Songcrafters.org site usage tips

[64Guitars]

This topic will be used for tips about using the Songcrafters.org site. I've locked it to keep it organized, which means that only Pedro and I can edit this topic. If anyone else has tips they'd like to add, please post them in a new topic and send me a PM. I will then move or copy your message into this topic. But I reserve the right to edit your message as I see fit - mostly to keep the formatting consistent and add links, images, etc. as appropriate.

If you have any comments, questions, or requests for tips on a particular feature of the site, please post them in the companion topic "Where to find tips for using this site".

Table of Contents:

• Basic Message Editing - New Topic
• Basic Message Editing - Post Reply
• Message Editing - Introduction to Bulletin Board Code (or BB Code)
  
  • bold, italic, underline, strikethrough
• Message Editing - Basic BB Code
  
  • shadow
  • marquee
  • Text Alignment (preformatted text, left, centered, right)
• Message Editing - Fonts
  
  • Font Size
  • Font Face
  • Font Color
  • Subscripts and Superscripts
• Message Editing - Images
  
  • Embedding
  • Attachments
• Song Posting

[64Guitars]

Basic Message Editing

New Topic

To start a new topic (ie; post a message that is not a reply to an existing message), click the NEW TOPIC button at the top of the Board Index page:

This will take you to the "Start new topic" editor screen:

Enter some text in the single-line edit box at the top of the editor to describe the Subject of your topic. Then enter the text of your message in the large, multi-line edit box below the row of smileys.

[64Guitars]

Basic Message Editing

Reply

To reply to an existing message, click the REPLY button located at the top-right or bottom-right of the topic:

The "Post Reply" editor screen will appear:

Notice that it is the same as the "Start new topic" editor screen except that the Subject is already filled-in with the name of the topic to which you're replying. Enter the text of your message in the large, multi-line edit box below the row of smileys.


Quick Reply

If your reply is to be very short, you might find it more convenient to use the "Quick reply" feature. Just scroll down to the bottom of the topic page and enter your message directly into the "Quick reply" edit box.

If, while entering a "Quick reply", you decide you'd rather use the larger, full-featured editor, click the "Preview" button below the "Quick reply" edit box.

[64Guitars]

Message Editing

Introduction to Bulletin Board Code (or BB Code)

The three rows of buttons above the text edit box allow you to enhance the appearance of your message and add features by inserting bulletin board code into the text edit box.

When you hover the mouse pointer over a BB Code button, a hint will appear below it describing the button's function. For example, hovering the mouse pointer over the first button () tells you that its purpose is to make text bold.

There are a few ways you could use this feature. For example, suppose you wanted to type "To boldly go where no man has gone before" with the word "boldly" emphasized in bold. One way to do it would be to start by entering the word "To" into the edit box, followed by a space:

Code Select Expand

To
The cursor would be located imediately after the space. Now click the button. This will insert the following text at the cursor position:

Code Select Expand

To [b][/b]
This is what's known as a pair of BB Code tags. Each tag is always enclosed in square brackets and tags are (almost) always entered as matching pairs. In this case, "[b]" is the opening tag and "[/b]" is the closing tag. The closing tag always has a "/" immediately after the opening bracket, but is otherwise the same as the opening tag.

When the BB Code is inserted into your message, the cursor will be left between the two tags. This is where you will type the word "boldly".

Code Select Expand

To [b]boldly[/b]
Hopefully, you'll now understand why tags are always entered in pairs. They enclose the text that they will affect. In this case, only the word "boldly" will be emphasized in bold.

The cursor will now be immediately after the "y" in "boldly". Press the cursor right key four times to move past the closing tag, or simply press the End key to move to the end of the line. You can now type a space and the rest of the sentence.

Code Select Expand

To [b]boldly[/b] go where no man has gone before
If you want to see how this will look in your message before you actually post it, click the "Preview" button located below the text edit box.

The line should look like this in the preview:

To boldly go where no man has gone before


Another way that you could accomplish the same thing is to first enter the entire line in plain text.

Code Select Expand

To boldly go where no man has gone before
Then use the mouse or keyboard to select (highlight) the word "boldly". While it is highlighted, click the button. This will insert the BB Code tags around the selected text.

Code Select Expand

To [b]boldly[/b] go where no man has gone before

Yet another way that you could accomplish the same thing is to manually enter the BB Code tags as you type instead of clicking the button. In other words, you'd type "To ", then an opening square bracket ("["), followed by the letter "b", then the closing square bracket ("]"), the word "boldly", another opening square bracket ("["), a "/" followed by the letter "b", then the closing square bracket ("]") and finally the rest of the sentence " go where no man has gone before". This method can be used in a "Quick reply" where the BB Code buttons are not available.

The (italics), (underlined), and (strikethrough) buttons work in the same way. For example, if you entered the following into the editor's text edit box...

Code Select Expand

To [b]boldly[/b] go [i]where[/i] no [u]man[/u] has gone [s]before[/s]
...  and clicked "Preview", it would look like this:

To boldly go where no man has gone before

[64Guitars]

Message Editing

More Basic BB Code


Shadow

The (shadow) button adds a drop-shadow to the enclosed text. It takes two parameters: colour (defaults to gray) and direction (defaults to bottom). Valid values for direction are "top", "bottom", "left", or "right". Valid colours can be any of the standard text names or hex values as described here:

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/syndata.html#value-def-color

Hex values can be three (rgb) 4-bit hex digits, or six (rrggbb) 8-bit hex digits preceeded by a '#'.

For example:

[shadow=orange,right]Orange shadow to the right[/shadow]	produces...	Orange shadow to the right
[shadow=#088,left]Left shadow with 3-digit hex value[/shadow]	produces...	Left shadow with 3-digit hex value
[shadow=#808000,bottom]Bottom with 6-digit hex value[/shadow]	produces...	Bottom with 6-digit hex value

Marquee  [move]

The (marquee) button causes the enclosed text to scroll horizontally from right to left.

Code Select Expand

[move]This is an example of the marquee BB code which moves text from right to left.[/move]
This is an example of the marquee BB code which moves text from right to left.

The text between the opening and closing tags will always be displayed on a single line. If you try to use the [move] tags in the middle of a line, the line will be split before and after the tags. For example:

Code Select Expand

This is an example of [move]the marquee BB code[/move] which moves text from right to left.
This is an example of the marquee BB codewhich moves text from right to left.


Text Alignment

- Preformatted Text. Displays the enclosed text in a fixed font. This is useful for laying out columns of text or numbers. You can align the columns by inserting the correct number of spaces because all characters will be the same width, including the space character.

Code Select Expand

[pre]
iii iii      $229.97      Micro BR
WWW WWW        21.97      PSA-120S
[/pre]

iii iii      $229.97      Micro BR
WWW WWW        21.97      PSA-120S

Without the [pre] tags, the alignment would be off because the character widths vary:

Code Select Expand

iii iii      $229.97      Micro BR
WWW WWW        21.97      PSA-120S

iii iii      $229.97      Micro BR
WWW WWW        21.97      PSA-120S

Notice that a single uppercase "W" takes up as much space as three copies of the letter "i". This makes it very difficult to align columns. The [pre] tags solve that problem by forcing the browser to display the text in a fixed font. The [teletype] tags perform a similar function.


- Align Left. Aligns text to the left. This is the default anyway, so you probably won't need this BB code very often.

- Align Centered. Centers text on the line.

Code Select Expand

[center]Centered Text[/center]

Centered Text

The text between the opening and closing tags will always be displayed on a single line. If you try to use the [center] tags in the middle of a line, the line will be split before and after the tags. For example:

Code Select Expand

Journey to the [center]center[/center] of the Earth.
Journey to the

center

of the Earth.

- Align Right. Aligns text to the right.

Code Select Expand

[right]Aligned to the right.[/right]

Aligned to the right.

[64Guitars]

Message Editing

Fonts


Font Size

When you click the Font Size button , the following BB code is inserted into your message at the current cursor position:

Code Select Expand

[size=10pt][/size]
Insert the text you wish to enlarge or reduce between the tags. The default size of 10 points is used. You can make the text bigger by increasing the point size number, or smaller by decreasing the number.


Font Face

To change the font, click the Font Face button . The following code will be inserted into your message at the current cursor position:

Code Select Expand

[font=Verdana][/font]
Insert the text that you wish to affect between the tags, then specify one or more font names separated by commas. For example:

Code Select Expand

[font=Comic Sans MS, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif]Sample text using a different font face.[/font]
Sample text using a different font face.

Why list multiple fonts? These are fallbacks in case the specified fonts are not installed on the reader's computer. In the example above, the browser would first try to display the text in the Comic Sans MS font. If that font is not installed on the computer, the browser will try the Arial font. If that's not installed, it will try Verdana. Finally, if none of those fonts are available, it will use whichever font the computer has available from the sans-serif generic font family.

The appearance of messages that use multiple font faces is unpredictable because there's no guarantee that the fonts you specify will be available on everyone else's computers. In fact, it's very likely that they won't be. So, a message that looks typographically spectacular and professional on your computer may look very plain and boring on the computers of many other members. For this reason, it's probably best to avoid using font faces. Use other font effects (bold, italic, font size, color) instead to enhance the appearance of the text in your message. These effects are standard across different browsers and operating systems, so you can be reasonably sure that your message will look the same on other members' computers as it does on yours.


Font Color

To change the color of text in your message, highlight the text then select a color from the drop-down list.

For example:

Code Select Expand

[color=green]This text is in Green[/color] and this is not.
This text is in Green and this is not.

Of course, you could also select the color first, then type or paste your text between the tags. Or you could manually type the tags, as with any BB codes.


Subscript and Superscript

The subscript and superscript buttons reduce the size of the text and place it slightly below or above the normal text.

For example:

Code Select Expand

This is normal text, this is [sub]subscript,[/sub] and this is [sup]superscript[/sup].
This is normal text, this is _subscript, and this is ^superscript.

[64Guitars]

Message Editing

Images


Embedding

You can embed an image into your message using the BB Code [img] [/img] tag pair. As with most BB Code tags, you can type them into your message manually, or click the Insert Image button above the message editor. Then simply insert the URL of the image between the tags like this:

[img]http://www.sweetwater.com/images/items/215/MicroBR.jpg[/img]

This is how it will look:




So, where do you find images and how do you get their URLs? You can use images found on any web site. There are also several search engines that feature images from the world wide web. Here are a few:

• Google Images
• Yahoo! Image Search
• picsearch
• exalead

When you've found the image you want to use, right-click on it and select "Copy Image Location" from Firefox's context menu.

(click image to view fullsize)

This puts the URL of the image into the Windows clipboard. You can then paste the URL between the [img] tags.


You can adjust the displayed size of the image by adding width and/or height parameters to the opening [img] tag. For example, the Sweetwater Micro BR image above was a bit too big for a message so I reduced the width to 500 pixels:

[img width=500]http://songcrafters.org/64guitars/Images/Screenshots/Copy Image Location.png[/img]

To make it possible to view the fullsize image, I wrapped the entire image code in a [url] [/url] tag pair and specified the URL of the image again as a parameter to the opening [url] tag.

[url=http://songcrafters.org/64guitars/Images/Screenshots/Copy Image Location.png][img width=500]http://songcrafters.org/64guitars/Images/Screenshots/Copy Image Location.png[/img][/url]

Now, when you click on the image, it will be displayed fullsize by Firefox. To bring this feature to the viewer's attention, I've added the text "(click image to view fullsize)" below the image, and centered both the image and the text.

[center][url=https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/Images/Screenshots/Copy Image Location.png][img width=500]https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/Images/Screenshots/Copy Image Location.png[/img]
[i](click image to view fullsize)[/i][/url][/center]

Sometimes, you'll want to use an image that's stored on your local hard drive. One way to do that is to attach the image to your message (see below). In that case, it would be redundant to use the [img] tags since the image will already be visible at the bottom of your message as a thumbnail. When you click on the thumbnail, it will be enlarged to fullsize.

Another way to add an image from your hard drive is to first upload it somewhere on the internet, then embed it using the [img] tags and the URL of the image, as you would with any image from the web (see above). There are several free image hosting websites such as photobucket and PICT.COM. They often include the full BB Code required to display your image in a message. Just copy that code and paste it into your message.

Attachments

You can attach an image to your message from your local hard drive. First, click on the "Additional Options" link below the message editor.

This opens the Additional Options to display the Attach edit box and Browse button.

Click the Browse button and select the image file you wish to attach. It will be displayed at the bottom of your message as a thumbnail. Clicking the thumbnail will enlarge the image. For example, I've attached an image to this message called "VamPierre.png".

[64Guitars]

There are several ways to include a song with your message. Each has its pros and cons.

• Attachments - This is the most common way to post a song and will be discussed in greater detail below. Attached MP3s automatically play in our MP3 player gadget and are automatically included in your "Play all my songs" jukebox. However, they consume a great deal of space on our server. So, if you'll be posting a lot of songs, please consider hosting the songs offsite and using the singlemp3 or SoundClick/ReverbNation/4shared methods of linking to your songs instead of attaching them to your messages. More on this later.
  
  
• Link [singlemp3] - Host your files offsite and link to them with the singlemp3 tags so that they play in our MP3 player gadget. As I said, this helps to conserve space on our server. The only downside is that the songs won't be added to your "Play all my songs" jukebox. However, you can create your own jukeboxes showcasing your songs on your external website and provide a link to that site in your signature so that other members can visit your site and listen to more of your music.
  
  
• SoundClick - SoundClick offers several advantages including a chart system which lets you see how your song ranks in number of listens compared with other SoundClick songs. We have a separate SoundClick player gadget which you can easily add to your message so that other members can play your song without having to go to the SoundClick site. Unfortunately, SoundClick songs cannot be added to your "Play all my songs" jukebox. If you use SoundClick, please be sure to allow downloads of your songs from SoundClick. If you disable downloading, I won't be able to include your SoundClick songs in our Festival jukeboxes.
  
  
• ReverbNation - We have a separate ReverbNation MP3 player widget which you can easily add to your message so that other members can play your song without having to go to the ReverbNation site. Unfortunately, ReverbNation songs cannot be added to your "Play all my songs" jukebox. And I can't include ReverbNation songs in our Festival jukeboxes because there doesn't seem to be any way to get the actual URL of the MP3 file.
  
  
• 4shared.com - We have a separate 4shared.com MP3 player widget which you can easily add to your message so that other members can play your song without having to go to the 4shared.com website. Unfortunately, 4shared.com songs cannot be added to your "Play all my songs" jukebox. And I can't include 4shared.com songs in our Festival jukeboxes because there doesn't seem to be any way to get the actual URL of the MP3 file.
  

I'll post more details here on all five methods when I have time. Until then, see these messages for details on using the SoundClick, ReverbNation, and 4shared.com MP3 players:

• Soundclick: https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=5244.msg65322#msg65322
  
  
• ReverbNation: https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=7722.msg100879#msg100879
  
  
• 4shared.com: https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=7877.msg103466#msg103466

[64Guitars]

This is just a quick description of how to post a song as an attachment. I hope to improve it later.

The first thing to do is decide which board you should post your song under. It will depend on who wrote the song, who performed on it, and whether it's finished or not. Your choices are:

• Original Songs - This board is for songs that were written by you and/or other Songcrafter members, and all of the vocals and instruments (except drums) were performed by you and/or other songcrafter members.
• Cover Songs - This is for songs that were not written by you but all of the performances were by you and/or other Songcrafter members.
• Songcrafter Tributes - This is for your covers of songs written by other Songcrafter members.
• Collaborations - This is for unfinished songs which you'd like other members to contribute to. For example, if you don't sing, you could post your unfinished song here and ask someone to add vocals. Or maybe you want someone to add some lead guitar or harmonica, etc.
• Backing Track Jams - This is for songs in which some of the performances are by non-members. Most commonly, this will be backing tracks downloaded from a website or found in a guitar magazine, etc. and you've added only vocals or lead guitar, for example.

After you've decided which board to post to, go to that board and create a New Topic. See this message for details.

Type your message into the message editor. Below the editor, you'll see "Additional Options".

Click "Additional Options" to open it. It will then look like this:

Click the "Browse" button to attach your MP3 file. Don't worry about the MP3 player; it will be added automatically after you post.

On the last line of your message, you can (optionally) add a Song Info box to display the title of your song and writing/performance credits or other song-related info. To add a Song Info box, click the icon above the message editor. This will insert the following into your message at the current cursor position:

[song=][/song]

Immediately after the equal sign, you should type the title of your song. For example, if your song is called "Ode to a Toad" it would look like this:

[song=Ode to a Toad][/song]

You would then add credits and other info between the tags, like this:

[song=Ode to a Toad]
Written by Miss Piggy.
Performed by Miss Piggy, Snuffleupagus, and Animal.
Recorded on Boss Micro BR.
[/song]

After your song is posted, this Song Info box will look like this:

Ode to a Toad

Written by Miss Piggy.
Performed by Miss Piggy, Snuffleupagus, and Animal.
Recorded on Boss Micro BR.

The MP3 player will appear directly under the Song Info box.

[64Guitars]

Update (2011-08-19): After writing these instructions, I created a new [width] tag which is more suitable for signatures than the table tags described below. So read the following to get the general idea of how to add recorder icons to your signature, then see this page to learn about the [width] tag.


You can add a picture of your main recorder or DAW in your signature to let other members know what you use. Here's how:

• Click Profile in the main menu to edit your profile.
  
  
• Click Forum Profile Information from the Modify Profile menu and scroll down to the Signature section.
  
  
• Copy and paste the following code at the start of the Signature edit box:
  
  [table]
  [tr]
  [td][/td]
  
  [td][/td]
  
  [td][/td]
  [/tr]
  [/table]
  
  The purpose of this code is to create a table with three container columns in your signature, defined by the three [td][/td] tag pairs (td stands for Table Data). The first column will hold the picture of your main recorder and the third column will hold any additional information you care to add to your signature such as links to your websites. The middle column acts as a spacer to separate the first column from the third.
  
  
• Find the picture of your main recorder or DAW at the bottom of this message. If your recorder or DAW is not there, send me a PM and I'll add it. If you use multiple recorders or DAWs, just select the one you use the most.
  
  
• Copy the code to the right of the picture below and paste it between the first [td][/td] tag pair. For example, if your recorder is the Boss Micro BR, your signature code should now look like this:
  
  [table]
  [tr]
  [td][rec]Boss Micro BR[/rec][/td]
  
  [td][/td]
  
  [td][/td]
  [/tr]
  [/table]
  
  
• Add any additional info that you want in your signature between the third [td][/td] tag pair. For example, here I've added a couple of website links:
  
  [table]
  [tr]
  [td][rec]Boss Micro BR[/rec][/td]
  
  [td][/td]
  
  [td][url=https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/index.html]My Boss BR website[/url]      [url=http://64guitars.weebly.com/]My weebly.com site[/url][/td]
  [/tr]
  [/table]
  
  
• Now add a few spaces to the middle [td][/td] tag pair to separate the recorder picture from the other info:
  
  [table]
  [tr]
  [td][rec]Boss Micro BR[/rec][/td]
  
  [td]    [/td]
  
  [td][url=https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/index.html]My Boss BR website[/url]      [url=http://64guitars.weebly.com/]My weebly.com site[/url][/td]
  [/tr]
  [/table]
  
  
• Click the "Change profile" button at the bottom of your profile page to save your new signature. It will immediately appear below all of your previously-posted messages and should look something like mine which you'll see below this message.
  
  

For a list of the recorder and DAW pictures you can choose from, see the following guide:

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=8