If you are new to this kind of format don't worry,...
It's really easy after you pick up on a few basic points on how it works.
Actually it's very much like doing an email except for a few things, like mainly that when you send out an email the person you send to is the only one who sees your message unless they forward it to someone else whereas here on the FamilyForum boards anyone who drops by for a visit can see what you have written.
Another feature is that any registered member can reply to your post if they wish to and the number of replies can go into the dozens or even higher if your topic generates a lot of interest. Usually a topic will generate only a few replies, but on several occasions I've seen them go into the hundreds!
Please note that only members are able to post a new topic, or reply to a post made by someone else, so you must first
Register and then sign-in to be able to post.
***
All new accounts must be activated by a moderator before it will be able to sign-in... it usually only takes a few minutes, but *may* take up to several hours for the activation to be completed.This procedure is in place to help us keep the boards safe for the kids.
OK so here is the basic idea on how to do a post:
First, pick the category where you want your post to appear.
The example we will use for this how-to is the "Family News & Events" category.
Please note: There are different theme's that can be used for the forum, so your screen may look a little different from what is in these pictures.
Click on the title for the category and it will open to a page where you will see a list of the latest topics for this category and just above them a row of buttons, click on the one titled "New Topic"
From there it's just like an email, you have a subject line (must have one for it to post!) and your message body. You can also spice up the look of your post with smiles and text/font changes if you want to... as mentioned before its just like email.
After you finish composing your message you can hit the Preview button at the bottom of the page to see how it's going to look and when you are happy with how everything looks just click on the Post button.
That's it!
Hope this helps if you are just starting in this kind of format, if you need any help just let me know.
You can also go to the
Forum User Help section to read up on all the details about how to post, or any other thing you need to know about the using the forum.
Simple Machines - SMF User Help: PostingIf you would like to see the Basic Posting page written by the same folks that wrote our FamilyForum software just go to the link above.
It is a well written and highly informative How-To on many of the features available here on the forum.
* Much of the info for the tip above were found on those SMF pages.
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