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Topic: Hints on using this forum (Read 3681 times) previous topic - next topic

Hints on using this forum

As you may have noticed, the forum has changed substantially. We made these changes for several reasons:

1 - Improved performance

The original forum, built with FrontPage, was a poor performer when adding new messages (it was very slow), and generated index listings that were much larger than necessary.

2 - Easier maintenance

We can now support the forum better, because of a more logical archival mechanism and easier maintenance approach.

3 - Usability

The original author of a message can optionally be notified of new replies to an original post by simply adding their email address to the post.

In the past, each message (whether an original post, or a reply) was added to the forum as a new file. In the new forum, message replies are inserted into the same file with the original message. This means that you will need to probably need to refresh your browser display when looking for replies to earlier messages.

You can use the number of replies listed in the forum index to guage whether a pre-existing message has new replies. If you are an original author for a message, and you provide an e-mail address, you may also receive an e-mail notice when replies are added to your message file (when everything is working correctly). You will still have to visit the forum, however, as the actual reply content is not sent in any email notifications (although the URL of the message will be listed in the email).

We hope you enjoy the new forum! Please report any problems here in the forum, or by email if you are unable to work in the forum.

Re: Hints on using this forum

Reply #1 –
Perhaps you could put the "Last Modified" date next to the number of replies.

Perhaps you could even sort the files by this date so that all the files to be read are at the top!

Just an idea %<)

Re: Hints on using this forum

Reply #2 –
A keword search function would also be wonderful.
Thanks for the good work to date.
 

Re: Hints on using this forum

Reply #3 –
Here are a couple of new tips on using this forum.

Have you ever wanted to insert a link to a previous forum message in your forum post or reply? Well, now you can. Once you know the message thread number of the existing forum post, you can create a hypertext link to that message simply by prefixing the message number with an exclamation point (!). For example, if you type "1" (without the quotes) in a forum post, the forum will replace the quoted text with a "https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=246" link automatically.

Have you ever wanted to insert a web link in the form of a hypertext link? Now you can. The exclamation point also works for web addresses that use the standard http:// prefix. For example, you can insert a hypertext link to our web site by inserting " http://www.noteworthysoftware.com " into your forum post (without the quotes, but should be separated by spaces or a new line).

Have you ever wanted to do a comprehensive, indexed search of the forum files? Well, if you are using Windows 95 or NT 4.0, now you can. Simply download a copy of the offline version of this forum ( available at http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/nwcforum/offline.htm ), then press the Find button.

**NOTE: The first time you initiate a find on the offline forum, WinHelp will dynamically construct an index of all information in the forum. This process will only be necessary the first time that you use the find procedure. The process will also need to be repeated if you upgrade the offline forum to a newer vintage.