Hi everyone,
In this tutorial, I'll show you how all of the formatting icons/controls in the Painter Discussions message editing window work. I've demonstrated them in order from left to right across the top row, then from left to right across the bottom row.
Here begins the the demonstration:
Font Family 
Andale Mono
Arial
Arial Black
Book Antigua
Comic Sans MS
Courier New
Georgia
Helvetica
Impact
Symbol - (doesn't seem to work)
Tahoma
Terminal
Times New Roman
Trebuchet MS
Verdana
Webdings - (doesn't seem to work)
Wingdings - (doesn't seem to work)
Font Size 
1 (8 pt) 2 (10 pt) 3 (12 pt) 4 (14 pt) 5 (18 pt) 6 (24 pt) 7 (36 pt)
Select Text Color 
red orange yellow green blue
teal cyan purple brown magenta
Select Background Color 
Teal background
Though the text background color displayed correctly in the message editing window, it doesn't display (for me, using Firefox) when this message is posted. Here's a screen print done while in the message editing window showing how it should look:
Cut 
Copy 
Paste 
These three icons/controls didn't work for me. Using Firefox with the Cut, Copy, and Paste icons at the top of the message editing window, these controls were not available. There are other very familiar ways to do the same things, anyway.):
Cut: Highlight the text and hit the Backspace key, or Highlight the text and hit the Delete key.
Copy: Highlight the text and use Ctrl/Command+C.
Paste: Highlight the text and use Ctrl/Command+V.
Paste from Word - 
I don't have MS Word to test this but text can be pasted into the message editing window using the familiar methods. See Copy and Paste methods above.
Edit HTML Source 
Clicked while in the Painter Discussions message editing window, this icon opens another window to display the message in HTML code. Use the HTML code window to copy the HTML code and paste it into your BIO editing window.
Bold 
Text can also be made bold by highlighting it, then using Ctrl/Command+B.
Italic 
Text can also be made italic by highlighting it, then using Ctrl/Command+I.
Underline 
Text can also be underlined by highlighting it, then using Ctrl/Command+U
Strikethrough 
Indent 
This paragraph was indented using the Indent icon.
Outdent 
Only available when indented text is highlighted. This line was typed after the above paragraph was indented and was also originally indented, then outdented using the Outdent icon.
Unordered list 
- This bulleted (unordered) list
- was created by typing
- several lines of text,
- highlighting them,
- then using the Unordered list icon.
Ordered list 
- This numbered (ordered) list
- was created by typing
- several lines of text,
- highlighting them,
- then using the Ordered list icon.
Insert/edit link 
Only available when link text is highlighted. This link was created by typing the link text, highlighting it, then using the Insert/edit link icon and typing the URL.
Unlink 
Only available when an existing link is highlighted. This link was unlinked by highlighting the two words "This link" that were originally a link to the main page of The Painter Factory, then using the Unlink icon.
Insert/edit image 
The image below was added using the Insert/edit image icon. That icon can also be used after the fact to edit the URL to the image file.
Content Selector 
The image below was added using the Content Selector icon, and selecting an image I had already uploaded to the Painter Factory server. That icon can also be used to upload images from your hard drive to the Painter Factory server, then to manage your uploaded files.
If you have questions about using these formatting icons/controls, or find errors or anything confusing (I've looked at it too long to see my own mistakes!) post a message in this thread and I'll try to help.
Happy New Year!