How to make your posts really sparkle ✨

Alison Clancy

When you’re in Community, we want you to feel like you can be your whole self. That includes being able to express yourself fully when you post in this space, whether you’re asking a question, solving a problem, or sharing a story about your corner of the world.  

So how can you make not only yourself but your Community posts shine? Here are a few quick tips, with my cat Jack joining to help demonstrate: 

1) The @ mention 

Connection is one of the major pillars of Community. When you mention another Community Member in your post, make sure to put the @ symbol in front of their username. This will make their username clickable (indicated by turning the text blue) and will notify the member immediately that you’ve mentioned them. This is great for when you’re congratulating someone's success or asking for more details on a question.

2) Add images

Let’s be honest: Images make everything better. A common saying of one of our Community Champions @Paul Newcome is: “Post screenshots.” Screenshots of a problem you’re experiencing can help others understand what needs you have, eliminating unnecessary back and forth. Additionally, the Community loves to see your pets, coworkers, workspaces, and Smartsheet swag when sharing your stories! 

When creating a post, click the picture image in the editor to Upload Image. From there, click on the image to adjust alignment, positioning, and size.

3) Add emojis 👍🏻

When communicating digitally, emojis can help bring your tone across and guess what - Community posts support them. 

Just click the face icon at the bottom of the post editor to bring up emoji options. Depending on what kind of computer you have, you also can insert emojis by using keyboard shortcuts: 

• Mac: Ctrl + Cmd + Space
• PC: Win + Period

4) Use gifs 

Sometimes, the only way to appropriately react to a situation is with a well-placed gif. And Community comments and posts support them! 

1. Go to giphy.com or another preferred gif library site
2. Drag the gif you like to your desktop
3. Go back to your Community comment or post and drag the gif directly into the editing pane

5) Don’t forget about tags 

Adding a tag to your post will help others find it by grouping it alongside related content. Though we don’t have a “Cat” tag as I found out while writing this post, we have many for you to choose from that will populate in the tag field when you start typing. You can also click “Show popular tags” under that field. 

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What other tips would you add here? For more ideas, head over to Tips for formatting your Community posts.

Paul Newcome

@Alison Clancy I love screenshots! Being able to visualize the structure makes it so much easier for me to work through a solution. While certain terms and/or descriptions may seem intuitive to the original poster, they could be as familiar as a foreign language to someone else, but having that visual goes a long way in communicating needs. The word "cat" has a lot of different variations across the world's languages, but a picture of a cat requires no translation.

Brian_Richardson

I like the “code” tag which really separates formulas or JavaScript etc from the general text. I just discovered it! Highlight text and press the little squiggly bracket icon that pops up.

like this!

Isn’t that great 😍

Alison Clancy

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/423303#Comment_423303

Excellent addition to this list! Thanks for being rad as always Brian "Bridge" Richardson.