So you want to get fancy, eh? Well, fancy can be simple and it just takes a little practice. There are HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) editors and some really good WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors that can be used for this same purpose but that's not the scope of this very basic primer.

When I post on Craigslist I never like just plain text so I add a little HTML to spice things up. Oddly enough I don't do that here on AR but you certainly can and that's the reason there is the HTML tag at the top of the "Entry" box when you are creating a new blog entry. Have you ever clicked it? You get a popup window that says:

WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzy wig) is the default posting editor you get when you come to post here on AR. No such critter exists over at Craigslist. The WYSIWYG editor lets you upload images and select how they are displayed, choose bold, italic, underlined or strikethrough text, offers some justification and line item options and that's about it.

What if you wanted some really big text or red test? Well, you'd need to do one of a couple of things and the thing we're talking about today is to actually create your posting in the HTML tab instead of the WYSIWYG tab. You can also do this directly into the post window on Craigslist. (On craigslist once you start using certain HTML code tags you have to use ALL tags - including line break, paragraph, etc.)

One basic you need to remember is any HTML code tag that affects the attributes of the page has both an opening and closing tag. The opening says, for example, make all of the text starting here bold. The closing tag, obviously, says, stop making the text bold from here on. In HTML code that looks like this: <B></B>

The end tag always includes the /

HTML coding likes to be nested. So if you are making a section of text bold and italic you would want to open the tags <B><I> and close them in reverse order thus "un-nesting" them </I></B>. 

Elements are not attributes but elements have attributes. Don't get confused. Chances are the only thing you'll ever put on that doesn't need a separate closing tag is the image tag. If you don't know how to do image tags I think most of the online image storage services actually provide them for you. I know PhotoBucket does. 

So, without further ado here are some very basic tags for you to start with in AR and Craigslist posting.

You can go here to see them in action - click this link for the HTML tutorial display.

Bold text:        <B></B>
Italic text:        <I></I>
Underlined:      <U></U>

Font attributes:
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,Times New Roman"></FONT>
<FONT SIZE="5"></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="Red"></FONT>

You can also combine those (and should) when you use them together:
<FONT FACE="Arial" COLOR="Red" Size="5"></FONT>

Want to place a horizontal line across the post?
Simple horizontal line: <HR />
Fat horizontal line: <HR Size="10" /> (Size is "thickness" in pixels)
Partial horizontal line: <HR Width="50%" />
Combined: <HR Width="50%" Size="10" Color="Navy" />

Want a big heading text?
There are multiple header sizes: <H1></H1> (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Need to put a line break?
This is single with no line spaces: <BR />

How about a paragraph? (Open and close tags are used)
This is a paragraph: <P>Paragraph text goes here.</P>

Insert an image. You'll need to know where ON THE INTERNET the image is located:
<IMG src="http://someserver.com/somefolder/myimage.jpg">
There are several other attributes to this tag but I'm not going into them right now ... maybe later if you beg or throw money.

Create a URL Link:
<A href="http://novationmortgage.com">Link To Novation Mortgage</A>

Copyright©2008 Ken Cook.  Georgia and Florida real estate investment loans, FHASecure and FHA Home Loans, nationwide commercial hard money and small business loans.