ADMIN NOTE May 2008:
Co-mods, please don't remove the outdated screencaps here -- they show how PK boards have looked in the past! It's better for us to post updated procedures, then link the old ones to them.

Also, take care when merging topics into this one. Please retain this thread's ID number 4152! Thanks!

-Pen/gal-texter

THREAD PURPOSE: To share tips with our PKmates on neat board codes and features, as well as ways to navigate the site
EXPECTED THREAD CONTENTS: Tips, codes, questions from anyone. Stuff that hadn't been mentioned in other "How To:" threads
WHO CAN POST ON THIS THREAD: Anyone with a question or tip



RELATED TOPICS:
--how to change your member title - that "ickle firstie" line under your name
--Change forum display name or login name


List of tips with updated procedures &/or screencaps:

--How to find moved posts

--How to see subforums and their descriptions

--Always close the board code tags

--Ways to hyperlink and how to post links (URLs) that display words instead of the http:// blah blah.

--How to link directly to a Portkey forum post (or how to get a post's global URL)

--How to hide Spoilery Text

--Troubleshooting QUOTE codes

--How to quote only a few lines instead of huge blocks of text, more pointers

--Colorize your posts - HTML/hexademical codes for font colors; more font colors

--How to center text

--Using Different Fonts

--Tracking Private Messages (PMs)

--Can't post in forums marked "Moderated"? - New Topic Preview

--How to set Portkey forum's "User's Local Time"

--Forum Topic Views - standard, outline or linear

--How to identify Portkey Mods? Purpose of "Talk", "Fic", "Chat" and "Art" hat images?

--How to make polls in the forums

--Change how topics are listed in a forum page. Also explains why threads are marked T01, T02 and so on and why PK mods lock topics

--Comparing browsers for this site: using Firefox versus Internet Explorer

--Too many forums? Expand or Collapse some to save on screen space

-- Error: Sorry, the link that brought you to this page seems to be out of date or broken.
OR the URL you clicked brought you to a thread that no longer contained the specific post you're looking for





List of tips that might have outdated procedures &/or screencaps:

RELATED THREADS:
here's how to upload or change an avatar
.

TIP - How to find moved posts
Click me for procedures updated as of May 2008 ~Pen/gal-texter


ORIGINAL MESSAGE 2003/04:

Q: Where did your post go?
A: It was probably merged with another thread. Or perhaps it was moved to another forum.
The easiest way to find your merged or moved post is to view your profile (by clicking on your name), then select Find all posts by this member. (View screencap at the bottom of this post.) Use your browsers "Find [a word]" function to zero in on the particular post in question.

You can also use the "Search" link on the top right of the screen. More explanations below.

EDIT Aug 1 2004: Please note that many sections have been put on New Topic Preview. This means a Mod must approve your message before it gets displayed. More details here.

Q: Where did my favorite thread go? I didn't post on it, so I can't use the above option.
A: Click on "Search" on the top right of the screen. Use the advanced features. If you remember someone who did post on the thread, you can enter his/her user name in the Search form.
A: Or you can use the Search This Forum box on top of most forum pages. Portkey has a very powerful search engine.


NOTE: If you see the message You do not have permission to view this topic, then it means the post was moved to a hidden forum --most likely Trash. That means the post was deleted by a Mod or the poster him/herself. Mods may delete a post without warning if said post violates forum rules.

SCREENCAP OUTDATED sometime before 2008.
PLEASE DON'T DELETE to save a glimpse of PK's old board skin smile.gif
--> Click to view attachment

TIP - Always close the code tags.
=>If you pressed the code buttons on the message box (e.g., those for B, I, U) then click on Close All Tags before you hit the Add Reply or Post New Topic buttons.

=>If you entered the codes manually, then close each tag by repeating the code and prefacing it with a slash.
E.g., the code to make the following line appear in italics is:
This text should appear in italics

TIP: --How to insert a clickable link
(aka to hyperlink)
and to post links that display words instead of the http:// blah blah.

- latest edit in Jan 2009


PREREQUISITE: Knowing know how to get the URL of a topic / post / page / image / file. We'll try to put up more guides about that. But you can use the next post to link to most of Portkey's forum messages.


DEFINITION/S:
URL = Uniform Resource Locator, that long text that appears on our browsers' address bar usually in this format: http://www.site.com/followed-by-something
the above URL's only an example, of course.

The following examples all lead to the same YouTube page (aka channel).
How they'd get displayed would depend on what comes before and after the URL.



a. Display the entire URL:

Simply copy and paste the URL http://www.youtube.com/QueenRania

The board software automatically makes it a clickable link by sandwiching the above line in between URL opening and closing tags:


b. Display another text:


Effect: whatever text you want displayed <-- this still takes you to the same YouTube channel

The difference in this format is that you should put [URL=
before the http:// thing,
then a closing bracket ] at the end of the http:// thing,
followed by the text you want displayed,
then end it with this closing tag [/URL]

If your link doesn't display properly after doing the above, then check for paragraph breaks anywhere between the [URL= and the [/URL]. There shouldn't be any, so use your keyboard's backspace key to remove any extra blank spaces.


Related Topic: to get the direct URL of an article or image

Say you're quoting an article from a news site like the-leaky-cauldron.org. That site regularly updates its home page. What was on the front page today will be moved to the back pages tomorrow. Following these steps usually will give an article's direct link:
=> open the article (usually by clicking on the headline)
=> copy and paste the URL that appears in your browser's address bar
=> insert that address in the URL codes described above

You can do the same for images.

edited July 22 2008

TIP: To link directly to a Portkey forum post, instead of the start of a thread page:
(RELATED TOPIC: What to do when some forum links (URLs) don't seem to work)

There are two ways you can link directly to a forum post.

METHOD 1: Quote an excert from the post. (Please delete the irrelevant lines, just like you would do to shorten a trail of emails.)

The quote code's post number is the important part. You can then hit the snapback arrow to be taken to the quoted message.

Let me illustrate by quoting an excerpt of this thread's first post:






METHOD 2: (with screencap below)

You need to get the post's global URL. To do that, click on the hyperlinked number after "Post #:" on top of the message/post box. You will see a box pop up. Manually copy and paste the URL that appears in that box, not the URL that appears on your browser.

Click this attachment -- > Click to view attachment

EXAMPLE: This post's global URL is



Combine this URL with the prev post's tip on "how to make clickable links that display words instead of the http:// blah blah."
RELATED TOPIC: What to do when some forum links (URLs) don't seem to work

TIP - how to hide spoilery text:

The spoiler code's a hassle to install, so here's a simple one that does the job just fine: use the same font colors and background for spoilery text! We often use this code when discussing new (or new-ish) books, films or the latest Potter movie. See, Portkey-ers come from all over the world; hence some of them may not have seen or read recent episodes or books or TV spots yet.


EDIT Jan 2009: I'm stealing Jade Eyes' idea of using the same color for the font and background! This will work regardless of what forum skin we use!



Sample: Click/highlight to read SPOILER!

<-- type spoilery text here -->
[/END SPOILER]


If you put a URL in there, simplest way would be to remove the http:// so that the board wouldn't turn it into visible fonts. That is, if you wanted to put http://HarryLovesHermione.com, simply put HarryLovesHermione.com instead.


IMPORTANT:

Portkey has used different spoiler codes over the years, so most of them don't work now.
If you see any defunct spoilers code that you'd like replaced with this one, please hit the Report button for that specific post. Put something like You might want to replace the defunct spoiler code in the Report form and we mods would fix it. This is especially true for our fic recommendations section. We've been gradually replacing some but we'd appreciate your help.



ORIGINAL CODE outdated in 2008:


[spoiler]SPOILER!
text to be hidden [/spoiler]

CODE

[SPOILER] text to be hidden [/SPOILER]

Drag or click on the space below SPOILER! to read the hidden text. We often use this when discussing new movies, stories, or the latest Harry Potter book. See, Portkeymates come from all over the world. So many of our Portkeymates may not have seen or read those stuff yet.

Latest edit in Jan 2009

RELATED TOPIC: How to quote only only a few lines instead of huge blocks of text
-- see next post

If you find the following troubleshooting procedures too technical, please read the last part of this post. Co-mods, there's something in there for us too.



Troubleshooting those tricky QUOTE tags

Basic rule for quotes:
Make sure that:
-- both opening and closing quote tags were correctly spelled and formed, AND
-- that the tags come in pairs - opening and closing codes, AND
-- your message doesn't exceed the maximum number of quotes allowed per post.

The closing code is always:


While the opening tag can come in various forms as shown below. In all cases, the '123456' is only an example. The post ID number post='123456' is what makes the snapback arrow appear in quote boxes.
**snapback arrow - explained in next post.

In our board software's current version, the above form's what you'd see when you hit the Reply button on a specific post.









Reasons for incorrect display of quote tags:

Posts won't display quoted text properly if at least ONE of the following is true.

-- First check if your forum message has more than 20 quotes, as that's the current maximum # of quotes allowed per message (as of Oct 2008). If you exceed the prevailing maximum, Your QUOTE codes will NOT work whether you've formed them correctly or not.
If your message has only 20 quotes or less, then proceed with the following checks:

-- there's at least one incorrectly written quote tag;
-- AND/OR there's an opening tag without a closing tag;
-- AND/OR there's a closing tag that lacks a matching opening tag.

"Incorrectly written" could mean a missing letter from the word QUOTE, or a missing bracket or slash, or an extra space or character, or incorrect spelling of the word QUOTE. Examples:



or




Your post's quotes were all written correctly and all matched up properly, yet it still displays the raw codes for the quotes. What to do then?

You probably exceeded the board's maximum number of quotes allowed per page. It's at 20 per post as of Oct 2008.
The admin control panel sets this maximum to minimize unnecessary repetition of previous messages, which make board convos hard to follow.

In this case, use other means of setting the quoted text apart from the rest of your post. That is, put the quotations in italics or a different font color or stuff like that. You can also put the rest of your quotes in a separate post. You don't need the

.
EDIT Dec 2008: You can also use the indent codes to set the quotes apart. This is recommended for text that has not been previously posted in Portkey, e.g., references to a book, news or other material.

Here are the codes:


Here's the effect:

paragraph 1 not indented

paragraph 2 indented
paragraph 3 indented

paragraph 4 not indented


If you find the following troubleshooting procedures too technical,
don't hesitate to ask the mods for help. For quickest responses, post your draft message with the quotes in the Testing area, then hit the Report button. Put something like this in the Report form: Dear mods, please help me fix the quote codes. Thanks. Your test message (with quotes) should put the link to the thread where you had originally wanted to put your draft.

To co-mods:
After doing the above request, please merge into the intended topic. (For help with the merge topics tool, please contact Sue or myself.) After merging, post a reply on the destination topic to notify its readers about the quotes-laden message.

POST EDITED IN NOV 2008:

How to quote only a few lines,
instead of huge blocks of text

Why do this?

Jonathan aka Another had explained it here:

Mod Note: This is just a very gentle pointer--if everyone quotes the post before them without thinking, then pretty soon the quotes become ten times as big as the post. In addition to being rather useless, it wastes LOTS of database space. Please take care of your quotes. If you want to write a reply, don't leave a tower of quotes within quotes. ~Jonathan

How to do this?

METHOD 1: Use the Fast Reply or Add Reply buttons down the thread page. They will not automatically copy any previous posts.

METHOD 2: Hit Reply on the post like many of you are prone to do, then use your cursor to select/highlight the IRrelevant or redundant lines or words inside the quote codes. That is:



then hit your computer's backspace key to delete those lines.

The snapback arrow will show up for as long as you keep the post number in the opening quote code. Try clicking the arrow in the quote box below. It will take you to the quoted post. Its opening code is:





Practice makes perfect.

MOD NOTE: Moved this and the next 3 posts here. ~gal-texter

Hahaha... actually I don't understand how to use 'quote' Sorry, don't understand. How do you do that? *smiles sheepishly*

~Erika

merging this with the tips thread ~gal-texter

colourise your posts more hexadecimal codes, next tip

Just thought I'd put this up here.
Anytime you want to colourise your posts, and you think "There's only 7 colours to choose from in the "COLOR" drop down list!", you can refer to this.

To colourise any words in your post, you can write it in words or hexidecimal value:

Examples

HB, you're officially mad. You typed up all that???? Wow *impressed*

Ri

I'm very impressed You must be very bored though...!

Rach, bored

Rach, Ri, I wrote that up a long time ago and had stored it in my inbox.
And I was very bored then... nobody was posting
Plus, I still don't know what Hexidecimals are!

I just found it!

I think they're called Hexadecimals, and they're...difficult to explain. Kind of numbers and figures, but not in a decimal system. They have letters in them too... ~Ri

Aaaah that's how he did it all along. I can't believe HB has decided to reveal something he could hold over our heads.... Ah well, one day I'll try some out when I'm really bored.

Anto, you know I knew it a loooong time ago
Plus I was bored.

~HB

Hint, Anto: There's some forums/posts where this works. I'm not sure as to which ones, but remember how I used to play with all those colours in the P'n'P threads?

Ri

*jaw drops*

Holy ---- !

Thank you HB!

How did you find them all out?

- Nitya

OH I knew it! I absolutely knew it!!

Like the colous for the OY! Lurker! Post! Anyone can join these threads!


The 'red' colour wasn't working on the last Hidden Kiss thread I did.... and I was sure it worked in some other forums... Heh. I have a lot on my head lately, I didn't remember

*totally false, only fishing for excuses*

Anto

EDIT: The fact that I have a lot on my head lately is false, not the fact that I noticed something on the HMS Hidden Kiss

these posts deserve to be moved here. I hadn't known about this code myself. ~gal-texter Jun 2004

Centering text

UPDATE May 2008: the current board code for centering text is




~Pen/gal-texter



ORIGINAL (and outdated) MESSAGE:

next tip

We used to [have the code for centering], I know that.

The code for it was/is:

CODE

[C] center [/C]

<center> center </center>

EDIT: Ha! Still do!

hehe testing

you learn something new every day

center me
Ah, so it does! In other forums the code is . Now that I have this new knowledge, I can go offline for the day.

Nielle, showing off her new skills.

i am spiffy spiffy centered text

i am jealous text who hates being stuck in this left allignment

I have my ways, Nitya
But I've bookmarked this page... for further uses.

I suggest you do so as well.

This is another good site for finding out hexadecimal codes for colours.

Madeline


Thanks! This one too. - g-t

Ooooh! Thanks for putting this up, I just went and 'coloured' all my main posts. Just curious, can you get different fonts too? Thanks.

Using Different Fonts previous tip, next tip

Louielacious -- Yes, you can make ones for different fonts too. It works the same as the URL tag does at PK. Here's how you do it:

Louielacious - Once you said that, another thought perked in my head.
Maybe I should try and make a guide for fonts? But would take a long time.

But hey, I'll try, should take a few months

Edit: Well, I only got a few, and I doubt I'll get any farther.

Arial
Comic Sans MS
Courier
Garamond
Geneva
Georgia
Haettenschweiler
Impact
Modern
Optima
Papyrus
Terminal
Times
TrebuchetMS
Verdana

To use them, just copy the font name you like, and use like so:

Oh HB.... I never thought you would actually tell everyone about your colors. You seemed so proud to know it by yourself. Well thanks anyways.

So you can use hex codes for colors. I was trying some of my favorites earlier today in the testing forum, but I guess they weren't among the ones programmed into the Ivisionboard system. Oh, and since it seems to be out in the open, I'll briefly explain hexadecimal numbers and the hex color codes.

A hexadecimal number is a number in base sixteen, so 1=1,2=2,3=3...but 10=A, 11=B, 12=C...15=F, 16=10, 17=11...255=FF. Now, computers generate colors by mixing the three primary colors of light (red, green, and blue) in different amounts. There are 255 levels for each color, so therefore each color can be expressed as a two digit hexadecimal number. Since there are three colors, we wind up with a six digit hexadecimal number for the final color.

#RRGGBB
#FF0000=Red
#00FF00=Green
#0000FF=Blue
#FF00FF=Fuchsia (well, something purplish anyways)

~Another

Tracking Private Messages (PMs) previous tip


Before you send the PM, check the Track this message option at the bottom of the message box.

Then when you hit the Message Tracker link on the left pane below Saved (Unsent PMs), you'll see which messages have or haven't been read yet.

Click to view attachment

Can't post in forums marked "moderated"?
aka New Topic Preview


When I attempt to create a new topic in some H/Hr forums, I get an error.** Does one need special permission to post there?

MOD NOTE:
**That is, the topic isn't displayed right away. ~gal-texter

No, one does not. But as the Forum description indicates, new topics are being moderated, which means that every new topic needs to be read and approved by a mod. More information about this can be found here

Ri

Ok, I understand now, thank you, it's a wise idea actually, bypass all the spam and useless stuff people might post.

Yeah, it is a good idea. We actually approve most of the posts there. But we'd like to encourage people to look for similar threads first, before making a new one. Most of the approved posts get merged into older discussions.


RELATED QUESTIONS here and here

How to set Portkey forums' "User's Local Time"

Hello,
Just a question, since I seem to be at a lost.

User's local time - is it suppose to read the time of my own timezone. If so, how do I change it? It's almost 12hrs and 3mins behind.

Hi, Portkey's default time is GMT, methinks. You set it to your local time by going to My Controls -> Options -> Board Settings. It's the top field.

Cool. Thanks Nielle .

Ooooh, Cordy looks glam. She totally rocked till she was ruined, still utterly gutted by it. How could you Joss? How could you?


September

MOD NOTE: Related Question ~gal-texter 4Dec2004

Can't post in forums marked "moderated"?
aka New Topic Preview


Hello, everyone! My name is Amy and well, this is not actually my first post, because I already tried posting (3 times), but everytime I want to see the actual message, which contains an essay, I get an Error message as if it had been moved or deleted or something!

Can anyone help me?

Amy

Hi there - The reason that your replies to essays might not show up for a few days - is because the essays are " Moderated ". This is to make sure that people don't post garbage on the threads. One of the mods will do review your comments and expect to see it online soon

thanks so much. I already got a message from hmm Mirtilla. She was kindly enough to explain this to me, but thanks anyways.

Hey

How long does it take for a thread to be moderated before being displayed in portkey?

cheers

Avoiding 'unnecessary' quotes in your reply: i.e., hitting the Add Reply button instead of Reply

I know this is probably a really dumb question, but I'll ask anyways. Whenever I try to post a reply I always end up accidently having a quote I don't want attatched to my reply and I have no idea how to get it to go away.

Can anyone please help me?

Instead of hitting the reply button in the top right of a post, scroll down to the bottom of the page where there's another called "Add Reply". Clicking that one should do it for you.

Or you can hit Reply as you usually do, then delete the quoted text by highlighting it with your cursor then hitting delete.

~Nelli.