Tips on Using the New Forum Software

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Hawk
The Big Dawg
Posts: 6503
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:28 am
Location: North Georgia - USA

Tips on Using the New Forum Software Unread post

First of all I want to thank everyone that checked out and tested the two test forums. That made making this upgrade a lot easier, with more peace of mind that the update would go smoothly.

Now that I've updated the forum software to the newest version, there's a few changes that should be explained.
Note that if you hover your mouse over an image and the cursor turns into a link cursor, clicking on that image will show it sized to your monitors screen resolution. If the image is larger than your screen, clicking on it again will size it to full size.
You'll know if the image is larger than your monitor screen size if, when you hover your mouse over the image, it looks like a plus sign (+), as seen in this shot.
Mouse.jpg
Mouse.jpg (837 Bytes) Viewed 12377 times

Ypu might have noticed the Announcement Box (yellow background) at the top of the board, which you might have clicked on a link in it to get to this post.
This is a mod I've added to let folks know about things that I think might be important to folks, so it will change from time to time.
As it says in smaller text at the bottom of the box:
Once you've read this message you can hide it by hovering your mouse over the background and clicking the X at the far right. This will hide this message until it is changed.
as shown in this image.
Announce.jpg

As it states in the header:
This forum is best viewed at a screen resolution of at least 1280 pixels wide
Right Menu.jpg
Right Menu.jpg (9.68 KiB) Viewed 12377 times
The reason for this is not the fault of the phpBB software. It's due to some modifications I made to the header and a menu mod I've added. If you run a screen resolution of, say - 1024 wide, you get something that looks like this:
1024.jpg
I'm assuming that most, if not all folks that visit this forum are using relatively new monitors, so I wouldn't think anyone is running a screen resolution width of less than 1280 so this shouldn't be an issue.
As for mobile devices, you can't play RT3 on a cell phone and why download RT3 files to a cell phone, plus this forum isn't as active as it once was nor is it so important that coming here with a cell phone would be a necessity, since new posts don't seem to be coming but every 2 or 3 days. I figure folks can wait until they get home to their computer to check the forums, or just deal with the unresponsiveness if they must come here with a cell phone.

Some of the common menu items have moved. Here's a couple of screenshots of the new menus (some styles may show the first two menus shown below at the very top of the board).

Near the top left of the board you'll find Quick links. Here's a shot of the items under that menu.
Left Menu.jpg
The Search link takes you to the Advanced Search Option.

Near the top right of the board is your personal links list.
View.jpg

Right under that is the Styles selection menu.
Styles.jpg
The selections in this menu may change over time. As folks decide which style they prefer, some styles may be deleted.

This new forum version comes with an optional mod that I've added that gives me the ability to add a new menu bar, replacing the limited menu found in the header of the old software.
To refresh your memory, here's the old header menu.
Old Menu.jpg
Here's the new menu bar.
1280.jpg
Note that some of the menu items have drop down lists.
Menu.jpg
Just hover your mouse over the menu item to see the drop down list.

Also note that the links in the new menu bar will open the link in a new window/tab so you don't actually leave the forum.


If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, etc. please feel free to post in this thread.
Hawk
User avatar
Hawk
The Big Dawg
Posts: 6503
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:28 am
Location: North Georgia - USA

Re: Tips on Using the New Forum Software Unread post

Another tip that might help.

When you want to go directly to the oldest, new post (first unread post) in a thread since your last login, click the little icon in the thread title, as shown in this screenshot.
Click on image to view full size
Click on image to view full size
Hover your mouse cursor over that same button to show pop up hint.

What do I mean by oldest, new post (first unread post)?
If there's more than one new post in a thread, clicking that icon will take you to the first new (unread) post since your last login instead of the last post in the thread, which would also be new.

I hope that makes sense. :mrgreen:
Hawk
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