BBCode Guide

BBCode is a special implementation of HTML. Whether you can actually use BBCode in your posts on the forum is determined by the administrator. In addition, you can disable BBCode on a per post basis via the posting form. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML: tags are enclosed in square braces [ and ] rather than < and > and it offers greater control over what and how something is displayed. Depending on the template you are using you may find adding BBCode to your posts is made much easier through a clickable interface above the message area on the posting form. Even with this you may find the following guide useful.
Back to top

BBCode includes tags to allow you to quickly change the basic style of your text. This is achieved in the following ways:

To make a piece of text bold enclose it in [b][/b], eg.

[b]Hello[/b]

will become Hello
For underlining use [u][/u], for example:

[u]Good Morning[/u]

becomes Good Morning
To italicise text use [i][/i], eg.

This is [i]Great![/i]

would give This is Great!

Back to top

To alter the color or size of your text the following tags can be used. Keep in mind that how the output appears will depend on the viewers browser and system:

Changing the color of text is achieved by wrapping it in [color=][/color]. You can specify either a recognised color name (eg. red, blue, yellow, etc.) or the hexadecimal triplet alternative, eg. #FFFFFF, #000000. For example, to create red text you could use:

[color=red]Hello![/color]

or

[color=#FF0000]Hello![/color]

will both output Hello!
Changing the text size is achieved in a similar way using [size=][/size]. This tag is dependent on the template you are using but the recommended format is a numerical value representing the text size in pixels, starting at 1 (so tiny you will not see it) through to 29 (very large). For example:

[size=9]SMALL[/size]

will generally be SMALL

whereas:

[size=24]HUGE![/size]

will be HUGE!

Back to top

This board has anchoring and linking within posts enabled.

To make anchors within your posts, just specify [anchor]anchorname[/anchor].
To link to that anchor use [gotopost=postnum,anchorname]text[/gotopost].
You can also use gotopost to link to the top of any post: [gotopost=postnum]text[/gotopost].

Back to top

Yes, of course you can; for example to get someones attention you may write:

[size=18][color=red][b]LOOK AT ME![/b][/color][/size]

this would output LOOK AT ME!

We don't recommend you output lots of text that looks like this, though! Remember that it is up to you, the poster, to ensure that tags are closed correctly. For example, the following is incorrect:

[b][u]This is wrong[/b][/u]
Back to top

There are two ways you can quote text: with a reference or without.

When you utilise the Quote function to reply to a post on the board you should notice that the post text is added to the message window enclosed in a [quote=""][/quote] block. This method allows you to quote with a reference to a person or whatever else you choose to put. For example, to quote a piece of text Mr. Blobby wrote, you would enter:

[quote="Mr. Blobby"]The text Mr. Blobby wrote would go here[/quote]

The resulting output will automatically add: Mr. Blobby wrote: before the actual text. Remember that you must include the quotation marks "" around the name you are quoting -- they are not optional.
The second method allows you to blindly quote something. To utilise this enclose the text in [quote][/quote] tags. When you view the message it will simply show: Quote: before the text itself.

Back to top

If you want to output a piece of code or in fact anything that requires a fixed width with a Courier-type font, you should enclose the text in [code][/code] tags, eg.

[code]echo "This is some code";[/code]

All formatting used within [code][/code] tags is retained when you later view it.
Back to top

BBCode supports two types of lists, unordered and ordered. They are essentially the same as their HTML equivalents. An unordered list ouputs each item in your list sequentially one after the other indenting each with a bullet character. To create an unordered list you use [list][/list] and define each item within the list using [*]. For example, to list your favorite colors you could use:

[list]
[*]Red
[*]Blue
[*]Yellow
[/list]

This would generate the following list:

Red
Blue
Yellow

Back to top

The second type of list, an ordered list gives you control over what is output before each item. To create an ordered list you use [list=1][/list] to create a numbered list or alternatively [list=a][/list] for an alphabetical list. As with the unordered list items are specified using [*]. For example:

[list=1]
[*]Go to the shops
[*]Buy a new computer
[*]Swear at computer when it crashes
[/list]

will generate the following:

Go to the shops
Buy a new computer
Swear at computer when it crashes

Whereas for an alphabetical list you would use:

[list=a]
[*]The first possible answer
[*]The second possible answer
[*]The third possible answer
[/list]

giving

The first possible answer
The second possible answer
The third possible answer

Back to top

phpBB BBCode supports a number of ways of creating URIs, Uniform Resource Indicators better known as URLs.

The first of these uses the [url=][/url] tag; whatever you type after the = sign will cause the contents of that tag to act as a URL. For example, to link to phpBB.com you could use:

[url=http://www.phpbb.com/]Visit phpBB![/url]

This would generate the following link, Visit phpBB! You will notice the link opens in a new window so the user can continue browsing the forums if they wish.
If you want the URL itself displayed as the link you can do this by simply using:

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

This would generate the following link: http://www.phpbb.com/
Additionally phpBB features something called Magic Linkswhich will turn any syntatically correct URL into a link without you needing to specify any tags or even the leading http://. For example typing www.phpbb.com into your message will automatically lead to www.phpbb.com being output when you view the message.
The same thing applies equally to email addresses; you can either specify an address explicitly, like:

[email]no.one@domain.adr[/email]

which will output no.one@domain.adr or you can just type no.one@domain.adr into your message and it will be automatically converted when you view.

As with all the BBCode tags you can wrap URLs around any of the other tags such as [img][/img] (see next entry), [b][/b], etc. As with the formatting tags it is up to you to ensure the correct open and close order is following. For example:

[url=http://www.phpbb.com/][img]http://www.phpbb.com/images/phplogo.gif[/url][/img]

is not correct which may lead to your post being deleted so take care.
Back to top

phpBB BBCode incorporates a tag for including images in your posts. Two very important things to remember when using this tag are: many users do not appreciate lots of images being shown in posts and second, the image you display must already be available on the Internet (it cannot exist only on your computer, for example, unless you run a webserver!). There is currently no way of storing images locally with phpBB (all these issues are expected to be addressed in the next release of phpBB). To display an image, you must surround the URL pointing to the image with [img][/img] tags. For example:

[img]http://www.phpbb.com/images/phplogo.gif[/img]

As noted in the URL section above you can wrap an image in a [url][/url] tag if you wish, eg.

[url=http://www.phpbb.com/][img]http://www.phpbb.com/images/phplogo.gif[/img][/url]

would generate:

Back to top

This forum has the Left-Right IMG tag MOD installed. Through the use of these tags, you can better format your posts by aligning text to the left or right side of the post body. Additionally, through the use of these tags, text will now neatly wrap around the images as opposed to being in-line as with a normal [img] tag. For example:

With img tags:
A really really [img]phplogo.gif[/img] [img]phplogo.gif[/img] really really really really really really long sentence.

A really really

really really really really really really long sentence.

With left and right tags:
A really really [img=left]phplogo.gif[/img] [img=right]phplogo.gif[/img] really really really really really really long sentence.

A really really really really really really really really long sentence.

Back to top

You use [table] and [/table] to start and end the table
Use [table] at the very beginning of the table,
and [/table] at the very end.
Back to top

You use [mrow] for a new row that starts with a header column (Centered, Bold text).
Note: [/mrow] is NOT required

For example:

[table][mrow]Main Row[/table]

Will show up as

Main Row

Back to top

You use [mcol] for each new header column (Centered, Bold text).
Note: [/mcol] is NOT required

For example:

[table][mrow]Main Row Column 1[mcol]Main Row Column 2[col]Main Row Regular Column[/table]

Will show up as

Main Row Column 1

Main Row Column 2

Main Row Regular Column

Back to top

You use [row] for each new row (plain, uncentered)
Note: [/row] is NOT required

For example:

[table][mrow]Main Row[row]Regular Row[/table]

Will show up as...

Main Row

Regular Row

Back to top

Use [col] to create a new column (plain, uncentered)
Note: [/col] is NOT required

For example:

[table][mrow]Main Row Column 1[mcol]Main Row Column 2[row]Regular Row Column 1[col]Regular Row Column 2[/table]

Will show up as

Main Row Column 1	Main Row Column 2
Regular Row Column 1	Regular Row Column 2

Back to top

No, the Table BBCode is set up to eliminate the need for any closing tags other than the [/table] tag, which is required.
Back to top

You can use "color=" and "fontsize=" with any tag. You use them the same way you would an html attribute by seperating each tag with a single space. The order in which you use them does not matter.

Color

The "color=" attribute allows you to change the background color.
You can specify either a recognised colour name (eg. red, blue, yellow, etc.) or the hexadecimal triplet alternative, eg. #FFFFFF, #000000.

Example:
[table color=blue][mrow color=green]Main Row Column 1[mcol color=red]Main Row Column 2[row color=#00FF00]Regular Row 1 Column 1[col color=#FF0000]Regular Row 1 Column 2[row]Regular Row 2 Column 1[col]Regular Row 2 Column 2[/table]
Will show up as

Main Row Column 1	Main Row Column 2
Regular Row 1 Column 1	Regular Row 1 Column 2
Regular Row 2 Column 1	Regular Row 2 Column 2

Fontsize

The "fontsize=" attribute allows you to change the text size.
The default font size is set to the FONTSIZE3 setting in the current template, however this can be changed by using the attribute in the [table] tag.

Example:
[table fontsize=18][mrow fontsize=10]Main Row Column 1[mcol fontsize=14]Main Row Column 2[row fontsize=5]Regular Row 1 Column 1[col fontsize=28]Regular Row 1 Column 2[row]Regular Row 2 Column 1[col]Regular Row 2 Column 2[/table]
Will show up as

Main Row Column 1	Main Row Column 2
Regular Row 1 Column 1	Regular Row 1 Column 2
Regular Row 2 Column 1	Regular Row 2 Column 2

Back to top

No, I am afraid not directly in phpBB 2.0. We are looking at offering customisable BBCode tags for the next major version.
Back to top

The PHP BBCode is similar to the Code BBCode, except that it should only be used for PHP code. Why? Because it highlights certain sections of the PHP code, making it easier to read.
Back to top