Bulletin Board Code is the essential tool for formatting and changing the appearance of your post. While it affects the plain text in much the same way as the formatting tools in any word processor, the main Message field does not behave in a WYSIWYG manner, so you should preview your message if you need to see what it will look like when posted.

While smileys can be viewed as purely whimsical in nature, they can also play a valuable role in clarifying the written word in much the same way as vocal inflections and/or facial expressions clarify the spoken word. Like most forum software, SMF provides a standard range of smiley images which can be added to posts by clicking the relevant icons or typing the relevant codes. A don't use smileys option is also provided for those occasions when you don't want typed character combinations that would normally be displayed as smileys to be converted to the expected images!

Tag Name	Button	Code	Output	Comments
Bold		[b]bold[/b]	bold	*
Italicized		[i]italicized[/i]	italicized	*
Underline		[u]underline[/u]	underline	*
Strikethrough		[s]strikethrough[/s]	strikethrough	*
Shadow		[shadow=red,left] shadow [/shadow]	shadow	The two attributes (eg red, left) in the 'shadow' tag are color and direction respectively.
Marquee		[move]move[/move]	move	Not valid XHTML, but can also be used for images!
Preformatted Text		[pre]Simple   Machines     Forum[/pre]	Simple Machines Forum	Preserves critical text formatting, rendered in a monospace font.
Left Align		[left]left align[/left]	left align	*
Centered		[center]centered[/center]	centered	*
Right Align		[right]right align[/right]	right align	*
Right-to-Left	*	[rtl]right to left![/rtl]	right to left!	Typical usage would be to post Arabic or Hebrew in an English document.
Left-to-Right	*	[ltr]left to right![/ltr]	left to right!	Typical usage would be to post English in an Arabic or Hebrew document.
Horizontal Rule		[hr]		*
Font Size		[size=10pt]font size[/size]	font size	*
Font Face		[font=Verdana]font face[/font]	font face	Only fonts installed on the user's computer will be displayed, so use with caution!
Font Color	Change Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon Lime Green	[color=Red]red[/color]	red	Select the color from the drop-down.
Insert Flash Note: This option is deprecated in most modern browsers		[flash=200,200] http://somesite/somefile.swf [/flash]	http://somesite/somefile.swf	Please note that, if embedded Flash has been disabled by the forum administrator(s), the Flash file will appear as a straight hyperlink as shown here. The two attributes in the 'flash' tag (where relevant) are width and height respectively.
Insert Image		[img] http://somesite/image.gif [/img]		Type the width and height attributes to resize the image.
		[img width=48 height=48] http://somesite/image.gif [/img]
Insert Hyperlink		[url]http://somesite/[/url]	http://somesite/	NB the 'url' tag opens in a new window, but you can type 'iurl' tags to open in the same window.
		[url=http://somesite/] descriptive link [/url]	descriptive link
Insert Email		[email] someone@somesite [/email]	someone@somesite	*
Insert FTP Link		[ftp] ftp://somesite/somefile [/ftp]	ftp://somesite/somefile	*
		[ftp=ftp://somesite/somefile] descriptive link [/ftp]	descriptive link
Insert Table		[table][/table]	*	No meaningful output from the 'table' tags alone.
Insert Table Row		[table][tr][/tr][/table]	*	No meaningful output from the 'table' and 'tr' tags alone.
Insert Table Column		[table][tr][td] content [/td][/tr][/table]	content	Note the correct nesting of the tags, so the 'table' tags contain the 'tr' tags, which each contain an equal number of 'td' tags!
		[table][tr][td]SMF[/td] [td]Bulletin[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Board[/td] [td]Code[/td][/tr][/table]	SMF Bulletin Board Code
Superscript		[sup]superscript[/sup]	superscript	*
Subscript		[sub]subscript[/sub]	subscript	*
Teletype		[tt]teletype[/tt]	teletype	Monospace font.
Insert Code		[code]<?php phpinfo(); ?>[/code]	Code: <?php phpinfo(); ?>	Always use to preserve formatting of code and avoid parsing as BBC and/or smileys!
Insert Quote		[quote]quote[/quote]	Quote quote	Note the optional 'author' attribute.
		[quote author=author]quote[/quote]	Quote from: author quote
Insert List		[list] [li]SMF[/li] [li]YaBB SE[/li] [/list]	SMF YaBB SE	While you can add as many items as you wish, each item must be contained by the correct opening and closing tags. You can also style your list item bullets with special opening tags and no closing tags, but this option doesn't currently output valid XHTML.
		[list] [o]circle [O]circle [0]circle [*]disc [@]disc [+]square [x]square [#]square [/list]	circle circle circle disc disc square square square
Insert Math Equation		Inline: [math=inline]\sqrt{x}[/math] Centered: [math]\sqrt{x}[/math] or...	\[\sqrt{x}\]	Displays any math equation using \[ \LaTeX \]
Abbreviation	*	[abbr=exemlpi gratia]eg[/abbr]	eg	Displays the full expression for the abbreviation on mouseover.
Acronym	*	[acronym=Simple Machines Forum]SMF[/acronym]	SMF	Displays the full expression for the acronym on mouseover.