The form below provides spaces to enter your name, email address, and the subject of your comments. The comments themselves can either be typed or pasted into the large text window. Entries will be posted automatically when you click the "Post comments" button at the bottom of the form. Until then, no posting occurs. You can reset the form or cancel the posting process entirely by clicking on the appropriate buttons. You can also click on the "Preview" button to see what your posting will look like. You can then return to the posting and make modifications to it, repeating the process as many times as you want until you're satisfied with the appearance. Then click the "Post comments" button.
Serendip's posting program treats your material either as a "Plain Text" document or an "HTML" document, depending on which format you specify below the large text window. The default value is "Plain Text", and is appropriate for most purposes. If you leave it on this setting, your posting will appear much as it does when you type it: carriage returns will be translated into the appropriate HTML tags so that blank lines will appear to separate paragraphs. You cannot use tabs or tables in your text, though, and some kinds of formating like bold face and underlining will not appear in either the preview or posted version. Also, multiple spaces will appear as a single space. You can, however, use any HTML tags (if you are familiar with them) both for text formating and to create links and inline images.
If you are (or wish to become) adept at web publishing, you can change the setting for your posting to "HTML". In this case, though, you must yourself add ALL necessary HTML tags, including those for line and paragraph breaks.
If you do use HTML tags (in either posting mode), please be sure to check your submission using the "Preview" button, since improper tag use may affect not only your posting but all subsequent ones. You may also find the "Preview" procedure useful to develop your own skills with HTML tags. Try tags out and see what happens when you click "Preview". In this case, though, please avoid posting your exercises by being sure NOT to click "Post comments".
You can create a link within your message to another message in the same forum (an anchor link) by referencing the message-id of the message to which you want to link. For example, you can create a link to message #9 as follows: As Margaret said in <a href="#9">her message</a>