moodle/lang/en/help/textformat.html

<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Formatting text</B></P>

<P>When writing text in Moodle there are several formats you can choose
   to produce your text, depending on your expertise and the type of browser
   you are using.

<P><B>Usually you can just leave this setting to the default value and things 
      should work as you expect</B>.

<P><B>1. Moodle auto-format</B></P>

<UL>
<P>This format is best for when you are using normal web forms for entry
   (instead of the Richtext HTML editor).  Just type text normally, as if you
   were sending an email.

<P>When you save your text, Moodle will do a number of things to automatically
   format your text for you.  
<P>For example, URLs such as 
   <A HREF="http://yahoo.com/">http://yahoo.com</A> or even 
   <A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com/">www.yahoo.com</A> will be turned into links.
<P>Your line breaks will be retained, and blank lines will start new paragraphs.
<P>Smiley characters such as :-) will automatically become their graphical equivalents.
<P>You can even embed HTML code if you want to and it will be retained.
<p align=right><a href="help.php?file=text.html">More info about Moodle auto-formatting</a></p>
</UL>


<P><B>2. HTML format</B></P>

<UL>
<P>This format assumes the text is pure HTML.  If you are using the 
   HTML editor to edit text then this is the default format - all 
   the commands in the toolbar are producing HTML for you.

<P>Even if you are not using the Richtext HTML editor, you can use HTML code 
   in your text and it should come out exactly as you intended.

<P>Unlike the Moodle auto-format, no automatic formatting is performed.
<p align=right><a href="help.php?file=html.html">More info about HTML in Moodle</a></p>
<p align=right><a href="help.php?file=richtext.html">More info about the Richtext HTML editor</a></p>
</UL>


<P><B>3. Plain text format</B></P>

<UL>
<P>This format is useful when you need to include lots of code 
   or HTML that you want to be displayed exactly as you wrote it.

<P>It still translates smilies and new lines, but otherwise your 
   text isn't touched.
</UL>


<P><B>4. Wiki text format</B></P>
<UL>
<P>This format uses a special way of typing text known as the 
   Wiki format.
<P>This format allows you to type text in a way that still looks
   very readable, but can also be automatically converted into 
   HTML text with headings, lists and other complex formatting.

<p align=right><a href="help.php?file=wiki.html">More info about the Wiki format</a></p>
</UL>