BBC - h2g2 - The GuideML Clinic

Welcome to the GuideML Clinic. This is the place to come to find out more about GuideML, the markup language of the Guide, and the place where you can influence its future development.

We've put together a collection of useful entries that you'll find handy when creating your own Guide Entries in GuideML. These include:

If you have any questions or comments about GuideML that aren't already answered in these pages, just ask in the Conversation Forum below - the Gurus regularly check these forums and will do their best to help. You can also ask about using HTML and plain text in Guide Entries, and if you know the answer to other Researchers' questions, do help out. GuideML is flexible, easy to learn and great fun to use, and we hope the Clinic helps you get the best out of it.

Many thanks to Bruce for his sterling work on the GuideML Clinic - Bruce, you're a champ!

GuideML Tags

Here are all the tags officially supported in GuideML. Please note that you can also use most HTML tags in GuideML entries, as long as they follow the syntax rules, but we don't have the space to list them all here, and support for them is not guaranteed in the future.

Approved GuideML

Some GuideML tags are approved for inclusion in entries in the Edited Guide; the other tags, while not approved, are still available for use on Personal Spaces, Community pages and so on. In a nutshell, you should stick to Approved GuideML if you intend to submit your entry to Peer Review; otherwise you are free to use any GuideML and HTML tags that work (though you should note that some GuideML tags are deprecated, and support for these is not guaranteed in the future). For more information on Approved GuideML, check out the entry on Using Approved GuideML in the Edited Guide entry.

The following tags are approved for use within all GuideML entries, including Edited Entries:

<B> - Bold text.
<BLOCKQUOTE> - Block of quoted text.
<BODY> - Entry body.
<BR/> - Line break.
<CODE> - Programming language excerpt.
<ENTITY> - Numerical character entities.
<FOOTNOTE> - Automatic footnote.
<GUIDE> - Denotes a GuideML entry.
<HEADER> - Header.
<HR/> - Horizontal rule.
<I> - Italic text.
<LINK> - Link to Guide Entries, Researchers and external websites.
<OL> and <LI> - Ordered (numbered) list.
<P> - Paragraph.
<PICTURE> - Picture.
<PRE> - Fixed format text.
<REFERENCES> - Add links to the Entry Data box.
<SUB> - Subscripted text.
<SUBHEADER> - Subheader.
<SUP> - Superscripted text.
<TABLE> - Table.
<UL> and <LI> - Unordered (bulleted) list.

Non-Approved GuideML

The following tags are fine to use in your entries, but if you want to put your entry through the Peer Review system you shouldn't use them, as they will simply be stripped out when the entry is edited for the Edited Guide.

<ADDTHREADINTRO> - Add content to the 'Post to a Conversation' page.
<BOX> - Boxed text.
<BOXHOLDER> - Two-part boxed text.
<BRUNEL> - Change the colour of Personal Spaces in the Brunel skin.
<FORUMINTRO> - Add content to Conversation list.
<FORUMTHREADINTRO> - Add content to Conversations and Conversation list.
<INTRO> - Entry introduction.
<PULLQUOTE> - Boxed quote.
<SMILEY> - Smileys.
<SITEFILTER> - Tailor Personal Space for DNA sites.
<THREADINTRO> - Add content to Conversations.
<U> - Underlined text.
<VIEWER> - Inserts the visitor's name at a given point in the text.

GuideML Gadgets

The following tags provide various gadgets that you may like to use in your entries. They don't mark up text according to its content, but provide things like drop-down menus and useful Community tools. You can suggest new gadgets on the GuideML Gadgets Page.

<GUESTBOOK> - Enable Researchers to post to specific Forums or Conversations.
<ITEM-LIST> - Drop-down menus of entries, Researchers or websites.
<POPUPCONVERSATIONS> - Link to the Conversations popup window.
<VOLUNTEER-LIST> - Drop-down menus of h2g2 volunteers.
<WHO-IS-ONLINE> - Link to the Who's Online popup window.

Deprecated GuideML

The following tag is deprecated, and you should not use it in your entries; it is only listed here for completeness.

<SECTION> - Section.