# you said to use this to practice

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [August 23, 2000, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377 "2000-08-23T00:41:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![teppei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58956e/32.png) [@teppei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teppei)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377/1 "2000-08-23T00:41:12Z")

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so I am, fun stuff. sorry, this is truly a waste of a thread. I’ve seen quotes in previous posts quotes, so let me try it. if I got it wrong, someone please tell me how to do them correctly (this attempt is based on my amateur konwledge of html, which you really can see on my joke of a webpage). anyway, let’s try this:  
\<a quote\>“this is a quote”\</a\>

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**Author:** ![teppei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58956e/32.png) [@teppei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teppei)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377/2 "2000-08-23T00:42:49Z")

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you can’t really quote w/out a previous post to do so, right? anywa, I still don’t konw how to do it. could someone help, please?

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377/3 "2000-08-23T01:10:32Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by teppei \*  
> you can’t really quote w/out a previous post to do so, right? anywa, I still don’t konw how to do it. could someone help, please?

To post a quote (substitute brackets [and] for the braces { and } used in the example):

{quote}Type or paste quoted text here{/quote}

With the substitution, you get:

> [@](#):
>
> Type or paste quoted text here

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**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377/4 "2000-08-23T01:13:40Z")

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You can quote anything you want. The “reply w/quote” gives you a head start, but you can qutoe Shakespeare if you want.

To do a quote, type:  
[**quote]Whatever you want to say.[**/quote]

It will come out looking like this:

> [@](#):
>
> Whatever you want to say.

Hope this helps. Check the link to [vB code](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/index.php?action=bbcode) at the bottom of the page for more of the basics. Also, there are lots of other threads here for how to do stuff.

And, welcome to our world.  
Jim

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**Author:** ![barflyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@barflyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barflyer)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377/5 "2000-08-23T01:15:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by teppei \*  
> \*\*you can’t really quote w/out a previous post to do so, right? anywa, I still don’t konw how to do it. could someone help, please? \*\*

The easy way, push the Quote button below the text. If you are moving a quote from one thread to another, you’ll have to cut and paste what you get, so preview and try no to get confused which window is which.

You can edit quotes, to cut them down to pertinent parts, but watch out for bracketed codes, which come in pairs.

There are two main Instruction pages.

The one in blue at the top of the page “vb code” for simple stuff.  
The other, with neat tricks, is here:  
\*\* [Don’t forget the link. Here’s how to post one, Part Next](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=25307)\*\*

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**Author:** ![barflyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@barflyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barflyer)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377/6 "2000-08-23T01:21:55Z")

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One other thing, you don’t actually need to start from a thread. Just use [[sub][/sub]quote] at the front and [[sub][/sub]/quote] at the end, with appropriate italics and bold marks.

I usually just start with the quote button of any thread and change the words for the current person.

Thus:

> [@](#):
>
> _The candidate said today_  
> **Blah blah.**

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**Author:** ![teppei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58956e/32.png) [@teppei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teppei)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377/7 "2000-08-23T01:42:21Z")

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dang, you guys answer fast. if only other help services were so efficient.

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**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-said-to-use-this-to-practice/30377/8 "2000-08-23T02:18:24Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by teppei \*  
> \*\*dang, you guys answer fast. if only other help services were so efficient. \*\*

Hey, that’s slick!