HTML Guide Posting Question

[lavendertook]

If I want to post a guide to using certain html tags, and present those tags as example text, what characters do I need to post to keep those examples from performing those action

In other words, say I want to demonstrate how you would type the html to link to my previous post. How do I show that instruction on my entry so that it doesn't just become that link instead?

I've had no luck googling up an answer to this, so now I'm bugging ya'll for help. Help, anyone?

Comments

[delux_vivens]

i think its the pre code tag, but you might have to use ascii characters for some of it.

[delux_vivens]

or "code" that might work too.

[lavendertook]

THANK YOU, bb!!! That looks like it should work. I just googled that up, and saw there's then "slash code" to close it.

[lavendertook]

Awww, that's not it. I just tried to edit it into this entry with an example and it's not working. )-:

[lavendertook]

Sort of like this: <user name=lavendertook>, but without the box.

[lavendertook]

I used the code "textarea" for this.

[lbilover]

I've just usually substituted [ for < and then pointed out the substitution. Is that what you meant?

[lavendertook]

See, I don't want to do that, as any extra step for a beginner adds confusion. Somehow they're able to present code on FAQ pages on DW and LJ without the code activating. I don't know if what works for those pages will work for an entry, but I guess I will need to ask in a DW development community to find out. Thank you!

[lbilover]

Ah okay. It occurred to me you could just make them into jpgs, but maybe you already have the answer. I'll be curious to know what it is!

[lavendertook]

Thank you! Cali solved it over on the LJ version of this post here. There is code called an "entity name" for the angle brackets that allows them to be posted without acting out the html. But if I wanted to try to write that code for you here, it would only come out as angle brackets, and I don't want to figure out if there is a way to do that as well, because we'll get ourselves stuck in an infinite loop of meta coding and get sucked into our journals and be trapped there! :-D

[lavendertook]

<user name=lavendertook>

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

If all fails, you could post the code as a pic. But I think adding asterixes and similar into the code will help, too.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you! How might I post it as a pic? I don't want to put in asterixes because I'm trying to write a beginner's guide and that would confuse the intended audience. I know there must be a simple code, as I've seen it done online; I just haven't figured out how to find it.

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

You could just all write it down in a word file, make a screenshot and post that.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you! So far I've found one code that kind of works: "textarea".

<user site="livejournal.com" user="frodosweetstuff">

Now if I could find a code where I could do that without creating a box.

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's good to know! So happy that you found a way to make it work!

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm writing it as an rtf for my writing portfolio for my job hunt, and this isn't a problem there, but I would like to be able to post it, as maybe someone can make use of it.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

And the box is open--you can type more stuff in it in my posted comment. I wonder what you could use that for?

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

Oooh, interesting!!

[shirebound]

I would suggest either adding a space after the first bracket and before the last one, or using asterisks, then tell folks to take them out before using the code.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I want to be able to write the code exactly as it should look since my intended audience is beginners, and any deviation adds to confusion, at least I know it did for me, so I may have to use the texting box method I found above if there isn't a code that allows you to just write it on the page without it activating.

[ancalime8301]

Maybe try using the codey-thing for the brackets so it doesn't interpret/execute it as html--see http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_entities.asp --from that list you can use the names, so the lt and gt bits. If that makes sense. :-p

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

That last part makes no sense to me at all--I'm not much beyond the beginning audience I'm writing for. (-; See, I don't want to use that more complicated code because it just makes it harder for beginners, my intended audience.

If that site is meant for beginners, it's terribly written--they don't explain their terms at all. I looked through codes on that site yesterday. Perhaps there is no code that will make the script nonactive for posting on this platform--there is one that makes it work on the FAQs for LJ and DW though--I may need to try to ask in a DW development community.

[ancalime8301]

If I understand correctly, you want to be able to write things like <lj user=ancalime8301> without having LJ render it as ancalime8301. Yes? If that's the case, then you have to use the special codes for the < > characters so it's not interpreted as html/LJ-codes. The special codes are called "entity names" on that page I linked to before, and that enables them to display as < and > rather than being treated as code.

Is that a better explanation? ;-)

(I think they don't explain their terms on that site because it's in the "advanced" section so they assume you would've had to read the earlier stuff before you get to that point? I don't know. You'd think they'd at least link the special terminology to a place that defines it. Why bother with a webpage if you aren't going to take advantage of links?)

(Edited for tag!fail, haha.)

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is totally what I'm looking for--you were right! Thank you! You solved it!

That page doesn't explain well at all what entity names are, so it lost me. I can see what they're trying to explain now that you explained it to me in clearer language. And that's the language I'm trying to use in my beginner's guide, which is what the 3schools site could use there, and most especially on its introductory pages--I was looking at those and they start out really badly.

[ancalime8301]

Yay!

That site probably a case of people who have known how to do that sort of thing for far too long not realizing that they're still being all jargony even when they think they're explaining it very simply. It's really easy to do, especially for the techie types, as I first learned back at the help desk--which is also where I learned about "translating" geek into normal-person speak. ;-)

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

:-D Yup, though they may not have been skilled at translating into plainer language even in earlier stages. Which is what tech writers are for, though so much of tech writing is not rendered much more intelligibly. Which is why I should be hired, dammit!!! (-; I'm writing up a guide to basic posting on DW to pad my writing portfolio for tech writing jobs. I'm thinking of it as my mother's guide to DW. And I want to submit it to DW development where I think it might be useful among the DW FAQ's--they don't have one that is quite this clear for a newbie.

You are a most excellent renderer of geekish unto the masses! (-:

[ancalime8301]

Haha, yes. You should definitely be hired. ;-D Ah, that's a good idea! I remember floundering around with basic tags and html when I first started.

Thank you! Let's hope these folks I'll be seeing for the interview agree with you. ;-)