dotTech Tips: Using the forums | Reviews/Tutorials | Forums

The dotTech forums, while not the best, still have a lot of ways to be confusing.  This tutorial will show you how to use each button.

The first button is bold.  You can use this button by pressing Ctrl+B on the keyboard or the bold B icon.

The second button is italic.  You can use this button by pressing Ctrl+I on the keyboard or the italic I icon.

The third button is underline.  You can use this button by pressing Ctrl+U on the keyboard or the underlined U icon.

The next buttons are where they start to get confusing. 

The fourth button is the unordered list button.

• This creates bullets.
• To make a new bullet press enter.
• To end the list, create a new bullet and press enter again.

The fifth button is the ordered list button.

1. This makes numbered lists.
2. To make a new number press enter.
3. To end the list, create a new number and press enter again.

The next button is blockquote.

It creates indented paragraphs with a background color.

The next buttons are the outdent and the indent buttons.

To make an indent- something like tabbing into a document- press the indent button.  To undo it press the outdent button.

This is indented text.

You can indent as many times as you'd like.

The next buttons are the link and unlink buttons.

To make a link, type in some text and select it.  From there, click the link button.

The Link URL is where you want to make the link go to- say, http://dottech.org.  You need to include the http:// part.  The target option lets you open the URL in either a new tab/window or the current tab/window.   The title field is for what appears when you hover over a link.  This is a link.

The next button is Text Color.

To change the color of the text, just click on the A icon and select a color from the dropdown box.  You can also click more colors and choose one from the palettes. 

The next button is Insert Custom Character.

To insert something like these (Ï or µ, etc) click this button.  It lets you choose from 199 custom characters!

To embed an image, click the tree icon that's next.

The image URL box is straightforward.  The image description is… I'm not going to explain that one.  The alignment is not as straightforward as one might think- it just chooses which side of a paragraph, not the post itself, the picture's little preview goes.  The dimensions are useless- the way the forum is set up they are ignored.  The same is true with the rest of the settings for images.

Insert Media button

I'm not going to explain the insert media button becuase I'm actually not sure how it works. 

The next button is powerful:  Edit the HTML

The HTML editor is just that:  an HTML editor.

Highlight your code

Highlighting your code is a lot like a blockquote with a different font and background color.  You need to select your code to use this button.

Spellcheck

Pretty straightforward.

Preview your post

This box doesn't actually preview your post, it just pops out your WYSIWYG thing you're most likely typing in.

Smileys

These are fun to use.  Just click them.

Thanks XD