HOW TO MAKE PRETTY POSTS A Guide by Violet the Maestro
Table of Contentsxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
01. Introduction xxxxxThis post explains why this thread exists, how guild coding works, and where you can use this information.
02. The Coding Basics xxxxxHow to make simple code.
03. Pre-Made Character Skeleton Codes xxxxxThese are codes created by members of the guild for their characters. They have agreed to let others use them, free of charge.
04. Pre-Made Character Character Posts xxxxxThese are simple codes ready for you to use for your character! Just add your own image(s)!
05. The Image Basics xxxxxEverything you need to know about inserting images into your posts.
06. Character Image Finding Resources xxxxxUseful sites for finding a character image.
07. The Hogwarts Icon Masterpost! xxxxxThis post will contain a lot of smaller images that you can use when creating your posts.
08. Useful Links and Credits xxxxxLinks to help you create amazing posts, as well as places that I used when constructing this thread.
09. Tips xxxxxThings not previously mentioned
10. Help! xxxxxIf you're stuck, or want someone else to make you graphics, check here!
11. Frequently Asked Questions xxxxxCommon questions with their answers.
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:58 am
INTRODUCTION
About the Threadxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxHere at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Roleplay guild. we like to see pretty posts. However, we realize that not everyone knows how to do this, and sometimes they're too afraid to ask. Occasionally, that can lead to bigger problems where post styles are stolen, and that's just not cool. So, it was decided to create a bit of a tutorial thread.
About Violet the Maestroxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxFirst off, you can call me Violet. It's shorter. I've been a member of this guild since February 2011, and back then, I wasn't too knowledgeable about making pretty posts. Just look at one of my first posts in the guild. I've since worked at making better posts so that they look more like this. Oh, and I worked my way up to becoming one of the co-owners of the guild, as well as writing better posts. I love roleplaying and making pretty posts, and that's why I made this thread. I'm really not that scary (if I were, I wouldn't have put one of my first posts ever here...most members who have been around as long as I have hide those), and so you can always feel free to ask me any questions you may have!
About Guild Codingxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxThe guild system tends to be pretty neglected by Gaia. As a result, it works on an older system. This means that all codes must end.
Using this Informationxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxWell, you can use it in making character posts, character skeletons, or just posts for you to use in general. I really don't care where you use it, as long as it helped you.
a porg Vice Captain
Anxious Astronomer
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a porg Vice Captain
Anxious Astronomer
Offline
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 9:59 am
THE CODING BASICS
Here's all of the codes and what they do! If any are missing, please let me know!
Images xxxxx1. Get an image! xxxxxxxxxxIf you want an image in your post, the first thing you're going to have to do is get an image. Now, it's no good just to save it to your computer or phone. We won't be able to see it. You'll need to have a direct link (something that looks like this: http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc519/Dark_Angel_of_Violins/jamespost_zpsd142f0f6.png). Don't worry if you've saved the image to your computer. You can easily sign up for a Image Hosting site like Photobucket and upload your images there. xxxxx2. Figure out your alignment! xxxxxxxxxxNo, I don't mean Good, Evil, or Neutral. I mean center, left, and right! The following are the codes you'll want to use to get the alignment you want.
For center alignment
[align=center][img]direct link goes here[/img][/align]
For left alignment
[imgleft]direct link goes here[/imgleft]
For right alignment
[imgright]direct link goes here[/imgright]
Text xxxxx1. Sizes xxxxxxxxxxA general rule when it comes to text sizes, is to never go below 10, and not above 28. The range shrinks when you write the body of your posts. The smallest is still 10, but the largest you should use now becomes 14. Now, you don't always need to change the text size, but on occasion, you might want to.
For different text sizes
[size=number]You text goes here, but I'm using this as an opportunity to say, DON'T SPELL OUT THE NUMBER. It won't work.[/size]
xxxxx2. Alignment xxxxxxxxxxAgain, left, right, and center are your options here. The formatting is similar to that for images.
For left text
[align=left]Put yer text here.[/align]
For right text
[align=right]Put yer text here.[/align]
For center text
[align=center]Put yer text here.[/align]
For justified text
[align=justify]Put yer text here.[/align]
xxxxx3. Formatting xxxxxxxxxxThis section will talk about bold, italic, strike, and colors.
For bold text
[b]Put yer text here.[/b]
For italic text
[i]Put yer text here.[/i]
For strike text
[strike]Put yer text here.[/strike]
For color text
[color=color code/name]Put yer text here[/color]
Lists/Indenting xxxxxNo, I don't mean milk, eggs, butter. I mean code that pushes your text further into the image. It works almost like an indent, but not quite. Lists take up about 100px of space. It takes experimenting to see how many you need. Also, in guilds, you need to have the exact number of lists and /lists. I always just copy/paste the same thing, and add the / to the ones at the end. For paragraph indents, well, the tab button doesn't work, but I had a professor who told me that it was the same thing as hitting the space bar five times. Of course, that doesn't work on Gaia, but I found a way around it.
For lists
[list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list]This typically is a good amount of lists for me. It should work for you.[/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list]
For indenting
[color=white]xxxxx[/color]Yer text goes here. You only have to do this at the start of each new paragraph
Quotes, Spoilers, and Code xxxxxBecause that's all that's left. Quotes are useful for letting others know you posted or showing what a character wrote, spoilers are nice for hiding stuff, and code is what I've been using so you can see what I'm coding.
User Quotes
[quote="Username"][/quote]
Character Writing
[quote="Character Name"]Yer text goes here[/quote]
[align=right][size=25][color=color1]FIRST MIDDLE LAST[/align][/size][/color] ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ [align=center][size=14][b]Year Student[color=color2]◆[/color]House[color=color2]◆[/color]Relationship Status[color=color2]◆[/color] Years Old[/align][/size][/b]
Second Post
[align=right][size=25][color=color1]DOWN TO THE CORE[/align][/size][/color] ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ [align=left] [size=14][color=color2]◆[/color] [b]Full Name[/b]
[align=right][size=25][color=color1]MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL[/align][/size][/color] ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ [align=left] [size=14][color=color2]◆[/color] [b]Hair[/b]
[align=right][size=25][color=color1]DON'T GET TOO CLOSE[/align][/size][/color] ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ [align=left] [size=14][color=color2]◆[/color] [b]Others See Him[/b] Personality according to others
[color=color2]◆[/color] [b]Deep Down[/b] Elaboration of personality
[align=right][size=25][color=color1]STARE INTO THE PENSIEVE[/align][/size][/color] ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ [align=left] [size=14][color=color2]◆[/color] [b]Pre-Hogwarts[/b]
[align=left][size=14][color=color1]▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄[/color][color=color2]Background[/color][color=color1]▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄[/color][/size] [size=10][color=white]xxxxx[/color]Each paragraph of your history should be indented.[/size][/align]
◆ [b]Current Residence: [/b] Where they live[/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list] [size=20]m a g i c[color=white]xxx[/color]i n f o r m a t i o n[/size]
[list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list]◆ [b]Education:[/b] School, House, Class of
◆ [b]O.W.L. Scores:[/b][spoiler]Astronomy: Charms : Defence Against the Dark Arts: Herbology: History of Magic: Potions: Transfiguration:[/spoiler]
◆ [b]N.E.W.T. Scores:[/b][spoiler][/spoiler]
◆ [b]Honors:[/b] Prefect, Head Girl/Boy, Captain/Vice-Captain
◆ [b]Occupation:[/b] Current Job [i]Past: Former Jobs[/i]
◆ [b]Strengths:[/b] One & Two
◆ [b]Weaknesses:[/b] One & Two
◆ [b]Patronus:[/b]
◆ [b]Wand:[/b] Inches, Wood, Core of
[/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list] [size=20]m e n t a l[color=white]xxx[/color]s t a t e[/size]
◆ [b]Fears:[/b] [/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list] [size=20]p e r s o n a l[color=white]xxx[/color]h i s t o r y[/size]
◆ [b]Post-Hogwarts:[/b] [/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list] [size=20]r e l a t i o n s h i p[color=white]xxx[/color]i n f o r m a t i o n[/size]
[list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list]◆ [b]Pet:[/b] Species named Name
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=color1]F I R S T[/color] [color=color2]M I D D L E[/color] [color=color1]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=color3]Unsorted[/color] │ [color=color3]First Year[/color] │ [color=color3]Eleven Years Old[/color] │ [color=color3]Single[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=color2][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=color2][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=darkred]F I R S T[/color] [color=goldenrod]M I D D L E[/color] [color=darkred]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=crimson]Gryffindor[/color] │ [color=crimson]____ Year[/color] │ [color=crimson]__ Years Old[/color] │ [color=crimson]Single[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=goldenrod][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=goldenrod][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=goldenrod]F I R S T[/color] [color=darkred]M I D D L E[/color] [color=goldenrod]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=red]Gryffindor[/color] │ [color=red]____ Year[/color] │ [color=red]__ Years Old[/color] │ [color=red]Single[/color] │ [color=red]Position[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=darkred][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=darkred][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=goldenrod]F I R S T[/color] [color=black]M I D D L E[/color] [color=goldenrod]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=brown]Hufflepuff[/color] │ [color=brown]____ Year[/color] │ [color=brown]__ Years Old[/color] │ [color=brown]Single[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=black][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=black][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=black]F I R S T[/color] [color=goldenrod]M I D D L E[/color] [color=black]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=brown]Hufflepuff[/color] │ [color=brown]____ Year[/color] │ [color=brown]__ Years Old[/color] │ [color=brown]Single[/color] │ [color=brown]Position[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=goldenrod][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=goldenrod][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=darkblue]F I R S T[/color] [color=darkgoldenrod]M I D D L E[/color] [color=darkblue]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=silver]Ravenclaw[/color] │ [color=silver]____ Year[/color] │ [color=silver]__ Years Old[/color] │ [color=silver]Single[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=darkgoldenrod][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=darkgoldenrod][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=darkgoldenrod]F I R S T[/color] [color=darkblue]M I D D L E[/color] [color=darkgoldenrod]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=silver]Ravenclaw[/color] │ [color=silver]____ Year[/color] │ [color=silver]__ Years Old[/color] │ [color=silver]Single[/color] │ [color=silver]Position[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=darkblue][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=darkblue][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=darkgreen]F I R S T[/color] [color=silver]M I D D L E[/color] [color=darkgreen]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=green]Slytheirn[/color] │ [color=green]____ Year[/color] │ [color=green]__ Years Old[/color] │ [color=green]Single[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=silver][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=silver][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
[imgright]character image link goes here[/imgright] [align=left][size=20][color=silver]F I R S T[/color] [color=darkgreen]M I D D L E[/color] [color=silver]L A S T[/color][/size] [size=13][color=green]Slytherin[/color] │ [color=green]____ Year[/color] │ [color=green]__ Years Old[/color] │ [color=green]Single[/color] │ [color=green]Position[/color][/size]
[size=10]Yer post is gonna go here. Words. Descriptions. Let us know what your character is thinking and feeling. Let us know what's going on with their senses. Put yourself in their shoes. [color=darkgreen][b]"Oh, and sometimes your character will say stuff. That'll go here,"[/color][/b] they say. And then maybe you'll say why they said that, or how they felt as they said that. [color=darkgreen][i]'Thinking is also good.'[/color][/i] Anyone ever tell you to think before you speak? Exactly.[/size][/align]
Step One: xxxxxxxxxDecide what type of image you want. xxxxxSome people like using real life images for their characters. Some like using art/anime. Figure out which you want and then search for an image. Make sure nobody else in the guild is using it.
Step Two: xxxxxxxxxPlain Image or Graphics? xxxxxDo you want to use an ordinary image like this? Or do you want one that looks like this? Both can be used to make pretty posts, and both are accepted in the guild. The second one simply requires more work, as well as access to a photo editor such as PicMonkey, Photobucket, GIMP, or Photoshop. If you want a graphic, check below for resources on making your own, or asking for one.
Step Three: xxxxxxxxxInsert your Image xxxxxOnce you've got your image all figured out, use the codes from before and insert it into your post!
a porg Vice Captain
Anxious Astronomer
Offline
a porg Vice Captain
Anxious Astronomer
Offline
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 12:10 pm
CHARACTER IMAGE FINDING RESOURCES
The Face-Claim List xxxxxBEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER READ THIS. If you choose to use a real-life person in this guild, you must make sure they're available by checking here Simply hit CTRL + F on your keyboard and search for the name of your face. If it's available, fill out this form.
◆ What do I do if I want others to be able to use one of my codes? xxxxxSimply PM the codes to Violet the Maestro, and title the message as what they are, for example: Skeleton Layout.
◆ What does "" and so on mean? xxxxxThis means that you can pick your own color and use the name or code to replace the "color1", and then do that for every time you see color1 in the layout.
◆ Will the artists listed give me graphics for free? xxxxxWell, that depends. You have to ask us really nicely.
