?? The following set of tips are here to help. I sent it to a member to smooth out the brick impressions on her forehead, and now I'm posting it all here as a preventative measure so that SD doesn't have to invest in a stock of headache remedies! 
As you have found out, if you just insert your cursor in the text window, then click on, say, the b-Bold button, it will insert the code for bolding your text. BUT, it will not automatically insert your cursor in between the two parts of the code! And, if you want to Bold, and color Red, and Size 7, and just click those buttons, each of those bits of code are plopped in sequentially AFTER the last one. But for it to work, they need to be nested around your text almost like concentric rings.
When you're looking at coding for bulletin board forums such as this one, it'll be bracketted in these little lovelies []. When you see [xxxxxxxxxx ] it's the beginning of a particular code. But it doesn't work without the closing part, which will always start with [/ xxxxxxx] (minus the spaces I inserted in these examples). For the code to work, you need to have your text in between those two halves.
So, here is the easiest to make sure you get what you intended.
First type whatever message or post you intend to type. Worry about content first, then worry about makin' it look different!
After you've composed your message/post, highlight the whole text with your mouse and, with your text highlighted, click the Bold button. You'll now see that the two parts of the code for Bold surround what you wrote. Here's an illustration (and I've inserted some {} instead of [], so that you can see them - otherwise you wouldn't be able to view the code!)
[b}If you want to make your text bold, highlight this sentence and then click the b-Bold button.[/ b}
[b]What you get is this.[/b]
To get Red and Bold, like this: highlight the sentence and then click the b-Bold button. Then highlight the text again (or just a section or a letter if that's all you want in a color,) excluding the code for the Bold, and then click the Color menu and select Red. This will place the code for the Red, in a parenthetical fashion, around the text you want to change. If you want the whole thing bolded and red, be sure that the text is enclosed in the beginning code for the bold, then red ...... then the closing red code followed by the closing bold code.
Second, I have found in forums that another quick way to get what you want with consistency, (if you're like me and you like blue, bolded, large enough to be easily read posts,) is to make a template.
What I did is I opened a blank PM window. I inserted my cursor in the text box. Then, without typing anything, I clicked the Font button and it inserted this:
[font ="Palatino Linotype"}[ /font}
Then I clicked my cursor in between the two halves of the code (this is the important part) so that when you next click on the Size button, the size code is inserted between the two halves of the Font code.
You'll get this: {font ="Palatino Linotype"]{size="3"] [ /size}[ / font}
Again, find the middle of the new Size code and insert your cursor there. Now click on the Color you want and its code will be inserted in the middle and look like this: [font ="Palatino Linotype"}[size ="3"}[color ="#000080"}[ / color}[ /size}[ /font}
Finally, if you want it all bolded, reinsert your cursor in the middle of the Color code halves, and click the Bold button. This is what you will see in your text box (remembering that there will be [] around everything, not these squiggly {} things!):
[font = "Palatino Linotype"}[size ="3"}[color ="#000080"}[ b} [ /b}[ /color}[ /size}[ /font}
After you have created the code template that you'd like to use, insert about 6 spaces in the middle of the innermost code, as in the example immediately above. Now, highlight the whole thing, and copy/paste it into a Word document that you store on your computer's desktop (for easy access!) I call mine "BBCode for SingleDivers". Make several different templates if you like, and label them in your word document so that you know which result will come from which template, and save that document!
The point to all of this is that you can create templates of the sorts of codes you need for your posts and PMs to look the way you want them to, so that all you need to do is have your template document open in the background, and highlight/copy/paste your template into the text window when you're about to post something. Insert your cursor in the nice big space you made for yourself in the middle of all that ridiculous code, and type away! Keep the template document handy and you can copy/paste that template into any PMs or posts you wish to create, without having to futz with the silly buttons and such, and you'll get the same result every time...quickly!
You may have to experiment some, to see what works the best for you.
Test your results with the Preview button (next to the Send button) before you submit the post, to be sure it looks the way you want it to. Feel free to send experimental PMs to me if you like. I'm happy to help.
[font="Palatino Linotype"][color="#000080"]I hope that this helps take some of the frustration out of makin' your posts conform to your aesthetic preferences!
Victoria [/color][/font]
