I'm forced to use IE8 at the company I work for and that browser doesn't seem to work and play well with the Tableau forum application, namely, clicking anything from the menu bar except the spell checker and HTML view.  I've discovered a few keyboard shortcuts that help me construct my messages and this should help ease some of the pain for other IE8 users.

= : (

= : )

= : D

= : 0 (zero)

= : o (lower case 'oh')

= : p (lower case or upper case)

= : x

= ; )

= ; \

Text Formatting

Highlight the word you want to format then press the appropriate key combination (these are standard Windows shortcuts):

bold = Ctrl + b

italic = Ctrl + i

underline = Ctrl + u

Multiple formats are allowed.

Special Functions

Use the pound/hash symbol (#) to display a new or existing search tag:

reporting_monkey

Use the 'at' symbol (@) to automatically add a link to one of your Friends or an item from your History:

JOIN Data from Different Sources  and  Getting Started in the Forums

Notice that the appropriate icon prefixes the link.

Misc.

Naturally, it should go without saying that the standard Windows shortcut functions of Select All (Ctrl + a), Cut (Ctrl + x) and Copy (Ctrl + c) work as expected.  The Paste (Ctrl + v) function does NOT!  You must go into the HTML editor, select the location you want to Paste, then actually Paste.  Just so it's out there, I do know about Ctrl + k = ? (you like that? I used the @ function )(oooh oooh, and I just used an emoticon! )(again!).

If anyone knows of other shortcuts please add to this conversation.