I remember, when I was new here, being bewildered by all the different options I had for doing everything. It took me a while to (a.) find out that there were actually many ways I could end up with the result I wanted, only some were a little more convenient than others; and (b.) settle on the "options" settings that suited me best.

I know other members have had these questions too (and Rainbowzz has already written tutorials to answer some of them). Let me see if I can make a start on "how to reply":

I like to quote earlier posts a lot, and preview before posting, so I mostly use "Reply with Quote" instead of "Quick Reply". If I do start out in Quick Reply and change my mind, though, I can easily "Go Advanced" without losing what I've started to write:


I personally prefer the "text" mode for editing but some users like the "What you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) mode better. You can switch back and forth between them with this control:


As far as I can tell, regardless of your other settings, at the bottom of every post you can reply to you'll find a set of buttons like these...

... though if you've selected a different appearance ("skin") option, the same set of buttons may look like this instead. I think this appearance is called "Teal/Black":

The button marked "Reply" (or "QUOTE") above is the one I almost always use for replying. I think you'll find it gets you where you want to go.

In principle you can post or reply without ever using formatting tags, or use the editing controls above the reply box to insert the tags for whatever effects you want. I like sometimes being able to work with the actual tags myself, so I keep this reference page bookmarked: BB Code List.

The way I like to learn this stuff is by trying it, previewing whatever I just did before making it permanent, and if I don't like what the preview shows, backing up and trying again. Good luck!