BBCode is a markup language used in many forums in order to augment your text with certain effects, such as links, bolding, colours, etc. It was designed as a more secure way of implementing HTML-type effects without opening the forums to harmful HTML or Javascript that someone might embed in a forum post.

The following explains BBCode, and how to use it.

Simple Tags:

Bold text

[b]This text will be bolded.[/b]

Will look like this:
This text will be bolded.

Italicised Text

[i]This text will be in italics.[/i]

Will look like this:
This text will be in italics.

Underlined text

[u]This text will be underlined.[/u]

Will look like this:
This text will be underlined.

Resizing text

[size=14]Resized text.[/size]

Will look like this:
Resized text.

Changing fonts

[font=Impact, Trebuchet MS]New font face[/font]

Will look like this:
New font face

Changing color

[color=red]Coloured text.[/color]

Will look like this:
Coloured text.

Likewise, you can use hex color codes:

[color=#ff0000]Coloured text.[/color]

Will look like this:
Coloured text.

Code tags
Code tags are used when you want to pre-format something, such as to demonstrate HTML or PHP code, without the code being parsed.

[ code]This is code.        It is formatted with lots of spaces.[/code ]

(without spaces in the tags)
Will look like this:

This is code.        It is formatted with lots of spaces.

More Advanced Tags:

Quoting Text
Quoting text can be done in two ways: quoting the text on its own, and quoting text with the quoted person's name.

Quote without name:

[quote]This is a quote without name.[/quote]

Will look like this:

Quote with name:

[quote="BadKarma"]This is a test of the bb code system.

Blah, blah.
[/quote]

Will looke like this:

Images
Images can be displayed by putting an image tag around the URL to the image you're wanting to display.

[img]http://mb.side7.com/images/S7Logo-150x101-DFDFDF.gif[/img]

Will look like this:


Links
Links can be done in two ways: the URL itself wrapped in link tags, or text wrapped in link tags along with the URL.

[url]http://www.side7.com[/url]

Will look like this:
http://www.side7.com

[url=http://www.side7.com]Side 7[/url]

Will look like this:
Side 7

E-mail address
E-mail addresses can be done in the same fashion as links: wrapped around text, or just the address itself. Also, in the tag, both "email" and "e-mail" are acceptable, however, both the opening tags and the closing tags must match.

[email]badkarma@side7.com[/email]
[e-mail]badkarma@side7.com[/e-mail]

Will look like this:
badkarma@side7.com
[e-mail]badkarma@side7.com[/e-mail]

[email=badkarma@side7.com]E-mail me.[/email]
[e-mail=badkarma@side7.com]E-mail me.[/e-mail]

Will look like this:
E-mail me.
[e-mail=badkarma@side7.com]E-mail me.[/e-mail]

Lists:
Lists are one of the more complex BBCode tags. However, they can be very powerful and useful tools. Lists can be in several formats: unordered, numerical, or alphabetical. Lists can also be nested to create outlines.

[list]
[*]This is one.
[*]This is two.
  [list=1]
  [*]This is two-point-one
  [*]This is two-point-two
  [/list]
[*]This is three.
  [list=a]
  [*]This is three-point-a.
  [/list]
[/list]

Will look like this:

• This is one.
• This is two.
  
  1. This is two-point-one
     
  2. This is two-point-two
     
• This is three.
  
  1. This is three-point-a.