trying to upgrade

I've noticed for a long time that there are lots of bloggers who know how to "cross things out," as they write. I even copied something which showed up crossed out, but I couldn't remember how it looked in the html. So now, I will experiment.

I just put a comment on meryl yourish, and the comments there have all sorts of "clicks," which offer text "enhancers?," so I'm going to try something....

How's this? OK, it worked, but I don't know the shortcut. What I did was ctrl/b, then in html, I substituted "strike" for "strong." It's a bit convoluted, and I'd greatly appreciate the shortcut. hint! hint!

Another thing I haven't figured out is how to use all those "things" in my post titles, such as links, bold, etc. While I'm at it, I recently saw that another blogger had a colored background under words. I'd love to know how to do that, too.

I'm thanking you all in advance, certain that someone will be willing to help me, please!