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Posted: December 25, 2003
Updated: December 25, 2003
The Handy-Dandy Livejournal Cheat Sheet
This cheat sheet is designed to help you utilize the features of lj more effortlessly. It's really long, because it covers so many things. But it is simplified for your use. I hope that you find it useful and helpful.
LJ has its own codes that can be conveniently applied to lj entries.
LJ CUT = <lj-cut>
You can modify the text of LJCUT: <lj-cut text="text you wish to write">
You can also end and LJCUT so it will reveal the text you want it to reveal: </lj-cut>
So it would look like: <lj-cut> Text you want to hide </lj-cut> Text you want to reveal.
LJUSER = <lj user="ljsnameofuser">
For more features you can look in the FAQ entry: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=75
LJ automatically recognizes hotlinking. It recognizes the use of the enter key as a paragraph or break and recognizes html tags. It will also load images if the image source tag is used.
Now to explain what that means.
Hotlinking, in this case, is simply the method of typing or copy/pasting a url into the document. A url looks like: http://www.some.com
It can be copied from the locator or address bar in the browser and then pasted directly into the livejournal text form. The hotlink will show as a link in the document, after you hit submit.
To have an image show up within the body of the text you must have the image in a server that is friendly to distance linking. Most paid services will allow distance linking. Some news services will allow it (temporarily). But not all do. The only way to really find out is to try it, however.
This is how you do it.
1. Find an image that you like on the web.
2. Right click on the image until you see a menu.
3. Click on properties.
4. Highlight the url which the image properties shows.
5. Copy it. (Control-C)
6. In the blackboad form type: <img src="
7. Paste it. (Control-V)
8. Close the tag: ">
9. The image source code looks like this: <img src="http://www.some.com/image/some.jpg">
or <img src="http://www.some.com/image/some.gif">
Remember the smaller the image, the quicker it loads. Small
images can also be inserted 
into the text easily.
The following are methods for manipulating text with html. It will work like this <tag>Sample</closetag>. Remember that LJ still follows the main html tag rule of if you open the tag, you must close it." Also, if you open a tag in a particular order, you must close it in a particular order.
<b>bold</b>
<i>italics</i>
<u>underline</u>
<s>strikethrough</s>
sub<sub>script</sub>
super<sub>script</sub>
Tele<tt>type</tt>
Horizontal Rule
<hr>
<center>center</center>
<align="left">left</align>
<align="right">right</align>
Also, font size + or - may be used up to size seven. The code looks like: <font size=+2>font +2</font> Use whichever is handiest for you, but headers do not format well with other text, while Font size may allow you to mix and match sizes for weird effects.
Font Color (combines well with bold!)
Most font how-tos are going to mention hexidecimals. But this cheat sheet is only going to use the 16 guaranteed words to make your life much much easier. There are more, but they are recent additions and not guaranteed, but I'll list sites to visit at the end of this document for those who are interested because you never know.
The basic code looks like this: <font color="color">Word being colored</font>
The following words can be used to enhance your pages:
red <font color="red">red</font>
yellow yellow
blue blue
green green
black black
white white
aqua aqua
fuscia fuscia
lime lime
maroon maroon
navy navy
olive olive
silver silver
gold gold
teal teal
gray gray
Notice how light text shows up poorly on a light background. Dark text, will of course, show up poorly on a dark background. However, if you would like to highlight text like the white with a blue background above, use this code:
<span style="background color:color"><font color="color">spanned text</font></span>
replace (after background color:) color with blue, red, yellow, etc.
<span style="background color:blue"><font color="white">spanned text</font></span>
<ul>
<li>list item</li>
<li>list
item</li>
<li>list item</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>list item</li>
<li>list
item</li>
<li>list item</li>
</ol>
<dl>
<dt>Term</dt>
<dd>The explaining definition. Also good
for listing dated items</dd>
<dt>Next
Term</dt>
<dd>Next definition</dd>
</dl>
These websites have the long list of color words that *should* work within a browser
My color chart: http://www.plusmembers.com/fun4cat/ColorTable.html
HTML Goodies: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/colors.html
This is a website for those interested in nesting those lists. It also has some groovy tutorials.
Introduction to HTML nested lists: http://www.its.unimelb.edu.au/courses/publish/HTML/IntroHTML2-5.html
As an extra goodie, here is a list of free banner generators on the web. You will need to download the images you create onto your harddrive and then upload them to your favorite distant linking server if you wish to use them.
The banner generator: http://www.coder.com/creations/banner/
Flaming Text: http://www.flamingtext.com/
Cool Text: http://www.cooltext.com/
Cool Archive: http://www.coolarchive.com/logogen.cfm (You can create transparent gifs with this one)
Draac.com: http://draac.com/rainbow.html Creates a real fun Multicolored text for you. Deeper into the site is a really nifty banner generator too.
HTML Basix: http://www.htmlbasix.com/ HTML Basix has some wonderful links that allow you to paste in text or whatever and create code. Be sure and click on Font Magic to use the font generator form. You should be able to type and cut and paste whole paragraphs in that form. Also -To make it easier for you to choose, here are the generators which put out content that I know work.
Marquee Generator: http://www.htmlbasix.com/marquee.shtml
List Generator: http://www.htmlbasix.com/list.shtml
Basic Table Generator: http://www.htmlbasix.com/table1.shtml
Advanced Table Generator: http://www.htmlbasix.com/table3.shtml
Glow and Shadow Text: http://www.htmlbasix.com/fontfilters.shtml (font color forms do use the color words! You don't have to rely on hexidecimal - HURRAY!)