Hi there! Have you ever wanted to add visual emphasis to your text in Discord? Well, you‘re in luck – underlining is a quick and easy way to make key words stand out. In this post, I‘ll be walking you through everything you need to know to underline text in Discord in just three simple steps.
Let‘s Start With Some Background
Before we dive in, I wanted to share a brief history on underlining text in online applications. As early as the 1980s, word processors allowed users to underscore words for emphasis. When instant messaging emerged in the late 1990s, this formatting technique came along with it.
As you can see in the chart below, the ability to underline text in chat apps and web forums grew steadily over the early 2000s. By 2016 when Discord launched, it had become a standard text customization option users had come to expect.
Of course, even centuries before computers, scribes would underline manuscript words or passages by hand to denote importance. So underlining has a long tradition of clarifying and highlighting key information.
Now let‘s get you underlining text like a pro in Discord!
Step 1: Understanding Discord‘s Markdown Formatting
Discord formats text using Markdown – a simple "markup language" that applies styling through punctuation symbols.
To underline in Markdown, place two underscores __ on either side of the phrase you want underlined. Here‘s a quick example:
Check out my __new video__ about Discord! When you send that message, the words "new video" would display underlined. Easy stuff!
Step 2: Typing an Underlined Message
Armed with that background knowledge, let‘s get hands-on and send an underlined Discord message:
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Open your Discord app and navigate to the direct message or server channel where you want to type your text.
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Directly type your message, adding double underscores around any words or phrases you want underlined.
So following our example, you‘d write:
Check out my __new video__ about Discord!- Hit Enter to send the message. Then marvel as those enclosed words appear underlined!
See, I told you this was easy. 😉 Here‘s how that formatted message looks:
Feel free to underline as much or as little as you want in any given message. The double underscores tell Discord‘s Markdown: "Yo, make this stuff underlined!"
Step 3: Editing or Deleting Underlined Messages
Ugh, typos! No worries – Discord lets you edit or delete messages with underlined text too.
If you catch a mistake before sending your message, just delete the underscores to un-underline that text.
But let‘s say you notice a misspelled underlined word after you hit send. Simply:
- Long press the message on mobile or right click on desktop to pull up the menu.
- Select Edit to remove the underscores from the text and correct the typo.
Alternatively, that same menu allows you to Delete the message entirely if you prefer.
See? No matter when you notice your mistake, fixing underlined mishaps is a total breeze.
Comparing Underlines to Other Formatting
Beyond underlining, Discord supports a few other text formatting tweaks with Markdown:
- Italics (single underscore around words)
- Bold (double asterisks around words)
Strikethrough(double tildes around words)
I love using bolding to prominently highlight key phrases and details for readers to notice. Italics add emphatic stress in a lighter-touch way.
But when reviewing usability studies, underlined text captures attention nearly as well as bolding, with both substantially outperforming plain text. Just avoid using any formatting excessively, as too much visual competition can hurt readability.
Hopefully learning those best practices helps you wield underlining judiciously for maximum impact!
Answering Some Common Underline Questions
I wanted to take a sec to address some frequent reader questions around underlining:
Can I underline text on mobile?
You bet! Underlining works the same whether you‘re on desktop, web, or mobile.
What if I only use one underscore – what happens?
A single underscore before and after text italicizes rather than underlines it.
Is there a limit to how much I can underline at once
Nope! Feel free to underline multiple words, entire sentences – even whole paragraphs if you dare!
Let me know if you have any other questions – I‘m always happy to help explain the nuances of Discord text formatting.
Let‘s Recap
And there you have it – a complete walkthrough on underlining text in Discord in three quick steps:
- Understand Discord uses Markdown formatting
- Type your message, adding double underscores around text to underline
- Edit or delete underlined messages by long pressing or right clicking
See? I told you underlining in Discord was a piece of 🍰!
Now that you‘re a text formatting master, go forth and use your underlining powers to add visual flair to your Discord messages. Just be thoughtful about when it makes sense to underline text to maximize clarity for your recipients.
Thanks for reading – go underline something awesome!
