# Why can't I do that?  HELP!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-do-that-help/22500>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [June 15, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-do-that-help/22500 "2000-06-15T17:33:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ozone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e95f7d/32.png) [@Ozone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ozone)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-do-that-help/22500/1 "2000-06-15T17:33:18Z")

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I’m constantly seeing posts in which people use bold or italic letter. For some reason, this has been something that I haven’t figured out how to do. Am I just missing something here? I can’t seem to find anything on the “Post Message” screen that allows me to do this. I’ve even tried typing the message in MS Word, with bold letters, then cutting and pasting the message, but even then, my post had no bold letters. Can anyone help me out here?? 🙂

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**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-do-that-help/22500/2 "2000-06-15T17:55:03Z")

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When you post, at the top of your screen (under the banner title) is a link marked “vB code”. Click on that and it will explain the codes.

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**Author:** ![Ozone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e95f7d/32.png) [@Ozone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ozone)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-do-that-help/22500/3 "2000-06-15T18:09:55Z")

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Thanks mattk. I’m going to try it out here…

**BOLD** underlined _italic_

**YES!!!** _It works!!_

Thanks man… 😃

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**Author:** ![CatsPaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CatsPaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatsPaw)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-do-that-help/22500/4 "2000-06-15T22:12:25Z")

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There’s also **blue lettering**