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Pistachio Backtalk Help:
Enter Item Page

Read this first: Introduction to Pistachio Backtalk

The Enter Item Page:

This page allows you to enter a new item in a conference. Simply type the title of the item in the ``Title'' box and it's text in the big box below. If you want your name to appear differently than usual, you can edit it in the ``Name'' box. When you are ready, push the

button to post the item.

Item Formatting

Backtalk offers three slightly different item formatting options:

Plain Text
The item will be displayed pretty much just as it was when you typed it in, in a fixed width font with the spacing unaltered.
The only change that will be made to your text is that certain types of strings will be automatically made clickable. For example:
- http://www.unicef.org
  URL's beginning with http: or https: connect to that site when clicked.
- mailto:backtalk@hvcn.org
  E-mail addresses with a mailto: prefix send mail to the given E-mail address when clicked.
- ftp://someplace.com/pub/filename
  Strings starting the ftp: prefix connect to an ftp server and fetch the named file or directory listing when clicked.
- conf:general
  If you type conf: followed by a conference name, then click it will connect to the conference home page for that conference.
- item:9
  item:general,9
  If you type item: followed by a number, or a conference name and number, then clicking on it displays the named item. If no conference name is given, that item in the current conference is displayed.
- resp:53
  resp:9,53
  resp:general,9,53
  If you type resp: followed by a response number, then clicking on it will display that response of the current item. Alternately, you can specify the conference name and item number as well.
You can use dots or colons in place of the commas in the above examples.
HTML
Your item text will be treated as HTML text. HTML is the standard markup language used to create web pages. HTML text is automatically formatted by the reader's browser, usually in a proportional font.
You can use some HTML tags in your response to control spacing, formatting, text size and style, to include images, and to create links.
Lazy HTML
Normally in HTML you need to enter a <P> tag every time you want to leave a blank line. The "lazy HTML" option is just like the "HTML" option, but it automatically converts blank lines to <P> tags. This is intended to allow you to forget that you are entering HTML text, and still have it come out reasonable looking.

Item Previewing

If you hit the

button you will be shown how your item would look to other Backtalk users if you posted it now. This is especially useful if you are using the "HTML" or "Lazy HTML" formatting options.

Pistachio Backtalk Help:Enter Item Page

The Enter Item Page:

Item Formatting

Item Previewing

Pistachio Backtalk Help:
Enter Item Page