User Guide : text-features


Publishing / FTX / User Guide / text-features

Text features

Beyond writing simple paragraphs of text, you can refine certain text characteristics by inserting special characters. This is part of what we refer to as FTX code.

Boldface and italics

Curly braces { } make italics and square brackets [ ] make boldface. The two can even be combined if necessary.

You write...

This is {italics} and this is [boldface] and this is {[both]}.

You get...

This is italics and this is boldface and this is both.

If you wanted to show an actual curly brace or square bracket character, you could do so by putting a “backtick” (reverse singe quote) ` in front of it, like this:

You write...

I can write [boldface] and brackets `[ `]. I can write {italics} and curly braces `{ `}.

You get...

I can write boldface and brackets [ ]. I can write italics and curly braces { }.

Underlining

Underlined text should be used very sparingly because it can visually be confused with hyperlinks. Still, it may be necessary for things like acronym expansions or technical bibliographies.

Underlining is turned on by inserting an underscore character and turned off again by a second. For example:

You write...

Every _other_ word _in_ this _sentence_ is _underlined_. Every other _word pair_ in this _silly sentence_ is underlined.

You get...

Every other word in this sentence is underlined. Every other word pair in this silly sentence is underlined.

Underlining is most helpful when applied to single-characters or very short runs of characters, for example in the expansion of abbreviations or acronyms:

You write...

NELUG is the _N_ew _E_ngland _L_EGO _U_sers _G_roup.

You get...

NELUG is the New England LEGO Users Group.

As with curly braces and square brackets, if you wanted to show an actual underscore character, simply prefix it with the ` character.

All text, images, or trademarks in this document are the intellectual property of their respective owners.