The Basics of BBCode

The Basics of BBCode​

By iLikeSkills​

​

Introduction

For the active forum user, BBCode is fairly important. It is way to make your posts more attractive, and it is also a way to personalize your posts and express yourself. BBCode allows you to post images, name links, bold text, italicize text, color text, align text, size text, and much more. For someone who is not familiar with any type of coding at all, BBCode may seem a bit complex at first, but once you get the hang of it is extremely simple. Also, some code varies by forum software. Some code is different in IPB, vB, SMF, Invisionfree ect. In most cases they are very similar. For the purposes of this guide, all code is based on vB forum software.

Note: You will see * in many of the codes shown in the guide. In reality, * is never used in BBCode. It is used in this guide so the BBCode does not actually effect my text.

The Basic Concept of BBCode

The most important thing to know about BBCode is everything must have a start and a finish. For example, when you want to bold text, you will have the starting code . When you finish typing the code, you must type the same exact code, except including a /. So the end code for would be [*/b]. Everything in BBCode is also in brackets [].

Popular BBCodes

Bold - Anything inside these two codes will be bolded.[*/b]

Italicize - Anything inside these two codes will be bolded.[*/i]

Underline - Anything inside these two codes will be underlined.[*/u]

Color - Color is a more complex code. It works like this:. You can change red to any color of your choice. No matter the color, the end code is always [*/color]. The color of this text is green[*/color].

Size - Similar to color, size is a more complex code. . You can change the number to anything you wish. Just test out the size by using preview post. The numbers can only go so high though. The end code, no matter the number will always be .

Center​

Anything inside these two codes will be centered.[*/center]

Images - When inserting an image into your text, simply type , than post the link of the image, and then close the code with [*/img].

Links - The forum will automatically place the proper BBCode around your link so it is clickable, but if you wanted to know. You simply do [url]"
Link goes here"[*/url]. The link most also be in quotes.

Linking Images - It is possible to link your image, so when you click on the image, it directs you to a link. To do this you type: [url="linkgoeshere"][img]image link[*/img][*/url].

Naming Links - You can make it so certain text appears, instead of the link itself. When you click on the text, it will direct you to the link. to do this, you type: [url="link"]Text you'd like to show up for link[*/url].

I believe I have covered the majority of popular BBCode. If I missed something, please post in this topic and I will make sure to add it.

[b][u]Complex Code[/b][/u]

Now, when make a topic, you often want to bold, size, align, and color the same text. When you do something like that it would look something like this:

[b][color=green][size=4][u][center]The Greatest Shop Ever![*/b][*/color][*/size][/*u][/*center]

Just always remember, when you type a code, you must always close the code. If you preview your post and some code is showing instead of activating inside the text, just check all your start codes and end codes.


[b][u]Conclusion[/b][/u]

If you are new to forums, I hope you learned about BBCode today. If you knew a bit about BBCode, but not much, I hope this guide brushed up your knowledge about BBCode. I consider myself to be fairly experienced when ti comes to BBCode. If you have any questions or problems with BBCode, feel free to add my MSN, found in my signature, or post your questions in this thread. If you have any comments or concerns about the guide, or ways to improve, I would greatly appreciate it if you would post in this thread.​