an abbreviated list of HTML tags in your posts, including a, b, blockquote, center, em, i, li, ol, pre, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, and ul. You can just type them into the compose/comment box.
To add italics, for example, you would type: <em>italicized phrase</em>
which shows as: italicized phrase
To add a link to example.com you would type: <a href="http://example.com">here is a link to example.com</a>
which shows as: here is a link to example.com
UBB code does not work in MetaFilter. Not all HTML is allowed. If you stick to simple text formatting (b, strong, i, em, a) and lists (ul/li/ol) you'll be ok. Things like tables, embedded video code, javascript, images, and inline styles will be stripped out. There is also a restriction on using html to make the words "posted by" in small size in comments, to keep people from making comments that look like they're being posted by others.
Using the buttons: If you use a modern browser, you'll see B/I/link buttons below the compose/comment box that you can use to add basic formatting. To make a link using the button, you highlight the word or phrase you want to be the link text (like the phrase "here is a link to example.com" above), click the link button, and type or paste the URL into the box that appears.
Here's a short video showing how to use the buttons to insert HTML.
(tags: html compose links link linking metafilter askmetafilter metatalk askme faq2020 ) March 6, 2006 - permalink - back to questions
To type it in: If you know how to use HTML, you can use an abbreviated list of HTML tags in your posts, including a, b, blockquote, center, em, i, li, ol, pre, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, and ul. You can just type them into the compose/comment box.
To add italics, for example, you would type: <em>italicized phrase</em>
which shows as: italicized phrase
To add a link to example.com you would type: <a href="http://example.com">here is a link to example.com</a>
which shows as: here is a link to example.com
UBB code does not work in MetaFilter. Not all HTML is allowed. If you stick to simple text formatting (b, strong, i, em, a) and lists (ul/li/ol) you'll be ok. Things like tables, embedded video code, javascript, images, and inline styles will be stripped out. There is also a restriction on using html to make the words "posted by" in small size in comments, to keep people from making comments that look like they're being posted by others.
Using the buttons: If you use a modern browser, you'll see B/I/link buttons below the compose/comment box that you can use to add basic formatting. To make a link using the button, you highlight the word or phrase you want to be the link text (like the phrase "here is a link to example.com" above), click the link button, and type or paste the URL into the box that appears.
Here's a short video showing how to use the buttons to insert HTML.
(tags: html compose links link linking metafilter askmetafilter metatalk askme faq2020 ) March 6, 2006 - permalink - back to questions
My HTML seemed to work in the live preview but didn't come through correctly. Is this a bug or intentional?
The live preview seen below the comment forms shows a real-time approximation of your comment, but does not go through the extensive text filtering done on the server side. As a result, it's possible to place almost any HTML code into a comment and reproduce it in the live preview area, but that code is stripped out once the comment is posted to the site.
If you are wondering if your HTML code will display properly, please use the Preview button before your post. The Preview button will render things like < into < however, so before you post, you have to re-type things like angle brackets into their < format. We are aware that this is a less-than-perfect solution.
(tags: html livepreview comments metafilter askme metatalk ) October 17, 2006 - permalink - back to questions
If you are wondering if your HTML code will display properly, please use the Preview button before your post. The Preview button will render things like < into < however, so before you post, you have to re-type things like angle brackets into their < format. We are aware that this is a less-than-perfect solution.
(tags: html livepreview comments metafilter askme metatalk ) October 17, 2006 - permalink - back to questions
If my post has more than one link, or the link isn't first, do I need to use the URL box?
The "URL" and "Link title" fields are there for your convenience. If you have a one link post you can just fill them in and go. If you want to make a post with a few links, or without the beginning text as your link, you can skip those boxes (but don't skip the title box) and just write the HTML for the links in the post yourself.
(tags: html post fpp link metafilter ) January 11, 2007 - permalink - back to questions
(tags: html post fpp link metafilter ) January 11, 2007 - permalink - back to questions
Why did my HTML get screwed up, when it was fine in live preview?
See here for details on this problem.
(tags: html preview bug display ) December 10, 2012 - permalink - back to questions
(tags: html preview bug display ) December 10, 2012 - permalink - back to questions