A quick guide on formatting

The Reef
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I confess … I am one of those people who is too impatient sometimes to read the f* manual :see_no_evil:

Assuming I am not the only one on this, I figured there may be a need for a super concise guide on formatting on this platform.

How to format your text: a couple of simple tricks

Here are a couple of things that may be helpful when formatting your post:

  • Use hashtags (#) to create headings (the more hashtags, the smaller the heading)
  • Use asterisks (*) to create bullet points
  • Use spaces to create multi-layered bullet points (i.e. add a couple of spaces before the asterisk)
  • Use the “enter” key to create some space between paragraphs

Formatting quick guide

The left pane vs the right one: how does it work?

I don’t know! :laughing:

All I know is that the technology is called Discourse. On the left you see the coded version, and on the right you see how it’s going to look like online. You can only make changes in the left pane.

The other thing I know is that the system is smart and not willing to negotiate:

  • Smart: it doesn’t matter so much how you use the coding options under the next heading. Whatever you do, the system will try to make your text look good. Example: if you try multiple spaces to create multi-layered bullet points, it doesn’t matter so much how many spaces you introduce.
  • Not willing to negotiate: there are only a limited number of formatting options available. White lines for examples are not available. So you can introduce as many white lines on the left as you want (which can help in long texts to find your way), but they will never appear on the right.

Making changes after you have posted something

If you spot a typo or you want to change something minor, you can always click on the pencil symbol and make the necessary changes.

Pencil symbol

If you are making a major change on the substance of a post that is not a wiki, it is appreciated to indicate this, e.g. as follows:

EDIT: I am updating this post because XYZ

Should I first make a back-up on my own computer?

Nope. The system auto-saves one post, so if your computer crashes and you log in again, your draft will still be there.

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The mighty @matthias has written a short guide to formatting in Markdown:

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