Forum Tips and Tricks

DWhatley

Kraken
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With the failure of the VBulletin software upgrade to meet our needs even after a server upgrade, Tony has invested in all new software and I think you will agree the change is great. Below are image handling tips for Xenforo (some very nice enhancements here).

The editing section is a bit long. If you know a keyword for what you are trying to do, try using your browser's find option to locate the information.

I will post other features as I discover them :biggrin2:
Please feel free to ask for anything I miss or to add additional detail.
 
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Images/Documents Uploaded From Your Computer

Method#1 Drag and Drop - NEW

If you are slightly old school and comfortable with displaying your files as a computer directory, you will be familiar with being able to select the ones you want and use the mouse to drag them to a program for email, edit or display. Xenforo has included this options for attachments.
  • Start a new thread or post.
  • Open your file manager (usually by double clicking on the Computer or My Computer desk top icon) and navigate to your attachment directory
  • Select the file or files you want to attach
    1. A single click will select one file
    2. holding the control key (Ctrl) and clicking on additional files will select multiples
  • Hover your mouse over one of the selected files and hold down the right mouse button (left button will work as well gives no options if you release it too soon)
  • While continuing to hold down the mouse button, move the mouse over the thread/post text area.
    1. The text area will turn grey and instruct you to "Drop files to upload"
  • Release the mouse button
    1. You will see a series of "moving" grey bars below the text area and in the upper right hand corner while the files upload
    2. You may type in the text box while the files are uploading
    3. When the files are ready, you will see "Attached Files:" below the post and a list of the files prefixed with thumbnails.
    Method#2 Upload a File Using Your Browser - DIFFERENT
    If you are uncomfortable using opening the file manager manually or prefer the traditional popup and select files the file selection method is still available but not with the picture icon.
  • Start a new thread or post
  • Click the Upload a File button located in the lower right hand corner of the post window
    1. This will popup a file selection window
  • Select the file or files you want to attach
    1. A single click will select one file
    2. holding the control key (Ctrl) and clicking on additional files will select multiples
  • Click the "Open" button located in the bottom right of the pop up.
    1. You will see a series of "moving" grey bars below the text area and in the upper right hand corner while the files upload
    2. You may type in the text box while the files are uploading
    3. When the files are ready, you will see "Attached Files:" below the post and a list of the files prefixed with thumbnails.
Display Options for Uploaded Files - NEW
Once you have the images uploaded you have several display option.
  • Leave all the images in a large thumbnail display at the bottom of the post
    1. Simply save your post. The images can be clicked and will display larger as part of a slide show.
  • Place your image(s) in-line with the text
    tonmoTile.jpg
    1. Place your cursor where you want the images (after a new line - Enter - will help with text alignment).
    2. Click either the Thumbnail or Full Image button for individual images OR click the Thumbnail or Full Image button in the top offering after Insert every image as a ...
    3. Images placed in-line will not show at the bottom of the post. The options are mix and match.
 

Attachments

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  • dWhatley_StaffPhoto.jpg
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Images/Documents From Another Website

Method #1 Editor picture icon - DIFFERENT

To include an image that is on-line but hosted off site you can provide the URL. Hosting images on-site is encouraged. It is more efficient for the website and eliminates problems if the image is moved.
  • Start a new thread or post and position your cursor where you want the image to appear.
    1. If you have typed text, add a new line (Enter) after the text for better alignment
  • Click the image icon (rectangle showing mountains) in the editor tool bar
  • Paste or type the URL for the image in the provided window.
  • Click the "Insert" button
    1. The image will be inserted at your cursor and displayed
tonmo.jpg

Method #2 Paste a link
  • Start a new thread or post and position your cursor where you want the image to appear.
    1. If you have typed text, add a new line (Enter) after the text for better alignment
  • Paste or type the URL for the image in the editor.
    1. Be sure to include the http:// prefix
    2. The image will referenced and linked but not displayed
http://lunarcamelco.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/tonmo.jpg
 
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Video
TONMO now supports direct downloading for video files. See this post for instructions

TONMO also supports Bulletin Board embedding through URL's to allow members to view videos within the forum. A video must be published on one of the following streaming sites:
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
  • Metacafe
  • Liveleak
  • Facebook (may no longer require signin)
  • Dailymotion
  • PhotoBucket (Not fully supported see Method 3 below)
NOTE: Pasting a link without using the toolbar option - see method #2
Recognized videos can now stream directly on the site simply by pasting the URL into the text area. It is no longer necessary to choose the Media icon. Note this is for URL (usually the address shown on your web browser address bar) addresses and not share/embed options provided by the hosting site.

For Facebook links, locate the original video in an album, right click and select copy link address then paste the address into your text area. Openly shared Facebook videos do not require login but the video must be allowed for public access.

Embedding method #1Using the Editor Toolbar - DIFFERENT
  • Copy the link (URL or share options, NOT the embed option) to the video to your clip board
  1. The URL should look something like this for YouTube:
    Code:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4keniAk_G0&feature=share&list=UUCkX-4FXyVCkiz7h7Cmc0ng&index=3

  • Place your cursor where you want the video to appear
  • Click the double Media (film) icon
toolbarMedia.jpg
  • Paste the link in the Enter Media URL text box
  • Click the Embed button
  1. The resulting text will look something like this
Code:
[media=youtube]d4keniAK_G0[/media]


Embedding method #2 Pasting a URL- NEW
In most cases the software will recognize a directly pasted/typed link from one of the listed hosting sources and, after you save your post, will automatically convert
Code:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ4NjLUPrwA&feature=share&list=UUCkX-4FXyVCkiz7h7Cmc0ng&index=4
to:
Code:
[media=youtube]nJ4NjLUPrwA[/media]


Embedding method #3 PhotoBucket videos
PhotoBucket offers a sharing method that will display a photo containing a link. Clicking on the photo will open a new window/tab and play the video.
  1. In PhotoBucket, after viewing the video click on "chain link" icon at the top of the video window.
  2. Click on the text of the option labeled, "IMG codes (for forums, boards)", the word "copied" will display over the left corner of the URL.
  3. In new or edited post on TONMO RIGHT CLICK with your mouse and select paste.
  4. A thumbnail will be displayed, clicking it will redirect the viewer to the video.



Embedding method #4 Facebook videos
Face book (2015) offers a way to share videos.
  1. In Facebook click on the date (may only be time if posted the same day) under the name of the posting person. This will take you to a full page for the video
  2. Click on the main browser address bar (the whole URL will be highlighted)
  3. RIGHT CLICK with your mouse and select copy.
  4. Start a new post on TONMO and paste the copied URL to the post
The pasted URL will look something like this:
Code:
https://www.facebook.com/FACEBOOK USER NAME/videos/10208282710851146/?comment_id=10208290024433981&offset=0&total_comments=4

The forum software will convert it to something like this:

Code:
[MEDIA=facebook]10208282710851146[/MEDIA]

After saving, the video should embed and be playable on the forum.

 
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Member Information and Communication

Member Tagging - NEW

Have you read or created a post that you wanted to be sure was seen by another member but found it a pain to collect the link and hunt up the member's message area? The new software makes use of the social @ tags to send an alert to members. When a tagged member visits the site and signs in, a red alert button will show in the upper right corner. If the member has alerts sent to their email (profile->Contact Details, CHECK: Receive email when a new conversation message is received), they will receive an email notice.
  • To get someones attention include @membername in the text (YEA! No more looking up how to spell Neogonodactylus!)
  1. After you type the @ and a couple of letters, a popup box will show members names that start with what you have typed
TipTricksTagging.jpg
Member Profiles - DIFFERENT
Members can provide as much or as little as they would like to about their cephyness in their profile information. To edit or add information to a profile click on your ID tab in the upper right hand area of the screen. Often the information placed in the Introduce Yourself thread makes a good paragraph for the Personal Details->About You section. If you have your own website, there is a Personal Details->Home Page: entry. Birthdays tend to be forgotten as we get older (some of us WISH we COULD forget how many have passed) and it is kind of nice to get good wishes from the group. You are required to provide the year for parental permission legalities but can elect to make your birthday known and optionally NOT post the year for member to view :old: :wink:

Member Location - REQUEST
A member's location is not a required entry when activating membership. It is often helpful to know the general home location of member, especially when trying to help with captive environments or suggesting educational facilities. New members often include this in their introduction but it is not carried forward in the conversations. Please consider adding a location to your profile in Personal Details->Location:. Information added to the location box will display with your avatar on your posts.

Find a Member - DIFFERENT
Looking for a staff member? Click on the Members->Staff Members tab (the old staff introductions page can be found under articles).

Did you HATE the member lookup as much as I did? Then you will love the new design when you click on the Members tab. No more a,b,c,..z and then going through 30 pages. There are 4 preconfigured lists (I swear I did not cheat to put myself at the top of 3 of the 4 lists :roll:) and a Find Member search box that will make you breath a sigh of relief. Just start the name and a selectable pop-up box with avatar will help you locate the person you are seeking. Clicking on a selection and it will take you to their public member profile page.

TipsAndTricksFindMember.jpg


Member Summary - DIFFERENT
If you want to know a little more about a member but don't want to leave the page, try clicking on the member's avatar. Click on the member name if you want to visit their public member profile page.

TipTricksMemberInfo.jpg


Member Conversations - NEW
If you want to discuss a topic with a small group of members or plan a min-TONMOcon get-together when visiting a city, you can create a conversation and invite individuals to participate by clicking on your user ID (top right) then selecting "Start a New Conversation" in the right hand menu. The Participants: entry box works like other member name fields and will display a selectable list of the member after you type enough letters to qualify a small group. All comments will be displayed in each participants conversation mailbox.
 
Formatting Text
I've included a few of the more common manual (ie not using the tool bar) forms for formatting text information but a complete list can be found here.

Editor Tool Bar Text Formatting Options
Formatting can apply to the entire post or any part of the post. To modify letters, words, phrases or sentences, highlight them with the cursor and then click the desired effect. To turn off/deselect an effect, place the cursor where the effect is to end and click the desired option so that it is no longer displaying as selected.
Place the cursor over the Icons to see the text description if the icons don't make the function clear

A - Sets the text color - standard colors and a color pallet are available
toolbarFontColor.jpg


Font Size - Sets the size of the text in varying increments from 1 to 7
toolbarFontSize.jpg

  • size 1
  • size 2
  • size 3
  • size 4 (normal)
  • size 5
  • size 6
  • size 7
Font Family - Allows you to change the font face of the text (8 options)
toolbarFontFamily.jpg

  • Arial
  • Book Antiqua
  • Courier New
  • Georgia
  • Tahoma
  • Times New Roman
  • Trebuchet Ms
  • Verdana
Last Change
toolbarReDoUnDo.jpg
Arrow pointing left - Undo
Arrow pointing right - Redo


Text Decorations
toolbarTextDecorations.jpg
B - Sets the text to bold
I - Sets the text to Italic

U - Underlines the text


Paragraph Formatting Options

Blank Lines
To separate paragraphs click the Enter key twice.


This gives a separation of thoughts and works better than trying to use an indent.

You can also use the key to separate text from embedded photos. If text is to be place above a photo, click the key after the text and leave the cursor positioned on the new line when clicking the upload button. Alternately, add text after an upload by clicking the key by clicking key after the /IMG] tag before typing the text.

Alignment - Click the 4 lines to see the options

Align left Aligns new lines to the far left
Align center Aligns new lines in the center

Align right aligns new lines on the far right

Indent Group

*Unordered List Icon
toolbarListUnordered.jpg
  • Creates a bulleted indented list
  • Each click of the Enter key produces a new line and new number
  • Continues until there are two blank lines or turned off manually by clicking the icon a second time
Ordered List
toolbarListOrdered.jpg
  1. creates a numbered indented list
  2. Each click of the Enter key produces a new line and new number
  3. Continues until there are two blank lines or turned off manually by clicking the icon a second time
<Outdent Icon
toolbarOutdent.jpg

Reverses the effect of an automatic or manual indent, pushing the originally right indented item left one tab width (tab width is not user defined)

>Indent Icon
toolbarIndent.jpg

Further indents elements of an indented list (numbered or bullet)
  • primary indent for unordered list
    • Additional indent
      • Third indent
      • New line at same level
    • Pushed left after new line
  1. Primary indent for ordered list
    1. Additional indent
      1. Third indent
      2. New line at same level
    2. Pushed left after new line
Smilies
There are two way to add smilies to accent your mood.

Smilie Method #1 Select from the extensive list - DIFFERENT
toolbarSmilies.jpg

  • Position the cursor where the smilie is to appear
  • Click the smilies icon (circle with a face)
  • A scrollable selection box will appear below the text
  • Click the desired smilie :titanites:
Smilie Method #2 manually type the smilie name between colons
  • Position the cursor where the smilie is to appear
  • Type
    Code:
    :smilename:
    :octorun:
  1. Smilie names can be found by placing the cursor over the smilie images
Code - Bypassing Editor Translation

To leave text untranslated by the editor (this applies to formatting as well as URL's), surround the text with (note the end of code should have no space after the slash)
Code:
[code]untranslated text[/ code]
 
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Editing a Post
Members may edit their own posts. Registered users have a 5 minute window to ensure that we don't have Registered users who register an account, post one note, then come back later to edit the original with spam links for search engines to pick up on, etc Ceph Heads and staff have no time limit.

Title changes or moving posts to different threads require a moderator.

Edit
  • Locate and click the small "Edit" option below the post and your signature
    1. If you don't see the word Edit, check to be sure you are logged in (your ID appears in the upper right side below the TONMO logo header)
  • A shadow boxed editor window will overlay the main screen.
    1. To make simple text changes/additions type your changes here and click the Save Changes button.
    2. You cannot add or edit images from this overlay
TipsAndTricksEdit.jpg
  • For image changes/additions click the More Options... button
    1. A larger edit window will display and allows adding/removing images.
    2. To remove an image that is in the slide show collection at the bottom of the post, click the delete button next to the image.
    3. To remove an embedded image remove the
      Code:
      [ATTACH]99999[/ATTACH]
      associated with the desired image
    TipsAndTricksEditMore.jpg

    Cancel
    • The shadow boxed editor provides a Cancel button, click it to cancel any edits
    • The More Options editor does NOT provide a cancel button but exiting without saving (using the back arrow) will cancel any changes made.
 
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Linking to Internal and External URL's
Show text as a link
  • Copy the desired URL to the clipboard
  • Highlight the text in the new post that is to be the link
  • Click the single chain link in the text editor toolbar
toolbarLink.jpg
  • Paste the URL in the provided pop-up.
urlPopUp.jpg

Obtain the URL of a specific post

  • Click the small number (#0 where 0 is the post sequence number) at the bottom of the desired post
  • Copy the HTML Link Code (also at the top) URL if you want to use original text to display as a link
  • Copy the BB Code Snippet URL if you want to use the generated text, 2013 Forum Tips and Tricks - New Xenforo Bulletin Board, reference
  • Use the Show text as link above to Paste the URL into the text.
linkPopUp.jpg
 
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Tables
There is an add-on available that will allow information to be easily placed into a table format. There is not editor tool bar option to create or edit a table. Adding is straight forward but editing can be a little tricky. There are very few formatting options but very nice viewer sorting and filtering capabilities
  • Start the table with TABLE enclosed in brackets
  • If the first row contains a heading, add =head after the word TABLE
  • If you want the heading (or any other data)to be bold surround the word with bracketed B and /B to end
  • Click the enter button to start each row
  • End the table with /TABLE enclosed in brackets
The table will be viewer sortable by any column by clicking in the first column
The table will can be filtered by a key word entered in the filter box
This code:
Code:
[TABLE=head][B]First Column Header[/B]|[B]Second Column Header[/B]
Data Row 1 Column 1| Data Row 1 Column 2
Data Row 2 Column 1| Data Row 2 Column 2[/TABLE]
Produces this table:

First Column Header | Second Column Header
Data Row 1 Column 1| Data Row 1 Column 2
Data Row 2 Column 1| Data Row 2 Column 2

EDIT by @tonmo 8/28/14: This feature (tables) has been upgraded to the latest version. It basically fixes some bugs and supports horizontal scrolling for tables that are too wide.

FirstColumnHeader | SecondColumnHeader | ThirdColumnHeader | FourthColumnHeader | FifthColumnHeader | SixthColumnHeader | SeventhColumnHeader | EighthColumnHeader
Data Row 1 Column 1| Data Row 1 Column 2|Data Row 1 Column 3| Data Row 1 Column 4| Data Row 1 Column 5| Data Row 1 Column 6| Data Row 1 Column 7| Data Row 1 Column 8
Data Row 2 Column 1|Data Row 2 Column 2 |Data Row 2 Column 3| Data Row 2 Column 4 | Data Row 2 Column 5| Data Row 2 Column 6| Data Row 2 Column 7| Data Row 2 Column 8
 
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Quoting Text
Highlight block to show it is being quoted

Quote Text Method #1 using the reply

To include the text, a link and the user name from one or more existing posts
  • Position the cursor where the desired text should be positioned
  • Click Reply below the the desired post
Just wondering will we get Kevins' article back? I think their all back except for his. I need it!

Quote Text Method #2 using the tool bar icon
toolbarQuote.jpg

  • Select the desired text
  • Click the " (quote mark) icon
This is quoted text

Quote Text Method #3 manually mark the text

  • Surround the desired text with quote notation:
    Code:
    [QUOTE]text to be quoted[/QUOTE]
  • Using the manual form or editing after the BB code has been added will allow you to attribute the quote to another source by adding an = (equal sign) after the [QUOTE followed by any words you care to use and terminated with ]
Code:
[QUOTE=DWhatley]this is the quoted text[/QUOTE]
DWhatley said:
this is the quoted text

Quote Text Method #4 Quoting Multiple Sources and Partial Text - 9/2014
  • Highlight text to be quoted
  • Click the gray +Quote|Reply pop-up
tonmoTipsTricksMultiQuote1.jpg
  • "Message added to multi-quote" confirmation will breifly display at the top of the page
  • Repeat the Highlight and pop-up click for as many posts (not required to be on the same page or thread) as desired
  • Place the cursor into a new post text box
  • Click the Insert quotes... button
  • A list of all the selected quotes will display in a pop-up.
    • The list can be reordered using the mouse to drag and drop individual quotes
    • Clicking remove after a quote will eliminate it from the list
    tonmoTipsTricksMultiQuote2.jpg
  • Click Quote these messages to add them to your post.
tonmoTipsTricksMultiQuote3.jpg
 
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Terri, can you give me more info on the article that we are missing? I remember his "smokin" article (may have been a blog) but I don't think that is the one you mean.
 
Site Search has been upgraded. Give it a try, it's faster and more precise. For example:

a search for:
blue ring
will get you results that contain blue and ring anywhere within a post or piece of content.

"blue ring"
Will search for the specific "blue ring" string

blue -ring
Will search for posts that contain the word "blue" but do not contain "ring"

...and so on. Enjoy!
 

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