Helpful Hints

[Caroline]

I have been meaning to write a "How to..." guide, but haven't yet found the time - Advent has only just finished, and Lent is almost upon us ... maybe after Easter!

I think it's mostly quite straightforward, but in the interests of making things as easy as possible, here are a few helpful hints

• If you click on 'Profile' in the second row of the top bar you can change various things to do with your account. If you then choose 'Profile' from the options on the left a list will appear underneath to allow you to change your avatar, signature, and your password and email address
• If your choose 'Board preferences' you can choose to get email notifications for various things, set your time zone and so on.
• You can also access your PMs through your profile, or by clicking on the link on the second row of the top bar, which also tells you if you have any new messages.

I think that'll do for now, but if you have any other queries, just ask!

[mfundisi]

Thhanks Caroline.

One question. I sent you a technical question by PM and you answered. But I also got an e mail to say you had answered!!!

How can I switch off the need for an e mail reply?

[Caroline]

Click on 'Profile' from the top bar, and then 'Board Preferences' from the menu on the left.

Then, in the middle of the page, change 'Notify me on new private messages' to 'no'.



On the same page you can choose to have a pop-up message to tell you that you have new PMs when you log on. I'm not keen on popups, but it has to be said, they do get your attention!


By the way, you may have noticed that when you click on 'submit' to send a PM you have to preview the message and then click on 'submit' again (so it's a bit too easy to navigate away from the page without realising that your message hasn't yet gone). This is a 'feature' of the software ( ), although as there is a separate option to preview the message I will be changing this when I have the time, so that submit will really mean submit!

[Pam]

My messages keep getting stuck in my outbox, despite the fact I get a message saying it has been successfully sent!

[Caroline]

They sit in your outbox until the recipient picks them up, so there's nothing you can do - other than post somewhere asking them to check their messages! This means that you can keep editing your messages until they've been picked up - or even delete them if you want to.

Once they've been picked up they go to your sent folder.

When I first used this software (as a user, not a developer) I kept sending duplicate (triplicate, quadruplicate...) PMs to people because I couldn't understand why they seemed to be stuck there.

[Pam]

When I first used this software (as a user, not a developer) I kept sending duplicate (triplicate, quadruplicate...) PMs to people because I couldn't understand why they seemed to be stuck there.

Apologies to everyone who's got triplicated messages from me!

[Boogie]

Pam

I would like to know how to stop the big blck words after a photo is uploaded. I used 'spoiler' but that gave black lines.

(Yes - I am a fussy one, I am a bit of a painter and always fuss with the visuals at work and at home!)

[Caroline]

That's the sort of thing that really annoys me too Boogie - I'll take a look.

[Caroline]

I'm not getting any text with the image. Very odd. I can't see that I did anything different to you.

This is what I did:

• I clicked on browse, and chose an image from my computer.
• I then clicked on 'Add the file'.
• When it finished uploading I clicked on 'Place inline'.

And here's a .jpg, just to make it as similar to yours as possible.

[Edited to add: the way it has appeared on your posts is the default way for the software, which I changed (I thought I had, but I wanted to check before claiming to have done so!)

I'm wondering if you are using a different way of adding images that I haven't found and changed. ]

[Boogie]

Thanks - I will give it a go

[Marilyn]

I've been trying to upload a pdf doc as an attachment within my post. The little window with an upload in progress bar seems to never end uploading. The doc appears in the place inline bar and goes into the post but with a warning 'still downloading' If I click on the link in the preview post it just asks me if I want to save the doc in my own Document File...

Is there a problem with pdf's or am I doing something wrong?
thanks

[Caroline]

How big is the pdf file? There is a limit of 256KB, although unless it is a great deal larger than this it should give you an error message, and it certainly shouldn't get as far as allowing you to put it inline.

I've just tested uploading a pdf file a few KB short of this size without any difficulty, so there definitely isn't a problem with pdfs in general.

Can you tell me what browser you're using? I'll do a bit of research and see what I can figure out.

[Marilyn]

It's Windows Explorer 7 (I'm fairly sure it's not 8)

The doc is 44KB.

I could try with Safari.

The system seems to think I have uploaded the doc, is there a way to see what I have uploaded and delete and start again?

[Caroline]

You should be able to upload it again even though there is already a copy on the system (in fact I looked, and there are two anyway).

Files uploaded are held by the system in one folder, so they don't remain attached to your own account other than by a reference number in the name assigned to the file.

I downloaded a copy of your file onto my own computer, and will upload it here to see if there is an issue with the file itself - I don't think there will be, because it looks sound. [There wasn't a problem, but I've removed it now.]

It would be helpful if you could try using another browser.

[Marilyn]

I clicked on your link and it asked me to save it to my computer, then I was able to open it.

I will try again with Safari. Thanks for the help. If it still won't work I will either abandon the idea or do my post and direct anyone interested here for the doc.....

Looking at what is happening on my screen on this thread, I think light may be dawning here on planet Marilyn

[Caroline]

I'll happily edit your post and add the link if you would like me to!

When I click on the link (in Firefox 3.6) I get the option to open the file or save it.

In Internet Explorer it only gives the option to save, but if you right click you get the option to just open it.

Is the pdf something that is available on The Tablet's website? I'm just wondering about the copyright issue here - it may be better to link to their website rather than attaching it.

[Marilyn]

Well, I was going to ask about copyright, I didn't realise it was going to be available in your post.

I subscribe to The Tablet. This article isn't part of the free online content, but I can save anything in the mag on my computer. So I hoped that if I linked to a copy of the article I had saved, but not the whole issue, and didn't copy the article into my post that would be all right. What do you think?

Now I know the technical answer maybe it should be deleted from your post if it is over the line.

If you think it is over the line I could make a word doc with some quotes but not the whole article and link to that. What do you think?

[Pam]

You might also email someone at the Tablet and ask if you can repost it here? They may be quite happy for that to happen.

[Caroline]

Just wanted to say that all the smileys are now available on the blogs as well as the forums.

I know some of you were missing them.

Enjoy!

[Marilyn]

I'm trying to turn a picture in my picture folder into a suitable size to upload for my avatar. I don't seem to be able to do this. Any tips?

[Marilyn]

Well google is my friend http://www.makeathumbnail.com/thumbnail.php

Now I am worrying about other things. The photo is from flickr under creative commons, but should a use another persons image?

[Ernest]

You can normally open it and resave it at a lower resolution or compact it in size using microsoft picture editor

[Caroline]

Images released under Creative Commons licences always ask for at least a credit to be given to the creator, and sometimes a link. The creator can specify what form the link/credit should take. That's easy with an image in a post, but less so with an avatar.

If the licence for your image doesn't specify the form of credit/link, then posting the credit/link them on the forums when you start using the avatar is fine. If the creator asks for more, then if we can do so, great, if we can't, we can't use the image.

Stock Exchange (http://www.sxc.hu) has a lot of images that can be used without giving anything in return, although you have to check the details for each individual image.

[Pam]

You may notice we've started a new board today - the Deep End - for those 'weighty' theological discussions that might leave some of us feeling we need a lifebelt.

If you can't work out where your topic belongs, just post it where you think it fits and Caroline and I will move it if necessary.

We've done this to make the boards easier to navigate for new people and lurkers, there is absolutely no reproach intended if we move your thread, it's just 'housekeeping.'

[Shifty Gnome]

• Are the add avatar and edit signature broken,
• or have theybeen dissabled,
• or am I so much of a newbie I cannot edit these features yet?