Compose Tips

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a><br> <em> <strong><style> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img><bib><ibib><div><small>

    This site allows HTML content. While learning all of HTML may feel intimidating, learning how to use a very small number of the most basic HTML "tags" is very easy. This table provides examples for each tag that is enabled on this site.

    For more information see W3C's HTML Specifications or use your favorite search engine to find other sites that explain HTML.

    Tag DescriptionYou TypeYou Get
    Anchors are used to make links to other pages.<a href="http://www.amphibiatree.org">AmphibiaTree</a>AmphibiaTree
    By default line break tags are automatically added, so use this tag to add additional ones. Use of this tag is different because it is not used with an open/close pair like all the others. Use the extra " /" inside the tag to maintain XHTML 1.0 compatibilityText with <br />line breakText with
    line break
    Emphasized<em>Emphasized</em>Emphasized
    Strong<strong>Strong</strong>Strong
    No help provided for tag style.
    Cited<cite>Cited</cite>Cited
    Coded text used to show programming source code<code>Coded</code>Coded
    Unordered list - use the <li> to begin each list item<ul> <li>First item</li> <li>Second item</li> </ul>
    • First item
    • Second item
    Ordered list - use the <li> to begin each list item<ol> <li>First item</li> <li>Second item</li> </ol>
    1. First item
    2. Second item
    Definition lists are similar to other HTML lists. <dl> begins the definition list, <dt> begins the definition term and <dd> begins the definition description.<dl> <dt>First term</dt> <dd>First definition</dd> <dt>Second term</dt> <dd>Second definition</dd> </dl>
    First term
    First definition
    Second term
    Second definition
    No help provided for tag img.
    No help provided for tag bib.
    No help provided for tag ibib.
    No help provided for tag div.
    No help provided for tag small.

    Most unusual characters can be directly entered without any problems.

    If you do encounter problems, try using HTML character entities. A common example looks like &amp; for an ampersand & character. For a full list of entities see HTML's entities page. Some of the available characters include:

    Character DescriptionYou TypeYou Get
    Ampersand&amp;&
    Greater than&gt;>
    Less than&lt;<
    Quotation mark&quot;"
  • Lines and paragraphs are automatically recognized. The <br /> line break, <p> paragraph and </p> close paragraph tags are inserted automatically. If paragraphs are not recognized simply add a couple blank lines.
  • You can cite references directly into texts with <bib>citekey</bib> or [bib]citekey[/bib]. This will be replaced with a running number (the publication reference) and the publication referenced by the citekey within the <bib> tags will be printed at the bottom of the page (the reference).