Tutorial 2 - Create A New Thread / Post

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Reefscape

I shoot people with a Canon
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Welcome to the next part of the Tutorial series.

In this tutorial, we shall go through step by step on how to create a new thread in any forum you have permissions to, and how to create a post on an existing thread.


Create A New Thread

The first part of creating a new thread is to browse to the forum in which you would like your thread to be created within. For this example, a new thread is being created in the marine forum.

  1. Browse to the forum of your choice.

    http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=27


    choice of forum.jpg
  2. At the top of the forum threads, there is a button called "New Thread"

    new thread.jpg

  3. Click on this button to create a thread.
  4. A new web page will load and you will be presented with a blank thread, ready to have all the details and options completed

    post new thread.jpg

  5. The next picture provides the basic layout of the Post New Thread page, and a brief explanation of the functions.

    post new thread layout.jpg

    1 - Thread Title - Give your thread a meaningful title. This not only helps others when browsing through the threads, but also members who are using the search facility.

    2 - Text Formatting Options - Via these options, we can make text bigger or smaller, change the color, font, alignment, add bullet points, etc. (See footnote for a more in-depth description of the options)

    3 - Main Thread Area - This is the area where you will actually be typing out all of the info that you would like to have on your thread.

    4 - Smilies - A list of common smilies is available to the right hand side of the main thread box. A smiley is automatically inserted at the point where the cursor is flashing when you click on your choice. To remove a smiley from your message, simply click on the smiley, which will highlight it, then press delete on your keyboard.

    5 - Tags - Tag are valuable search words, which are common to this thread. Add the tags, and separate them by a comma ( , ). You can add up too 25 tags to each thread.

    6 - Post Icons - A post icon will appear on the list of threads, to the left of the thread title, as in the following picture.

    post icon.jpg

    7 - Preview Thread - This button gives the ability to see a preview of the thread, before its posted on the forum. Once posted, there is a time limit of 15 minutes in which a thread can be edited. This feature is useful if we are making a complex thread with pictures, and we want to make sure that the layout and formatting is correct.

    8 - Submit New Thread - Once all the thread has been created, formatted, pictures or web links added, clicking on this button would finally submit your thread to the forum for other members to see and add posts too.
  6. Fill out the form - Fill out as much or as little as required, selecting the options / smilies / post icons that you require.

    filled out basic thread.jpg

  7. Submit New Thread - Once the form has been filled out, clicking this button will submit this to the forums for all members to view.
Add A New Post To Existing Thread

To make a post on an existing thread, there are two options available. The "Quick Reply" and the "Advanced Reply". The main difference between the two reply methods is the amount of options available.

Quick Reply

quick reply.jpg

The "Quick Reply" is just what it means, a quick way to add a post to a thread. You have some basic formatting options available such as bold, italics, font color, quote etc. When filling out a quick reply, all that is required is the main body of text and then you can submit your new post. When you're happy that you have typed out your reply, click on the "Post Quick Reply" button to commit the post.

quick reply post.jpg

Advanced Reply

To access advanced reply, click on the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of the quick reply message box.

go advanced.jpg

After clicking on the advanced button, you are then presented with the full reply options, exactly as you have above in the "Post New Thread". The only difference is the "Additional Options" which are available, which is located below the advance reply box, as seen below.

adv reply addit opts.jpg

The advanced reply box is now completed in the same way as posting a new thread above.

adv reply filled.jpg



Footnotes

In this section, all the advanced options that are available for creating a new thread and the advanced reply box will be described.


Remove Formatting

removeformat.gif

Using this feature will remove all formatting adding to the text in the main message area.


Fonts

font.jpg

By highlighting a portion of your text, you have the facility to change the font to a different style, rather than the forum default, which is Verdana. You can use as many different fonts as you like within the text. However, you do have to keep in mind the readability of the post once its been committed to the forum.


Font Size

sizes.jpg

This provides the facility to change the size of any or all of the text in the message box, to something other than size "2" which is the forum default.


Font Color

color.gif

This facility allows you to change any or all of the message text to a different color than the standard default of grey. Bear in mind that the forum has different skins, which are light, grey or dark, so if you change the default font color, it may not be readable on someone who uses a different forum skin.

Smilies

smilie.gif

Smilies give the facility to add a little visual expression to a message, whether it be a sad face, had face etc. The use of smilies is handy for this feature, but, to some, they can be overbearing. Click on the drop down list to view the available smilies.

Attachments

attach.gif

This been shown here

Proper Way of Attaching and Posting Photos

Undo

undo.gif

The undo facility will undo all your changes made.

Redo

redo.gif

The redo facility will put back any changes made using the undo feature.

Bold Typeface

bold.gif

This facility allows you to either type in bold, by clicking the bold button and typing your text, or by highlighting text and clicking the bold button.

Italic Typeface

italic.gif

This facility works in exactly the same way as the bold typeface.

Underline Typeface

underline.gif

This facility works in exactly the same way as the bold typeface.

Align Left

justifyleft.gif

This facility allows you to align all the text to the left hand side of the post box.

Align Center

justifycenter.gif

This facility allows you to align all the text to the center of the post box.

Align Right

justifyright.gif

This facility allows you to align all the text to the right hand side of the post box.

Ordered List

insertorderedlist.gif

This facility allows you to create a list, ordered by numbers. To create an ordered list, place your cursor in the post box where you want the list to start, click the ordered list button, and the list will start. Add all the items you need to the list, and press "RETURN / ENTER KEY " twice to exit ordered list. To convert a block of text to an ordered list, select all the text and click on the Ordered List button. This will arrange it in its suggested format, usually by starting a new ordered line after a period ( full stop ).

Unordered List

insertunorderedlist.gif

This facility works in the same way as the Ordered List, except, its grouped by points, not numbers. All other functions and usage are as Ordered List.

Increase / Decrease Indent

indent.gif


outdent.gif

This facility allows you to move all the message box's text to the right, or back to the left, effectivly increasing the margin width on the left hand side of the post.

Insert Link

createlink.gif

This facility allows us to be able to highlight an amount of text, clicking on the "Insert Link" button, and typing in the web site address and clicking "OK". After clicking "OK", the email or web address is embedded in the post and hidden behind the text you selected, making a clickable link.

Remove Link

unlink.gif

Remove link undoes what Insert link creates. If you want to remove a web site link from a section of text, highlight the text, and click the "Remove Link" button. This will delete the embedded link code from the post.

Insert Email Link

email.gif

This facility allows us to embed an email link in a section of text. This is done in exactly the same way as "Insert Link" above for web site address. To remove the email link, highlight the text, and click the "Remove Link" button as described above.

Insert Image

insertimage.gif

This facility allows you to add an image directly from the internet. When you click on the insert image button, you are prompted to type, or copy / paste the web based image URL in the box, and click ok. This will embed the image at the curser's location.

Wrap
tags around selected text
quote.gif

This facility provides the ability to place a section off piece of text within your own post.

Wrap
Code:
 tags around selected text[/U]
 
[ATTACH]71395.vB[/ATTACH]
 
This facility provides the ability to place within a post, a section of properly formatted source code, so all code keeps the correct formatting.
 
[code]int Stuff::save(Stuff *sPtr)
{
   ofstream outfile("Outfile.txt");
 
   if( !outfile )
   {
      cerr << "Couldn't open file" << endl;
      return 1;
   }
 
   outfile << sPtr->string << endl << sPtr->stringTwo << endl << sPtr->num << endl;
 
   outfile.close();  // I don't trust destructors
 
   return 0;
}
Wrap
HTML:
 tags around selected text[/U] 
 
[ATTACH]71399.vB[/ATTACH]
 
This facility provides the ability to place within a post, a section of properly formatted HTML Code, so all code keeps the correct formatting.
 
[html]<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr" lang="en">
<head>
Wrap
PHP:
 tags around selected text[/U] 
 
[ATTACH]71409.vB[/ATTACH]
 
This facility provides the ability to place within a post, a section of properly formatted pHp Code, so all code keeps the correct formatting.
 
[php]
// Start session management
$user->session_begin();
$auth->acl($user->data);
$user->setup('viewforum');
Wrap [yt] (YouTube) tags around selected text

youtube.gif

This facility provides the ability to place within a post, a YouTube video clip.

[yt]KWHSbu6kLwk[/yt]

Switch Editor Mode

switchmode.gif

The provides the facility to change between basic and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor modes.

When using the basic editor mode, all text formatting is revealed.

adv reply addit opts.jpg adv reply filled.jpg filled out basic thread.jpg go advanced.jpg new thread.jpg post icon.jpg post new thread layout.jpg post new thread.jpg quick reply post.jpg quick reply.jpg choice of forum.jpg attach.gif bold.gif code.gif color.gif createlink.gif email.gif html.gif indent.gif outdent.gif insertimage.gif insertorderedlist.gif insertunorderedlist.gif italic.gif justifycenter.gif justifyleft.gif justifyright.gif php.gif quote.gif redo.gif undo.gif removeformat.gif smilie.gif switchmode.gif underline.gif unlink.gif youtube.gif font.jpg sizes.jpg
 
Last edited:

unvmyplecos

without sorrow happiness is nothing
Jun 26, 2008
217
0
0
NY
excellent and informative info there niko!
 
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