How to format a broadcast in the bot

How to format a broadcast in the bot

In graspil, when you create a broadcast, you see a plain text field. That does not mean your messages cannot look good. You can make text bold, italic, insert links, strike text, etc.

To do this, select a formatting mode (the parse_mode field) and use special characters.

There are two main modes:

  1. HTML (recommended for beginners โ€” simpler and more reliable)

  2. MarkdownV2 (faster to type, but requires careful handling of punctuation)

Method 1: HTML (the simplest)

If you pick HTML in parse_mode, the text works like a constructor. You โ€œwrapโ€ the needed words with tags.

Main rule: If you opened a tag (for example, <b>), you must close it (</b>).

HTML cheat sheet

What you want to do
What to type in the field
What the user will see

Bold text

<b>Important text</b>

Important text

Italic

<i>Italic text</i>

Italic text

Strikethrough

<s>Old price</s>

Old price

Link on a word

<a href="https://graspil.com">Click here</a>

Spoiler (hidden text)

<tg-spoiler>Secret</tg-spoiler>

(Hidden noise)

Example of a ready-to-paste message:

Full list of available HTML tags

What you want to do
What to type in the field

Underline

<u>Underlined</u>

Spoiler

<span class="tg-spoiler">spoiler</span> or

<tg-spoiler>spoiler</tg-spoiler>

Custom emoji

<tg-emoji emoji-id="5368324170671202286">๐Ÿ‘</tg-emoji>

Code

<code>Code</code>

Preformatted text

<pre>Formatting</pre>

Quote

<blockquote>Quote</blockquote>

Collapsible quote

<blockquote expandable>Collapsible quote</blockquote>

The diagram shows how each tag is rendered

Drawing

Regular emoji can be copied and pasted directly into the text. If you want to use custom emoji, use this tag:

Emoji and custom emoji

Use @AdsMarkdownBot to get the emoji ID. Just start the bot and send it your emoji. The reply includes the ID.

Testing

Always test your message before sending. Use โ€œsend to yourselfโ€. If the message has an error, Telegram will show it.

Read the error, translate it, ask an AI, or contact support. We will help you figure it out.

Method 2: MarkdownV2 (for people who like symbols)

If you select MarkdownV2, formatting is done with special characters (asterisks, underscores, and tildes). It is faster, but there is a very important nuance (see below).

MarkdownV2 cheat sheet

What you want to do
What to type in the field
What the user will see

Bold text

*Bold text*

Bold text

Italic

_Italic text_

Italic text

Strikethrough

~Old price~

Old price

Link on a word

[Click here](https://emaple.com)

โ›” IMPORTANT: Exclamation mark issue (Bad Request)

In MarkdownV2, many punctuation marks are โ€œservice charactersโ€. Telegram treats them as part of the markup.

Bad Request: can't parse entities: Character '!' is reserved...

The message will NOT be sent, and you will get this error:

If you just type:

โŒ Hi! or Discounts up to 50%.

Hi\! Discounts up to 50%\. We are live\.

โœ… Correct:

What to do? You must add โ€œprotectionโ€ before punctuation. That shield is a backslash: \. This is called โ€œescapingโ€.

(Notice: backslashes before exclamation marks, dots, and the minus sign.)

Characters that MUST have \ before them:

  1. Dot .

  2. Exclamation mark !

  3. Minus (hyphen) -

  4. Brackets ( ) [ ] { }

  5. Plus +

  6. Equals =

  7. Hash #

  8. Vertical bar |

Example of a correct MarkdownV2 message:

Full list of MarkdownV2 commands

Bold

*bold*

Italics

_italics_

Strikethrough

~Strikethrough~

__underline__

__underline__

Spoiler

||spoiler||

Link

[text](http://site.com)

Code

`code`

Pre-formated

Block quotation started

>Block quotation started

Block quotation continued

>Block quotation continued

Expandable bloc quotation started

**>Expandable bloc quotation

Expandable bloc quotation continued

>Expandable bloc quotation

Emoji

![๐Ÿ‘](tg://emoji?id=123456)

Emoji and custom emoji

Regular emoji can be copied and pasted directly into the text. If you want to use custom emoji, use this syntax:

Use @AdsMarkdownBot to get the emoji ID. Just start the bot and send it your emoji. The reply includes the ID.

Testing

Always test your message before sending. Use โ€œsend to yourselfโ€. If the message has an error, Telegram will show it.

Read the error, translate it, ask an AI, or contact support. We will help you figure it out.

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