At the request of one of the new members to Elmshade, I'm throwing up a little tutorial on how to flavor up your posts.  I'm going to tell you how I do it, which should familiarize you enough with the process to add your own little flavor.  Here's an example of a post by me.

Reyco takes the troll scale and pops it into his mouth, and since he doesn't have any interest what so ever in finding out what it tastes like, he swallows it as whole and as fast as he can.  When Malacai asks how he had done in battle, Reyco thinks about his response for a moment then speaks up in a fairly confident but humble tone.  "The man was uncannily strong and agile, and I think you did well despite it.  It was a close battle, shear power against skill.  Had he stuck around a bit longer, I think skill would have won out, as it usually does." Reyco had always been taught that skill with a blade was a much mightier weapon than massive amounts of raw power behind it.  Though he and Malacai usually had the upper hand on both accounts, Oak had been the rare case where someone out powered them.  It would have been interesting to see the end of the battle, and looked forward to future opportunities to do so. This was a rare situation, seeing his Master vulnerable like this.  Reyco knew Malacai was a real person with emotions and insecurities, but his Master usually kept them bottled up inside.  When he did let them show, it reminded Reyco off the fact that this man whom he had idolized since the moment he had met him wasn't just a fighting machine, and it sometimes made him uncomfortable.  But it gave him hope as well, that someday the two off them might be more like comrades or friends rather than Master and Apprentice. hp:40/50

Pretty nice looking huh?  It took me 6 months of playing around to figure everything out, but with this guide, it should take you less than half an hour.

The first thing I do is create a table.  You make a table by clicking on the little table icon on the toolbar above, it's the seventh icon in on the second row, which brings up a box full of options.

• Make your table 1 column and 1 row. 
• The next part is cell padding and cell spacing.  Spacing is the area between the outside lines and the inside lines. (Most of the blue in the post above.)  Padding is how much room is between the inside bow and your text.  I usually Use a good amount of spacing and little padding.
• I pretty much ignore the borders most of the time, but it changes the thickness and color of those small black line borders in my posts.
• Finally there is the background.  There are two options here.  The first is to pick a color by clicking on it.  The second is to find a background link and put that in the "background image URL" section.  A good site for many backgrounds is http://www.grsites.com/textures/.  The one I chose to use is http://www.grsites.com/textures/dblue/dblue002.jpg. 
• Click insert table and if you followed the directions above, you should end up with something like this.
• Now, click inside the table and follow the directions above, inserting a different background.  I recommend either picking a solid color or a background that stands out from the color of text you plan to use because you will be typing in this table.  For example, if you want red text, you wouldn't choose a red colored background, because you wouldn't ba able to read the text.  I will be typing in green however, so I chose to put in a red background.  Here's how it should look after you insert a second table into your first one.

• If you don't like that little space underneath your inner table, you can click on it and left align it (the button is on the toolbar above), and that will get rid of the space.  Personally, I like to keep the space and place my current hp in it, like this

  hp:40/50

• Finally, go ahead and type away in the inner table.  Remember to use a color that stands out from the color of the inside table, or people won't be able to read your text.  I also like to use different colors for my speech and actions.  Just a personal choice of mine.

  Reyco takes the troll scale and pops it into his mouth, and since he doesn't have any interest what so ever in finding out what it tastes like, he swallows it as whole and as fast as he can.  When Malacai asks how he had done in battle, Reyco thinks about his response for a moment then speaks up in a fairly confident but humble tone.  "The man was uncannily strong and agile, and I think you did well despite it.  It was a close battle, shear power against skill.  Had he stuck around a bit longer, I think skill would have won out, as it usually does." Reyco had always been taught that skill with a blade was a much mightier weapon than massive amounts of raw power behind it.  Though he and Malacai usually had the upper hand on both accounts, Oak had been the rare case where someone out powered them.  It would have been interesting to see the end of the battle, and looked forward to future opportunities to do so. This was a rare situation, seeing his Master vulnerable like this.  Reyco knew Malacai was a real person with emotions and insecurities, but his Master usually kept them bottled up inside.  When he did let them show, it reminded Reyco off the fact that this man whom he had idolized since the moment he had met him wasn't just a fighting machine, and it sometimes made him uncomfortable.  But it gave him hope as well, that someday the two off them might be more like comrades or friends rather than Master and Apprentice. hp:40/50

• Now, you might want to add a picture to your post.  The way to do this is to click on the pictures link on the left bar of the main page, not in your post (it's toward the bottom).  Create yourself an album and upload the pictures from your computer.  Now, in your post, click on the little button with the mountain on it, it's to the right of the table button.  The default tab is the "my online photos" tab, this is where you want to be.  For some reason, entering photos directly from the computer has never worked for me.  Click on the group your album is located (such as Elmshade), select your album, and select the picture you want to insert.  Click "".  The picture will be inserted where your cursor is.  You can click and drag it to reposition it.  It starts as center aligned with odd text wrapping.  I usually right of left align it from here to get my text to wrap around it correctly.

  Reyco takes the troll scale and pops it into his mouth, and since he doesn't have any interest what so ever in finding out what it tastes like, he swallows it as whole and as fast as he can.  When Malacai asks how he had done in battle, Reyco thinks about his response for a moment then speaks up in a fairly confident but humble tone.  "The man was uncannily strong and agile, and I think you did well despite it.  It was a close battle, shear power against skill.  Had he stuck around a bit longer, I think skill would have won out, as it usually does." Reyco had always been taught that skill with a blade was a much mightier weapon than massive amounts of raw power behind it.  Though he and Malacai usually had the upper hand on both accounts, Oak had been the rare case where someone out powered them.  It would have been interesting to see the end of the battle, and looked forward to future opportunities to do so. This was a rare situation, seeing his Master vulnerable like this.  Reyco knew Malacai was a real person with emotions and insecurities, but his Master usually kept them bottled up inside.  When he did let them show, it reminded Reyco off the fact that this man whom he had idolized since the moment he had met him wasn't just a fighting machine, and it sometimes made him uncomfortable.  But it gave him hope as well, that someday the two off them might be more like comrades or friends rather than Master and Apprentice. hp:40/50

• There yah go, there's your post.  If you have any questions, don't be afraid to e-mail me.