Quotes

[JimLucas]

And the next thing I have to learn is how to master quotes!  It takes me forever to write a message with quotes in it.

 

I added this just to show it could be done.

It helps if you've already mastered the mouse.

... Got that? Good!

 

To get the first quote, just click the "Quote" button on the message you want to quote. It opens a double window, the lower one containing the text of the message you're quoting (and the upper one for "new" text). If you don't edit it, this prior text will all appear in a single quote box at the top of your own message when it's posted using the "Add Reply" button. That box will have the indication of the time and author of the quoted message added automatically.

 

But you can edit its contents, as I've done here. I simply deleted all the details of your text that I feel aren't relevant to my response, including the part where you quoted me quoting you. I also added some text of my own, which I've highlighted in red (that's a separate lesson), just to show that it's possible.

 

If you want to insert some text of your own between quoted sections, just copy the additional to-be-quoted text after your own text in the main text window, click-and-drag with the mouse to highlight it, and then click the above "QUOTE" button. That will place the highlighted text between quote tags ( (QUOTE) and (/QUOTE), except with square brackets), and the text so enclosed will be displayed in a quote box once you submit your post. You can, of course, do this several times, and even nest quotes (but I'll let you think about how to do that).

 

If you want to add some labelling text to a particular quote -- e.g., if you're quoting from more than one source, -- just put an "=" after the "QUOTE" in the opening tag, and put the label text you want to insert between that =-sign and the following square bracket. Like this:

 

This is an artificial quote.

And that brings us to another way to include quote tags (which I just used to create that "quote"). Instead of clicking the "QUOTE" button while text is highlighted, you can click with nothing highlighted. This will place an opening quote tag wherever the cursor is positioned, and change the "QUOTE" button to a "*QUOTE" button. Then when you click that button again -- presumably with the cursor placed where you want to end the quote -- it will inset a closing quote tag.

 

You have to be careful, though. The quoting mechanism can't read your mind; it can only alternate opening and closing tags. If you create an opening tag and then decide it's wrong, you can't just delete it, because the next tag will then be a closing tag, no matter where you put it. You have to create (click) a matching closing tag, so the next time you try to quote something, it will have an opening tag in front and a closing tag behind. When you get these tags out of synch, the results can be quite bizarre.

 

At this point, you're probably wondering how I got all this -- including the quote from your post in a different subForum -- over here. I have to make a phone call before it gets too late here, so I'll let you think about that for a while.

 

Edited only to correct a small typo. Nothing sneaky there.

Edited June 3, 2004 by JimLucas

[Jay Lamsa]

At this point, you're probably wondering how I got all this -- including the quote from your post in a different subForum -- over here. 

 

Yes. Yes indeed.

 

And I walk in awe of the several people that united to form the "bellows" quotes in one of the other subforums.

 

Thanks for the primer!

J

[JimLucas]

I walk in awe of the several people that united to form the "bellows" quotes in one of the other subforums.

Nothing to that. One after another, we clicked on the "Quote" button on the previous message, added some text of our own, then clicked on the "Add Reply" button.

 

Well, I admit to deleting a few blank lines, so the bellows wouldn't stretch too far, but that wasn't actually necessary.