Need help navigating this forum

[palerider]

fair enough

[Goofproof]

By the way, I used to have to WRITE user manuals and documentation for all kinds of stuff. Maybe that's why I hate to have to read them now.

maybe it's because most manuals are written by people with hate filled hearts

I hope you're not implying that I have a "hate-filled heart".
But, when reading documentation/manuals, I try to put my mind in "simple" (dumbed-down) mode and try to interpret them as if I didn't know anything about the subject and see if what they wrote makes sense. Far too often, the terminology is over the heads of people who might benefit from it. In other words......heavy on over-their-heads "bullshit" and light on "basics".


Den

.

I know what you mean, to make things fool proof you really have to aim low. We as a country are growing more and dumber fools every generation. Your eyes are better than mine. I looked for a few minutes to find that circle, on this tablet, too small for my eyes, couldn't see it.

This forum software is cheap or free, much more professional is out there, but it's good enough and we aren't paying the bills.

BTW: I don't log out, I stay logged in, and close the browser link. Jim

[Pugsy]

I don't ever log out of the forum on purpose. Sometimes I get logged out by accident though. I prefer to stay logged in so that I can quickly see the "little red tablet" to see new posts have been made. I just close the browser window when I want to leave the forum but my preference setting in my board preferences keeps me logged in.

Puggsy, how did you learn that about the little red tablets?

The cpaptalk icon legend all the way at the bottom of the main forum page told me.

Another example, how do you easily quote just a sentence from one response so the author's ID appears with the quote? I've hit Quote, then laboriously deleted what I didn't want, being careful to not delete an operator. There must be an easier way.

This is my procedure.
Click the "Reply To" button and open my blank text box which will be empty.
Then I scroll down to the section I want to target my reply to and I highlight the text I want to snip out and then I hit the quote button next to the person's screen id that I am highlighting..
The snippet then shows up and also tells me who said it. Sometimes I don't want who said it to show up so I highlight the text and right click the mouse and choose "copy" and then I use the quote button in the forum editor and insert the mouse cursor in between the quote brackets and paste...the the text is quoted but without who said it like this.

Must you scroll up to the top to log off

Most of the time I just quote the snippets though and include the person who said it. That way my response is more targeted. Not much doubt as to what I am replying to. I don't like to have the entire previous thread (especially if long) included and editing the quoted contents when the entire post is quoted is as you have found...more work and we all know that I avoid extra work whenever possible.
I know on some forums quoting the entire previous post is common place....but I personally don't like it and think all it does is clutter up things and in most situations isn't needed unless the thread has gone off topic but even then if it has gone off topic I find that just using a snippet gets the point made as to what is being responded to. I don't need to read quoted comments from 5 different people to understand what is going on.

Why must I seek out a thread on how to add an attachment (if you can) or Snip?

We can't add attachments here...that is explained in the board preferences or rather it just simply states "you can't add attachments". I didn't need to seek out information on how to do it because I learned that I couldn't just from reading the board preferences. I read what I could and couldn't do simply by strolling through all the global and board preference settings available and those that were the default settings.
Now inserting image links is considered a different procedure from attaching some sort of file as a real attachment that can be downloaded by someone else. Storage would be a potential issue if the forum allowed attachments that could be downloaded. Another potential issue would be the old "don't download stuff from people you don't know"...thing. I will be honest...someone I don't know comes here and points me to their online storage for a report to review and I have to download it to see it...I am not going to go doing that. I want to see it without my having to download something from someone I don't know. Now someone I do know...I don't mind but I won't go downloading stuff from someone I don't know especially when there is a relatively easy way to get the report in front of me...yeah it involves some work on their part to host the image but I figure that if I am willing to do the work to look at the report then at least the other person can do is do their work to.

So really 90% of the how to or why to questions about the forum structure can be answered just by reading the icon legend at the bottom of the main page and/or taking a stroll through the various board preference settings in the profile area.
The only thing that really isn't addressed clearly is the inserting of the image thing and that's easily sorted out with a forum search or just ask the question.
The quote thing was something I had done in other forums myself so I never really thought that much about it. Something that since I had done it that way for years and years so I didn't really think that it needed any special instructions but I can see how it can be confusing for people who haven't ever done it the way I do it.
The way I do it takes me a millisecond of work...while I am avowedly lazy...I can handle that millisecond and it suits my preferences.

I suppose a quick and easy "forum guide" might benefit some newbies who might not have a lot of forum posting experience but it hasn't come up very often so no one had ever really seen the need to compose a little tutorial....and don't look at me....there was a reason I avoided anything that remotely had to do with composition in high school and college. I hate, hate, hate English composition and only do it when I have no choice and the SleepyHead tutorial was about the extent of my desire to compose anything.
I don't do it well and I don't like it anyway and I do get tired of spoon feeding stuff to people sometimes and the main reason I continue to do it is because the forum search feature here on this forum sucks.

[wardmiller]

For all the contributors still sticking around, THANKS for all the info. Here are some comments on your comments---

Pugsy, I saw the bit at the bottom about red and blue icons and played around with it, but to no avail. If it had said you must be logged on it would have made a difference. And that fact could have easily been noted there. I only log on when I have something to say. That saves me a lot of time, overall. I've been bit a few times for staying logged on when I'm not actively participating, so I choose the safer route and just lurk when appropriate. Every forum I've ever been on permits lurking, but requires logging in when you want to say something.

BleepingBeauty, clicking on Go takes me back to the TOP of the Topics page. What I would like is to return to the Topic list with the same screen displayed as when I left to read a specific topic. That might be two or three screen scrolls from the top of the list. Clicking the back-arrow does take me to that screen, but then I must start scanning the screen trying to find where I branched out to read a topic, so I can continue browsing from there. For example, in some programs when you branch out to read some details and then return, the cursor is right where it was before the branch out. That would be very useful here to me (and others).

Pugsy, I know we cannot tack on attachments -- in this particular forum -- but the phpbb software does permit it. Our host just chose not to allow it. Overseen by a forum sysop, it is a terrific asset and a negligible increase in overall storage requirements. It would avoid the case you mentioned where someone gives a link and you are hesitant to follow it if you don't know the person. An attachment avoids that possible trap.

One of the best things I've learned on this thread is that little tiny circled up-arrow at the right bottom of each response takes you to the top. I never noticed that before.

As to manuals in general, I'm like several of you have stated, mostly I don't like them (although I've caused hundreds of them to be created by the world's largest computer company). But if you look at the phpbb web site you'll see the documentation for this forum software is VERY extensive, but oriented toward people like our host, not us end-users. This thread I started is a fine beginning toward having some end-user help pamphlet. Just clean it up, add some more of the tidbits kicking around and someone could provide a very useful guide. If I had the time, I'd do it, but, alas, the free time just is not available for me.