How to Write a Dispatch

[font=Courier][u]To view the NScode used to create this dispatch, [url=http://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1/raw=1]click here[/url].[/u] All dispatches have a "Raw" link at the very bottom right that allows you to view their raw NScode.[/font]

[box][b][font=Times New Roman][size=180]This is a test, appropriately enough![/size][/font][/b][/box]
[floatright][img]http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/Australia.png[/img][/floatright]
There are many BBcode/NScode tags to be implemented. For example, this paragraph is testing floating an image to the right. Hello, image!

[tab=60]This is indented a little, with the tab code.[/tab]

Moving on, we have a table. Notice the first row is automatically nifty-fied.
[table][tr][td]Hello to the first row[/td][td]Next cell[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Second row[/td][td]Next cell[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Third row[/td][td]Next cell[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Fourth row, which goes on at some length about nothing. It also has a line break in it. Here it comes. Ready? Okay!! Here it is!!

See?[/td][td]Next cell[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Hovering over a row highlights it[/td][td]Not bad, eh?[/td][/tr]
[/table]

A link to [url=http://www.nationstates.net/page=news]the News page[/url] looks like normal, because it's internal to the game. But a link to [url=http://www.maxbarry.com]an external site[/url] gets a little icon to signify that.

[u]Minor bug:[/u] links to subdomains like [url=http://liberal.nationstates.net/]liberal NS[/url] are treated as external.

[url=http://forum.nationstates.net/index.php]Forum links[/url] have their own little icon.

You don't need to use tags if you're simply pasting in a link to somewhere on NS: it gets automatically URL-ified, like this: http://www.nationstates.net/region=lazarus#rmb ...or this: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=170154

[hr]

Naturally, we support the common NATION and REGION tags.

The very first region in NationStates was [region]The Pacific[/region]. 

I am [nation]Testlandia[/nation]. Or [nation=short]Testlandia[/nation] for short. But you can simply call me [nation=short+noflag]Testlandia[/nation].

You can use UTF-8 characters natively. See: 𝄞

[hr]

[b]Now in testing:[/b] Spoilers! These come in two forms:

[spoiler]The kind with no special title set.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Super Advanced Spoiler][align=center][box]The kind that do have a title set.

This one has a few other tags inside the spoiler to make it extra fancy: the BOX and ALIGN tags, as well as having a title set with SPOILER=title. But you can't embed a spoiler within another spoiler![/box][/align][/spoiler]

[hr]

[b]Lists![/b]

You can have nested [i]and[/i] independent lists. So this works:
[list][*]First item
[*]Second item
[list][*]sub-list item 1
[*]sub-list item 2[/list]
[*]Third item
[/list]
... and so does this:
[list=i][*]List style here is 'i'
[*]You can also have '1' for numbers
[*]And 'a' for latin
[*]Plus 'A' or 'I' for as above, only capitalized[/list]

[background-block=#DADAD2]A "fake" list, with background:
• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five
[/background-block]

If you screw up a list, the formatting will break your dispatch, but not the whole page. For example:
[list][*]Here is a list that
[*]I should have closed it with a /list tag
[*]But I forgot.

Now everything below is in the list! Oh oh!

Luckily, though, it doesn't screw up the entire page.