# Coding question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coding-question/75935>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [August 12, 2001, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coding-question/75935 "2001-08-12T20:55:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coding-question/75935/1 "2001-08-12T20:55:46Z")

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I’m starting to pound some of the UBB code into my head, and I know how to do **bold** , _italics_, links, things like that, but how do I make the text really small? I can’t find it in the FAQs.

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**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coding-question/75935/2 "2001-08-12T20:58:41Z")

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type (sub)whatever you want and then(/sub), substiting for ()

[sub]like this[/sub]

If you “quote” a post you can see the coding.

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**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coding-question/75935/3 "2001-08-12T21:04:54Z")

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Sub is good for lowered, small text. Sup is good for raised, small text.

For example: Testing sub[sub]test[/sub]

Another example: Testing sup[sup]test[/sup]  
As **porcupine** said: use (sub)text(/sub) or (sup)text(/sup). Substituting brackets for the parentheses ( ).

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coding-question/75935/4 "2001-08-12T21:13:47Z")

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Using nested sub and sup will give you small text that is neither raised nor lowered, but it doesn’t work with all browsers.

When you substitute brackets for braces, **This is {sup}{sub}small{/sub}{/sup}** yields

This is [sup][sub]small[/sub][/sup]

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**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coding-question/75935/5 "2001-08-12T23:55:15Z")

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[sup]test[/sup] [sub]post[/sub]

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**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coding-question/75935/6 "2001-08-12T23:56:20Z")

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Woo-hoo! It worked!

Thanks all.