A guide to using HTML on Free Republic in 5 lines

Painful experience | April 25, 2007 | GrondramB

[gondramB]

When I came to Free Republic I had never used HTML. All the guides seemed complicated. This is a guide where I try to keep it as short as possible to cover the most needed topics. There are many better and more complete guides. I'll link to a couple at the end.

1. Free Republic uses HTML where formatting is enclosed in “less than” and “greater than” signs like this <bold> </bold>unlike many boards that use brackets like this [bold] [/bold].

2. The first one starts the command and the second one (with the divided by sign) ends the formatting like this < b > Text < /b >

   As soon as you use one HTML command in your post the Free Republic editor assumes you are doing all the formatting so you need to add you own line breaks and blank lines. Use the <br> command once for a line break, or twice (like this <br><br>) for one blank line, three times for two blank lines and so on.

3. To insert a clickable link: <a href=www.linkadress.com>Link description</a>

4. To insert a picture <img src=”www.linkadress.com/picturename.jpg”>

Other resources

1. To host photos for free and get the HTML generated for you www.photobucket.com This site doesn't allow porn so its less likely to be blocked at work.

2. More advanced Freep thread on HTML http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1569737/posts

3. Best off-Freep resource page I've found http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/

4. Good luck!

[gondramB]

I'll be happy to take questions but I'm still not good at HTML, there are other Freepers who are quite good at it.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

My brain is about to EXPLODE!!!

[conservativehusker]

Thnaks this will help me!

[GRRRRR]

My FAVORITE HTML

USA

[newgeezer]

Nice try. However, in HTML, BOLD is <b>bold</b> (not <bold>bold</bold>).

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

A tip: Highlight what you want to know about (what html was used to do it) then right click on it and click on “view selection source.” You’ll see exactly how it was done - meaning the html code.

[theFIRMbss]

Also worth knowing
is if you see an effect
that you really like,

you can do view SOURCE
in your browser, look through it,
and COPY the code!

[tet68]

Now I know why some of my links didn’t work, I was putting them in quotes like an image insert.....DOH!

[theFIRMbss]

>“view selection source.”

[mmanager]

Thanks

This will be a big help.

[gondramB]

>>Thanks

This will be a big help.<<\

And I’d like to thank everyone who helping with additional ideas.

[David_G_Burnet]

When I came to Free Republic I had never used HTML

When I began FReeping, people used the convention of italics when quoting another FReeper's post. Whatever happened to that?

Wi also didnt hav spelchek.

[Repeal The 17th]

D O N ' T _ F O R G E T _ C L A S S Y _ G R E E N _ E Y E D _ B L O N D _ S T Y L E _ O F _ P O S T I N G _ ! ! !

[Repeal The 17th]

D O N ' T _ F O R G E T _ C L A S S Y _ G R E E N _ E Y E D _ B L O N D _ S T Y L E _ O F _ P O S T I N G _ ! ! !

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Twice!

And if you forget to turn all of your html off you may get it repeated on the next post.

[GoLightly]

When I began FReeping, people used the convention of italics when quoting another FReeper's post. Whatever happened to that?

I still do it. When I first began FReeping, if someone didn't close a tag in their HTML it would affect all of the posts in the thread following it.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

When I first began FReeping, if someone didn't close a tag in their HTML it would affect all of the posts in the thread following it.

Apparently they fixed that (or your post would also be in bold and font size = +3).

[gondramB]

>> When I began FReeping, people used the convention of italics when quoting another FReeper’s post. Whatever happened to that?

Wi also didnt hav spelchek.<<

That would be nice if that could be the standard. The “double greater than” looks cluttered and for somebody learning HTML is sometimes confusing.

Spellcheck is great - since I switched to Firefox and get spell check everywhere, not just on Freep, more people think I’m literate.

[Repeal The 17th]

And that is so TEDIOUS to do...
she MUST have had some kind of template that she was using.

[GoLightly]

Apparently they fixed that (or your post would also be in bold and font size = +3).

Yes, they did. Ya almost had to learn HTML in self defense, to close tags on other people's posts. A post here or there with large bold fonts isn't a problem, but a whole thread of large bold blinking posts would make your eyes go batty.

[Right in Wisconsin]

ping

[RedRover]

Ahem...

[David_G_Burnet]

How did they ever find out she was a he, or shehe, a whatever?

I never got the story on that.

[doc1019]

Dude, haw did you get the USA to blink?

Dude, haw did you get the USA to blink?

[doc1019]

Yea, yea I know … spell check would have been nice! Duh!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

A tip: Highlight what you want to know about (what html was used to do it) then right click on it and click on “view selection source.” You’ll see exactly how it was done - meaning the html code.

Only if you are using Firefox as your browser.

For those folks using Microsoft Internet Explorer (shuddderrr) there is a small tool that can be downloaded and installed quickly which will add the same bit to your right-click-context-menu.

Get it Here

Download link is on the right side of page.

[Draco]

Thanks.

[GRRRRR]

DEpends where ya put the BLINK! ( I guess )

[doc1019]

Just kidding … I’ve been into HTML for years. In my hurry to be funny I forgot the cardinal rule of posting … always spell check before putting your stuff before the public (especially if it will be in large letters, bright red and blinking).

;-)

[lilycicero]

Guess Red wants us to come out of our comfort zone!

Do you seriously want me to know how to post photos????

Stand by to be impressed shippy.

[RDTF]

Great help - thanks!

[RedRover]

Standing by. Fire for effect.

[Repeal The 17th]

All I know about it was that she/he/it posted under the name of “classy green eyed blonde” and every single one of her/his/its posts were formatted that way.

[21stCenturion]

...

[Repeal The 17th]

The blinking text function works in Firefox, but in Internet Explorer it just appears as fixed text.

[Duke Nukum]

I’m about 50/50 now on using italics ‘cause I forget I have to use html for the whole post if I just do the “i’s.”

Also, I’ve used ie-spell for years, works better then any other sort of spell check I’ve used.

[David_G_Burnet]

LOL, the good old days of staring at the sun, that was a fun night.

I remembered the old adage "if it's too good to be true..." early on in the whole "Classy" episode.

I even created a counterposter ID that started with "WellHung...." and was about 30 letters long.

It got banned almost immediately. Rightfully so.

[doc1019]

From what I understand, it will be added to the next version (or update) of IE … would make life easier.

[David_G_Burnet]

More LOL, I checked your homepage. Those were also the days before I eventually took the same pledge.

It was a lot of fun for a while though.

[pissant]

bookmark. I could use a brush up.

[thackney]

HTML Sandbox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1555762/posts

HTML Bootcamp (Cyber patriot training)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3aa5843c228c.htm

[thackney]

See also:

HTML Primer
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/

Webmonkey
http://webmonkey.com/webmonkey/frontdoor/beginners.html

Reference HTML Cheatsheet (Webmonkey)
http://webmonkey.com/webmonkey/reference/html_cheatsheet/

[Caramelgal]

To host photos for free and get the HTML generated for you www.photobucket.com

Thanks. I recently wondered how to post pics of my own.

Willie the Wonder Cat says Hi!

[marine86297]

Bump for Later

[gondramB]

That’s great that you got the photo posting to work so quickly.

If anybody wants to post a picture but doesn’t want the hassle of singing up for a (free) photobucket.com account they can use http://www.tinypic.com/ instead.

Tinypic is owned by Photobucket and you can simply host a picture or video there without ever signing in but then you don’t have in an album with your other online pictures.

Tinypic will also generate the HTML for you.

[bobbyd]

bump

[Logic n' Reason]

Ping for later learning experience!

See? It works

[N. Theknow]

[RedRover]

[lilycicero]

YAKMROTFLMAO!

I haven’t seen that one before! Thanks.

PS I messed up my homepage trying to learn the 5 FR steps.