Guide to doing all the stuff.

Scroll down for more information on Smilies and how to use drafts and the chatbox

This deals with the full post mode, not quick reply at the bottom of every page. Hit "Answer" and it will bring up the full box with a ton of other functions. Some are easier to get to grips with than others, so I'm going to do a quick run through of what's what, what does what and what it does when you've done it. Simple? Simple!

This first section (highlighted) is probably the easiest to understand, it's pretty standard stuff but I'll explain it just in case you have never come across it before. It basically puts in the code for Bold, Italics, Underline, and Strikethrough





You can memorise the codes if you want, but this is so much easier. Just click the icon you want and Bob's your uncle, it's done! 
B = Bold text
I = Italic text
U = Underlined text
S with the line through = Strikethrough 

You can use them all individually or combine them if you want, But it gets a little hard to read 

The next section is all about where you want your text to appear. 


Aligned to the left

The next section is a bit more involved, but still just as easy to use.

• the first one gives you bullet points
  
• that is those nifty little dots, btw!
  

1. Second one will give you a numbered list.
   
2. To get the next line, just hit enter and it'll do the hard work for you
   

To get back to normal text, just hit enter twice and it cancels out of the selection.

the third one is... I have got to be honest here, I've never used it. I've never seen anyone use it. But it is called Horizontal Rule and does this

---

so... that happens! Might be handy if you have need of a big line

The next section is all about stuff that is useful. Mostly useful. 



First one is Quote. Click it and you get a drop down box that lets you type in the authors name, should you want to put that in. You don't have to, you can leave it blank. Most people just click the quote button on the post you wish to quote, but this feature will let you copy/paste things from offsite into a quote without having to type in the code. 

The next one is the code thingumiebob. I used one in the Lets Get To Know Each Other thread. It basically puts everything that you want people to copy and paste into a format with the codes in place and such like, so they follow the same layout and have the same bits in bold or whatever. It's really useful for threads like that one, and simple for the other people to use too. All you need to do is copy the text in the code box and paste it into the reply window, then fill in your information next to the relevant parts. 


The next one that looks like a notebook with a warning triangle on it is the spoiler. This is really good for, well, spoilers! It just means that you don't have to type loads of empty lines so people have to scroll down to find the content. You just click the thing and put in your title is you want one, then put the thing you want in it between the ] and [ like this 



To open a spoiler that you find in a post, just click on it and it will show you all the glorious stuff inside!

The next one is Hide. Again, I have to be honest. I've never used it, I don't know how to use it or what it is for. I'm leaving this here as a marker for when I get to ask someone who does and then I will fix it! Ignore this part and skip to the good bits.

After Hide we have Insert Table. It is useful, but a bit of a carry on to use. I will explain! Click the thingy and you will get this box
 
Those are the default numbers but you can stick whatever you need in. I'll use them for demonstration purposes. Click insert and you will get this weird looking little box


To fill your table up, just type in the tiny windows. They will stretch to fit the text and you will end up with this!

type in here	and here
and here	you got this

The next section is all about inserting things like pictures and videos. 




The first two are for hosting and sharing pictures. This has already been explained here, so I won't do it again!  

The next one that looks like a chain, is for inserting links like I just did for the picture thread. It's really simple to use, just click the icon and copy/paste the URL and description of what you want to appear and you will end up with a link like that one

The YouTube icon is for just that. Copy/paste the URL again and it will do this!



The next one is for Dailymotion vids. Its the same thing as YouTube, but sometimes has stuff that YouTube has banned on it. Like full movies and stuff that is not available in some countries and such like. Its not dodgy! Same thing again with the copy/pasting 



The last one is another one I have never used! I will get second opinions on this and edit it later so I can tell you

This bit is all about the fonts and all that goes with it.

The H is for Headers. You will probably never ever need this unless you are doing something incredibly formal. And we're not very formal here, so it's a bit of a pointless feature!

Next is the A with the *squints* up/down arrow?? This lets you alter the size of your text. From teeny, to huge. 


Next is the font colour... I'll just put the size back down before I carry on. I could fix that but it made me laugh so I'm going with it. So yeah... Click the icon and you get a drop down grid full of colours, click which one you want And off you go!  
Please try to remember that some members have vision problems when choosing a colour, very light text is hard to read for anyone and so on.

The next one is for the font itself. Don't use this one, you'll look like a douche. I'm not a fan of this one either. 


The barely visible A is very useful for when you've been messing about with all this stuff. If you find yourself stuck with bright yellow, comic sans text and really don't like it (you shouldn't, its horrible), highlight the bits you hate and click this. It will undo all the formatting on that and any future text you type in.

The first two are subscript and superscript. This basically _lowers or ^raises the text to look like that. These are the kind of thing that you will have to click again to turn it off.

The next three are quite fun. They will plop a little code thing in for you to type inbetween like in the olden days! These also work in the chatbox if you care to memorise them.

The first one scrolls your text.

The next one does this

and the last one doesn't work anymore for reasons known only to the people at Forumotion 

Now for the last section of the edit thing.


The first one inserts the current date on your post. It's pretty pointless since your posts are all dated and timed when you press send anyway!

Second one inserts the current time. Again, its pointless.

Third one is pretty pointless too, you paste text in it and it will put it in your post. It is much easier to just paste it straight on rather than go through the extra step of putting it in a box first!

Last one is pretty cool! It switches between editor modes. The one you see in the picture is highlighted, that will put the codes in for you to type between. If you click it again so it is NOT highlighted, you won't see the codes and you will see the thing you are attaching as it will appear in the post. I have done all the guides with it off because its just easier!

Now for something a bit more 

Smilies, that is!

So far we have 3 sections to choose from. The ones on the left when you open the editor are section 1. If you click the drop down menu that reads "view more Emoticons", you can switch between
   <-- this type in Smilies 1
 <-- These beauties in Smilies 2
 <-- and Red's section. Its a long story. Redhead Ember has banana pets. We all love the banana pets. She should do more banana-ing

We also have saving your post as a draft. I've already done this, so I'll just link it until I can merge the threads later!

And we also have the Chatbox.  This allows you to chat in real time with anyone else who is logged in. Which is the reason why my post count isn't in the bazillions. >.>

SO! Where to begin? Well, you can only see the box if you are logged in. Sorry lurkers! And you can only see what is being said in it if you log in to that, sorry again!



This is what you will see when you are logged in to the site but not the Chatbox, all the way down at the bottom of the main page. You will only find it on the main page.
To log in, click Log In, over on the top right. I don't think I needed to say that, but I did it anyway!

When you log in, you will see this 



The codes for posting images work here, so does the scrolling text ones. YouTube videos don't, I just tried! The buttons along the bottom work the same way as the post editor, and you type in the small message box at the bottom. 

There are also a few things exclusive to the chatbox. 
If you click the small ? in the bottom left, a box will pop out that explains what the CB commands are and what they do. It explains it all better than I could, so I'll just let you find that yourself!

Another feature is the 3 small diagonal lines on the bottom right corner. Click and drag those up or down to lengthen or shorten the box. This is useful for viewing pictures that have been posted that may be too big to see in one go.

If that isn't big enough for you, you can also click the word Chatbox on the top left and the whole CB will open in a new tab. 

If you want to view messages that are older than the ones shown at the time you log in, click Archives and it will load them, but you won't be able to post or see new messages while you are in Archive mode. 

You will also notice that sometimes people "time out", this is something we can't change. If you don't post a message for 5 minutes, you will show as "away". After 15 minutes you will be disconnected and need to log back in. 

If you don't want to type someones name, just left click on their name in the online/away column and it will put it in for you. Right clicking on the name in that column will bring up a box that gives you the option to view their profile or send them a PM. 

The members with @ in front of their name are chatbox moderators, they can kick out troublemakers, although thankfully we've never had to do that here! They can clear the chat log if things get a bit clogged up, and  they can ban people altogether. Chances are you will never see this happen because we're all a respectful bunch of lovely people ^^

New thing! Sendings!

This is essentially a blog section. Things work a little differently here. The post editor is the same, but when you post your Sending, the layout will change. Comments will appear as just that, comments to your post and not replies. 


Ignore the IP thing, that's for admins to keep you safe from evil geniuses XD


This section is NOT visible to guests. Only members who have logged in will be able to see it. We did that on purpose 

SO.... Have at it! I will add more here when questions or new features get added.

Just bumping this for someone