Welcome to the Tips and Tricks thread! This is the place to learn to make good-looking posts, insert images and video, and use autocarding and dice.

Feel free to ask any questions about how to do things!

Table of Contents

1. Text
   
   1. Formatting
   2. Layout
2. Lists
3. Quotes, etc.
   
   1. Quotes
   2. Code
   3. Spoilers
4. Tables
5. Dice
6. Magic-specific things
   
   1. Mana symbols
   2. Autocarding
   3. Decklists
7. Other NGA tools
   
   1. The Wiki
   2. The Library
8. External stuff
   
   1. Links
   2. Images
   3. Youtube
   4. MisterP's Deck Planner

Text

Formatting



You can specify colors as either color names ("red") or hex codes ("#FF0000"). So both [color=red] and [color=#ff0000] produce red text.



For long posts, it can be helpful to have headers of various importance. Use the [title], [h1], [h2], [h3], [h4], and [h5] tags for that:

Title
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Header 1
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Header 2
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Header 3
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Header 4
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Header 5
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.



Layout

You can manipulate where text is displayed:

To indent only the first line of a block of text, paragraph-style, wrap the paragraph in [p][/p] tags. The end result will look quite nice, and is good for posting stories and the like. If you like, you can also use it to post lengthy essays in support of a position, enhancing those wonderful Magic General and Off-Topic Room debates that we all love so dearly. Try it out!

(Sorry about the contrived paragraph. I just like a good demo!)


Use [hr] to create separators between sections of a post. You need to specify a color, and can set a width as well.

Lists

You can make a bunch of different lists:

• Some words
• More words

Changing options in the opening tag changes how the list is displayed:


Lists can be nested.

Quotes, etc.

Quotes

Quote a post with [quote]:



You can show who you're quoting, too:




Code

To make a block of text in which bbcodes aren't parsed, use [code][/code]:



You can also keep bbcodes from being parsed without the big blocky thing by using [code=none][/code].

Lastly, if for some reason you want to post some PHP code and get syntax highlighting, it can do that too:





Spoilers

Hide things until needed with spoilers:

You can change what's shown before expansion:


Due to annoying implementation details, currently you can't use both [spoiler] and [spoiler=whatever] in the same post. Using [spoiler=Spoiler] is a decent workaround.

Update: You can now use [sblock] tags.  They behave exactly like [spoiler] tags.

Tables

Tables are made using the [table] bbcode. A line of text gets turned into a row of the table, and columns are separated by vertical bars. Blank lines are ignored.


becomes

row 1, column 1 | row 1, column 2
row 2, column 1 | row 2, column 2

To make the first row of the table a distinctive header, use [table=header]:

becomes

header column 1 | header column 2
row 1, column 1 | row 1, column 2
row 2, column 1 | row 2, column 2

To center the table on the page, use [table=center]:

becomes

row 1, column 1 | row 1, column 2
row 2, column 1 | row 2, column 2

Lastly, you can have cells span multiple columns by putting {colsp=...} as the first thing in that cell:

becomes

R1C1 | R1C2 | R1C3
R2C1 |{colsp=2} R2C2-3

Lastly, you can use all of the features together; plus, most other bbcodes can be used in tables:


Normal header | Underlined header | Italic header

Quote:

Words. And more words!

|

Code:

A code block

|

Hidden

Boo!

| A B C | A link.

Left,

|

center,

|

right.

{colsp=2}This is an unusually-long cell. Imagine the possibilities! | This isn't.
Dice and other tables are about the only things that don't work inside a table.

Update!

You can now create sortable tables:

Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3
1 | c | foo
2 | b | bar
3 | a | baz
Columns containing only numbers are sorted numerically; if there are non-numeric entries in a column it's sorted alphabetically instead.

Note: sorting can behave weirdly or break horribly if you try sorting on cells that span multiple columns.

Dice

Add dice rolls using the [dice] bbcode:



You can do some math with the rolls:



Dice rolls can be displayed in a few different ways:







11

You can choose how dice images are displayed in your user control panel, under Board Preferences > Edit display options > Display dice.

Cheating precautions:

The dice rolls are reasonably secure against "cheating" the rolls.

• Dice are not rolled until the post is submitted, so you can't just preview your post until you get numbers you like.
• Rolls quoted from other posts are always displayed with a link to the original post, so you can't quote rolls you like to copy them. Like so:
  
  
  Someone else wrote:
  Original post: GobO_Welder rolled 3d12 and got a total of 17:
  

  In inline mode: 17^[here]
  
  
• Removing rolls from a post leaves a notification that a roll has been removed, so you can't roll dice a bunch of times until you get results you like.

Best-of rolls:

You can also do "best-N-of-M" rolls: to roll 4d6 and keep the best 2, you would do "[dice]4d6b2[/dice]" to get
All the usual tricks -- arithmetic, different display modes -- work for best-of rolls as well.

Things you can't do:

Unfortunately, the mod we're using to implement dice has some limitations. The biggest ones are:

• You can't do multiple rolls in one: [dice]3d6+1d10[/dice] doesn't work.
• "Best of" rolls don't work: [dice]4d10b2[/dice] for "4 d10s, best 2". This works now!

Tags for Magic

Mana symbols

To create mana symbols, use [mc] tags:



It supports most/all mana symbols:

Normal:
Number:
Hybrid:
Twobrid:
Phyrexian:
Tap:

It's not case-sensitive, and ones that use parentheses are quite flexible: (w/u), (wu), (WU), (uw), and (U/W) all produce .

You can also use smilies for mana symbols: :w::u::b::r::g: becomes .



Planeswalker tags

Thanks to ty, we have a nice easy way to create the symbols for planeswalker abilities:




Or, in context:




Autocarding

To link to a card's Gatherer entry and show a pop-up image of the card, use [card]:

Phthisis

You can change what text is displayed in the link:

Don't get any of this on you.

If [card] is too long to type, [c] does the same thing.

For split cards, write the left half of the card, then a space, then //, then a space, then the right half: [c]Alive // Well[/c] becomes Alive // Well.



Decklists

To create decklists, use the [deck] tag:


33 x Relentless Rats
4 x Thrumming Stone
23 x Swamp


It's fairly tolerant of formatting, and any line that doesn't have a number in front of it is left alone:

Creatures
33 x Relentless Rats

Tech
4 x Thrumming Stone

Lands
23 x Swamp

Other NGA Tools

The Wiki
No Goblins Allowed has a wiki now!.

To easily link to it, use the [wiki] tag:

Rishima
An example M:EM plane



The Library
To assist with chinkeeyong's NGA Constructed project, NGA put together a tool for searching custom cards.

We have also set up autocarding based on this: Lurking Cannibal. The syntax is the same as for [c]:


You can also write up full decks with the [ngadeck] tag (decklist from here):

12 x Swamp

4 x Aurora Heremum
4 x Miracle Chymist
4 x Stoppered Homunculus
4 x Null Equation
4 x Vengeful Soul
4 x Breath of Catholicon
4 x Recrystallizing Guardian
4 x Hungry Latchjaw
4 x Quantum Cat
4 x Sewerborne Scourge

4 x Codex Shredder
4 x Entomb

External stuff

Links

Set up links with [url]:

http://www.google.com
Googlify

You can also create links to a different part of your post using [anchor] and [goto].

Jump from here...


... to here.



Images

Include images with the [img] tag:



Extra-large images are automatically resized; click them to see the full version:


Alternatively, you can manually resize images like so:









Youtube

To embed a youtube video, first get the video ID. This is the random letters and numbers following "v=" in the video URL: if you want to embed the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9b29phQz_I, the video ID is "J9b29phQz_I". Then
becomes



MisterP's Deck Planner

The illustrious yet MysteriousMisterP has created a fantastic deck-building tool for Duels of the Planeswalkers, and even helped us at NGA integrate its output. Create a deck there, copy the giant blob of BBCode it produces, and paste it into a post on the forums:

I need to ask again what the size limit on avatars are Also, once it's been decided, it would be nice to have explained in here what the size limit on pictures in signatures are, since not everyone is going to notice it in the CoC (including size limits on avatars wouldn't be a bad idea, either).

EDIT: Nevermind, the avatar size limits are in the control panel.

Sure thing.

Avatars need to be at least 20x20 pixels and at most 120x120.
Pictures in signatures can be any width, but a maximum of 120 pixels tall.

It would be nice to have title and h1 ... h5 heading tags. It gets tedious manually setting heading formatting in long posts.

Title style
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Heading 1
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Heading 2
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Heading 3
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Heading 4
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Heading 5
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Since [table] cells can't contain line breaks, it would be nice to have a [br] tag (with no closing tag) to insert a <br>.

I've yet to properly experiment with the [indent] tag, but is there already a known way to indent just the first line of a paragraph, since tabs don't get read and displayed? It normally indents the whole paragraph, I believe (using the [/tag] at the end of the paragraph or entry).

It's a ridiculous answer, but way back in the day on WotC there was FAQ writer on the D&D side who had a small image he would put at the start of the paragraph. The image was exactly the size of five characters in standard font, and was nothing except a transparant background. The effect was that whenever he started a paragraph, it appeared to be indented five characters.

With some fiddling here in the preview window, I'm not seeing a way to do it with code. Indent does indeed do the whole paragraph, and if you put the close-tag after (say) the first word it wraps the rest of the paragraph down to the next line. Similarly, the LIST tag can be used (without any bullets) to do the same basic thing.

This sounds like a job for Super-Welder!

There is a slightly tedious manual workaround you can use while you wait for a real solution to be implemented. Empty space is preserved inside [code][/code] tags, and you can use the [code=none][/code] variant to create space-preserving text within a paragraph, using the ordinary font.


     Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

It's an easy thing for me to set up, just need to figure out the best way to do so. I think the cleanest way is probably to change the way the [indent] tag works to only indent the first line by default, and have [indent=all] indent the whole paragraph. I need to check whether this would screw up any other posts first, though.

[edit] Update: this change would affect 83 posts, a number of which are highly visible. So instead this will be the [p] tag: if you want your code indented paragraph-style, wrap it in [p]  [/p]. Like so:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Told ya he was super!

Using Lorem Ipsum is a cop out! I want random text not generated automatically!

But really, thank you guys for that.

~SE++

Thank you very much. This will give our stories a much more professional look.

(Now all you need to do is add the button to the text editor ;P)