HTML formatting tips

[Nadine in NY]

We are all dependent on what formatting Goodreads will allow here. If you ever need a reminder (and I admit that I do whenever I'm trying to post an image, because I do it so rarely), every new post includes a clickable link in the upper right corner "(some html is ok)" - I copied and pasted what that link says here:

Formatting Tips

Goodreads allows some html formatting.
•well formed web urls automatically get turned into links
• link: < a href="http://www.goodreads.com">my link text< /a>
• link to book: use the "add book/author" link or [ book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone|3 ] *
• link to author: use the "add book/author" link or [ author: J.K. Rowling|1077326 ] *
• image: < img src="https://www.goodreads.com/image..." width="40" height="100" alt="description"/ > (Width must be 0-400, Height must be 0-1000, alt is a description of the image. All three are optional, but recommended.)
•bold text: < b>...< /b>
•italic text: < i>...< /i>
•underline text: < u>...< /u>
•strike text: < s>...< /s>
•exact spacing: < pre>...< /pre>
•blockquote: < blockquote>...< /blockquote>
•paragraph: < p>...< /p>
•spoiler: < spoiler>...< /spoiler>
• Note: tags must be properly nested, example:
OK < I >< b >test< /b >< /I >
Not OK < I >< b>test< /I >< /b >



If you ever have trouble with your HTML code, and it's not a nesting problem as they show above, it's probably because you've got a space or other punctuation mark in the way of the brackets, or you spelled something wrong and the processor interpreted that as null or left the command open.

HTML doesn't care about capitalization - "b" and "B" mean the same thing.

I put spaces in all the commands above so that you can see them. If you click on the "(some html is ok)" link, they will display properly without spaces.

*NOTE THAT THE "add book/author" FEATURE IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN BROWSER MODE. Because Goodreads has to get their act together and improve the app.

Also, I suspect the other option they suggest does not always work with all browsers/app readers, and that may be why I see posts sometimes with unclickable links. You need to get that specific number for that specific title/author.


I'm no computer whiz, I'm a dinosaur (PCs didn't even EXIST when I started high school!!!), so everyone feel free to add other helpful tips.

[Tracy]

Just another tip about fixing HTML problems ( because I ran into it again the other day and COULD NOT figure out why my book link wasn't working)

If your HTML code is formatted properly ( no spaces, correct brackets, / to close) check further up or towards the end of your post for any other places you used HTML that might be formatted incorrectly and fix those as well.

Examples I have run into recently:

My ENTIRE aty list was showing up in bold print and it took me a while to realize that there was a > at the very end of the list ( not sure how it ended up there so I wasn't looking for it. )Once I deleted it, my list was formatted correctly, since the HTML I used to bold the header was correct.

Yesterday I had linked all of my books into my Pop Sugar plan and one of them would not hyperlink ( wouldn't show in green/clickable) . I tried everything including cutting and pasting the same books working link further down on my list and still couldn't get this one book to link. It just showed the formatting in regular type. Finally a few lines up I noticed a random [
Once I deleted that the link was fine because the rest of my HTML was correct.

So basically any stray html character can affect your entire post.

Another one that took me a minute to solve:

If you are using the "reply" to a post link to respond to someones comment and your entire comment comes out in italics even though the HTML is correct
The reason is probably because a book link in the italicized quote is incomplete. You either have to delete the book link entirely or cut and paste the whole thing into the quote to fix it. this is because the partial book link is missing the ] at the end so it effect the formatting of your post.

Its a learning process if you are not familiar with it but its doable. I just learned how to put my own words into a link to another thread instead of just copy/pasting the whole link. I always wondered how people would put those links that said things like " MY challenge list here".

[Jane]

Tracy, the books I've added to my Pop Sugar challenge aren't showing up as "read." Clearly I am doing something wrong. I have my list and I √ when I read them, but I'm told I've read 0 books towards my challenge...and I've read 10. What do you think I may be doing wrong? Juniperlake

[Nadine in NY]

Jane wrote: "Tracy, the books I've added to my Pop Sugar challenge aren't showing up as "read." Clearly I am doing something wrong. I have my list and I √ when I read them, but I'm told I've read 0 books toward..."


Either you are not entering "Read" dates, so Goodreads is not registering them as read in 2022, or - if you are using the reading tracker widget on our homepage - the shelf name you are using is not exactly the same as the shelf name you typed in.

[Ron]

Can someone tell me how I can bookmark my posts?

I tried clicking on the time stamp but nothing happens.

[Nadine in NY]

Ron wrote: "Can someone tell me how I can bookmark my posts?

I tried clicking on the time stamp but nothing happens."



once you've clicked on the time stamp, you need to bookmark that location using your browser's bookmark function.

[Ron]

Nadine in NY wrote: "Ron wrote: "Can someone tell me how I can bookmark my posts?

I tried clicking on the time stamp but nothing happens."



once you've clicked on the time stamp, you need to bookmark that location ..."

okay thanks.