# posting so that the letters in \[ \] actually appear **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 17, 2001, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077 "2001-10-17T22:04:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Robb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Robb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robb)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/1 "2001-10-17T22:04:26Z")
I was trying to quote a passage that put an i in . When I previewed, I saw that everything after it was italicized. How do you use such that whatever is in the brackets appears as text rather than altering things as a code? ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/2 "2001-10-17T22:13:33Z")
[Try inserting a space after the first bracket and before the closing bracket. Like this.] ---
**Author:** ![Robb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Robb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robb)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/3 "2001-10-17T22:21:40Z")
**AudreyK** , that occurred to me a little too late to be useful. I’m wondering if there aren’t other ways as well. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/4 "2001-10-17T22:38:25Z")
There must be another way; I’ve seen posts where somebody was explaining how to use the vB tags; one line would show what you had to type, the next would show the result; they didn’t insert spaces or substitute curly braces either. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/5 "2001-10-17T22:51:12Z")
[\*\*i] Click on quote to see how I did it. ---
**Author:** ![Robb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Robb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robb)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/6 "2001-10-17T23:34:06Z")
[\*\*i] [u] [[sup][/sup]sup] success! Thanks, **bibliophage** ---
**Author:** ![J248974](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cc9497/32.png) [@J248974](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J248974)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/7 "2001-10-18T00:35:48Z")
test ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/8 "2001-10-18T07:56:27Z")
Nice one [**b]bibliophage[**/b] 😉 thanks ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/9 "2001-10-18T08:02:29Z")
It took me a while to get my brain around that one. Neat. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/10 "2001-10-18T08:04:31Z")
For people who are too lazy to pick quote, he did it like this: [[**i][**/i]i] ---
**Author:** ![jmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmonster)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/11 "2001-10-18T16:36:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Achernar \* > For people who are too lazy to pick quote, he did it like this: > > [[**i][**/i]i] BUT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, HOW DID YOU DO **THAT**?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/12 "2001-10-19T09:28:43Z")
[[**i][**/i]i] ] Freaky stuff. Using “Click Quote” is easier, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@Bilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bilder)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/13 "2001-10-20T02:05:23Z")
This stuff, and also the [sub]small font[/sub] questions appear so often it’s too bad it’s not somewhere more permanent. I wonder if we can add info to the “vB code” page? Or at least ask them to update it? It probably is a common question on all their customers’ boards. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/14 "2001-10-20T05:37:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bilder \* > \*\*This stuff, and also the [sub]small font[/sub] questions appear so often it’s too bad it’s not somewhere more permanent. I wonder if we can add info to the “vB code” page? Or at least ask them to update it? It probably is a common question on all their customers’ boards. \*\* [Here’s a thread about creating a new FAQ.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=64590) I think the thread is, for all intents and purposes, dead, but it shows that we have had some discussion about creating such a document here before. It just didn’t get nowhere… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/15 "2001-10-22T04:15:33Z")
> [@](#): > > BUT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!??!?!?!?!?!? He obviously typed [[[**i][**/i]i][[**i][**/i]/i]i] ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/16 "2001-10-22T17:45:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*He obviously typed [[[**i][**/i]i][[**i][**/i]/i]i] \*\* Well, it just so happens that that is what I typed, but only because I was feeling unimaginitive. Realize that I could just as easily have typed [[i[b][/b]][[/i]i] or [[i[sub][/sub]][[/[sup][/sup]i]i] or even [[[u][/u]i][[sUP][/Sup]/i[sub][/SuB]]i]. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/17 "2001-10-23T16:17:06Z")
OK, **Achernar** , you win. You obviously have more time on your hands than I. Fall break? Of course, for bonus points, you should also have done sym. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-so-that-the-letters-in-actually-appear/88077/18 "2001-10-23T16:46:44Z")
Well, I would have, but the [Sym] tag comes with an undesirable whitespace. Specifically, it gets replaced with '\ '. It would have wound up looking something like this: [[Sym][/Sym]i] Looking at my post, though, I see that there **is** an undesirable whitespace. I didn’t put that. I guess it just comes from having unbroken text three-or-so lines long.