How to put a quote in your post

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If you are a registered user and you want to quote part or all of someone’s post in your post, there are a few ways to do it. (Sorry, this doesn’t work if you aren’t logged into the forum.) Your quote can be a simple quote — just the words themselves; it can also include a link back to the original post. Here’s how to do this:

A simple quote of only the words (1st type)

The easiest way to quote just the words is to put a reverse single quote before and after what you are quoting. (The reverse single quote is typically on the key that is just to the left of the “1” key.)

Here is an example: abcdef

I can’t show you the actual characters, because anytime you type a reverse single quote, it doesn’t show the character, it shows the results of putting that character.

A simple quote of only the words (2nd type)

You can put an http-style quote command before and after the text.

On the left side of the text, put the following:
Left-square-bracket the-word-quote right-square-bracket

On the right side of the text, put the following:
Left-square-bracket forward-slash the-word-quote right-square-bracket

The left square bracket is just to the right of the “P” key.
The forward slash is on the question mark key.

Here’s how it will look:

abcdef

A quote with a link back to the quoted post

On the left side of the text, put the following:
Left-square-bracket the-word-quote space the-word-quote equal-sign the-number-of-the-post right-square-bracket

On the right side of the text, put the following:
Left-square-bracket forward-slash the-word-quote right-square-bracket

Here’s an example (we’ll use 192893 as the post to quote – it is in the test forum):

woody wrote:

abcdef

Look in the upper right corner of a post to get the number of that post. This post (the one you are reading right now) is 211448.

I have attached a graphic which shows the original “raw” code for each of these types of quotes.

If you are a registered user, you can go to our Testing forum and try this out.

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For registered users, the obvious way to quote is to use the Quote button at the bottom of the post, for the whole post, which should be done After clicking Reply, if your post is a reply. This ensures the threading, so others can keep a track of the progression of the discussion. However, to quote only part of the post using the Quote button, select the text required, then select Quote, again after clicking Reply.

However @mrjimphelps, I disagree with your use of the single quotation method, as using either the key to the left of 1, or the key to the left of Enter (on most – but not all – keyboard configurations, I might add), usually invokes the Code command. It is far better to use double quotation marks. The comparison being:

“double quotation” or ‘single quotation’

'single quotation'

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HiFlyer

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Kirsty wrote:

usually invokes the Code command

Can you be more specific? Does the reverse single quote cause any action to occur other than simply putting a box around some text?

For registered users, the obvious way to quote is to use the Quote button at the bottom of the post, for the whole post, which should be done After clicking Reply, if your post is a reply. This ensures the threading, so others can keep a track of the progression of the discussion. However, to quote only part of the post using the Quote button, select the text required, then select Quote, again after clicking Reply.

Sometimes I find it more convenient to do quotes the “old fashioned” way. I usually open up Notepad, paste everything into Notepad, arrange as needed, then copy and paste the whole thing into my post. Therefore, it is easier for me to manually type the brackets, forward slashes, etc.

In the early days of the current iteration of AskWoody, the quote button didn’t work; you had to type all of that stuff manually. It just became a habit for me.

I discovered the reverse single quote method a few months ago, when I noticed that a user’s post had weird text formatting. When I edited the post, I found that he had used reverse single quotes rather than regular single quotes. When I replaced the reverse single quotes with normal single quotes, his post displayed correctly. After experimenting a bit with reverse single quotes, I found that I could use that method for quoting a block of text.

If the use of reverse single quotes is causing issues, or if it could cause issues, please let me know, and I’ll quit using them.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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cesmart4125

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The box around text is exactly what the code function looks like. To learn more about the Code function, see The “Code” feature is practically useless.

The intended method is to use the B-Quote (blockquote) button. In the Text editor, it’s the “b-quote” button; in the Visual editor, it’s the Quotation Mark button. It is formally:

to distinguish quoted or cited text

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Mr.JimPhelps way of inserting quotations: ” Sometimes I find it more convenient to do quotes the “old fashioned” way. I usually open up Notepad, paste everything into Notepad, arrange as needed, then copy and paste the whole thing into my post ”

If that is the “old-fashioned way”, mine is the “retro-paleo way”. In the example above I have proceeded in the same way as for all the quotes I have inserted in my replays at Woody’s including this one:

(1) Typed two quotation marks with two blanks in between.

(2) Selected the test to be copied by running the cursor over it while pressing down the shift key and copied it to the browser text buffer using the keyboard shortcut Control+C .

(3) I clicked the cursor in between the two blanks introduced in (1).

(4) Pasted the quoted text using Control+V.

(5) Arranged  the copied text as need.

(6) Selected the text just copied running the cursor over it while holding down the shift key.

(7) From the menu at the top of the “Reply” field where I was writing my reply, I chose and clicked on ‘ I ‘ to change the type of the quoted text to all italics, so it would stand out by looking different from my own text.

And voila!

The only thing missing is the brown background, but putting the text in italics is enough.

It all begun because I was in a hurry and did not want to start figuring out the quoting method provided by this web site, then it just became my own peculiar way of doing it.

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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cesmart4125

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OscarCP wrote:

the quoting method provided by this web site

The quoting method here is not “provided by”, as much as “employed by”. It’s part of the software used, not some customized idiosyncrasy.

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Well, it looks like I chose the wrong adverbial preposition (“by”). Dreadfully sorry about that.

In any case, the only thing that is idiosyncratic here is me.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Kirsty

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OscarCP wrote:

The only thing missing is the brown background, but putting the text in italics is enough.

Perhaps it’s slightly less than enough? If you’re going to use italics, why not go ahead and use the provided blockquote facilities?

Making things more clear and obvious will only help you get your points across.

For what it’s worth, the first time I chose to format text to please my audience was for my senior project report in college, back in the late 1970s. I had to write my own “mark up language” in order to do it, which I programmed, along with the unformatted text, into the mainframe computer via punch cards. The output was on a special IBM line printer that could print lower-case characters, into which was loaded page-sized fanfold stock. I was told, after my presentation, that “this is more than most students do for their senior projects”. I graduated with honors.

-Noel

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Noel Carboni: As I wrote above: I am idiosyncratic.

Not trying to be an example, inspiration or role-model here.

Also, I have absolutely no problems with people who like to have a brown background for their quotes: to each his own.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Personally, I find your use of simple copy>paste within quotation marks method of quoting to makes it hard to see the original post or poster, and the thread that surrounds that discussion. This is, unless of course, your reply is not a continuation of that discussion, but a new discussion entirely, but I still like to be able to click the link to read the original reply.

I prefer you use the software’s method, as mentioned in the first para. of #211471, so that I can follow things easier (I’m not much good at mind-reading, really.)

As a tip, before clicking reply, I note the number of reply that I’m replying to; then, I use Ctrl+F (Find), search the last 4 digits of the reply number, so I can easily find the source reply, then I can select the text I need, to be able to click Quote, with the minimum of fuss.

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Noel Carboni, OscarCP

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Kirsty #211861 : Not sure about the first part, on quotes being easier to see, etc., but quite in agreement with the last one on copying the reference number that is also a link to the post one is answering to, when there is some doubt whether it will be clear just what one is responding to (for example, when one’s answer is the last of many to the same original posting.)

I often try to remember to do that, particularly when I am adding as a Johnny-come-late to a thread.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Kirsty

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Noel Carboni wrote:

For what it’s worth, the first time I chose to format text to please my audience was for my senior project report in college, back in the late 1970s. I had to write my own “mark up language” in order to do it, which I programmed, along with the unformatted text, into the mainframe computer via punch cards.

I’m sure that was a lot of fun! That’s something I likely would have tried to do in the punch card era, had I taken a similar class. The only thing I ever did with punch cards was a one-semester FORTRAN class.

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Noel Carboni

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“ I had to write my own “mark up language” in order to do it ”

This looks like someone was in the cusp of inventing LaTex, then stopped…

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Kirsty wrote:

The box around text is exactly what the code function looks like. To learn more about the Code function, see The “Code” feature is practically useless.

It’s actually useful if all you want to do is a “quick-and-dirty” quote, where you aren’t concerned about formatting.

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I find the information in that linked topic to be far more valuable than just discussing whether Code works as planned or not, and I refer to the included links occasionally

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Elly

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Kirsty wrote:

to quote only part of the post using the Quote button, select the text required, then select Quote, again after clicking Reply.

This is actually the easiest way to do a quote. I was not aware that this method was available at AskWoody until I read your post.

By the way, you don’t need to click Reply when doing this. Simply highlight the desired text, then hit Quote.

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with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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MrJimPhelps wrote:

By the way, you don’t need to click Reply when doing this. Simply highlight the desired text, then hit Quote.

For what it’s worth, if you don’t hit Reply first, THEN go back and find the post and choose Quote, you won’t get your response indented under the post you’re responding to. It’s not ideal but it’s the way it works.

-Noel

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Makes sense. That thought crossed my mind. I’ve been so fixated on doing it manually that it’s been hard to totally switch to a different method.

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As mentioned above Jim

Kirsty wrote:

For registered users, the obvious way to quote is to use the Quote button at the bottom of the post, for the whole post, which should be done After clicking Reply, if your post is a reply. This ensures the threading, so others can keep a track of the progression of the discussion. However, to quote only part of the post using the Quote button, select the text required, then select Quote, again after clicking Reply.

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SueW, Elly

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