Section 2
Basic Use


Introduction

This section provides help on the basic features of the Forums. It contains instructions on how to Read, Post and Sort messages as well as how to add an Attachment to a message. It also details how you can personalise your Options (change your Sender name and add a Signature). See the Glossary for a full explanation of these terms.

Each Forum is displayed in the same way. Messages are listed showing information about:
    • who posted the message (Sender);
    • what the message title is (Subject); and
    • the date the message was posted (Date)

also:

    • if it is a New message (a Flag icon is displayed);
    • whether or not the message has been Read (an opened or closed envelope icon); and
    • whether the message has an attachment(an icon of a paper clip).

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Read

Read (or view) a message within a Forum:

    1. Point to the message you wish to view (depending on the browser you are using, you may see the text change appearance and become underlined to show a link).
      You can point to any part of the message under the Sender, Subject or Date       columns.
    2. Click the link.
      The message will appear in the lower part of the screen.

Note: The message envelope icon will not appear "opened" until you either Refresh the page or next visit the Forum.

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Post

Post a New message to a Forum:
  1. Click on the Post tab on the top right corner of the page.

    A standard "Post" form will be displayed.


  2. Enter details in the Sender, Subject and Message areas.
    If you have set your Options (see Options) these will appear automatically.
  3. Click the Preview button
  4. An overview of how the message will appear and a number of options are displayed:
    • Post
      • Post the message "as is" (you will not be able to delete or edit the message once it is posted) – message posted
    • Attachment
      • Add a file as an Attachment to the message – message not posted yet.
    • Edit
      • Make changes to the message before it is posted – you can edit and preview the message as many times as you like before posting – message not posted yet.
    • Cancel
      • Cancel the posting of the message altogether – message not posted at all.

Post a Reply to a message:
  1. First Read the message you want to reply to (see Read).
  2. Click the Reply button located underneath the message.


    A standard "Reply" form is displayed with text automatically entered in the Subject and Message fields from the message you are replying to.


  3. Enter details in the Sender, Subject and Message areas (you can delete or replace some or all of the text that has been automatically placed in those fields).
    If you have set your Options (see Options) these will appear automatically.
  4. Enter your reply in the message field.
  5. Click the Preview button
  6. The same Post, Attachment, Edit and Cancel options are displayed as when you Post a New message.

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Attachment

Posted messages are able to have files attached to them. Attachments can be any type of file including images, Word, Excel, etc. You can tell a message has an Attachment by the appearance of a Paper Clip next to the envelope icon.

Before you add an attachment make sure you are ready to post your message (i.e. any editing has been completed to the message text) as the Edit option is not available when the Attachment button has been clicked.

Important Note: Attachments must be smaller than 2MB to be accepted for posting. Attachments larger than this will be refused and an error will result.

To Add an Attachment to a message:

  1. First go through the steps to Post a message up to step 4 (see Post ® New).
  2. From the displayed options click the Attachment button.
  3. Click the "Browse" button to locate the file you wish to attach.
    This will open up a window that allows you to select the file from your machine.
  4. Click the Post button
    Warning: No preview is offered – the message will be posted "as is".
  5. A message will appear notifying that the "message has been successfully posted". Click [Finished] to return to the Forum.

You can also add an Attachment to a Reply. Go through steps to Reply to a message up to step 5 (see Post ® Reply)

View an Attachment
  1. Click on the message that has the Attachment you wish to view.
    This is denoted by the appearance of a Paper Clip beside the envelope icon (see "Attachment", page 6).
  2. Point to the Attachment details in the header area of the message. These details include the size of the file. (See FAQ on download time estimates).
    Depending on the browser you are using, you may see the text change appearance and become underlined to show a link


  3. Click the link to open the attached file.
    Depending on the file type of the Attachment, it will either automatically appear in the lower part of the page or offer the option of saving the file to your computer.


Save an Attachment

    1. Click on the message that has the Attachment you wish to view .
    2. Point to the Attachment details in the "header" area of the message. These details include the size of the file.
      Depending on the browser you are using, you may see the text change appearance and become underlined to show a link.
    3. To save the file to your computer, "right click" (for a PC), or "click – and – hold" (for a Mac) over the attachment link and select the "save as" option.

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Sort

Messages can be sorted (in ascending or descending order) by Sender, Subject, Date, New or Read. If you are "threading" (see Thread) messages, the sort criteria only gets applied to the initial message in each thread.

Default setting is New.

Sort by Sender:
    1. Click on the Sender column heading.
    2. Click again to reverse the order (ascending or descending).

Sort by Subject:

    1. Click on the Subject column heading.
    2. Click again to reverse the order (ascending or descending).


Sort by Date:

    1. Click on the Date column heading.
    2. Click again to reverse the order (ascending or descending).

Sort by New:

    1. Click on the New column heading.
    2. Click again to reverse the order (ascending or descending).

Sort by Read:

    1. Click on the Read column heading.
    2. Click again to reverse the order (ascending or descending).

When you next visit the Forum the messages will be displayed according to the last sort.

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Thread

Messages can also be displayed showing the Thread of the messages. Displaying by thread will group the messages hierarchically, with the initial message being the beginning of a thread and all replies being a continuation. Each reply will be indented beneath the message to which it was replying.

The Thread option displays the Forum in the format of:
    • initial message – beginning of the thread
    • and indents any Replies to that particular message directly beneath.
    1. Click on the "plus/minus" sign on the top left hand side of the page ("toggle Forum threading").



    2. Click again to "toggle" – switch back and forth.

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Options

This is where you can personalise your messages.  From here you are able to add a Signature to the bottom of each message you send without having to type it each time.  You can also change the Identity (the name that appears as the Sender of a message) that is used by default for your postings.

Change Identity:
  1. Click on the Options link at the bottom of the page.
  2. Check the second Identity option (the first option will use your name).

  1. Enter a new Identity/Alias (what you want to appear as the Sender of a message).
  2. Click Save (or Cancel to not make any changes).
  3. A message will appear notifying that "your options have been successfully saved!". Click [Finished] to return to Forum.

Add Signature:
  1. Click on the Options link at the bottom of the page.
  2. Enter the Signature that you want to appear at the bottom of a message.

  3. Check the option to "Add signature to my post".
    If this is left unchecked, the Signature will not be added.
  4. Click Save (or Cancel to not make any changes).
  5. A message will appear notifying that "your options have been successfully saved!". Click [Finished] to return to Forum.

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