POSTING MESSAGES
The colours and background design in various Forums will probably look different to the example, depending on which "Skin" is in use at the time, but the buttons/icons remain in the same area as in the screen shots.
Most Forums have more than one Message Board, so before creating a new Topic, make sure you are on the correct one.
Click on New Topic. You will find this is the top right and bottom right of the message threads.
Type the Topic in the Title Box
Type your message in the posting area.
The Owner or Admin will most likely have selected a standard font which would appear in all posts unless you change it yourself when preparing a message.
You can select your font, size of font, colour of font, etc., in the Message Toolbar/Menu. You can do this before you start typing, or later. If you leave it until you have typed some text or when you have finished completely, do Control a to select all your text, then choose your preferences in the Toolbar. All the highlighted/selected text will change accordingly.
What you are reading now is Verdana Size 10 and this is the default I have set for my Forum. My members are usually happy with that although they do change them for birthday messages, etc, to make them more fancy. If you are happy with the settings that the Owner has set, you don't need to change anything, just type.
The icons in the Message Toolbar are quite commonly used so you should recognise the ones on the top row for Bold, Italic, Underline, Strike Through, Font, Size, Colour, Background Shading, Left Align, Centre, Right Align, Number Paragraphs, Bullet Point Paragraphs, Hyperlink and Remove Hyperlink.
You should recognise most of the second row:
Cut, Paste, Copy, Delete, Horizontal Line (across your message to use as a Separator), Undo, Redo, Remove Formatting, Smileys.
The ones on the right of the Smiley are Insert Image, Insert Table, Insert Embedded Media, Insert Image from Photobucket, Insert Video from You Tube, Upload File, Spell Checker (can toggle on and off) and the last one is the size in which you are viewing your message, which you can change to suit yourself.
For easier reading it is probably best not to use the background colour under normal circumstances (for your whole message), or your text will look like this:
Background Colour
However, it is useful for a heading or something you wish to emphasise, if you use white text on a coloured background or dark text on a cream or white background.
Like this
When you have finished your message, you can see what it might look like if you click Preview, the first of the three buttons on the right, below the message you are preparing. The Preview will appear below your Draft. When you are happy, click on Post New Topic which is the centre button.
Please note that if you have used a border (some people call them Web pages), it will look stretched vertically in the preview, but it will appear just fine when posted.
Edit Your Message
If you are not happy with the message once it has been posted, you can edit it, provided the Owner has granted permission for their Members to do so.
To do this, at the top of the message you posted, click the drop down arrow against Actions.
Select Edit, then click on GO.
When you have finished editing the text, the font, whatever you like,
click on Edit below the message box.
To reply to a topic, see next message.
Babs
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