Facebook allows users to format text in posts and comments using basic HTML tags. One of the most common formatting options is to make text bold. This can help draw attention to important words or phrases and make them stand out from regular text. Bolding text on Facebook is easy to do once you know the proper HTML tag to use. In this article, we’ll walk through the quick steps to bold text in Facebook posts and comments. We’ll also look at why you may want to use bold text and some tips for using it effectively.
Why Bold Text on Facebook?
Here are some of the main reasons you may want to bold text when writing Facebook posts or comments:
- To emphasize important points or keywords
- To make headings and subheadings stand out
- To highlight special offers or promotions
- To draw attention to an important update or announcement
- To increase readability by breaking up blocks of text
Bolding strategically chosen words or phrases can help direct your audience’s attention to the key parts of your message. It adds visual hierarchy to your text and makes it more scannable. Bold text stands out against regular text, so it’s a useful formatting option any time you want certain text to be prominent.
How to Bold Text on Facebook
Bolding text on Facebook is accomplished using the HTML tag. Here are the quick steps:
- Type your text as normal first. Then highlight the word(s) you want to bold.
- Click the B button above the text box (it looks like two Bs). This will wrap the selected text in HTML bold tags.
- Alternatively, you can manually place and around the text you want bolded.
So to bold the word “key point” in your text, you’d do:
key point
And it will show up bolded like this:
key point
That’s all there is to it! Facebook automatically converts the HTML tags into bolded text when you post.
Tips for Using Bold Text Effectively
Now that you know how to quickly bold text on Facebook, let’s go over some tips for using bolding effectively:
- Use bolding sparingly. Overusing it can make your text feel cluttered and hard to read.
- Avoid bolding entire paragraphs or sentences. Bold key individual words or short phrases instead.
- Make sure the bolded text stands out against the surrounding content. If everything is bolded, nothing stands out.
- Be consistent with formatting. Use bolding purposefully to emphasize specific types of information.
- Bolding important keywords can improve scannability and search visibility.
- Use bolding to draw attention to special offers, promotions, or updates you don’t want people to miss.
- Break up long blocks of text by bolding subheadings.
Following these tips will ensure your use of bold text is clean, consistent, and effective.
Common Uses of Bold Text in Facebook Posts
Looking at some specific examples can help illustrate the most common and effective ways to leverage bold text on Facebook:
Highlighting Keywords and Phrases
Bolding important keywords and phrases in your text can help them jump out:
Check out our new organic cold-pressed juices – available this week only!
Formatting Bulleted Lists
Bold the items in your bulleted lists to make them visibly distinct:
Our juice cleanse program includes:
- 3 cold-pressed juices per day
- Weekly delivery
- Online nutrition tracking
Emphasizing Promotions or Offers
Bolding promotional text helps grab readers’ attention:
BOGO 50% off on all our immunity-boosting juices this Friday only!
Subheadings
Use bold subheadings to break up long posts into scannable sections:
Our new juice cleanse offers:
Weekly Delivery
Our juices are handcrafted and delivered fresh each week…
Online Tracking
Monitor your nutrition and progress through our easy-to-use app…
Using Bold Text in Facebook Comments
In addition to posts, you can also use bolding in your Facebook comments to:
- Respond to and highlight specific points from someone else’s comment
- Draw attention to your key point within a long comment thread
- Emphasize words you really want to stand out in your remark
Bold text helps your comments get noticed and makes them easier to quickly scan. The HTML formatting works the same way in comments as in posts.
Other Facebook Text Formatting Options
While bolding is very useful, keep in mind Facebook also supports other text formatting options:
- Italics – Add emphasis without the prominence of bold. Use sparingly.
- Line breaks – Add <br> to split text over multiple lines.
- Bullet lists – Use <ul> and <li> to format bulleted lists (like this one).
- Numbered lists – Use <ol> and <li> for numbered lists.
- Links – Use <a href=”url”>link text</a> to insert clickable links.
So be creative and make the most of these formatting options when composing your Facebook content!
Troubleshooting Bold Text Issues
Hopefully you don’t run into any hiccups, but just in case, here are some troubleshooting tips for situations where your bold text isn’t displaying properly:
- Make sure the bold tags are typed exactly as and . Any typos will prevent it from working.
- Ensure the tags have the text you want bolded between them. Common mistake is to put the closing tag before the text.
- If you modified text already posted, the tags may have gotten stripped out. Try editing the post and adding them again.
- Facebook’s text editor is finicky. Try retyping the entire post to reset any glitches.
- Sometimes you need to re-bold text after making an edit. Bold tags don’t always carry over.
Take a close look at the HTML tags anytime your bolded text isn’t displaying right. Usually it’s an easy fix.
Limitations of Bolding Text on Facebook
While bolding text on Facebook is easy and useful, there are a couple limitations to be aware of:
- You can’t combine bold with other formatting like italics in the same section of text.
- Bolding doesn’t carry over if you cross-post content to other social platforms.
- Tags sometimes get stripped when you copy/paste content into Facebook.
- Formatting isn’t preserved if your post gets shared elsewhere by someone else.
- Mobile browsers and apps may not always fully support bold tags.
So bolding text works great natively within Facebook, but can get lost or degraded when content gets reposted across platforms.
Conclusion
Bolding text is an easy way to add visual emphasis and improve readability in your Facebook posts and comments. To quickly bold words or phrases, simply highlight the text and click the B icon or manually place tags around it. Use bolding strategically to call attention to keywords, promotions, lists, subheadings, and other important text. Avoid overusing it and make sure bolded text stands out from surrounding content. With the right balance, bolding can make your Facebook content much more engaging!