Creating a new forum post

If you are a new member to a community spend some time familiarizing yourself with the forums that are available.  You are more likely to generate a response by creating your post in the correct forum.  When you have decided which forum you are going to create the post in, click the forum within the forum group to enter it.

Click "Write a New Post".

This launches the community content editor.  With the "Compose Tab" selected, enter a subject (title) for your forum post.  Click once in the subject text area to enable text entry.  Next click once in the message area and enter the post content.

You can now optionally add tags by entering your tags in the tags text entry control.

Alternatively click the "Select Tags" button to see tags which have been used before.   Select the tag you wish to use, click "OK" to apply the tag or click "Cancel".

Click the options tab.  Note that you may have more or less options depending upon your user rights within the forum as determined by your administrator.

• File attachment: If you are allowed to attach a file to the post and you wish to do so click the "Add/Update".  Currently the community only supports a single attachment per post.  If the administrator has allowed you this functionality, you will be only able to upload files of certain types and up to a certain size.  Contact your administrator for details
• Do not allow replies: If you select this option then no one will be allowed to reply to your post.  This causes the thread to become locked
• Email me replies to this post:  Select this option to be emailed copies of any replies to the post if you so wish.  Clear it to disable any email replies
• Stickiness: If you have the rights to mark a thread as sticky then select the period that the thread should remain at the top of the forum.  This will pin the post so that it will be displayed as the first post of the forum for that period of time.  If a newer post is created and marked as sticky it will appear above the post you are creating.  The final option in the drop down list is "Announcement", select this to pin the post permanently
• Post Icon: Allows you to insert an emoticon from the displayed list into the subject title

You can add a Poll if you have permission.  Click the Poll tab (if there is no tab, you do not have permission).  Click "Include a Poll in this Post".  Enter the poll question.  You can also optionally enter a poll description.  Add each answer or option for members to vote for by entering the answer and clicking "Add Answer".  You can alter the order the options appear in the post by using the up and down arrows.  Finally you can cause the poll to expire by entering the number of days that members can vote and participate in the poll.

To insert the poll into the post, return to the "Compose" tab.  Enter the text [Poll] at the position you wish the poll to appear.  Click the "Preview" tab.  This allows you to preview your post.  Note that if you see a word appearing as a series of asterisks "***" you have used a word the administrator has banned from use on the forums.

You can even embed video in a post if the administrator has allowed you permission to do so.  Click the "Video" tab (if there is no tab, you do not have permission).  Click "Include Video".  Note you should contact the community administrator for supported video types. 

• Video URL: Enter the URL of the video
• Preview Image URL: If you have a preview image URL for the view enter it here
• Video Duration: Enter the duration of the video
• Video Width: Enter the width of the video in pixels
• Video Height:  Enter the height of the video in pixels

Click the "Compose" tab.  Enter the text [Video] at the position you wish the video to appear.

Click the "Preview" tab.  Note that if you did not provide a preview URL a default one is used. Click the "Play" button.

The video is played within the body of the post.

When you reviewed your post click the "Post" button to submit the post to the forum.  The post should appear as the first post below any sticky posts.  If this does not happen check your profile settings. 

It will also appear as the latest active and unanswered post.