Instructions for formatting text

Creating Links

To enter a link, put quotations around the word(s) you want linked. Put a colon immediately after the quoted word(s) and follow that with the URL (including http://). Don't put spaces between the quotations, colon and URL.

This is a great "website":http://network.nature.com/boston

Bold and Italics

To italicize a word or phrase, put an underscore symbol immediately before and after the word/phrase (no spaces). To make a word or phrase appear in bold, put an asterisk immediately before and after the word/phrase (no spaces).

_This is a great italic website._

*This is a great bold website.*

Photos and images

To insert an image or photo that appears elsewhere on the Web with its own URL, insert that URL (including http://) in the spot where you want the image to appear. Put an exclamation mark immediately before and after the URL (no spaces).

Here is a diagram of a microscope.
!http://example.com/path/to/file.ext!

Please keep image widths within 390 px.

Please make sure your image is relevant to the content of your post.

Bulleted lists

To make a bulleted list, place an asterisk and then a space before each word/phrase in the list. Make sure you precede your list with a blank line. Eg:

* Tufts
* MIT
* Harvard

Numbered lists

To make a numbered list, place the hash (#) symbol and then a space before each word/phrase in the list. Make sure you precede your list with a blank line. Eg:

# Tufts
# MIT
# Harvard

This will appear as:

1. Tufts
2. MIT
3. Harvard