Formatting on the Forums

A Former User

In fact, whenever you find things tricky you can just use HTML. That is one of the nice things about Markdown. Just can use HTML directly. In fact you could use it for all your posts.

Wrong!
If you read the previous pages here, you'd figure out that all of the HTML 'coding' elements have already been tested - they do not work as one could hope them to.

A Former User

Reload. That specific example took some doing!

I ain't gonna learn all those character "codes" by heart. Even if I knew how or where one would need them*:P*

ruario

ruario

@joshl Not in my experience. I use "<kbd>" in many of posts for example.

blackbird71

blackbird71

...
P.S. I corrected https://forums.opera.com/post/59149 for you

Thank you!

A Former User

@joshl Not in my experience. I use "<kbd>" in many of posts for example.

You use - I test*:P*
~~Your~~our kbd doesn't kbd everything (in Russian it sounded much funnier).

ruario

ruario

@joshl Since you obviously like this kind of thing, I would make sure you read the entire syntax page, rather than the basics page we link to below (assuming you haven't already done this).

The syntax page, explains the corner cases and details of embedding HTML more completely.

A Former User

Ruario, by the way, can I use some "character encoder" or something?
I saw you just use those "labada" replacements*:)*

A Former User

Ruario, would you please stop *@*ing me? I'm the starter of this thread, so I get "nots" anyway.

ruario

ruario

can I use some "character encoder" or something?

Is this what you are looking for?

http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-author/charref

P.S. I didn't know you actually received a notification. I don't perhaps because I am an employee or some other weirdness with my account.

A Former User

@joshl Since you obviously like this kind of thing, I would make sure you read the entire syntax page, rather than the basics page we link to below (assuming you haven't already done this).
The syntax page, explains the corner cases and details of embedding HTML more completely.

It's all nice, but personally, I'd prefer that/if the basics would work as they should do - like those "emphasis" and other things ("promised" in that page every user can link to).

can I use some "character encoder" or something?

Is this what you are looking for?
http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-author/charref

I'll take a look.
Though for now, for most purposes those "backlashes" are enough.

ruario

ruario

It's all nice, but personally, I'd prefer that/if the basics would work as they should do

They do with the exception of "emphasis". Most of the other stuff that initially seems odd, makes sense if you read the syntax guide.

In any case, you can just write HTML, with the limitation that only a subset is made available, roughly the same tags you would get with Markdown, plus a few extra.

ruario

ruario

An example of a basic usage you claimed did not work was numbered lists but they work just fine

First
Second
Third

The problem seems to be that you left blank lines between items but the guide specifically tells you not to do this

If you put blank lines between items, you’ll get tags for the list item text.

A Former User

I had an impression that that was not "only emphasis". Maybe I'll revisit this thread from its beginning to refresh that "impression".
And to have it clear, this thread was started in order for other users to obtain basic knowledge how to make their contribution nice and tidy.

ruario

ruario

I had a quick scan of the earlier comments and they appear to be people not following the guide (e.g. new lines between list items) or an expectation that all HTML tags would work and all CSS.

Barring emphasis, the Markdown methods seem to work to, when written correctly. HTML works if you follow the rules about mixing and matching and understand that only a selection of tags (that roughly matches Markdown), is allowed.

ruario

ruario

How about a quick test to see what is really broken and what isn't? I'll use all of the features listed on the Markdown basics page.

Here my sample Markdown code:

Header 1
========

# Header 1

Header 2
--------

## Header 2

### Header 3

> This is a quote

> > This is a quote
> 
> This is a another quote, in reply

The last word of this sentence is *emphasized*.

The last word of this sentence is _emphasized_.

The last word of this sentence is **bolded**.

The last word of this sentence is __bolded__.

Unordered list with asterisk:

* Unordered list item
* Unordered list item
* Unordered list item

Unordered list with plus sign:

+ Unordered list item
+ Unordered list item
+ Unordered list item

Unordered list with hyphen (dash):

- Unordered list item
- Unordered list item
- Unordered list item

Ordered list:

1. First item in an ordered list
2. Second item in an ordered list
3. Third item in an ordered list

Ordered list with paragraph:

*   Unordered list item
    
    Second paragraph
    
*   Unordered list item

This is an [link to opera.com](http://www.opera.com/).

 This is an [link to opera.com with a title](http://www.opera.com/ "opera.com").

A link to [opera.com][1] and another to [Wikipedia][2]

[1]: http://www.opera.com/       "opera.com"
[2]: https://www.wikipedia.org/  "Wikipedia"

![alt text](https://forums.opera.com/themes/opera/design/static/css/img/opera-software-logo.png "Title")

![alt text][id]

[id]: https://forums.opera.com/themes/opera/design/static/css/img/opera-software-logo.png "Title"

Here is some inline code: `opera-developer`

Here is some code on a new line:

    $ whoami
    ruario

And this is how it outputs:

Header 1

Header 2

Header 3

This is a quote

This is a quote

This is a another quote, in reply

The last word of this sentence is emphasized.

The last word of this sentence is bolded.

Unordered list with asterisk:

Unordered list item
Unordered list item
Unordered list item

Unordered list with plus sign:

Unordered list item
Unordered list item
Unordered list item

Unordered list with hyphen (dash):

Unordered list item
Unordered list item
Unordered list item

Ordered list:

First item in an ordered list
Second item in an ordered list
Third item in an ordered list

Ordered list with paragraph:

Unordered list item

Second paragraph
Unordered list item

This is an link to opera.com.

This is an link to opera.com with a title.

A link to opera.com and another to Wikipedia

Here is some inline code: opera-developer

Here is some code on a new line:

$ whoami
ruario

ruario

ruario

So it would seem that emphasis and lists with paragraphs are broken. Everything else works as expected.

ruario

ruario

Let's try a similar test with HTML:

Firstly, here is the code I will be using:

<p>Let's try a similar test with HTML:

<h1>Header 1

<h2>Header 2

<h3>Header 3

<blockquote><p>This is a quote</p></blockquote>

<blockquote><blockquote><p>This is a quote</p></blockquote><p>This is a another quote, in reply</p></blockquote>

<p>The last word of this sentence is *emphasized*.

<p>The last word of this sentence is **bolded**.

<p>Unordered list:
<ul>
  <li>Unordered list item</li>
  <li>Unordered list item</li>
  <li>Unordered list item</li>
</ul>

<p>Ordered list:
<ol>
  <li>First item in an ordered list</li>
  <li>Second item in an ordered list</li>
  <li>Third item in an ordered list</li>
</ol>

<p>Ordered list with paragraph:

<ul>
  <li>Unordered list item<p>Second paragraph</p></li>
  <li>Unordered list item</li>
</ul>
  
<p>A link to [opera.com](http://www.opera.com/" title="opera.com) and another to [Wikipedia](https://www.wikipedia.org/" title="Wikipedia)

![](https://forums.opera.com/themes/opera/design/static/css/img/opera-software-logo.png)

<p>Here is some inline code: `opera-developer`

<p>Here is some code on a new line:</p>

`$ whoami
    ruario`

And this is how it outputs:

Header 1

Header 2

Header 3

<blockquote>This is a quote</blockquote>

<blockquote><blockquote>This is a quote</blockquote>This is a another quote, in reply</blockquote>

The last word of this sentence is emphasized.

The last word of this sentence is bolded.

Unordered list:
<ul>
<li>Unordered list item</li>
<li>Unordered list item</li>
<li>Unordered list item</li>
</ul>

Ordered list:
<ol>
<li>First item in an ordered list</li>
<li>Second item in an ordered list</li>
<li>Third item in an ordered list</li>
</ol>

Ordered list with paragraph:

<ul>
<li>Unordered list itemSecond paragraph</li>
<li>Unordered list item</li>
</ul>

A link to [opera.com](http://www.opera.com/" title="opera.com) and another to [Wikipedia](https://www.wikipedia.org/" title="Wikipedia)

Here is some inline code: opera-developer

Here is some code on a new line:

`$ whoami
ruario`

ruario

ruario

With raw HTML everything that is expected to work, works. A few more tags might work as well but I can at least confirm the basics are all working as they should.

ruario

ruario

And to have it clear, this thread was started in order for other users to obtain basic knowledge how to make their contribution nice and tidy.

That appears to have already been covered in the Markdown basics link at the bottom of every post. There are only two obvious breakages (emphasis and lists with paragraphs). Both of which can be worked around for now.

ruario

ruario

I did just a few quick tests looking for additional tags—outside those equivalent to the Markdown basics page. I just tried obvious ones, including a few that have already been mentioned here:

<strike> (or <s>): strike through
: underline
<kbd>: Defines a keyboard chatacter (a monpspace font is displayed)
<table>: tables
: With various attributes (e.g. face and color), further styling of posts is possible

I should also mention that many tags, actually end up on the page (try using them, then look at the the page source) but the text looks no different, probably due to CSS styling. Some examples of these include:

<dl>
<q>
…

It's late now so I am giving up investigating further. But in summary, Markdown basics give enough options for most people. For advanced users, the extra HTML possibilities allow them to work around two Markdown implementation issues (only one of which—emphasis—has a common use case) and give them quite a few more options.

I should probably end with a word of caution. I suspect anything in addition to the Markdown basics is just a nice bonus that could go away. So don't rely heavily on them and always consider how your post will display if they ever go away.