There are multiple ways we can do proper formatting on our forum.
In particular we can use markdown, bbcode or HTML. all three can be intermixed in a single post/topic and the most simple ones can be pulled in straight from top of the post editor.
So if you do not need any real special effects I would suggest you stay with the possibilities that are directly available in the post editor, but if you want to read up what else can be done in the links a biut further down you can get a whole lot more information.
For example you can make text appear in color: RED Text
If you would like to read more on Markdown you can find everything in the Markdown Cheat Sheet
OR
If you would like to read more what can be done in bbcode you can find a lot of information in the bbcode reference