Compose tips

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <br> <img> <table> <tr> <td> <th> <colgroup> <tbody> <thead> <p> <h2>

    This site allows HTML content. While learning all of HTML may feel intimidating, learning how to use a very small number of the most basic HTML "tags" is very easy. This table provides examples for each tag that is enabled on this site.

    For more information see W3C's HTML Specifications or use your favorite search engine to find other sites that explain HTML.

    Tag DescriptionYou TypeYou Get
    Anchors are used to make links to other pages.<a href="https://messedup.utwente.nl">Messed Up</a>Messed Up
    Emphasized<em>Emphasized</em>Emphasized
    Strong<strong>Strong</strong>Strong
    Cited<cite>Cited</cite>Cited
    Coded text used to show programming source code<code>Coded</code>Coded
    Unordered list - use the <li> to begin each list item<ul> <li>First item</li> <li>Second item</li> </ul>
    • First item
    • Second item
    Ordered list - use the <li> to begin each list item<ol> <li>First item</li> <li>Second item</li> </ol>
    1. First item
    2. Second item
    No help provided for tag li.
    Definition lists are similar to other HTML lists. <dl> begins the definition list, <dt> begins the definition term and <dd> begins the definition description.<dl> <dt>First term</dt> <dd>First definition</dd> <dt>Second term</dt> <dd>Second definition</dd> </dl>
    First term
    First definition
    Second term
    Second definition
    No help provided for tag dt.
    No help provided for tag dd.
    By default line break tags are automatically added, so use this tag to add additional ones. Use of this tag is different because it is not used with an open/close pair like all the others. Use the extra " /" inside the tag to maintain XHTML 1.0 compatibilityText with <br />line breakText with
    line break
    No help provided for tag img.
    Table<table> <tr><th>Table header</th></tr> <tr><td>Table cell</td></tr> </table>
    Table header
    Table cell
    No help provided for tag tr.
    No help provided for tag td.
    No help provided for tag th.
    No help provided for tag colgroup.
    No help provided for tag tbody.
    No help provided for tag thead.
    By default paragraph tags are automatically added, so use this tag to add additional ones.<p>Paragraph one.</p> <p>Paragraph two.</p>

    Paragraph one.

    Paragraph two.
    Heading<h2>Subtitle</h2>

    Subtitle

    Most unusual characters can be directly entered without any problems.

    If you do encounter problems, try using HTML character entities. A common example looks like &amp; for an ampersand & character. For a full list of entities see HTML's entities page. Some of the available characters include:

    Character DescriptionYou TypeYou Get
    Ampersand&amp;&
    Greater than&gt;>
    Less than&lt;<
    Quotation mark&quot;"

  • Video Filter

    You may insert videos from popular video sites by using a simple tag [video:URL].

    Examples:

    • Single video:
      [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1qUeId]
    • Random video out of multiple:
      [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1qUeId1,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1qUeId2]
    • Override default autoplay setting: [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1qUeId autoplay:1]
    • Override default width and height:
      [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1qUeId width:X height:Y]
    • Override default aspect ratio:
      [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1qUeId ratio:4/3]
    • Align the video:
      [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1qUeId align:right]

    Supported sites: Archive.org, Blip.tv, Candid Career, Capped, College Humor, Coub, DailyMotion, DemocracyNow Fullshow, DemocracyNow Story, Flickr Slideshows, Flickr Video, Fox News, Game Trailers, Game Videos, Giphy, GodTube, Google Video, Instagram, Meta Cafe, Mail.Ru, MySpace, MyVideo, Picasa Slideshows, Rutube, Slideshare, Streamhoster, Teachertube, TED, Twitch, Ustream, Vbox7, Vimeo, Vine, whatchado, Wistia, YouKu, YouTube, YouTube (Playlist).

    Special instructions:

    Some codecs need special input. You'll find those instructions here.
    • Picasa Slideshows:
      You must use the URL of the RSS feed for the Picasa album:
      1. View the album in Picasa (you should see thumbnails, not a slideshow).
      2. Find the "RSS" link and click it.
      3. Copy the resulting URL from the browser address bar. Example:
        [video: //picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/USER_NAME/albumid/5568104935784209834?alt=rss&kind=photo&hl=en_US]
    • Slideshare:
      You need to construct your own URL, using the "Wordpress Embed" code from Slideshare, extract the "id", and form the URL like this: slideshare.net/1759622
    • TED:
      Click in Embed and copy the "Link to this talk" link and paste here.
  • Lines and paragraphs are automatically recognized. The <br /> line break, <p> paragraph and </p> close paragraph tags are inserted automatically. If paragraphs are not recognized simply add a couple blank lines.
  • Email addresses will be obfuscated in the page source to reduce the chances of being harvested by spammers.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs are automatically recognized. The <br /> line break, <p> paragraph and </p> close paragraph tags are inserted automatically. If paragraphs are not recognized simply add a couple blank lines.