Radar
January 17th, 2007, 02:27 PM
Just thought I'd do up some info so that everyone here knows how to use the features at their fingertips.
An avatar is the little pic of The Orion Nebula you see above this post. Giving yourself a unique avatar is easy. You can either upload your own avatar or use one of the default ones.
Avatars help other users recognise your posts, not to mention that they look cool.
To select an avatar -
Single left click the word 'UserCP' (User Control Panel) which is found at the upper left of this screen.
A new screen will appear with a menu on the left.
Single left click where it says 'edit avatar'.
The first page of avatars appears.
Select an avatar by ticking the check-box below it and then click 'save changes'.
Done!
Signature is the information that is placed automatically underneath every post you make. I use my signature to place the URL of my Astrophotography site and to list my equipment. You can also upload an image to your sig should you wish. To use this feature is simple, simply go back into your UserCP and find where it says signature.
How to post an image
Including an image into your post is easy.
You need to have the "text editor" open to insert an image, meaning either creating a thread or replying to a post.
With the text editor open you will be able to see a small image of a "paper clip" at the top of the text box.
Paper Clips are symbolic of attaching something. In this case we are attaching images to our posts. When you click the paper clip, the "Manage Attachments" window appears.
At the top of the window you will see a button called "browse".
The browse button allows you to look through your computer to where an image may be.
Once you have found the file you wish to upload. Simply press the upload button.
If the file size is to large (the amount of memory it uses) then you won't be able to upload it and a message will appear at the top of the box telling you.
File sizes and physical dimensions are shown at the bottom of the Manage Attachments Window.
Once you have successfully uploaded your image or images. Close the "Manage Attachments" window by clicking the "X" top right corner or pressing the "Close Window" button at the bottom.
Now place your cursor in the text box to where you would like your first image to appear. Click the attachments button (paper clip image). A small menu will appear with the name of your image. Click the name of your image.
This will place text in your text box similar to
Attachment 000
You can now check to see how your image looks by pressing the "preview post" button that is located below the text editor box.
Press Save
Quote button is simple to use when you know the ins and outs of it. If you want to reply to something specific in a thread, you simply press the quote button and the person's post will now appear in a text editor. You can remove text from the person's post for clarification. Be careful not to remove the quote tags that appear at the top and bottom of the persons post, otherwise their text won't appear properly when you save. The quote tags look like this [/quote] and [username=quote].
I have reversed the order of those quote tags, otherwise the site will think that those quote tags are real. To show you what I mean, when using those quote tags the right way this happens -
Quote tags are used correctly here
But if I accidentally delete one letter or bracket from the quote tags we end up with the quote tags appearing incorrectly. In the example below, I have removed the final bracket, as you can see the quote is no longer working like the example above this paragraph.
[quote=username]and[/quote
Chat Rooms are for live chat with other persons on the site. You must be logged into the site to use the chat rooms. They are simple to use, simply click the "Astro Chat" link and select a room by using the menu at the top of the window. During our early days, these rooms will not be busy unless there is a meeting organised in one. The chat rooms will grow steadily with the site.
The chat room needs to run a logout command to log you out properly, if that command doesn't run, then you won't be logged out. As a result you will appear as if you are still in there and you won't be able to log back in.
When the logout command runs, it opens a tiny window to say it is logging you out, some pop up blockers or browsers (FireFox mostly) don't allow these kinds of windows to run because they are mistaken for spy-ware. So in this case, the chat rooms can't log you out properly. I am working on a fix for this and hopefully will have it running smoother soon. For now, I drop in there a few times a day and remove members that were not logged out properly.
I hope that helps some of you with learning the ins and outs of this site.
Regards
Radar :thumbsupmate:
An avatar is the little pic of The Orion Nebula you see above this post. Giving yourself a unique avatar is easy. You can either upload your own avatar or use one of the default ones.
Avatars help other users recognise your posts, not to mention that they look cool.
To select an avatar -
Single left click the word 'UserCP' (User Control Panel) which is found at the upper left of this screen.
A new screen will appear with a menu on the left.
Single left click where it says 'edit avatar'.
The first page of avatars appears.
Select an avatar by ticking the check-box below it and then click 'save changes'.
Done!
Signature is the information that is placed automatically underneath every post you make. I use my signature to place the URL of my Astrophotography site and to list my equipment. You can also upload an image to your sig should you wish. To use this feature is simple, simply go back into your UserCP and find where it says signature.
How to post an image
Including an image into your post is easy.
You need to have the "text editor" open to insert an image, meaning either creating a thread or replying to a post.
With the text editor open you will be able to see a small image of a "paper clip" at the top of the text box.
Paper Clips are symbolic of attaching something. In this case we are attaching images to our posts. When you click the paper clip, the "Manage Attachments" window appears.
At the top of the window you will see a button called "browse".
The browse button allows you to look through your computer to where an image may be.
Once you have found the file you wish to upload. Simply press the upload button.
If the file size is to large (the amount of memory it uses) then you won't be able to upload it and a message will appear at the top of the box telling you.
File sizes and physical dimensions are shown at the bottom of the Manage Attachments Window.
Once you have successfully uploaded your image or images. Close the "Manage Attachments" window by clicking the "X" top right corner or pressing the "Close Window" button at the bottom.
Now place your cursor in the text box to where you would like your first image to appear. Click the attachments button (paper clip image). A small menu will appear with the name of your image. Click the name of your image.
This will place text in your text box similar to
Attachment 000
You can now check to see how your image looks by pressing the "preview post" button that is located below the text editor box.
Press Save
Quote button is simple to use when you know the ins and outs of it. If you want to reply to something specific in a thread, you simply press the quote button and the person's post will now appear in a text editor. You can remove text from the person's post for clarification. Be careful not to remove the quote tags that appear at the top and bottom of the persons post, otherwise their text won't appear properly when you save. The quote tags look like this [/quote] and [username=quote].
I have reversed the order of those quote tags, otherwise the site will think that those quote tags are real. To show you what I mean, when using those quote tags the right way this happens -
Quote tags are used correctly here
But if I accidentally delete one letter or bracket from the quote tags we end up with the quote tags appearing incorrectly. In the example below, I have removed the final bracket, as you can see the quote is no longer working like the example above this paragraph.
[quote=username]and[/quote
Chat Rooms are for live chat with other persons on the site. You must be logged into the site to use the chat rooms. They are simple to use, simply click the "Astro Chat" link and select a room by using the menu at the top of the window. During our early days, these rooms will not be busy unless there is a meeting organised in one. The chat rooms will grow steadily with the site.
The chat room needs to run a logout command to log you out properly, if that command doesn't run, then you won't be logged out. As a result you will appear as if you are still in there and you won't be able to log back in.
When the logout command runs, it opens a tiny window to say it is logging you out, some pop up blockers or browsers (FireFox mostly) don't allow these kinds of windows to run because they are mistaken for spy-ware. So in this case, the chat rooms can't log you out properly. I am working on a fix for this and hopefully will have it running smoother soon. For now, I drop in there a few times a day and remove members that were not logged out properly.
I hope that helps some of you with learning the ins and outs of this site.
Regards
Radar :thumbsupmate: