# Questions about post formatting **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 2, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-post-formatting/237852 "2004-04-02T04:06:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-post-formatting/237852/1 "2004-04-02T04:06:09Z")
2 quick one’s. 1. It seems pretty common to bold another username you refer to. Do I just type the name, highlight and hit the bold button? (I assume this is how, but want to make sure) 2. I can link to a website by just typing in the address, but some get unwieldy. How do I change that link to a simple “here” or “this” link? ---
**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:** [April 2, 2004, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-post-formatting/237852/2 "2004-04-02T04:57:21Z")
This is a question about this message board, so I’ll move this thread to ATMB. bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**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:** [April 2, 2004, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-post-formatting/237852/3 "2004-04-02T05:05:33Z")
On the reply screen, above the text box, there’s a little "insert hypertext"doohickey that you can click on. Alternatively, you can do it like this: [url=“[www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com)”]put text here[/url] but without the extra space after /url ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-post-formatting/237852/4 "2004-04-02T05:12:59Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > 2 quick one’s. > > 1. It seems pretty common to bold another username you refer to. Do I just type the name, highlight and hit the bold button? (I assume this is how, but want to make sure) > > 2. I can link to a website by just typing in the address, but some get unwieldy. How do I change that link to a simple “here” or “this” link? 1. Hit the bold button, then a box will ask you to enter the text. Or, type (I’m going to use parentheses in the example): open bracket - b - close bracket your text open bracket - slash - b - close bracket, as in (b) my text (/b), or **my text**. 2. I always use the button for this one. Hit the hyperlink button. The box will ask you for your text. Type it in, then hit enter. The box will ask you for your url. Type or paste that in, hit enter again. As in [Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/). When you use the buttons, you’ll be able to see the VB coding in your message. Some people use the coding after they know what it is, some continue to use the buttons. It’s all in that massive FAQ somewhere if you can find it. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-post-formatting/237852/5 "2004-04-02T06:51:30Z")
Thanks for the info, I’ll see if I can not screw it up too bad. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-post-formatting/237852/6 "2004-04-02T17:20:59Z")
Or you could simply click the link at the bottom of pret’ near ev’ry page in the box titled “Posting Rules” that says: [vB code](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/misc.php?do=bbcode) is On. That’ll open a new browser window (assuming your browser supports multiple windows) with a whole shithouse fulla code samples. Of course, manually coding your formatting is the equivalent of doing long division by hand, but at least you’ll learn something.