Formatting & BBCode Guide

[Lucy]

This guide is to help be an in-depth guide to cover the Forum's various formatting options available on the PokéForce Forums. This should help out immensely with helping tidy your posts up, whether it's for posts that you make in general across the Forums here, or even to help guide creators who may make guides in the future for PokéForce as well!

Fortunately enough for you all, you are in very good hands. My entire goal of this guide, and hopefully by the end of it, is to help arm you with the knowledge and everything that there is to know. I will be providing examples, provide insightful information, and to provide a clear understanding.

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Bold​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	Ctrl + B​
BBCode​	[B][/B]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	- -​

Bold is a great was to add emphasis to your text. You can really make things stand out for others to see.

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Italic​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	Ctrl + I​
BBCode​	[I][/I]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	- -​

Italics are great for italicizing text. It's another way to add emphasis to your text. It can be a great use for titles, or to reiterate the point to tell you that italics are great for emphasizing things.

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Font size​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[SIZE=3][/SIZE]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	1 (size 9) through 7 (size 26)​

Adjusting font size to be bigger as well as smaller can be quite useful. Bigger text can be used for stuff like titles, and smaller text could be used for things like extended descriptions to make them fit in more confined areas. Learning good text sizing can make for some very neat and clean expression and creativity!

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Text color​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[COLOR][/COLOR]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	Explained below​

The color BBCode has a lot more to it than than what meets the eye, but I will try my best to explain how you can use it, and also make use of it to its fullest potential.

The first way to colorize text, and the more simple straight forward way is to use the color selector tool for this after highlighting text you want to add color to:

Not only do you have a selection of preset colors to choose from, but you also can enter a hexadecimal color value as well. If you are unsure about hexadecimal color values, then I would recommend visiting and using this site as it's a good resource. I tend to use it myself sometimes personally, and it can be good in helping me for development purposes.

Now, if you do happen to use and enter a hexadecimal color value, the Forums here will end up converting it into RGB. So, if you are using the Toggle BB code feature, then you will see the conversion.

This means that in plain BBCode, you can use colored text in these 3 different ways:

Hexadecimal Value​	[COLOR=#008080]Teal[/COLOR]​
RGB Value​	[COLOR=rgb(0, 128, 128)]Teal[/COLOR]​
Color Name​	[COLOR=teal]Teal[/COLOR]​
Result of the above 3:​	Teal​

Now, if you use the 2nd option (RGB), then for that you basically enter a Red, Green, and Blue value. Each of these values would be anything between 0 through 255.

The 3rd option is one that's also usable, however please note that it's limited to the amount of colors supported. These are colors that are basically supported natively.

You can find all of them here.

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Font family​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[FONT][/FONT]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	Explained below​

Font families can be a great way to fancy and spice up your text! Make it stand out and be different from the main default text that most people use.

For fonts that you can use, they are the following:

• Arial
• Book Antiqua
• Courier New
• Georgia
• Tahoma
• Times New Roman
• Trebuchet MS
• Verdana

However, with the use of BBCode, you are able to use other font families and not just the ones presented.

For example, you are able to use the good ol' Comic Sana font if you really wanted to.

Comic Sans MS

Or you can also use some other neat fonts just like this one as well.

Cursive

You use it as so:
[FONT=Comic Sans MS]text here[/FONT]

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Strike-through​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	Crtl + S​
BBCode​	[S][/S]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	- -​

Striking out your text can be great, especially for post edits. You could edit something and strike-out the text to correct yourself as an example. Or I could just strike-out some text to just show that it's irrelevant information.

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Underline​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	Crtl + U​
BBCode​	[U][/U]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	- -​

Underlining things can be a very great was to show that something has significant meaning. Just like how I can say that I've put a lot of love into this guide, and that you should read it carefully!!!

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Inline code​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[ICODE][/ICODE]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	- -​

This is a very useful thing that you can utilize, especially with being able to show other BBCode in plain text as I have been doing throughout this guide. It can be quite clean if you can find good use cases for it.

Here's one cool thing that you can do with it with emojis.

Normal:
With Inline code: 💝

Notice how it changed the emoji's appearance? That's because it ignores the Forum's custom formatting that it uses for emojis. It uses actual code tags within HTML.

 

[Lucy]

Inline spoiler​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[ISPOILER][/ISPOILER]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	- -​

A very great way to blur out your text, and will require others to click on the text for it to be revealed. Can be useful for any type of spoiling, really. I hope that you guys are enjoying the guide!

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List​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[LIST][/LIST]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	None for unordered, 1 for ordered​

The main thing in List is actual lists, and you can choose between two varieties of lists. These are ordered and unordered lists. While you can use both interchangeably, it's best to use ordered lists like this as an example:

1. Log into PokéForce
2. Check what quests I have to do
3. Do some quests
4. Relax and do some Shiny Hunting
5. Log out of PokéForce

It's better to have ordered lists being steps that you are following, or just a list of things that should be followed in order. This is why this is called an ordered list.

Unordered lists are different, they are a lot better used in the following way as an example:

• Obtain 100 Shiny Pokémon
• Acquire 10 million gold
• Obtain a 6 IV Pokémon
• Finish all quests
• Complete PokéDex

Unordered lists are a lot better for say listing out achievements or goals that you have as an example, unless being used in a more specific context otherwise. You could still use an ordered list especially if you plan to be say knocking out your goals in order.

The main point is though is just showing the differences between the two, and why you may want to use one over the other, and it being able to be more understandable to the reader.

The other two things that are under List is Indent and Outdent. Indenting could be something useful that may help you formatting your posts, while outdenting just reverses back whatever you may have indented.

This is indented text!​

Notice how the indenting is also sort of similar to ordered and unordered lists? Just without the numbers or bullet points. If you really wanted to, you could make your own sort of formatting and create your own custom lists with this. This is why indenting is there for you to make use of!

For example:

⋆ Stars are bright!​

⋆ Stars show at night!​

⋆ Stars you can wish upon!​

You can also indent by doing: [INDENT]text here[/INDENT]

​

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Alignment​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[CENTER][/CENTER]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	- -​

Alignment basically features more alignment options for your text, images, and really whatever else you can really think of. Just like the tables I've been using throughout the guide, I have been aligning them in the center and making them be neater to some extent. Anyway, let's go over what you can do here and what you have for formatting options:

You can have text over to the left like this using: [LEFT]text here[/LEFT]

You can have text be in the center like this using: [CENTER]text here[/CENTER]
​

You can have text over to the right like this using: [RIGHT]text here[/RIGHT]​

You can also justify your text which is especially useful for things like quotes or tables, and while having your text be spread more equally across the given area.

Without Justify:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.​

With Justify:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.​

Notice the difference? While it's more slight, you can still notice how justified text is more uniform and can make for some slightly better consistency as well as readability. It can be really good for smaller resolution screens, such as people who are on say mobile devices where screens have less width. Same with windowed browsers.

This can be done using: [JUSTIFY]text here[/JUSTIFY]

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Paragraph format​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[HEADING][/HEADING]​
Example​	Example Text​
Values​	1 through 3​

Paragraph format basically contains your headers. You can basically think of headers as bold and bigger text as that's basically what they are, but they are generally more nicer to use when you can make use of them properly.

Throughout this guide, I have been using Heading 1 for each section. Here's a good example of what you could do with headings. The following is a Table of Contents (TOC):

1. What is PokéForce?​

   • When it was founded
   • The inspiration behind it
   • What it aims to be as an MMO

2. Features of PokéForce​

   • Questing
   • Breeding System
   • Classes

This is just an example with using heading in combination of ordered and unordered lists together!

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Insert link​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	Ctrl + K​
BBCode​	[LINK][/LINK]​
Example​	Seasonal Holidays 2023​
Values​	Anything​

Links can be great especially to linking to sources of other forum pages, or even external sites. You can also have hyperlinks like this too as an example:

This link leads to Google!

This can be done as such: [URL='https://www.google.com/']This link leads to Google![/URL]

While being able to link other sites is a very powerful thing, they are not something to be abused! Please remember that.

 

[Lucy]

Insert image​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	Ctrl + P​
BBCode​	[IMG][/IMG]​
Example​
Values​	Any link of an image file​

So, here's something that I actually find most people tend to struggle with as I see broken images in posts usually when it comes to forums. When it comes to an image that you would like to share here on the forums, even if's somewhere else on a different site, or wherever else on the Internet, make sure you are checking your links!

What I mean is, you know that you have a correct link of an image when the end of your link to the image actually contains the extension of an image file.

Like these for example:, a few examples, but not limited to the following:

• .png
• .jpg
• .jpeg
• .gif

You should have image links similar to this:
https://img.pokemondb.net/sprites/home/shiny/1x/ribombee.png

If you also click on that link, do you notice how the image is opened up by itself in a new tab? That's exactly what you want to be going for when sharing images. If you're unsure how to get images by themselves in their own tab, try right clicking (if on PC), or do a tap and hold on an image (if on mobile), then open the image up in a new tab. From there, you can then proceed to copy the link.

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Smiles​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	- -​
Example​	​
Values​	- -​

Smiles are more of the outcast here as they don't really have BBCode tags and they are rather niche as well. However, I know that a lot of people love emojis, so they deserve coverage too!

Emojis are a fun thing that can really help not only improve your own forum experience, but also others as well as they may read your posts or messages.

The first way to use emojis is through the Emoji picker through the post editor itself:

You can easily select as well as search for the emojis that you would be looking for through the selector. However, I highly recommend using the alternative method for adding emojis into your post!

To do this you can start by typing a colon, along with 2 letters following after the colon.

Just like this:
:sm

Then, you should see emoji suggestions pop up based off of what you're basically wanting or trying to look for (these consist of 5 suggestions):

If you want to as well, you could also just type emojis out as text just like the smile emoji there as such: :)

It will be automatically converted when you post your post as well

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Media​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[MEDIA][/MEDIA]​
Example​
Values​	- -​

Media is a way to share stuff like videos, albums, and other forms of various media. However, please do note that the Media BBCode is quite limited, and it's rather strict with what it will accept. I also highly recommend that you use the Media tool through the editor itself as it will tell you what domains are allowed to be used with it.

Also, as I know Youtube would be quite popular, you're able to use links to Youtube videos with it, but you aren't allowed to use links of Youtube channels with it. If you do try a Youtube channel, then you will see the Media will not allow for it.

This is why I would recommend using the tool for Media to insert your links instead of using the actual BBCode for it, as it will basically ensure that you have put in a valid link for content that it expects.

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Quote​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[QUOTE][/QUOTE]​
Example​	​ I am a quote!​
Values​	Anything​

Quotes are a very great way of replying to others, or referencing other information They can easily improve the readability of your post when it comes to discussions of any kind and make it clear as to who or what you may be referring to.

This is an example quote!

You can easily quote and reply to others using the reply function at the bottom right of other's posts.

If I would like to quote outside sources like say information from Bulbapedia as an example, here's how I may go about doing so:

Bulbasaur (Japanese: フシギダネ Fushigidane) is a dual-type Grass/Poison Pokémon introduced in Generation I.

It evolves into Ivysaur starting at level 16, which evolves into Venusaur starting at level 32.

Along with Charmander and Squirtle, Bulbasaur is one of the three starter Pokémon of Kanto available at the beginning of Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, FireRed, and LeafGreen.

Source: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Bulbasaur_(Pokémon)

If you do something like this, then it would be ideal to include the source as well where the information would be getting cited.

If you want quotes where someone or something is saying something, use the BBCode as such: [QUOTE="Source"]Example quote.[/QUOTE]

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Insert horizontal line​

Indicator​
Shortcut​	- -​
BBCode​	[HR][/HR]​
Example​
Values​	- -​

Horizontal lines are a great and sophisticated way to help section off your post. Just like I have been making use of them throughout this guide to help section off each formatting option!

 

[Lucy]

reserved

 

[Lucy]

reserved, just this last one to be extra safe

 

[Red Ketchum]

This is really helpful thx!

 

[Emma]

Thanks for this!

 

[Drunk]

Not me learning you can do ctrl+b.
Fantastic guide! I better see more beautified posts from here on out!

 

[Lillum]

I was looking for something like this, thank you so much.

 

[Hail]

Good to have it all in one place!

 

[ChenPingan]

thank you

 

[Lucy]

I've been quite busy the past week and haven't put as much focus into finishing this guide, but part 3 is finally released! The rest of the guide will come soon, likely sometime after the holidays.

Also, if you do have any questions regarding the guide or need help with anything, then please don't hesitate to ask here!

 

[Orange]

its really helpful for me. thank you lucy!

 

[Hana]

Masterful guide