AO3: Comment Formatting and Preview

Adds buttons to insert HTML formatting, and shows a live preview box of what the comment will look like

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Author

escctrl

Daily installs

Total installs

286

Ratings

5 0 0

Version

6.1

Created

2024-01-05

Updated

2026-03-07

Size

24.3 KB

License

GNU GPL-3.0-only

Applies to

archiveofourown.org

💖 What it does

Adds buttons on top of comment boxes (and other textboxes that allow HTML), to easily insert the code for formatting the text.

Below the comment box, adds a preview of what the final comment will look like.

preview of a work comment. Above the textbox is a row of buttons with text formatting icons such as 'bold', 'italics', etc. The textbox contains some text with HTML inserted, and underneath the textbox is a field showing a preview of the comment visually formatted.

🪴 How to use it

After installing the script, open the configuration dialog to change the settings. Touching the code is not needed.

The button bar is added on:

Comments on works (posting and editing)
Comment Replies on works (posting and editing) as well as when replying from the AO3 Inbox
Summary, Notes and End Notes when posting or editing a work
Bookmarker Notes when adding or editing a bookmark
Intro, FAQ and Rules when creating a new Collection or editing its profile
My Sticky Comment Box script (no preview to save space)
My View and Post Comments from the Bin script for tag wranglers (no preview to save space)

🎨 How to configure it

On a page with comments, for example a work or your AO3 Inbox.
In the main navigation of AO3, next to “About”, there’s a new menu item “Userscripts”.
From the “Userscripts” menu, select the “Comment Formatting Buttons” option.
A configuration dialog opens. Here, you can set your preferences.
- Show or hide any of the standard buttons
- Add custom buttons, for all your repetitive commenting needs (follow the instructions within the GUI to add buttons)

🏛️ History

v6
- Collection profile support
- inbox comments on AO3 Homepage support
v5 - Post Tag Comment from Bins support
v4 - Bookmark notes support
v3 - Summary and Notes support when posting or editing a work
v2
- Sticky Comment Box support
- AO3 News Posts support
v1 - work comment support

🏅 Credit

It's inspired by the popular Comment Formatting Options script, but I created my own version from scratch, trying to fix issues I'd noticed and to add a bunch of new features.