Using the Forum; a Few "How To's" Part 1

[Midas]

Note: this is a work in progress which I’m going to be adding to from time to time, so if anyone has a “How do I ......” question which isn’t yet covered, please send me a private message and I’ll either reply to you directly or add the answer in here.

So, where do we start? Maybe not in the most logical order for some, but since most new members’ first post is either a new post in an existing thread or in reply to a post in an existing thread, I’ll cover those first.

Creating a new post in an existing thread

To the top left of the most recent post there is a button. Click this and you will be taken to the Post New Thread window, below:-




Simply enter your message in the message box, double-check your spelling and grammar – there is a facility within the forum to do this; use the link in the top right (OK, I’m pedantic and think this is important!) – then click the ‘Preview Post’ button at the bottom. This will show you your post as it will appear to other forum members. If you see anything which needs changing, do so in the message box before clicking the ‘Submit Reply’ button. This will then submit your post for all to see and take you back to the thread. I’ll cover how to format your message – italics, bold, different font colours and sizes, inserting images and links, the use of icons (smilies) etc., later.

Replying to an existing post

In many respects this is similar to the create new post description above, however rather than use the “Post Reply” button, click the “Quote” button at the bottom right of the post you wish to reply to, as below:-



This will then take you to the Reply to Thread window, below :-



Continued in Part 2 because of a frustrating 5 images per post limit!

[Midas]

Replying to an existing post - continued

This is virtually identical to the Post New Thread window mentioned above, and works in exactly the same way, however the big difference is that the message box will contain the entire text of the post you are replying to, as below:-



The first thing you will see is that the original message is enclosed in [ QUOTE=name;number] ... [ /QUOTE] tags; these are important as they highlight the original message, refer to the name of the person who posted the message and provide a link back to that message. Please don’t delete these tags and ensure that your reply is inserted underneath the quote, as below:-



When you are happy with your reply, use the “Preview Post” and “Submit Reply” buttons as described previously. If you see anything wrong with the formatting of the original quotation when you preview, please check to see where the error is, then correct it. Common problems include a second [ QUOTE] tag within the first, accidentally deleting either the [, / or the ] symbols or deleting the closing [ /QUOTE] tag in its entirety.

If you wish to reply to several paragraphs of the original post individually, use the following example as a guide:-



The important points to note are that the first paragraph of the original message you wish to quote retains the opening [ QUOTE=name;number] tag and is closed using a manually inserted [ /QUOTE] tag. Please don’t enclose entire paragraph in further [ QUOTE] tags or it can cause errors in the way your final post is displayed.

For subsequent paragraphs you wish to quote and reply to, highlight them, then click the ‘Quote’ icon on the toolbar above the message box. This will automatically enter the correct opening and closing tags, or if you so wish you can enter them manually as shown above. Enter your own comments, illustrated with the red arrow above, between the quoted paragraphs, preview your post, make any corrections or amendments, then submit it. To reiterate the important points:-

• Always ensure that the first paragraph always begins with [ QUOTE=name;number] and that it ends with [ /QUOTE]
• Ensure that every other quoted paragraph begins with [ QUOTE] and ends with [ /QUOTE]
• Ensure that there are no extra quote tags inserted or that there are no missing [, / or ] symbols
• Double check that the layout etc is correct by using the preview before submitting the post
• If you do submit a post, then notice an error, click the “Edit” button in the bottom left hand corner, correct the error then click “Save”

It’s really all very straightforward and the forum software will do most of this for you as long as you click the correct buttons, but for the ease of reading of your post by other members, please ensure that you’ve not made any mistakes, especially with respect to the use of quotes, and that the final preview looks exactly as you intend it to.


Continued in part 3

[DougieG]

A note - when quoting posts in chunks I usually copy and paste the [QUOTE=name;number] part. I think it looks a bit neater and makes it obvious that it is the same person who I am quoting each time.

[Midas]

Formatting posts

Easy enough. In the toolbar immediately above the message box ......



...... there are a considerable number of icons contained in two rows. For the moment I’ll stick just to those which are most commonly used, however the principle of use is the same for all of them; all you need do is highlight the word, sentence or paragraph (or perhaps the entire post) that you wish to format, then follow these instructions:-

Firstly the top row -

• Font type. The forum default is Verdana. To change that, just click the down arrow by the font name and select the one you want to use. The highlighted section will change to the font you select.
• Font size. The forum default is 2. To change that, from 1 (small) to 6 (large), just click the down arrow by the font size and select the one you want. The highlighted section will change to the size you select.
• Font colour. The forum default is black. To change that, just click on the down arrow by the black “A” icon and select the colour you want. The highlighted section will change to the colour you select.

Secondly, the bottom row -

• Bold type. To embolden a highlighted section of text simply click the “B” icon. The highlighted section will change to bold.
• Italic type. To italicise a highlighted section of text, simply click on the “I” icon. The highlighted section will change to italic.
• Underlined type. To underline a highlighted section of text, simply click on the “U” icon. The highlighted section will change to underlined.

There is an alternative way to insert the codes for the above formatting options though, and that’s manually. At the beginning of each section of text to format, insert either [ b ], [ i ] or [ u ], then at the end of the section, insert either [ /b ], [ /i ] or [ /u ] respectively. This has exactly the same effect, so this – “A [ b ]demonstration[ /b ] [ i ]of[ /i ] [ u ]formatting[ /u ]” – will look like – “A demonstration of formatting” – in your final post.

Next to these are three icons to either left justify, centre or right justify highlighted text -

Simply click which one you want and the highlighted section will justify accordingly.

Following this are four icons used to format lists and indent text margins -

Again all you need do is to highlight the section of text you wish to list either numerically or with • and click the appropriate icon, in which case the text will appear thus:-

1. Line one
2. Line two
3. Line three

Or

• Line one
• Line two
• Line three

Clicking either of the last two icons will move the entire highlighted section of text to the right or back to the left, giving a variable margin width, perhaps useful when quoting information from a third party website as a way of distinguishing it from a quote taken from within the forum, like this:-

Just what is democracy? If you were to define it, the definition would inevitably fail because there is too much behind the word. With a word used so often, and in some very prominent contexts, it is worth taking some time to reconsider what the word signifies.

To be continued in Part 4

[John West]

Thanks for the extra tips.

[Midas]

Adding smilies, inserting links and images

Adding smilies into your posts is simply a matter of placing your cursor at the point where the smilie is to go, then clicking the appropriate icon in the panel to the right of the message box:-



Several people seem to have problems inserting both links to external files, web pages and images into their posts. This is achieved by using these icons -

Hyperlinks. These can of course be written or pasted directly in your post in the form http://www.politicspoliticalforum.com, in which case they might show as either the raw url or a description of the page concerned – this is totally dependent on the web site itself. However if you wish to make part of your post into a hyperlink like this, you need to use the first icon shown above. Highlight the word or words you wish to use as the link then click the hyperlink icon. This opens a small box as shown below:-



Paste the url for the web site you’re linking to into the url box then click ‘OK’. This will transform the highlighted words into an active hyperlink, although to test it you’ll need to preview your post and check it from there.

To remove a hyperlink from text, such as something you might have copied and pasted from another website, simply highlight the link and click on the second icon in the group, the link with a red cross through it. This will automatically remove any such linking, although occasionally you might have to change the colour of the text back to black.

Placing images in a message. Again this is very simple and can be done using the fourth icon in this particular group, the image icon. With your cursor at the point where the image is to be placed, click this icon. This will open the box shown below:-



In exactly the same way as with the hyperlink, past the url of the image you wish to copy into the box and click ‘OK’. Please note that this will not copy images off your own computer, and the image must be one of the recognised image formats such as .jpg, .bmp etc.

To be continued.

[Greg Lance-Watkins]

Hi,

I'm struggling - the problem is the icons don't seem to open the relevant item (any fill in table)

I'm trying to embed a YouTube video and have the correct code from the YouTube site but seem to get stuck there!

I presume I would have the same problem with a picture!

I did say I was TechNoCrass!!

Thanks for the help.

Regards,
Greg L-W.

[Midas]

Hi,

I'm struggling - the problem is the icons don't seem to open the relevant item (any fill in table)

I'm not sure what problem you're having here. Can I suggest you PM me with the exact details?

I'm trying to embed a YouTube video and have the correct code from the YouTube site but seem to get stuck there!

I presume I would have the same problem with a picture!

Unfortunately the forum software doesn't allow the direct embedding of objects such as YouTube videos. All you can do is provide the link to the appropriate page as I noticed you have done with the Queen Rania video.

There shouldn't be any problem with linking to external images though, simply paste the direct image url into the box which opens when the 'Insert Image' icon is clicked.

[Greg Lance-Watkins]

Hi,

thanks for your willing help.

I've read the help pages you've built and copied them off so lets see if I can be a bit less dumb!

Regards,
Greg L-W.