The New How To Do Fancy Things In Your Posts Thread

TalkThe Green Dragon

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The New How To Do Fancy Things In Your Posts Thread

1JPB
Edited: Oct 7, 2016, 12:35pm

<B>text</B> - Puts "text" in boldface - like this.

<I>text</I> - Puts "text" in italics - like this.

<STRIKE>text</STRIKE> - Puts "text" in strike - like this.

<A HREF="http://host.com/web-address.html">text</A> - Creates a link to the web address shown in quotes, but displays the link as text in the message. For example, this is a link to LibraryThing's homepage, and I specified that by putting <A HREF="http://www.librarything.com">this</A> into the message.

<IMG SRC="http://host.com/picture.jpg"> - Puts the image from the web location shown into the post.

<IMG SRC="http://host.com/picture.jpg" HEIGHT="hhh" WIDTH="www"> - Puts the img at the web location shown into the post, but gives it a height of hhh pixels and a width of www pixels. For those of you who want to include images that seem way too big once you included them, shrink them down with these parameters. Note, that for best compatibility with most screen widths, an image shouldn't be much wider than about 500 pixels.

To link to a thread in LibraryThing, just look at your web browser's address bar for the thread you are looking at, and use the method shown above to create a link.

To link to a specific post in LibraryThing, hover your mouse over the 'flag abuse' for a post, and notice the number that appears in "javascript:talk_flagmessage(NUMBER). Make a link as discussed in the previous paragraph, but add #NUMBER after the link (but before the ").

To create a numbered list, do the following. For example, to list three points, I could enter:

<OL>
<LI> First item.
<LI> Second item.
<LI> Third item.
</OL>

and it comes out as:

  1. First item.
  2. Second item.
  3. Third item.


If you want to say a whole bunch of stuff indented a bit from the main stream, use <BLOCKQUOTE>All my text, multiple lines of it</BLOCKQUOTE> Here's an example:


Isn't LibraryThing swell? I sure love it, and I hope you do, too! There's lots of fun places to visit, but the Green Dragon is perhaps the very best. What else do I want to say in the paragraph? Not much, I guess, but putting it in block quotes sure makes it look impressive!


If you want to put a voter's poll into your post, set it up like this: <VOTE>Will you respond to this survey?</VOTE>.

Vote: Do you like this post?

Current tally: Yes 39, No 1, Undecided 3
Want to use subscripts or superscripts? For superscripts, do this: <SUP>text to superscript</SUP>. For subscripts, just do this: <SUB>text to subscript</SUB>. An example follows:

textsuperscript moretextsubscript

...oh, by the way, the easy way to put a < in a message is to type &lt;. The easy way to put a > in a message is to type &gt;. Now how to type &lt; in a post? Simple: Type &amp;lt; :D

Here are some other things that you can put in with those nifty &whatever; things:


  1. &spades; gives ♠
  2. &clubs; gives ♣
  3. &hearts; gives ♥
  4. &diams; gives ♦
  5. &trade; gives ™
  6. &cent; gives ¢
  7. &copy; gives ©
  8. &reg; gives ®
  9. &deg; gives ° (degree sign)
  10. &frac14; gives ¼
  11. &frac12; gives ½
  12. &frac34; gives ¾


2humouress
Jun 30, 2014, 12:45pm

Okay - I'm here :0)

3Novak
Edited: Oct 25, 2014, 8:46pm

Me too

4justjukka
Edited: Dec 20, 2014, 1:32am

I snag most of my emoticons from deviantart.com: http://comments.deviantart.com/emoticons/

ETA:  Yahoo emotes are useful, too.  I've yet to find a better yawn than this one.

5JPB
Jun 30, 2014, 4:03pm

This is the information thread. To make it easy for people with old computers and/or slow connections to read, please keep experimentation off this thread; that way they don't have so much to load. Thanks!

6Meredy
Jul 1, 2014, 4:38pm

Bullets, as for a list, require ampersand plus 'bull' (no quotes) plus semicolon. That's
& bull ; (without spaces), with this result:

• list item
• list item
• list item

Nonbreaking spaces: same format, with 'nbsp' (without quotes) as the code.

7jjwilson61
Jul 1, 2014, 5:11pm

>6 Meredy: But if what you want is a list of items with bullets in front of each item its better to use the unnumbered list tag UL. You'd use it just like the ordered list tag, just replacing OL with UL. I believe the default bullets are like those but you can change them using the type attribute.

8Meredy
Jul 1, 2014, 9:17pm

If we want a bullet for any purpose, that's how to make one.

And now we also know how to make an unnumbered (bulleted) list.

9Kassilem
Jul 2, 2014, 1:14am

Awesome thread. Thanks!

10SweetbriarPoet
Jul 4, 2014, 11:03am

Hey, I have a question. When I want to reference someone else in my post I do the common >19 (for example) so people can jump back up to where the original poster was. But.....they only work about half the time. If I come back to the topic, the >19 is there, but there isn't a link at all. Any suggestions?

(thank you for this post by the way! I reference it often)

11jjwilson61
Jul 4, 2014, 12:23pm

>10 SweetbriarPoet: It should work all the time. If it doesn't then it's a bug and you should report it in the Bug Collectors group.

12CurrerBell
Edited: Jul 4, 2014, 1:53pm

>10 SweetbriarPoet: Are you absolutely sure you're entering >19, not 19>? That's a mistake that I often make.

13humouress
Jul 4, 2014, 2:00pm

>10 SweetbriarPoet: Have you always left a space after the number?

For instance, if I list more than one post by numbers, I automatically separate them with a comma, which cancels the link. I have to go back and put a space in to get it to work.

14SweetbriarPoet
Jul 4, 2014, 6:29pm

>12 CurrerBell: I am entering them in the right order, but thank you for checking! :)

>13 humouress: I always put in a space. But I don't have to write in the person's name right? I'm literally just putting >(post#). If I'm doing it correctly, I'll report it to the bug collectors.

15avanders
Jul 5, 2014, 7:47pm

Oh, >14 SweetbriarPoet: Don't enter a space between the > and the number... have I understood your response correctly? If so, the space might be your problem :) I've never had an issue w/ it working!
and no, you don't need to type in the person's name.

16avanders
Jul 5, 2014, 7:48pm

and if I want to do more than one, I just do them in order... >14 SweetbriarPoet: >15 avanders: with a space in between each >#

17sandstone78
Jul 9, 2014, 6:19pm

Is it possible to have more than one <vote> in a post? When I try, it seems to give them all the same description regardless of what I put in between the tags:

<vote>This is vote number one</vote>

Vote: This is vote number one

Current tally: Yes 1, No 2, Undecided 2
<vote>This is vote number two</vote>

Vote: This is vote number one

Current tally: Yes 1, No 2, Undecided 2

18justjukka
Jul 9, 2014, 10:54pm

>17 sandstone78:  That is odd.  I just got the same thing.

19CurrerBell
Edited: Jul 10, 2014, 8:59am

>17 sandstone78: >18 justjukka: Nope, no can do. If you post more than one question to a single post, they all come up as the same question.

This problem has come up in the Reading Through Time group. The work-around we use is to post the questions serially to multiple posts. Here's an example of how that was done in July, with five yes/no/undecided options given sequentially in posts 11 through 15.

EDIT to correct misspelling ("call" for "all") in first paragraph.

20JPB
Nov 9, 2014, 8:24am

...added the un-ordered lists (which should have been put in long ago - thanks for the catch!), how to put in a bullet dot anywhere, and the caveat concerning no more than one working poll in a single message to the first message.

21Berly
Dec 8, 2014, 11:14pm

Any clue how to rotate a picture 90 degrees? It was upright when I copied the location.

22hawkwinds
Edited: Apr 11, 2015, 3:47pm

x

23d-b
Edited: Jul 28, 2015, 6:10am

Sorry for the very stupid question --- but how do i link to a previous post? As in, making a previous person's username become blue?

24bernsad
Jul 28, 2015, 6:15am

Type this character > immediately (no spaces) followed by the number of the post you want to refer to and you end up with >23 d-b: a link

25fuzzi
Jul 28, 2015, 11:25am

>23 d-b: it's not a stupid question, you just didn't know. :)

26MarthaJeanne
Edited: Jul 29, 2015, 1:45pm

You can also use @ followed by a member name to link to their profile. The @ won't show up.

d-b

27mrgrooism
Jul 29, 2015, 2:05am

MarthaJeanne good to know!

28maggie1944
Jul 29, 2015, 7:59am

>26 MarthaJeanne:, ha ha ha

I read your post and was wondering what the heck "aslo" was.... some new abbreviation? a new code lanuguage phrase? And then my brain decided I had had just the right amount of coffee to actually engage: ALSO. Oh, yes, I've done that type of typing, too, where the letters just won't sit in their assigned places.

29Taphophile13
Jul 29, 2015, 9:19am

>28 maggie1944: Ah, yes, the tragedy of dyslexic typing. I'm afraid it's incurable.

30MarthaJeanne
Jul 29, 2015, 1:46pm

Fixed.

31kac522
Jul 29, 2015, 11:24pm

This is not a cool thing, but I have 2 spam messages on one of my threads. They are flagged, the body of the messages deleted, but they're still on the thread. Is there any way to completely remove them?

32Meredy
Jul 29, 2015, 11:51pm

Post #1 explains the purpose of this thread.

33amysisson
Jul 30, 2015, 9:25am

>31 kac522:

I'm not aware of any way. It is annoying, isn't it? :-(

34kac522
Jul 30, 2015, 1:55pm

>33 amysisson: Yep, it is annoying, but thanks for responding. If anyone can refer me to the place where I might find the answer to this, I'd appreciate it.

35jjwilson61
Jul 30, 2015, 2:06pm

>31 kac522: The answer is that there is no way to completely get rid of the posts. If you don't like the answer you can post to the Recommend Site Improvements group at http://www.librarything.com/groups/recommendsiteimprov.

36kac522
Jul 30, 2015, 2:14pm

>35 jjwilson61: Thanks, will do.

37clue
Nov 5, 2015, 9:54pm

I know how to include a book cover in my posts but when the source is LT they are the wrong size...the entire length doesn't show and the width is too large. Can I change the size? None of my experiments have worked.

38avanders
Nov 6, 2015, 12:06pm

>37 clue: up at the top of this thread, I think the 8th instruction in that first post, it explains how. I usually start w/ a height of 200 for book covers and adjust my width accordingly... for "normal" book cover sizes, a width of 135 to 155 for a height of 200 usually works....

39fuzzi
Nov 6, 2015, 6:24pm

>37 clue: I just use the formula above for posting images, but using "width=200". I copy the cover image location, and they appear uniform.

Check out how it looks here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/184858#4960286

40clue
Edited: Nov 6, 2015, 8:13pm

41jnwelch
Dec 15, 2015, 9:33am

This thread probably should be part of an introductory "kit" for new members. So useful.

42mahsdad
Dec 16, 2015, 12:40pm

Agree. I have it starred just so I don't lose it

43maggie1944
Dec 20, 2015, 9:00am

I love the stars, they do such a good job of keeping LT manageable for me.

44maggie1944
Dec 20, 2015, 9:02am

Funny..... I tried to edit the message 43 to add a sentence or two, but LT would not let me.

I am searching for a new place to store, edit, and share photographs. I have used Flickr but I think I cannot share the photographs I've edited and stored there so I want to find a new service. Does any one have some good recommendations?

45hfglen
Dec 20, 2015, 9:41am

>44 maggie1944: That's exactly why I gave up on them and started using Photobucket. Their downside is a couple of e-mails daily with nothing but commercials, but gmail is bright enough to separate them out from real messages.

46Ameise1
Dec 20, 2015, 9:54am

>44 maggie1944: I use photobucket, too and I'm very happy with it.

47Noisy
Dec 20, 2015, 6:05pm

>1 JPB: In the OP, the directions on how to post &lt; are incorrect; there's an extra & in the middle.

For an URL that references a page within LibraryThing, you can help people who use other language variants of the site by supplying a relative link (one without the "http://www.librarything.com") rather than an absolute link. For example, the relative link to my catalogue is <a href=/catalog.php?view=Noisy>Noisy’s catalogue</a>.

48humouress
Dec 20, 2015, 10:16pm

>44 maggie1944: Could you use Dropbox? I've never tried it myself, though I'm thinking about it, so I'd be interested in knowing if it works.

49hfglen
Dec 21, 2015, 3:09am

>48 humouress: Dropbox works a treat if you're sending large files to one or a few recipients, that is, as the alternative to e-mail when the files are too big for the letterbox. When I use it the uploads are s-l-o-o-o-o-w -- if memory serves me well, it once took 3 days to upload 1Gb.

50dustydigger
Edited: Jan 19, 2016, 4:57pm

to heidi

51dustydigger
Edited: Jan 19, 2016, 4:57pm

Oops! in >50 dustydigger: I was trying to learn how to turn a title blue,tried to make ''heidi'' blue but failed. I am not very good at this sort of thing.I need very simple,step by step explanations,as to a small child.lol Ah well,back to the drawing board,will try again later. Bedtime :0)

522wonderY
Jan 19, 2016, 4:56pm

Enclose the title in square brackets. They are on the keyboard to the right of P, and lower case. Try again now.

53dustydigger
Edited: Jan 19, 2016, 5:07pm

hello heidi

542wonderY
Jan 19, 2016, 5:00pm

Occasionally, you have to nudge it by editing the post. Make sure the touchstone appears to the right of the message box before you hit post.

55dustydigger
Edited: Jan 19, 2016, 5:06pm

>51 dustydigger: - Nope,didnt work. And when I clicked edit to try to delete the post altogether,all I got was a note that I could not post an empty message.Totally confused,and I give up,time for bed!Will come back later.

562wonderY
Edited: Jan 19, 2016, 5:07pm

nope, tried and can't even show what a square bracket looks like.

57jnwelch
Jan 19, 2016, 5:19pm

One on each side of the title, facing each other as shown

58tottman
Jan 20, 2016, 12:11am

From >1 JPB: "This thread is a re-start of the thread started 5+ years ago, as some have complained that it was getting too long. This is the information thread - please keep it short by only adding to this thread new things that you find you can do in LibraryThing message posts. For experimenting with inserting pictures or the like, please create a practice thread. Thanks!"

59dustydigger
Edited: Jan 20, 2016, 12:19am

OK. Finally managed it . Good old Heidi

60jnwelch
Jan 20, 2016, 9:49am

>59 dustydigger: Congratulations!

61Cynfelyn
Feb 24, 2016, 11:33am

Is there a way of doing superscript and subscript? Thanks.

62Taphophile13
Feb 24, 2016, 11:47am

>61 Cynfelyn:
Using the Character Map, I have been able to use
Alt+0185 = ¹
Alt+0178 = ²
Alt+0179 = ³
Alt+0176 = ° degree sign

I haven't found any subscripts yet.
I would also like to be able to do a long s [looks a lot like f].

63hfglen
Edited: Feb 24, 2016, 12:04pm

Try "& # x 017F;" without the spaces and quotes -- ſ

642wonderY
Edited: Feb 24, 2016, 12:09pm

test teſt

ſ

But it's not the really satisfying version that loops below the line. ʃ

I just googled it and then cut and pasted. That's how I normally do degrees too.

65.Monkey.
Feb 24, 2016, 12:26pm

Linux compose keys are ever so very much easier than silly Windows alt commands, bah. Alt+0383 is the code, however since it's a unicode not alt code character it won't work in most cases (alt codes don't go above 255). BUT, if you're using Fx (or Chrome or Safari) you can ctrl + shift+ I to open the console and type "copy('\uNNNN')" into it to do unicode chars; in this case, copy('\u017F'), and when you come back to the text box, you paste and get: ſ

66.Monkey.
Feb 24, 2016, 12:29pm

>64 2wonderY: But ʃ is esh, not long s.

67Cynfelyn
Edited: Feb 24, 2016, 1:54pm

>62 Taphophile13:
Thanks for that, but on this occasion I was looking of letters, specifically superscript lower case "i". I tried copying and pasting from a Word document, and the superscript element didn't survive the trip.

There's no angle-bracket jiggery-pokery for turning superscript off and on, is there?

68.Monkey.
Feb 24, 2016, 3:30pm

No. There is HTML for it but it's not supported here, only basic things are - to prevent malicious things being attempted.

692wonderY
Edited: Feb 24, 2016, 5:20pm

angle-bracket jiggery-pokery

C6H12O6

Put 'sub' between angle brackets before and '/sub' between angle brackets after. For superscripts, use 'sup' and '/sup'

70.Monkey.
Feb 25, 2016, 3:21am

It can actually be used here? Huh, color me surprised, I thought everything was stripped out. hm.

71humouress
Feb 25, 2016, 5:15am

A side note; if you're on an Apple laptop or iPad, you can get the degree sign ° by holding down the 0 (zero) key.

72.Monkey.
Feb 25, 2016, 8:18am

And if you're using Linux you can use the compose key to do the majority of symbols/characters in just a couple strokes. Doesn't really help with the questions asked here though.

73avanders
Feb 25, 2016, 9:29am

What about color text? I've tried various html codes to no avail -- anyone found a trick that works here on LT?

74MarthaJeanne
Feb 25, 2016, 10:15am

>71 humouress: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've been looking for that one ever since I got this!

75.Monkey.
Feb 25, 2016, 10:25am

No you cannot do color text with basic HTML.

76avanders
Feb 25, 2016, 10:33am

77Taphophile13
Feb 25, 2016, 12:25pm

>69 2wonderY: That's terrific. Thanks so much.

782wonderY
Feb 25, 2016, 12:35pm

//Confession: I went to Wikipedia and hit the edit button to see the underlying html code.//

79Taphophile13
Feb 25, 2016, 2:05pm

>78 2wonderY: Well, aren't you clever! I wouldn't have thought to do that. Thank you for another tool (if I can remember to use it).

80humouress
Feb 25, 2016, 5:43pm

>74 MarthaJeanne: You're welcome.

81Berly
Feb 28, 2016, 1:30am

to get ˚ on an Apple, I hold down the option key and hit the letter K.

82humouress
Edited: Feb 29, 2016, 1:58am

Another side note :0) to do with book review pages, not posts.

I'm assuming that some people (but not you, obviously) don't know how to rate a book with half stars; I've noticed in reviews that some people write that they give a book something-and-a-half stars but when they rate it they give it full stars.

So, just in case, say you want to give 3.5 stars, click / touch the 4th star (which gives 4 stars)
and then click the 4th star again, which will make it into a half. Voila; three and a half stars!

83MarthaJeanne
Mar 1, 2016, 8:25am

>82 humouress: And the third time you clear the stars, and are back to no stars at all.

84Cynfelyn
Mar 5, 2016, 5:28am

>69 2wonderY: I've just realized you answered my question about superscript and subscript with angle-bracket jiggery-pokery. That's worth adding to the top message the next time this thread's renewed. Many thanks.

85CurrerBell
Mar 5, 2016, 8:32am

>74 MarthaJeanne: The only problem I have with what >69 2wonderY: did is that she also created links on the three letters. You didn't do that intentionally, did you?

862wonderY
Mar 5, 2016, 12:14pm

>85 CurrerBell: I think I could edit out the nonessential stuff that was on Wikipedia.

C6

Yep. They had square brackets in their string that aren't necessary; or perhaps it was done deliberately to link to another article.

87ScoLgo
Jun 13, 2016, 6:06pm

Regarding embedding images... is there a way to align text next to an image? Someone posted in a group that it would be cool to position the review next to an image of the book/movie/etc instead of entering the text above or below the picture. Is this something that is possible on LT?

88Carl64
Sep 11, 2016, 6:13am

Thanks here's the link for the photos overall pretty satisfied with this set good quality and Easton did a great jod of putting this together. http://s50.photobucket.com/user/Carl_Hancock/media/image.jpg1_zpsdnegojfo.jpg.ht...

89rastaphrog
Sep 11, 2016, 10:36pm

>87 ScoLgo: There are HTML tags you can use to do that on a web page, but I don't know if they'd work in a post, and I don't have my copy of HTML For Dummies handy to try it myself to see if they work. I have my doubts tho as the space a post appears in is limited vs a regular web page.

90CurrerBell
Sep 11, 2016, 11:57pm

>87 ScoLgo: >89 rastaphrog: Nope, doesn't seem like it's going to work. As far as I'm aware, you can't do it with HTML alone. I'd use the "style" attribute with the float property, but there we're getting into CSS. I tried doing that here on LT and it doesn't work, and I'm sure it's not some little glitch I've got in the code because I did a copy-and-paste into a text editor and saved it as an HTML document which does work on my laptop in its own separate browser page.

CSS is getting a bit more powerful than HTML alone and TPTB may not want that kind of fancy-schmancy stuff in user posts. It may also be more difficult for coding LT's back-end PHP for the message boards, and all things considered, Tim & Company have other things to do besides fancy up the message boards.

91.Monkey.
Sep 12, 2016, 4:44am

Only basic HTML is allowed, not due to any difficulty but because of security. If you allow all sorts of things in then people can try injecting malicious code in the site.

92MrAndrew
Sep 12, 2016, 6:22am

Or custard. The may try injecting custard into the site. Delicious, but sticky.

93humouress
Sep 12, 2016, 1:32pm

>92 MrAndrew: Oh, phew! Finally something I understand.

94ScoLgo
Sep 12, 2016, 7:00pm

>89 rastaphrog: >90 CurrerBell: >91 .Monkey.: Thank you for the replies, everyone!

>92 MrAndrew: Malicious code or custard? Of the two, I think custard may be the slightly more evil, (#notafanofcustard).

95JPB
Oct 7, 2016, 12:38pm

Fixed the bug mentioned in post 47. Also added superscript and subscripts, mentioned in post 69.

I'd point out that for some of the more common symbols discussed above in this thread, such a degrees, you can use the "ampersand" constructs mentioned in the OP. &deg; is simpler, at least for me, than remembering an odd keyboard sequence.

96humouress
Edited: May 7, 2017, 8:49am

Is there any way to do lines (both horizontal and vertical)? I'm reading a series which covers quite a few dynasties and I wanted to create a family tree.

97CurrerBell
May 7, 2017, 11:15pm

>96 humouress: I can't think of any, at least not for something you'd be posting on LibraryThing. There are ways you could do it with JavaScript and the HTML5 canvas element, but that sort of thing would be blocked on LT message boards for security reasons.

If you want to post some kind of family-tree diagram to LT, the simplest thing would be to draw it manually, scan it, post it as a JPG in your Member Gallery, and then link to it on the message boards.

98humouress
May 8, 2017, 12:29am

Thanks CurrerBell. I'll muck around and see what I come up with.

99weird_O
May 10, 2017, 11:17pm

Want these horizontal lines? Just use <hr> which stands for horizontal rule.

This is what you get:


100MrAndrew
Edited: May 11, 2017, 7:35am

<hr>

101CurrerBell
May 11, 2017, 12:37pm

>99 weird_O: I'm certainly aware of the <hr> coding but >98 humouress: wants to diagram family trees and that would require vertical lines as well, along with fairly precise positioning of both text and lines. The <hr> tag won't come close to what >98 humouress: needs.

==========

I tried the <pre> tag but on the LT message boards it doesn't seem to preserve spaces.

Henry VII
|
|
|
Henry VIII
|
___________________|____________________
| | |
| | |
Edward VI Mary I Elizabeth I
==========

Okay, I tried a layout using &nbsp; and it sorta-kinda seems to work on the LT message boards. I got this much, but it was just too complicated to be bothered including Elizabeth I. I tried it but it just wasn't working. Either I'm committing a typo or the LT message boards have some kind of restriction on &nbsp; – some kind of limitation on just how much white space you can include.

                              Henry VIII
                                     |
                                     |
     __________________|________________
     |                               |
     |                               |
Edward VI                  Mary I

==========

My suggestion to >98 humouress:? Exactly what I said in >97 CurrerBell:. This is one of these questions that ... if you have to ask how to do it, then don't do it. You'll spend a lot of time tinkering, and unless you're into web coding you'll get bored silly before you get the job done.

102weird_O
May 11, 2017, 1:05pm

>102 weird_O: Ah, guilty of responding to a post without really reading its antecedents, Mike. I think your suggestion (>97 CurrerBell:) is ideal: draw it, scan it, post it as an image. But if the family tree gets too complex, it'll be difficult to read on line.

103MarthaJeanne
Edited: May 11, 2017, 1:24pm

And with things like this, you can't be sure that even if you get it to read correctly on your computer that it will read the same way on all other computers. A scanned image should stay the same.

104humouress
Edited: May 11, 2017, 5:17pm

I appreciate all your hard work and suggestions, folks. I've managed to come up with something in my thread for now, but that's just the first book in an 8 book series, so it'll get more complex further on. I'll probably have to go with the image route at some point.

But can you post images in a review on a book's page?

105CurrerBell
Edited: May 11, 2017, 9:48pm

You can embed images on message board threads, but it doesn't look like you can do so in reviews. (I tried it using the exact same code but it only works on threads, not reviews. I'd be curious if anyone could show me otherwise.)

Of course, you can always put a hyperlink to the image into your review (<a> tag is what I mean, as opposed to <src> tag). Problem with that is, it doesn't look like you can use the target="_blank" code to try forcing the hyperlinked image to open in a new tab, so you're going take your readers away from the LT review.

ETA: Incidentally, you did a positively beautiful job of that family tree in your thread! Lots better than I did with Henry VIII and his heirs. I'm going to have to take a look at your code when I have a little more time.

106humouress
Edited: Jun 2, 2017, 7:50am

>105 CurrerBell: Thanks Mike! There are a lot of &nbsp s and I don't know if the spacing will hold if I copy it to a review. Plus that's only the first book of 8 and it's going to get more complex (and proportionately exponentially more frustrating) as I go along.

Another question - is it possible to rotate photographs? I took a photo with my iPad in portrait but it's copied into my gallery here lying horizontally, and I was hoping to copy it to my thread the right way up.

107.Monkey.
Jun 2, 2017, 6:32am

iThings seem to do that, not actually making photos taken that way marked in such a way that it's recognized outside iThings. You'll need to save the image and rotate in an image editing program or website that offers that kind of tool.

108humouress
Jun 2, 2017, 7:52am

Okay, thanks. I'll have a go (I seem to get technologically more illiterate as the years go by - laziness on my part, not keeping up).

109MarthaJeanne
Edited: Jun 2, 2017, 6:37pm

>108 humouress: If I am taking pictures for LT with my iPad I take them in landscape and crop it to the portrait picture I want. You lose some quality, but the results work for me.

110humouress
Jun 4, 2017, 12:41am

>109 MarthaJeanne: Good tip, thanks. (Yet another obvious solution that never occurred to me.)

111cnerys
Jul 11, 2017, 9:15pm

is there a way to write text next to an image and not under it?

112clamairy
Jul 11, 2017, 9:46pm

>111 cnerys: Only if it is a smallish image. And the text will be next to the picture, but at the bottom.

113cnerys
Edited: Jul 11, 2017, 10:48pm

This message has been deleted by its author.

114humouress
Edited: Aug 9, 2017, 2:34am

>106 humouress: >108 humouress: Aaaghh! I finally posted my review, but the &nbsp code doesn't save in reviews :0(

So - any more ideas anyone?

115CurrerBell
Aug 9, 2017, 8:06am

>114 humouress: It saves for me, but it doesn't give me as much white space as I would expect. Are you sure you put a semicolon after the code? It should read

&nbsp;

116humouress
Aug 9, 2017, 9:11am

I copied the whole review over from my thread, where it works perfectly well, and it seems to work at first, but when I go back to look at it, the spaces disappear and then when I go to edit the review, all the &nbsps (with semi colons) have disappeared too.

The blockquote code doesn't work for me either, when I copy it from my thread into a review.

117MrsLee
Aug 9, 2017, 9:18am

>114 humouress: Pretty sure most of the codes do not work in reviews. I know the one for spoilers doesn't. Groups and reviews are different creatures because reviews are public and other sources such as libraries pull from them.

118abbottthomas
Aug 9, 2017, 9:33am

>117 MrsLee: http://www.librarything.com/work/80783/reviews/143487540 - I seem to have managed to insert a hidden spoiler paragraph here. Are we talking about the same thing?

119Taphophile13
Aug 9, 2017, 11:24am

>117 MrsLee: I recall seeing an entire review behind a spoiler and I've seen many with several paragraphs.

120humouress
Edited: Aug 9, 2017, 1:20pm

>117 MrsLee: Thanks, I see :0/

Does anyone know how I can put spaces into a review? I've tried full-stops, but somehow it doesn't look good on a family tree....

ETA: that's so weird. I'm working on my iPad and ran down the battery. After partially recharging it, I went back to have another go at the family tree - and it all looks fine.

Could someone please do me a favour and tell me what it looks like from your end? The two books are Shapechangers and Shapechanger's Song. Thanks.

121MrsLee
Aug 9, 2017, 7:26pm

>118 abbottthomas: Oh, well maybe I've got that backwards!

122humouress
Aug 9, 2017, 9:32pm

(I can see the spoilers in both threads and reviews because I haven't set it to hide. But that means I can't tell you if there's any difference.)

123jjwilson61
Aug 9, 2017, 11:47pm

>122 humouress: Set what to hide? Text within spoiler tags is hidden until you click it to unhide it. I don't believe there's a setting to always unhide spoiler text.

124humouress
Edited: Aug 10, 2017, 1:37am

>123 jjwilson61: (See, now you're just making me do work and get technical.) I had a look in account settings and so on but I can't find it.

Back when LT changed to the new look (slightly different header colour on posts, different text colour on links) there was an option to stick with the old style and I stuck. Either because I opted to stay with the old style or there was a choice at the time (which, I'm sure, is reversible except I can't find it now), the spoiler tags don't work for me.

ETA: site design selection, bottom right hand corner of your profile page.

125rretzler
Aug 11, 2017, 4:39pm

>120 humouress: Nina, there is nothing in either of your reviews that hides a spoiler - I see the entire family tree in both.

I know from experience that most (if not all) of the HTML doesn't seem to work in the review. When I copy my thread post into review, I never bother click edit and copy the HTML version, I just copy the saved version that appears on the screen to save myself time, since the HTML doesn't work. Bummer, isn't it!

I do kind of remember an option to either see or unsee spoilers somewhere - but it is a VERY vague recollection.

126humouress
Aug 11, 2017, 10:52pm

Thanks Robin. It's good to know that the family trees are working.

I should just do what you do and save myself some hassle; I copy the HTML version and then I have to go through and change stuff, but sometimes I miss things.

My recollection is equally vague about seeing or unseeing the spoiler tag. I don't use it (it was >118 abbottthomas:) since I can't see it anyway, to check I've put it in the right place and because I try to write reviews without spoilers. It's a bit hard not to put spoilers in when the Cheysuli series is an 8 book saga, though. Maybe I should switch the tags on - if I could remember how! ;0)

127humouress
Jan 6, 2018, 9:29am

How do you post a moving image as opposed to a still picture? Do you still use the img src="" (in pointy brackets)? That never seems to work for me. Of course, they don't have the jpg ending.

128.Monkey.
Jan 6, 2018, 10:41am

Yes, it's the same no matter what file type. jpg, gif, png, whatever, as long as it's an image file.

129humouress
Jan 6, 2018, 11:09am

Ah! Thanks.

130Roro8
Jan 16, 2018, 9:56pm

I've forgotten how to do the spoiler thing in my reviews, where you can block something out but it can be revealed if somebody clicks on it. Can anybody help me out here please?

131Taphophile13
Jan 16, 2018, 9:59pm

>130 Roro8: spoiler between the angle brackets
/spoiler between the angle brackets to close

132Roro8
Jan 16, 2018, 10:05pm

>131 Taphophile13:, great, thank you. It worked perfectly.

133ELiz_M
Edited: Jan 19, 2018, 7:34am

I believe the LT wiki was migrated due to spammer issues. I used to use a star gif from wiki in my reviews:

IMG SRC="http://www.librarything.com/wiki/images/6/62/Full-star.gif"

But now all those links are broken. Anyone know where I can find it now?

ETA: nevermind, must have been a temporary glitch.

135CurrerBell
Jan 20, 2018, 9:12pm

>134 majkia: Interesting. I just found this higher level URL — https://wiki.librarything.com/images/ — and its sub-folders are accessible. Might be fun to browse through them when I have a chance. (Aside from the Full-star.gif, most that I've looked at so far don't seem at all interesting.)

136Citizenjoyce
Edited: Aug 7, 2018, 7:31pm

This message has been deleted by its author.

137Petroglyph
Jan 5, 2019, 2:06pm

Nothing to contribute, merely bumping this helpful thread to the top.

138varielle
Mar 1, 2019, 2:46pm

Recently embedded code on my home page which used to display cute little things like maps, temp, quizs etc. have stopped working. I get a tiny blue window instead. When I click on it it still takes you to the website referenced, but you can see the pic on the home page. What has changed and how can I fix it? Other people are able to display these things successfully.

139Taphophile13
Mar 1, 2019, 2:52pm

>138 varielle: My maps completely disappeared (no tiny blue window) on Firefox. I can see my visitor maps and flags on Chrome, so it may be browser dependent.

140varielle
Mar 1, 2019, 3:12pm

Aha! I can see it on Safari, but not on Windows using Chrome and oddly enough can see it using Firefox. We did just go through an upgrade.

141jjwilson61
Mar 1, 2019, 5:13pm

Are the links to the images http: or https:? I think some browsers won't show an http: image on an https: page and most LT pages are https:.

142humouress
Mar 2, 2019, 12:25am

For me, the blue boxes/ disappearing images fluctuate; sometimes they're there and other times they're not even without changing browsers.

143madpoet
Mar 4, 2019, 4:24am

Thanks for the tips, everybody!

144haydninvienna
Apr 18, 2019, 1:58pm

Can anybody tell me why, if I upload an image that I've taken on a decent camera to my computer and then to my member gallery, it seems to come out in the gallery at much lower resolution?

145hfglen
Apr 18, 2019, 2:36pm

>144 haydninvienna: A blind antelope (no-eye deer), sorry. But I reduce my images to 500-600 pixels across before uploading.

146haydninvienna
Apr 18, 2019, 10:17pm

>145 hfglen: sprung! (Pronked?) I didn’t want to put that question in the other threads, but it’s annoying that I can’t seem to upload a picture without it looking like I don’t know how to focus a camera.

147haydninvienna
May 4, 2019, 10:39am

& euro ; (without the spaces) gives a euro symbol: €.

148Citizenjoyce
Edited: May 4, 2019, 2:40pm

&euro
What did I do wrong.

149jjwilson61
May 4, 2019, 2:47pm

You need the semicolon after it. €

150Citizenjoyce
Edited: May 4, 2019, 2:54pm


Aha, thanks.

151-pilgrim-
Jun 2, 2019, 3:49pm

I feel the answer to this is probably around somewhere, but I can't find it: if I upload a photo to my junk drawer, how do I make it appear in a Talk thread?

152Bookmarque
Jun 2, 2019, 3:51pm

Grab the url and use the picture linking html code at the beginning of this thread.

153-pilgrim-
Jun 3, 2019, 3:47am

The URL doesn't end in .jpg. And when I tried cut and pasting what I can see, I just got a post with a placeholder icon for the picture.

I am obviously missing something that is obvious!

154hfglen
Jun 3, 2019, 5:01am

>153 -pilgrim-: AFAIK your image needs to be in jpeg, png or gif format, with the appropriate extension at the end of the file name. Any halfway decent graphics program will make a copy of your file in one of these formats (I use the GIMP, which is freeware). Reformat, reload to your junk drawer, then edit your thread post with the new URL. (You get the correct URL by opening the image in your junk drawer, right-clicking the image, and choosing "copy image location ..." on the menu that pops up.)

155-pilgrim-
Jun 3, 2019, 7:29am

>155 -pilgrim-: I am working on a phone Hugh, not a PC, and the menu I get when holding down on the picture does not include a "copy image location" option.

The way I have previously inserted pictures in my threads has been to "open image in new tab" and then copy the URL address of that tab.
But the address of the image in the junk drawer takes the form of an LT post - https ://www.librarything.com/pic/6949966 - without the .jpg suffix.

Since it displays normally in my junk drawer, I presume that it is uploading in the correct format.

156clamairy
Jun 3, 2019, 8:19am

>144 haydninvienna: LibraryThing photos are always lower resolution than the original. I try to use another site (like Flickr) for my higher resolution photos.

157haydninvienna
Jun 3, 2019, 9:21am

>156 clamairy: So if I post a photo on another web location and use that to link to, I could get a higher-resolution image? I must try that.

158clamairy
Jun 3, 2019, 9:46am

>157 haydninvienna: Yes, play around with it a bit. You always have the option of posting the photo or a link to it. (Or several.) I prefer posting the photo, because a lot of people do not like to leave LT.

159humouress
Jun 3, 2019, 11:17pm

>153 -pilgrim-: I find I have to open the photo and click on it again to get a usable address.

160fuzzi
Jun 4, 2019, 7:02am

In a pinch I have converted bmp and other non-LT friendly image formats to jpg by pasting the photo into Power Point and saving it as a jpg.

161Darth-Heather
Jun 5, 2019, 11:49am

>159 humouress: yes that works for me as well. if the url is coming up as a LT post, it is not the url of the photo.

162madpoet
Sep 25, 2019, 9:31pm

How do I insert a photo? Is that possible?

163NorthernStar
Edited: Sep 25, 2019, 10:28pm

>162 madpoet: scroll up to the first post in this thread for instructions. The photo needs to be online somewhere already. Copy the web location of the picture into the area between the quotation marks in the tag.

If your photo isn't already online you can upload it to your member gallery or junk drawer (for either of these, you can start from your profile page, and click on the link to your gallery at the top right). The gallery is visible to others from your profile page, the junk drawer is not.

164madpoet
Sep 26, 2019, 4:14am

>163 NorthernStar: Thanks. I'll try it that way. The photo wasn't online.

165MrAndrew
Sep 26, 2019, 8:34am

Was it imaginary? You'll need a quantum computer to access that.

166madpoet
Edited: Sep 26, 2019, 8:46am

>165 MrAndrew: No, it was on my desktop.

167MrAndrew
Sep 26, 2019, 8:47am

imaginary desktop?

168clamairy
Sep 26, 2019, 1:28pm

>167 MrAndrew: Stop! LOL
Hey, how they hell are you, man?

169suitable1
Sep 26, 2019, 2:52pm

>167 MrAndrew:

I believe it's called a virtual desktop.

170MrAndrew
Sep 30, 2019, 7:07am

In that case i'm typing this while lying on a virtual pile of money on my virtual yacht, rippling my virtual muscles.

171Novak
Sep 30, 2019, 7:46am

>170 MrAndrew: Ah! yes, I thought I recognized you .. .. .. ..

172Cynfelyn
Sep 30, 2019, 2:45pm

Perhaps it's worth repeating what the OP wrote towards the top of the thread. And yes, I appreciate the irony of me helping to bung up the thread dot dot dot:

"This is the information thread. To make it easy for people with old computers and/or slow connections to read, please keep experimentation off this thread; that way they don't have so much to load. Thanks!"

173Tess_W
Feb 23, 2020, 10:39am

I've read most of the posts and am still looking for how to create the spoiler feature.

174haydninvienna
Feb 23, 2020, 11:05am

>173 Tess_W: like this: <spoiler> and </spoiler>. It’s in >131 Taphophile13: , incidentally.

175humouress
Edited: Mar 5, 2020, 4:02am

>1 JPB: <A HREF="http://host.com/web-address.html"> text </A> - Creates a link to the web address shown in quotes,

Question: when creating a link, by clicking on text, do you need the quotation marks around the address?

I tried it without and it seems to work okay but I don’t know if I’m setting up a whole host of problems elsewhere.

176Cynfelyn
Mar 5, 2020, 2:11pm

>175 humouress: I don't use quotation marks, and have never had problems, although the system (sometimes) adds them to the underlying hypertext, as well as something about "no-follow" that I don't understand.

Nor do I leave a blank either side of the text in the link, as presumably that will be imported into the displayed text.

177jjwilson61
Mar 5, 2020, 4:37pm

Browsers always collapse multiple spaces to one so it doesn't really matter whether you add spaces around the label or not.

And I believe that the no-follow is a directive for web crawlers not to follow the link so that people can't use LibraryThing for link spam

178John5918
Edited: Mar 7, 2020, 12:38am

I remember a conversation a few years ago where I commented that it worked for me without the quotation marks "", and someone replied and said that it was dangerous to do it without them because the address could be tracked back, or something. Is that what >177 jjwilson61: is referring to? Anyway, I don't understand it but since then I have used quotation marks.

179humouress
Mar 7, 2020, 5:54am

Hmm. Seems safest to keep using the quotation marks then.

Thanks everyone for the responses.

180-pilgrim-
Edited: May 5, 2020, 7:58am

If a double square brackets link takes me to the author disambiguation page, because there are several authors of that name, is there any way to make the link reference the specific author that you mean?

I know about putting the work code before double colons, between single square brackets, to force reference to the specific work wanted, but putting the specific without page code does not seem to work in an analogous way.

Reposted from my own thread, as more relevant here.

181ffortsa
Edited: Jun 1, 2020, 5:44pm

The last few times I uploaded pictures to my gallery, they came out sideways, although the original is not sideways. Two questions: How can I delete these images? I don't see a clue. And how can I post them right side up?

eta: Never mind about the delete. I found it. But I still don't know how to upload right side up.

182weird_O
Jun 1, 2020, 6:10pm

>181 ffortsa: I had that problem, Judy. Linda suggested—weird as it sounds—cropping the misbehaving image ever so slightly. I tried it and it worked.

My exposure to software for images, programs like Photoshop, is limited. But on on my MacBook, Photos displays an icon that looks like a toolbox. Click on that and icons for various editing tools appear. One is for cropping, and that's the one you select.

Microsoft's version of Apple's "Photos" also has an icon for editing photos, and it works pretty much the same way.

183mdoris
Jun 2, 2020, 12:20pm

>181 ffortsa: That happened to me recently. (Mac) I had dragged an image onto the desktop from a source and while saving to the junk drawer and then my thread the image became sideways. So I deleted it and next time I dragged it to IPHOTO and then dragged the image over to desktop (without any editing) and this time the image was right side up when I uploaded to junk drawer and then my thread. So who knows!!!! But it worked the image was in the correct orientation.

184varielle
Jun 3, 2020, 11:23am

I had that problem too from going back and forth from windows to Mac.

185ffortsa
Jun 4, 2020, 8:41pm

Yep, cropping it (not severely) worked. thanks, all.

186humouress
Edited: Jun 6, 2020, 4:37pm

How do I put images in my wiki (for dummies)?

I have these coloured stars

https://retz.us/deff50
https://retz.us/deff45
https://retz.us/deff40
https://retz.us/deff35
https://retz.us/deff30
https://retz.us/deff25
https://retz.us/deff20
https://retz.us/deff15
https://retz.us/deff10
https://retz.us/deff05

that Robin Retzler very kindly created for me. Can I wrangle them onto a wiki page? And, if so, how? I've been looking at the wiki help page but it's all Greek to me.

ETA: I know I can get the green stars with this: Image:Full-star.gif Image:Half-star.gif Image:Blank-star.gif
but is it possible to put the coloured stars on too?

187haydninvienna
Jun 11, 2020, 4:49am

As a result of being too clever by half, I just discovered how to put in square brackets without creating a touchstone. The left bracket is ampersand-hash-91-semicolon; the right is ampersand-hash-93 (not 92)-semicolon. I also discovered that Geoff Ryman has a book called Was. Why am I not surprised?

188Novak
Edited: Jun 18, 2020, 5:49am

This message has been deleted by its author.

1892wonderY
Jun 12, 2020, 3:03pm

>188 Novak: From your gallery, click on the picture. Just below it are these three choices:

make primary picture | edit | delete

190Novak
Edited: Jun 18, 2020, 5:48am

This message has been deleted by its author.

191MrAndrew
Jun 16, 2020, 7:12am

Delete with extreme prejudice.

192Suspected.Spam
Aug 6, 2020, 11:52am

How do I edit the title of a new thread?

193hfglen
Aug 6, 2020, 12:06pm

AFAIK you don't.

194Suspected.Spam
Edited: Aug 6, 2020, 12:35pm

>193 hfglen: So, spelling errors etc; in a thread title remain forever?

Would it be easier to delete the whole thread?

195hfglen
Aug 6, 2020, 1:45pm

Yes, they stay forever. Deleting the thread is up to you.

196fuzzi
Aug 6, 2020, 6:44pm

You can edit the thread title for a short time after creating.

197humouress
Aug 7, 2020, 5:53am

>194 Suspected.Spam: >196 fuzzi: And, of course, if you create a continuation thread you can edit/ change the thread title (but only for the same short time after creating the new one).

I think the grace period is within a few minutes of posting your first post of the thread.

198Suspected.Spam
Aug 9, 2020, 1:51pm

Thanks for your help.

199markon
Edited: Aug 27, 2020, 5:21pm

Directions for linking to a specific post have changed -
click on more (next to edit within post) and hover over Link.
Right click and choose copy link address.
Place the copied text between quotation marks in the a href part of the place where you want the link to be. (This is for Chrome, may be slightly different in other browsers.)

200clamairy
Sep 2, 2020, 10:22am

>199 markon: Thank you!

201cbellia
Nov 12, 2020, 4:05pm

>1 JPB: I'm playing around with some of the information you posted. Thanks so much for the help. As I learn more, I'll probably have more questions.

202Storeetllr
Dec 28, 2020, 5:22pm

This is the best of the how-to threads! Love that most of the basic info is in the first post! So, bump.

203Morphidae
Feb 28, 12:47pm

Still use this. Like today. So bump.

204jjwilson61
Feb 28, 12:49pm

This message is pinned so there's no need to bump it

205pgmcc
Feb 28, 12:49pm

>203 Morphidae:
Long time no see. Good to see your name pop up on a post in the GD.

206Morphidae
Edited: Feb 28, 3:11pm

>204 jjwilson61: But....



>205 pgmcc: Thanks! It's been a rough year, eh?

207clamairy
Feb 28, 3:23pm

>204 jjwilson61: She no longer comes into the group*, so she doesn't see that it's pinned.

*I don't ask why.

208pgmcc
Feb 28, 4:28pm

>206 Morphidae: It sure has. Wishing you the best.

209Morphidae
Feb 28, 6:40pm

>207 clamairy: I know you didn't ask and I'll tell anyway.

... I had a wall of text here and decided there is probably a better thread for it. Will post it there instead...

210YouKneeK
Feb 28, 9:12pm

Hi all, it was suggested in my thread that it might be helpful to add my tactic for creating my yearly reading index to this thread. Here’s a screen shot to demonstrate how it looks.


I searched the thread to see if anything like this was already mentioned, and in truth I’m not doing anything different than what was suggested in >101 CurrerBell:. However, that post was geared toward a different objective so its application toward this purpose might not have been apparent. My approach to creating the above index is:
  • Enclose the entire reading index in the <pre> </pre> tags. This uses a monospace font so that spaces can be effectively used in each row to line up the columns.
  • Use &nbsp; to insert the spaces. When you insert multiple spaces the normal way, using the space bar, it only displays the first space.

It only takes me 1-2 minutes to create a new entry, preview it, and test my three new links. This is on a PC, and occasionally a Bad Touchstone Day can slow things down! I copy and paste a similar line (one with the same author when possible) and just change the parts that are different, adding or removing a few spaces as needed. I try to keep my width small because it will look like a jumbled mess if the table is wider than the person’s browser window, keeping in mind some people use mobile devices to access LT. On my mobile phone, it looks bad in portrait but looks ok in landscape. In my 2020 index, you can see that I sometimes have to wrap longer titles or authors around to a second line.

Here’s a screen shot of the HTML for the same list as seen above. It’s not terribly readable, and it looks like a bit of a mess, but hopefully you can see that most of it is just spaces, plus the "pre" tags I mentioned at the beginning and end. Everything else is pretty commonly-used and mentioned elsewhere in this thread. The first 4 lines after the first "pre" tag are the column headings. The 5th line starts my first entry.

211Sakerfalcon
Mar 1, 6:32am

>209 Morphidae: It's good to see you Morphy!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/177029
www.librarything.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2021-10
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application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:EINFIJIESBUMA2OJDKGFLCPW6ZTBY5QQ
<urn:uuid:7621fbd2-a40d-45ff-9a9b-84a81c9a2e21>
2021-03-08T10:07:37Z
74.201.105.14
text/html
sha1:FXPU7P26RZJWHNZ5UIRZRE3KCFC7RAVN
<urn:uuid:d0be39fe-131d-453b-8cfc-1af063c7a09d>
https://www.librarything.com/topic/177029
response
<urn:uuid:9ea3296f-29ad-4fc0-998c-045a633f6911>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-10
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for February/March 2021
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-59.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/