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Kordu Tools
Text Tools Runs in browser New Updated 19 Apr 2026

BBCode Generator

Write BBCode with a visual toolbar and live preview — bold, links, images, quotes, spoilers, and more without memorising tags.

Tip: Ctrl+B/I/U for shortcuts0 characters
BBCode Renderer v1.1
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How to use BBCode Generator

  1. Type or paste your post

    Start typing in the editor, or paste existing BBCode you want to edit. The live preview on the right updates as you type.

  2. Select text and click a toolbar button

    Highlight a word or phrase and click Bold, Italic, Underline, or any other toolbar button to wrap it in the corresponding BBCode tag. You can also click without a selection to insert a placeholder.

  3. Use inline dialogs for links, images, and colours

    Clicking Link, Image, Colour, Size, Font, Quote, or YouTube opens a small panel under the toolbar where you enter the URL, hex colour, or author. Press Insert to apply.

  4. Use keyboard shortcuts

    Ctrl+B toggles bold, Ctrl+I italics, and Ctrl+U underline on the selected text — just like a word processor.

  5. Preview before you post

    The preview pane renders your BBCode as sanitised HTML that closely matches what forum engines produce. Tweak until it looks right.

  6. Copy the BBCode into your forum reply

    Click Copy BBCode to place the full markup on your clipboard. Paste it into the forum's reply box and post.

BBCode Generator FAQ

What is BBCode?
BBCode (Bulletin Board Code) is a lightweight markup language used on forum engines like phpBB, vBulletin, XenForo, and MyBB. It uses square-bracket tags such as [b]bold[/b] or [url=https://example.com]link[/url]. It's safer than raw HTML because forums interpret only the allowed tag list.

Which forum engines support this BBCode?
The tags produced by this editor are the common subset supported by phpBB, vBulletin, XenForo, MyBB, IP.Board, and Simple Machines Forum. Some advanced tags like [spoiler] and [youtube] are not universal — check your forum's BBCode help page if in doubt.

Is the live preview exactly what the forum will show?
It's very close but not pixel-perfect. Forums apply their own stylesheet, so fonts, colours, and spacing will follow the forum's theme. The preview uses a neutral dark theme. Structure, tags, and nesting will render identically.

Do keyboard shortcuts work?
Yes. Ctrl+B (Cmd+B on Mac), Ctrl+I, and Ctrl+U wrap the selected text in [b], [i], and [u] respectively. This matches the behaviour of most rich text editors.

Can I nest BBCode tags?
Yes. [b][i]bold italic[/i][/b] renders correctly. Most forum engines also support nesting lists inside quotes, code inside spoilers, and so on. Deeply nested tags occasionally confuse older phpBB 2.x installs.

Is my text sent to a server?
No. The editor, BBCode parser, and preview renderer all run locally in your browser. Your text never leaves your device and is not stored or logged anywhere.

Why is my [img] tag not showing an image in the preview?
The preview loads images directly from the URL you provide. If the image host blocks hotlinking, or the URL is wrong, the image won't load in the preview. This is a preview limitation — the BBCode itself is still correct and will work on the forum.

Can I insert a YouTube video?
Yes — paste the full YouTube URL or just the video ID using the YouTube button. The BBCode output is [youtube]VIDEO_ID[/youtube], which most modern forum engines embed. The preview shows a linked thumbnail for safety.

What about BBCode tags not in the toolbar?
You can always type any BBCode tag manually into the editor — the preview will render known tags and pass unknown ones through as text so you can see what you wrote. The toolbar covers the 20 most common tags.

Is there a length limit?
No hard limit. The editor handles very large posts (tens of thousands of characters) without slowdown. The preview is debounced so typing stays smooth even on long posts.

Can I save drafts?
Not directly — the editor does not persist across reloads. For longer drafts, copy the BBCode to a local note-taking app. Adding draft persistence is on the roadmap.

Is the preview safe if I paste untrusted BBCode?
Yes. The rendered HTML is sanitised with DOMPurify before being inserted into the preview, so script tags, inline event handlers, and javascript: URLs are stripped. You can safely paste BBCode from anywhere.

Background

BBCode Generator makes writing formatted forum posts painless. Instead of remembering which tags look like [b]...[/b] or [url=...]...[/url], you get a WYSIWYG-style toolbar that wraps your selected text in the right markup with a single click.

The editor supports every BBCode tag you're likely to need: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, inline links with display text, images with optional dimensions, block quotes with attribution, fenced code blocks, spoilers with custom titles, ordered and unordered lists, coloured text with a native colour picker, sized text (from tiny to huge), text alignment (left, centre, right), sub- and superscript, horizontal rules, and YouTube embeds.

A live preview pane renders your BBCode as HTML exactly as most forum engines will — so you can see headings wrap, links go blue, spoilers collapse, and quotes indent before you paste your post. The preview is sanitised with DOMPurify to prevent any script injection from pasted markup.

Perfect for moderators writing announcements, RPG players posting character sheets, gamers sharing build guides, technical users writing bug reports on phpBB-based trackers, or anyone who still lives on a classic forum. Keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+B / Ctrl+I / Ctrl+U) work on the currently selected text. A Copy BBCode button puts the markup on your clipboard ready to paste into the forum reply box.

Everything runs client-side in your browser — no text is uploaded, logged, or sent to any server. Paste confidential post drafts without worry.

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