Creating and Formatting Notebook Entries

You can create and edit entries in any Notebook that you have access to. Owing to the evolution of LabTrove Notebooks from a blog-based system, some internal variables do still use the term blog.

Creating a new entry

To create a new entry in a notebook:

1. Open the Notebook in which you want to create a new Entry.
2. Click New Entry beneath This Notebook on the right hand navigation menu. The Add Entry page is displayed.
3. Add a Title for your Entry.
4. Enter the content for your Entry in the text box.
5. (Optional) You can format the text to change the font size, add bullets, add links and pictures, add code, and so on. For information about formatting your Entry, see the 'Formatting a notebook entry' below.
6. Enter a Section for your post. You can create and define your own Sections. The Section is useful for classifying your Entry. You can choose a Section from the existing options in the drop-down list, or alternatively you can create a new section:
   1. Select - New section - from the drop-down list.
   2. Enter a name for the section in the New section name.
   3. Click OK.
7. (Optional) You can add metadata to your Entry to help make it easier for you and other users to find the Entry later. For information about adding metadata to your Entry, see 'Using metadata' below.
8. (Optional) You can see what your Entry will look like before you submit it by clicking the Preview button. (Optional) You can save a draft of your Entry to edit later by clicking Save for later. To see your draft entry click Dashboard at the top of the page.
9. To publish the entry click Publish, alternatively if you decide you do not want to save the entry, click Cancel to return to the notebook without saving.
10. Once you have created an entry or draft you can edit the entry to make changes and add data.

Formatting a notebook entry

There are a range of option available in LabTrove to format the text in your Entries to make them easier to read. You can use the formatting options on the menu, manually type in code for the formatting, or you can use keyboard shortcuts. You can also use html markup for more advanced formatting. Click on the HTML button to view and edit the content of the Entry using html markup.

Text styles

You can choose to format your text as bold, italic, or underlined using the Bold, Italic and Underline buttons. You can also combine styles, for example you can format your text as both bold and italic.

To format your text using these buttons, select the text that you want to format, and click the button. Alternatively you can click the button and then add your text.

You can also add markup manually to format the text. For example if you want to make the text Bold, you can type the [b][/b] tags. Any text you type between the markup is made bold. For example, the text [b]this is bold[/b] will generate this is bold in the saved Entry. The markup to format your text as italic is [i][/i] and the markup for underline is [u][/u].

You can also add the text formatting markup to your Entry by using one of the following shortcut keys:

Bold is [Ctrl+B] Italic is [Ctrl+I] Underline is [Ctrl+U]

Changing the font size

You can change the size of the font displayed in your Entry by selecting one of the default text sizes from the menu, or you can choose to manually specify a size. To set the text size to one of the preset text sizes:

1. Select the text you want to change
2. Click Font Size on the menu to display the available font sizes.
3. Select the appropriate size from the list of options that is displayed.

The selected text is displayed in the new font size.

To manually specify a font size for your text you must use size markup in your Entry. Any text between the tags is displayed in the font size that you specify. For example:

• [size=8]Small[/size]
• [size=12]Normal[/size]
• [size=24]Big[/size]
• [size=72]Huge[/size] You can set the font size to any size, but you might want to Preview the Entry to ensure that the text is visible in the Entry if you use a very large or small font size.

Adding lists

You can choose to add bulleted or numbered lists to your Entries. You can use the Insert/Remove Bulleted List and Insert/Remove Numbered List buttons on the menu to create the lists. You can also manually create a list using markup as described below. When you click on Insert/Remove Bulleted List a bullet is added to the Entry. A new bullet is added for each new line. When you click on Insert/Remove Numbered List a number is added to the Entry. The next number in the sequence is added for each new line.

Creating a bulleted list using markup

To create a bulleted list using markup:

1. The markup to add a bulleted list to a Entry is: [list][/list]
2. To add a bullet to your post use the [*] markup between the list tags. Repeat this for each item you want to add to your bulleted list. For example:

    [list]  
    [*]  
    [/list]

Each item in the list must be placed on a new line. Each item will be displayed indented at the same level in the Entry. The following example shows the markup for a bulleted list with three list items:

    [list]  
    [*] Item 1  
    [*] Item 2  
    [*] Item 3  
    [/list]  

In the saved Entry, the bulleted list is displayed as:

• Item 1
• Item 2
• Item 3

Creating a numbered list using markup

To create a numbered list using markup: To add a numbered list to a Entry you use the list tags in the same way as a bulleted list, except that you add a starting value for the list. For example to create a numbered list starting at one, enter the following markup into your Entry: [list=1][/list].

You can choose to enter a number or a letter. For example, if you want a list that uses letters rather than numbers, use A for the starting value:

[list=A][/list]

To add a numbered bullet use the [*] markup between the list tags. Repeat this for each item you want to add to your list, for example:

[list=1] [*] [/list]

Place each item on the same line to keep the list items without extra line spacing. Each item will be displayed indented at the same level in the Entry. The following example shows the markup for a numbered list with three list items, with a starting value of 1:

[list=1][*] Item 1[*] Item 2[*] Item 3[/list]

In the saved Entry, the bulleted list is displayed as:

1. Item 1
2. Item 2
3. Item 3

The following example shows the markup for a numbered list with three list items, with a starting value of A:

[list=A][*] Item 1[*] Item 2[*] Item 3[/list]

In the saved Entry, the bulleted list is displayed as:

1. Item 1
2. Item 2
3. Item 3

Adding a table to your entry

The easiest way to add a table to your Entry is to paste a table from another application such as Microsoft Word. You can also use table markup to add a table to your Entry. The table markup defines the number of rows and columns, and their text content. Alternatively, you can use the HTML button to add html table tags directly to the Entry.

The following is an example of a simple table using the table markup:

Temperature:	Velocity:
10°	0.49
24°	3.60
47°	16.04
60°	44.78

The markup to create this table is shown below:

   [table]    
   [mrow][b]Temperature:[/b][col][b]Velocity:[/b][/mrow]   
   [row]10<sup>o</sup>[col]0.49[/row]   
   [row]24<sup>o</sup>[col]3.60[/row]       
   [row]47<sup>o</sup>[col]16.04[/row]
   [row]60<sup>o</sup>[col]44.78[/row]   
   [/table]

Use the [table] tag at the beginning of the table, and the [/table] tag at the end of the table. The [mrow] and [/mrow] tags define the limit of the header row in the table. If you want the text in the header row to appear formatted you must manually add your own formatting. The [col] markup indicates the beginning of a new column. The [row] and [/row] markup define the limits of the row in the table.

If you want to add extra columns to the table, add [col] and the value to the end of each row before the [/mrow] or [row] markup. If you want to add extra rows to the table, use the [row] and [/row] markup. The following table contains more columns:

Temp	t1	t2	t3	t4	t5	Avg
10°	79.19	70.66	66.50	49.78	42.30	61.69
24°	7.96	8.35	8.37	8.56	8.40	8.33
47°	1.6	1.71	1.88	2.00	2.16	1.87
60°	0.50	0.62	0.75	0.66	0.81	0.67

The markup to create this table is shown below:

[table]    
[mrow][b]Temp[/b][col][b]t1[/b][col][b]t2[/b][col][b]t3[/b][col][b]t4[/b][col][b]t5[/b][col][b]Avg[/b][/mrow]   
[row]10<sup>o</sup[col]79.19[col]70.66[col]66.50[col]49.78[col]42.30[col]61.69[/row]    
[row]24<sup>o</sup[col]7.96[col]8.35[col]8.37[col]8.56[col]8.40[col]8.33[/row]       
[row]47<sup>o</sup[col]1.6[col]1.71[col]1.88[col]2.00[col]2.16[col]1.87[/row]
[row]60<sup>o</sup[col]0.50[col]0.62[col]0.75[col]0.66[col]0.81[col]0.67[/row]   
[/table]

Adding quotes

You can use the Quotes button or markup to indent text in your Entry.

To insert a quote, select the text that you want to indent and click the Quotes button. The quote markup is added to your post: [quote][/quote]. Alternatively you add the markup manually. The text within the quotes markup is displayed indented when the Entry is saved. For example,

[quote]This is a quote[/quote]

is displayed as:

This is a quote

Formatting code

If you add code to your Entry you can choose to add the appropriate highlighting and formatting for the type of code that you are adding. You can select from a list of code types available, or if your code type is not available, you can format it with a standard code font. Using the code markup also ensures that the code is displayed using your original spacing when you save the Entry.

In addition to the standard code font and retaining spacing, the following code types can be displayed with syntax highlighting: ASP, Bash, C, C++, CSS, Java, MATLAB, Perl, PHP, RDF, SQL, Text, and XML.

To format the code in your Entry:

1. Add the code into the Entry
2. Select the code that you want to format
3. Click Format Code and select the code type from the list of options in the menu. Alternatively, click the Text button if your code type is not available.

You can also manually add the code markup. The markup for generic code is: [code][/code]. To change the markup to get syntax formatting for your code format if it is supported, use [code=<language>][/code] where <language> is your code format, for example:

[code=perl][/code].

Using special characters

Entering special characters You can enter special characters into your Entries by using the character map button. This in a button with the Ω (Omega) symbol at the far right of the second row of buttons in the text editor for the Entry edit page. Alternatively, you can paste characters from a different source (such as Word or even from this page). The list of characters provided by the character map on the Entry edit page are as follows:

Maths characters

∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥
× · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ø
∈ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔
→ ↔ ↑ ℵ ∉

Greek characters

α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν
ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω
Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω

Umlauts and accents

À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë
Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù
Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë
ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø
ù ú û ü ÿ

Punctuation

¿ ¡ « » § ¶ † ‡ • - – —

Commercial symbols

™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤

What to do next:

• Find out about using metadata in LabTrove
• Find out how to record experiments in LabTrove
• Find out how to record repeating processes in LabTrove
• Find out how to locate items in LabTrove