I've gotten a few emails lately from readers asking me for help with their posts here on Da Chronic. With over 100 new members in the month of March alone, it's up to me to help make sure everyone is up to speed with all the great toys that SB Nation let's us play with. While there is not much in the way of Saints news lately, what better time to help enlighten some of you than now.
If you've got something good to say, you'll definitely want it to look good too. The below information is an in-depth tutorial on how to really make your FanPosts look cool by adding pictures, hyperlinking and formatting your text. and thus giving your post a better chance of me moving it to the front page To really get the most out of this lesson, open up a new FanPost and play around with it as you read along with this post.
Formatting
Just like any basic e-mail program, you can add certain effects to your text. All of these buttons can be found above. Highlight the text you want to give an effect then click on the button. Very easy. Here is what they do...
Bold
Italics
Strikethrough
Quote
- Bullets
- Numbering
Inserting Pictures
You can easily add any picture to your post to spice it up a bit. I'm a fan of using Google Image search. Open up a new window and head over there. Just type in what picture you're looking for and chances are, you'll find it. When you do find it, click on it and view the full size image. Then click above on the "insert image" button. That will bring up a text box. You want to cut and paste your pictures web address into that text box. Voila! You've got a cool picture.
Pasting from Other Sources
Different website use different text. Sometimes when you cut and paste text from another website...
It looks like this.
I'm not a fan of that. You can avoid this by clicking the "Paste from Word" button above (the clipboard with the "W"). Paste your text in there instead and click insert. That puts it through SB Nation's magic converter and makes everything look the same.
Linking Articles and Websites
Always wanted to make a word link to another website instead of cutting and pasting an entire ugly URL like this...
Hey guys! Go here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3JeJtc-HW4
It's a lot cooler and funnier to do it like this...
My motto's always been when it's right, it's right.
All you have to do is click and drag to highlight the word(s) you want to be the link. Than click on the "insert link" button above (chain link) and paste the web address in the pop-up. Done.
If you are quoting another source directly, you must link to the website from which it came.
Intro and Body
Writing something long and serious? Break it up into an intro paragraph and main body. When you first start writing a FanPost, you are writing in the intro paragraph section. To write the crux of your information in the body of your post, simply click "Entry Body" found above, just below the title. If I decide to put your FanPost up on the front page, the intro paragraph will make the front page and the rest will be found "after the jump."
Tagging
I can't stress this enough (neither can Stujo4)...tag your posts!! Tag the hell out of them. Any team, player or event that you mention in your post, make sure to include a tag for it. Tags are those lists of things at the bottom of all posts and freakin' useful. They link all articles written not only here on CSC but on all of SB Nation. They can then suggest other stories you might actually be interested in.
You can add them just to the right of where you're writing your FanPost in that blue area. Just type in any team or player in the appropriate boxes. It's cool because as you start typing, SB Nation will start recognizing the name before you even finish, at which point you just click on the name as it pops up. Manually add any random tags in the "Tags" text box.
Headings
If you've got different sections in your post and you want to give them each a larger heading like the one for this section, just highlight the text you want to enlarge and choose a heading size fom the "Paragraph" drop down menu. I am a fan of "Heading 4" (this section).
You can get even more help from the actual FanPost itself. At the bottom right corner of the main text area of the FanPost is a link reading "Show Editor Help." Click on that and a help screen will magically appear.
If there are any more questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section and I will be happy to answer. Hope this helped a lot of you.