A Couple of Hacks You Can Use in the Comments' Field, If You Want

I just thought I'd show you 2 hacks that may help make the "Comments" section flow better, especially since I changed the format to a continuous stream, in order to allow more of us to participate. If you remember, you used to be able to add a comment to someone else's comment, as in children comments placed just beneath a parent comment, regardless of the time passed since the parent comment was published. There appears to be no way to do that with this current set-up. You may find a comment near the beginning of the comment-stream to which you really want to reply but feel like your reply won't relate to the discussion very well if it's placed at the end of the comment-stream.

The work-around, then (for me at least, and maybe this will work for you, too) is to include a relevant quote from the comment of the person to whom you'd like to reply. Even better is if you can bold the quoted comment, to indicate that the quote is not your comment. To add bold type to the comment field on blogs requires the use of HTML tags, angle brackets before and after some letters/symbols that don't show up in the published type, but indicate a command to the computer to format your type in a specific way.

The tag to add bold-type to a comment looks like the following: to make "Lili said" display in bold type, I would add  <b> directly before "Lili said" and </b> directly after "Lili said." This is how I would type that command into the text box for my comment --  <b>Lili said</b> 
The first tag uses just the lower case b between the angle brackets and the second tag which closes the bold-type command uses a / followed by the lower case b. It's important that there be no spaces between the tags and the text that is to display in bold type.

You may have noticed that I've been using a quote from others' comments when I reply. I copy and paste a person's comment (beginning with their name) into my own comment box, edit it down to what is pertinent to my reply, then add the HTML tags before and after the part I want to bold to indicate I'm quoting this comment. I don't think it's always necessary to do this. If there are relatively few comments or if my comment will follow the comment to which I want to reply, then I think we an all quickly figure out to whom I'm replying. But I will use this technique when I want to limit confusion, or the need for us to scroll up and down to figure out the meaning of my reply. You're welcome to do this, too. Adding bold type can also be used in a comment when you want to add weight to a word or phrase.

I hope I explained this all well enough. I'm not a techie kind of person, so this is new territory for me.

So, now the other HTML tag that I've been using, to add a link in the comments. Previously, when I wanted to add a link to another site or one of my blog posts, I've just left a cut and paste web address. No big deal, but it is just a tad extra work for anyone to cut, then paste into an address bar. Since we're talking about having another chat about Christmas/holiday ideas and we may be wanting to add links to images or directions in the comments, being able to post clickable links in the comments could be helpful for us.

To make a link clickable in the comments, you'll need to add both the web address to which you're linking and a brief description or title to that link between some tags.

If I were to add a link to a post in the comments, from when I wrote on making a crazy quilt Christmas tree skirt that has a web address of http://www.creativesavv.com/2012/12/im-sentimental-fool-my-crazy-quilt.html, I would need to add <a href=" directly before the full web address, follow with "> plus the words Crazy Quilt Tree Skirt and the closing tag </a>. 

And remember, no spaces in between your elements of the command and your instructions (web address and title/description).


So, in my comment text box before I hit submit, it would look like this:

<a href="http://www.creativesavv.com/2012/12/im-sentimental-fool-my-crazy-quilt.html">Crazy Quilt Tree Skirt</a>

After I hit submit, it would publish looking like this:

Crazy Quilt Tree Skirt

And that title would be clickable. The color of the type would differ slightly from the rest of the text; when you hovered above it with your cursor, it would appear underlined, indicating that you could click on it.

These are just a couple of tools that may simplify the comments for us, and I thought I'd share. Like I said, I'm not techie at all. So, I hope I explained this well enough. And if you'd like to quote someone's comments in a different way (simple quotation marks work, too), or don't care to use bolding for emphasis, and/or you'd rather link to another site or post with a cut and paste link, that's totally fine. I just like trying new stuff from time to time and thought some of you might like it too.

Now, my brain has had enough for today. Time to go make a pizza!