Text formatting

In text attributes, you can format text by using either tags or an editor. You can enable the editor by selecting the Formatting check box in the settings of a text attribute.

All text tags are surrounded by brackets: []. Most of the tags require both a start and an end tag, but a few do not require an end tag. For more details, see the following table.

If you integrate with other applications, text formatting is important. Depending on the application that displays the text, the tags might be translated to another markup language, such as HTML, or removed to display unformatted text. If you want the text formatting that is applied in Rational® Focal Point™ to be used in other applications, those applications must interpret the Rational Focal Point tags.

The following table contains all the valid text tags, describes what formatting each tag renders, and indicates whether an end tag is required for the tag.
Tag Meaning End tag required
B Bold Yes
I Italic Yes
U Underlined Yes
S Strike through Yes
H1 Heading level 1 Yes
H2 Heading level 2 Yes
H3 Heading level 3 Yes
H4 Heading level 4 Yes
H5 Heading level 5 Yes
H6 Heading level 6 Yes
PRE Preformatted text Yes
ADDRESS Address Yes
STRONG Strong Yes
OL Ordered list Yes
UL Unordered list Yes
LI List item Yes
BLOCKQUOTE Block quote Yes
URL Hyperlink Yes
P Paragraph No
HR Horizontal rule No
Tags can be nested, and a tag starting inside another tag can end before or after the first tag ends.

The URL tag

The URL tag has an alternative format, which you can use to display a link title instead of the link value. You can use the alternative format if you want to display a short title instead of a long HTTP link.
The normal URL tag looks as follows:
[URL]http://www.ibm.com/[/URL]
The alternative format looks as follows:
[URL=IBM]http://www.ibm.com/[/URL]

In the example, the alternative format specifies that the link title "IBM" must be displayed instead of the link itself. If the tool that renders the text cannot display a clickable link, do not use the alternative format; display the link itself.

Some clients remove the tags and render unformatted text; this practice is fine. If the text is sent between Rational Focal Point and another tool, both tools must handle the tags in the same way for formatting to be retained.


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