Being very new to this amazing site I haven't had a chance to read a huge amount of posts yet, but I have noticed that very few Souls seem to use italics or bold or underlining, and I'm wondering if it's because you don't want to, or you don't know how to. I sure needed a while to puzzle out the instructions in formatting options so maybe if you're like me and not a high-tech computer whiz, you won't mind if I explain how it works.

If you want to put a word in italics, then just before you write your word, hit the left square bracket key, which on most keyboards is the one to the right of "P". Immediately after, just type a lower-case "i" (without the quotes, I mean), then follow it with the right square-bracket key. Then, without hitting the space bar, type your word. After the word, again without any space bar, type the left square bracket key again, follow it with a forward slash / and then another "i" (again, no quotes :D), and finish with the right square bracket key.

When your text is posted it will show that word in italics. The same goes for underline or bold. Do all those bracket things the same way, but use a "u" if you want underline or a "b" if you want bold. That's all there is to it.

So, to summarize: Left square bracket, type your i or u or b, right square bracket, write your word, then left square bracket again, forward slash / and the i,u, or b like before, and right square bracket. It looks weird in your text box but it'll be fine. Oh yeah -- after you've done all that you just continue on as normal with commas or spaces or whatever.

Hope that helps you. I love writing and I'd go mad if I couldn't at least use italics sometimes. If it's good enough for Updike it's sure good enough for me!

Kind regards to you'all. If it helps anyone it's been worth the post. Whyc :D