I want to make it purdy

July 18, 2006 11:13 PM

Couple questions:

1) If I go to the AskMeFi "New Question" page, I do not see buttons for bold, italics, link and spell check. It appears that only plain text is allowed (or html, which I don't know). However, if I go to someone else's question, the comment area has all of the above. Does my browser/setup have a problem? I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.4, I've got various extensions (NoScript, Mouse Gestures, FoxClocks, ScrapBook, del.icio.us and ScreenGrab).

2) What is the easiest way to include a picture in the question? Posting it to flickr (or equivalent) and linking to it?

I've read the FAQ and performed searches on both topics, but could not find answers.

Thanks!
posted by eebs to Bugs at 11:13 PM (31 comments total)

I'm guessing that the bold/italic buttons are disabled in AskMe's "new question" page intentionally... I don't recall having seen many or maybe even any questions with bold/italics in them on the front page.

Including a picture is easiest by linking via flickr or some other site, yes. Do not post it inline with an IMG tag, as you will likely get complaints.
posted by twiggy at 11:18 PM on July 18, 2006

come to think of it, you're right about bold and italics. but how about link button? would it be too much to ask how to create a link without spelling out the whole address (i.e., http:// ...)?
posted by eebs at 11:24 PM on July 18, 2006

Even with a link button you have to spell out the whole address.. no button is going to magically fix that for you... all it will save you is the trouble of typing out: <a href="[link goes here and still needs http://blahblah anyway]">[clicky text goes here]</a>

That really isn't that much time/work saved.
posted by twiggy at 11:47 PM on July 18, 2006

What do you mean?

- Copy URL
- Highlight clicky text
- Click 'link'
- Paste URL
- Click OK

You don't have to spell out the whole address.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:54 PM on July 18, 2006

Put the bold, italic and links inside, not in the question itself. If you must and you can not remember the tag syntax, compose in another window on mefi with the appropriate buttons and then paste that text into your posting window. Do not post an inline image in your AskMe question. Links to the image are the polite way to use an image in AskMe.
posted by caddis at 12:01 AM on July 19, 2006

obiwanwasabi: eebs says there isn't a Link button when posting an AskMe question, so what you described is exactly what they can't do.

I think he/she wanted to know how to make a link by manually typing the html (as twiggy showed), instead of just pasting the link in like:
http://metatalk.metafilter.com
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:35 AM on July 19, 2006

Do not post it inline with an IMG tag, as you will likely get complaints definitely be snarked.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:42 AM on July 19, 2006

EndsOfInvention: obiwansabi is replying to twiggy, who thinks that you have to spell out the address in full whatever method you use. Twiggy, in turn, is correcting eebs, who is grousing about having to spell out the full address.

Copy and paste works for both of course, so really eebs can't be bothered typing A HREF=. I can see why.
posted by bonaldi at 4:26 AM on July 19, 2006

geez, who do you think he is, george jetson?
posted by quonsar at 4:30 AM on July 19, 2006

Do not post it inline with an IMG tag, as you will likely get complaints

If the image is pertinent to the question, and it's put inside, instead of the main page of Ask, there should be no problems with doing it. (And having it hosted on Flickr should be just fine.)
posted by crunchland at 5:09 AM on July 19, 2006

The FAQ used to have a small explanation of how to type basic HTML which is now back. Linking to a picture in Flickr or someplace else is the best way to include an image, please do not include it inline if you can avoid it. You can use one of the other compose boxes on the site if you want to use the click-to-make-llink feature.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:13 AM on July 19, 2006

You have metafilter.com allowed in noscript, right? Because if you don't that could screw a lot of stuff up.
posted by bob sarabia at 6:14 AM on July 19, 2006

A cumbersome aparatus
posted by blue_beetle at 7:46 AM on July 19, 2006

You've answered all my questions. Thank you.

bob sarabia: yes, metafilter.com is allowed in noscript.
posted by eebs at 7:57 AM on July 19, 2006

You can use one of the other compose boxes on the site if you want to use the click-to-make-llink feature.

I've asked about this before, but why? Why is it so important that we not have bold, italics, or links readily available? I mean, if we can put them in manually, why not just put the little buttons there anyway? I just think it's annoying to have to compose your question in some comment box somewhere, then cut-n-paste.
posted by MrZero at 9:34 AM on July 19, 2006

because we don't like bold, italics and links in the question itself
posted by caddis at 9:52 AM on July 19, 2006

It doesn't mention any disapproval in the FAQ.

How do I use HTML in my posts? Why don't I see the B, I, Link buttons sometimes in the posting area?

If you know how to use HTML, you can include an abbreviated list of HTML tags in your posts, including a, b, strong, i, em, ul, li and blockquote.

The format for adding italics, for example, is: italicized word
The format for adding a link to example.com is: example.com

If you use a browser other than Safari, you'll see B/I/link buttons above the compose box that you can use to add basic formatting. UBB code does not work in MetaFilter.
posted by MrZero at 10:08 AM on July 19, 2006

<i>jksdhasjkdhdaaskdas</i>
<b>jksdhasjkdhdaaskdas</b>

<a href="http://www.website.com">link</a>
posted by cellphone at 10:12 AM on July 19, 2006

&lti&gt and &ltb&GT have been depreciated. You should use &ltem&gt and &ltstrong&gt instead.
posted by Mitheral at 10:20 AM on July 19, 2006

Ok, that failed in an unexpected (and different from preview) manner. How do you get tags to parse thru the verifier?
posted by Mitheral at 10:22 AM on July 19, 2006

I've asked about this before, but why?

that's a mathowie question, I don't know.

Mitheral: I'll change the example, thanks.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:23 AM on July 19, 2006

Mitheral, you forgot your terminating semicolons. Live Preview is far too polite to mention it.
posted by cortex at 10:55 AM on July 19, 2006

<b> <i>Ah!</i> </b>
posted by Mitheral at 11:00 AM on July 19, 2006

&lti&gt and &ltb&GT have been depreciated. You should use &ltem&gt and &ltstrong&gt instead.

This is false (even when substituting the word you meant, "deprecated"). <i> is for italics, whilc <em> is for emphasis; <b> is for boldface, while <strong> is for, um, strength. When quoting your sentence above, I used <i> because I want the damn thing in italics, not emphasized.
posted by gleuschk at 11:19 AM on July 19, 2006

gleuschk is right, IIRC, some text readers will actually differ their speaking style based on each of those four tags...
posted by hatsix at 11:29 AM on July 19, 2006

You fail it, Mitheral.
posted by cellphone at 11:43 AM on July 19, 2006

So they aren't. A quick search shows that the people who claim they are all advise using style sheets instead, something that obviously won't work here. Let the guilt free use of the <B> tag commence.
posted by Mitheral at 12:04 PM on July 19, 2006

It never stopped commencing.
posted by cellphone at 3:13 PM on July 19, 2006

Or whatever the proper form of that sentence should be
posted by cellphone at 3:13 PM on July 19, 2006

The proper verb form is "commencimatizing."
posted by cortex at 3:19 PM on July 19, 2006

I/we am commencimatizing; you are commencimatating; he/she/it is commencimatizating.
posted by flabdablet at 1:59 AM on July 20, 2006