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Using the Aquila70 Forum

The forum uses an open-source application, FireBoard. FireBoard is created, copyrighted, and made available to the public by the Best of Joomla design team under the GNU General Public License. This document shows you how to register, create and post messages, respond to message threads, and remove your own published messages.

The Aquila70 forum is open to all, whether you’re a graduate of Columbia High School or not.

Registration

Once you’re registered with Aquila70.net, you’re registered with the Aquila70 forum. In fact, if you click Register in the Forum header, you’re re-directed to the Web site login/registration form (Member Login).

Login or register with the site first to fully use the Forum. Then, click the link in the left-hand menu to open the forum.

Interface

When you register with the Web site, you can use your Member Profile to set the Forum view to flat or threaded, depending on your tastes. Afterwards, you can click My Profile in the forum header to change your settings.

The forum interface consists of a header unit (depicted above) and a footer; in between, you’ll find each board and the forums within each board. Click on a forum and you’ll see a list of all messages posted to that forum.

View Messages

Click Aquila70 Forum in the left-hand menu.
Click the Board that you wish to visit.
Click the Forum that you wish to visit.
Click the title of a message that interests you.
The message you’ve selected appears in the Forum panel.

Forum Tools

You can use several tools in this forum:

Post New Topic—Create a new message in the forum
Pdf—Create a PDF document from the message selected
Mark this forum read—Mark all messages in the forum as “Read”
Threaded (Flat) View—Change the View type
Show latest posts—Identify the latest messages posted
Rules—Read the Forum Rules
Help—Open the Forum Help file

Create Message

Click Post New Topic from Forum Tools in the forum you wish from the index or…
Open the forum and click the New Thread button.
Enter the title of your message in the Subject field.
Select an appropriate icon the attract or alert readers to your message.
Enter the your text in the Message field.
The text you enter will be displayed using the “normal” font setting for this site unless you specifically format words or phrases using BBCode.

BBCode

Remember to always place the text you want specially formatted between the opening and closing elements of the tag you select. The software will not do this for you; highlighting a section and selecting a tag only places the tag elements within the area you’ve selected.

To use BBCode, follow these steps:

Identify the special formatting you need.
Click the code element you wish to use.
The opening and closing code appears in brackets where you’ve placed the cursor in the message text.
Move the text you want formatted between these brackets.

BBCode supports these code elements:

Bold (B)—You make all the text you place between the opening and closing elements of this tag display in bold face.
Italics (i)—You make all the text you place between the opening and closing elements of this tag display in italics.
Underline (u)—You underline all the text you place between the opening and closing elements of this tag.
Quote (Quote)—Use this tag to place a quote from another posted message into the body of your message.
Code (Code)—Use of this tag displays the text that falls between the opening and closing elements as monospaced text in Courier font.
Bullet list (ul)—If you include a bullet list in your message, you must “wrap” the list items inside this tag because it “tells” the browser that the following elements must be marked up (displayed) using bullets instead of numbers.
Numbered list (ol)—If you include a numbered list in your message, you must “wrap” the list items inside this tag because it “tells” the browser that the following elements must be marked up (displayed) using numbers instead of bullets.
List item (li)—Format each item in your list with this tag.
Image (Img)—This tag automatically sets the display size of the image you want to place within your message. However, you must enter the entire path to the image you want to include. The code will look like this:
[img size=150]http://bb.bbboy.net/ulimages/2push.gif[/img]
Hyperlink (URL)—You can set links to external Web sites using this tag. You must enter the complete path to the Web site between the opening and closing elements, like this:
[url]http://www.stc-jamesriver.org[/url]
Hide (Hide)—You can select a portion of your text to hide from the public, if you wish. In effect, this creates a private section that can be seen only by yourself, site administrators, and persons you specify.
Color (Colour)—You can change the color for text that you specify using this tag.
Size (Size)—You can specify a selection of your text, or all of your message, to be displayed in a different sized font. Your choices are:
- Very Small
- Small
- Normal
- Big
- Very Big

Emoticons

Follow these steps if you want to use an emoticon, or “Smiley,” in your text:

Place the cursor in your text where you want to place the emoticon.
Click the appropriate icon in the Emoticon area.

The icon image will NOT be displayed in the text area. Instead, you’ll see a plain text representation of it. When you submit your message and it’s posted in the forum, however, the image will be displayed. DO NOT click and move the image from the Emoticons area into the text area; this causes the internal hyperlink to the icon to be displayed when your message is posted.

Attach Image file

Follow these steps to attach an image file to your message:
This procedure is different from that used with the Img BBCode tag.

Place the cursor in your text at the point where you wish to place an attached image.
This is usually on a separate line between paragraphs or at the end of your text.
Click the Browse button in the Submit Image file… field.
A Windows Explorer window opens.
Navigate to the folder containing the image you want to attach to your message.
Select the appropriate image.
Click Open in Windows Explorer.
Click the [img] button.
FireBoard enters this tag—[img]—in the plaintext body of your message.
The image will appear in your posted message.

Attach Document file

Follow these steps to attach a document to your message:

Place the cursor in your text at the point where you wish to place an attached document.
This is usually on a separate line between paragraphs or at the end of your text.
Click the Browse button in the Submit File… field.
A Windows Explorer window opens.
Navigate to the folder containing the image you want to attach to your message.
Select the appropriate image.
Click Open in Windows Explorer.
Click the [file] button.
FireBoard enters this tag—[file]—in the plaintext body of your message.
A link to the document, including the filename, will appear in your posted message.

If you want to subscribe to this new message—you’ll receive e-mail notifications when others respond to it—click the checkbox in the Subscribe field.

Preview Your Message

Click the Preview button to see your message before posting it.
Check the previewed message to confirm it reads as you wish.
Click Close This Window when you’re finished.

Submit Your Message

Click the Submit button to send your message to be posted in the Forum.
All messages are reviewed by a forum moderator before being published on our site.
When your message is posted, the forum and board are updated.
If you don’t want to post your message, click the Cancel button.

Remove A Message

Open the Forum containing the message (of yours) that you want to delete.
Click the checkbox ([ ]) under the X in the index.
Press Enter.
FireBoard asks you to confirm this action. Make sure that the checkbox is set to remove all images and files attached to or embedded within your message are removed.
Click Submit.