BBCode Explained

W H A T I S P F F C O D E ?

PFF Code is a variation on the HTML tags you may already be familiar with. Basically, it allows you to add functionality or style to your message that would normally require HTML coding. Here's a summary of the codes available on Pennock's Fiero Forum:

URL Hyperlinking

There are a few ways to create hyperlinks on PFF. The easiest way is to simply paste an URL in your message. The forums software will automatically convert it to a link for you. For example, typing these URLs in your message:

http://www.fieroforum.com
www.fiero.nl

will automatically render them as links:

http://www.fieroforum.com
www.fiero.nl

Notice that you can either include or omit the "http://" part of the address. If the site does not begin with "www", you must use the complete "http://" address. In other words, "pda.fieroforum.com" will not be automatically converted to a link, "http://pda.fieroforum.com" will. Also, you may use https and ftp URL prefixes.

The second way is to enclose a URL in the [url] ... [/url] tags, like this:

[url]http://www.fieroforum.com[/url]

To create true hyperlinks, use the [url=link] ... [/url] tags:

[url=http://www.fieroforum.com]Click here for PFF's Main Page[/url]

This will result in:

Click here for PFF's Main Page

The forum software also ensures the link is opened in a new window whenever somebody clicks on it.

Email Links

To create a clickable email link (one that opens a user's email program when clicked), enclose the email address in the [email] ... [/email] tags:

[email]administrator@fieroforum.com[/email]

Inside your message, this will be rendered as:

administrator@fieroforum.com

Font Styles (Bold, Italics, Underline and Strike-through)

To change a font's style, encase the text in either of the font style tags:

[b]This is bold.[/b]
[i]This is italics.[/i]
[u]This is underlined.[/u]
[strike]This is strike-through.[/strike]

Inside your message, this will be rendered as:

This is bold.
This is italics.
This is underlined.
~~This is strike-through.~~

Font Sizes

You can change a font's size by encasing a text in [size=size] ... [/size] tags:

[size=1]This is small print.[/size]
[size=2]This is normal print.[/size]
[size=3]And this is large print.[/size]

This will be rendered as:

This is small print.
This is normal print.
And this is large print.

As you can see, there are only three sizes (1, 2 and 3) to choose from. Any other size will be ignored.

Font Color

To change the color of a text, encase the text in [color=color] ... [/color] tags:

[color=Red]This is red.[/color]
[color=DarkOrange]This is dark orange.[/color]
[color=#CB80AA]And this is some other pretty color.[/color]

This produces:

This is red.
This is dark orange.
And this is some other pretty color.

You can either use one of the many predefined HTML colors (for instance "Red", "Blue", "DarkOrange", etc.) or a hexidecimal HTML color (for instance, "#FFFFFF").

Font Face

To change the font face of a text, encase the text in [font=face] ... [/font] tags:

[font=Times New Roman]This is Times New Roman.[/font]
[font=Comic Sans MS]This is Comic Sans MS.[/font]

This produces:

This is Times New Roman.
This is Comic Sans MS.

Please be aware that different (operating) systems have different font faces installed. If you specify a font face that is not available on a user's computer, it will render in the default font.

Superscript and Subscript

To raise (superscript) or lower (subscript) text, encase the text in either [sup] ... [/sup] or [sub] ... [/sub] tags:

I'm away on the 4[sup]th[/sup] of July.
The equation would be: t[sub]d[/sub]=v[sup]2[/sup].R[sub]t[/sub]

This produces:

I'm away on the 4^th of July.
The equation would be: t_d=v².R_t

Centering Text and Images

To center a block of text (and/or images), encase the text in the [center] ... [/center] tags:

[center]This text is centered.[/center]

This produces:

This text is centered.

Bulleted Lists

You can easily create either "bulleted" lists, or "ordered" list. A bulleted list is enclosed by the [list] ... [/list] tags, with each list item preceded by a [*] tag:

Sample bulleted list:
[list]
[*]This is the first item in the list.
[*]This is the second item.
[*]And this is the last.
[/list]

This will be rendered as:

Sample bulleted list:

This is the first item in the list.
This is the second item.
And this is the last.

To create an ordered list (instead of bullets, you get numbers or letters), use the [list=A] ... [/list] or [list=1] ... [/list] tags:

Sample ordered list (numbers):
[list=1]
[*]This is the first item in the list.
[*]This is the second item.
[*]And this is the last.
[/list]

Sample ordered list (letters):
[list=A]
[*]This is the first item in the list.
[*]This is the second item.
[*]And this is the last.
[/list]

This results in:

Sample ordered list (numbers):

This is the first item in the list.
This is the second item.
And this is the last.

Sample ordered list (letters):

This is the first item in the list.
This is the second item.
And this is the last.

Adding Images

To add an image to your message, encase the URL of the image in the [img] ... [/img] tags:

[img]http://www.fiero.nl/htmlgraphics/pfflogo_bw.gif[/img]

This produces:

Please be aware that the image needs to reside somewhere on the internet already. You can not link to a local image on your harddisk.

Quote Box

To place text inside a quote box, encase the URL of the image in the [quote] ... [/quote] tags:

[quote]Ask not what your country can do for you... Ask what you can do for your country.[/quote]

This will be rendered as:

Quote

Ask not what your country can do for you... Ask what you can do for your country.

Preformatted Text

By default, PFF uses a proportional spaced font for displaying messages. Also, all leading spaces on a line will be replaced by a single space. This means that when you enter something like this:

for( i = 0; i < strlen( szCode ); i++ ) {
  szCode[ i ] += 2;
    if( i % 2 ) {
      szCode[ i ]<<1;
    }
  }
}

It will be rendered like this:

for( i = 0; i < strlen( szCode ); i++ ) {
szCode[ i ] += 2;
if( i % 2 ) {
szCode[ i ]<<1;
}
}
}

If you need to preserve the original formatting of a text, you can either use the [pre] ... [/pre] or the [code] ... [/code] tags. The difference between the two is that the [code] tags places the text inside a "code box" (see example). Also, the [pre] tags are experimental and won't always work properly:

[code]
for( i = 0; i < strlen( szCode ); i++ ) {
  szCode[ i ] += 2;
    if( i % 2 ) {
      szCode[ i ]<<1;
    }
  }
}
[/code]

This results in:

Code:

for( i = 0; i < strlen( szCode ); i++ ) {
  szCode[ i ] += 2;
    if( i % 2 ) {
      szCode[ i ]<<1;
    }
  }
}