In the forum toolbar, you will see a menu labeled 'profile', this section allows you to customize your profile. Below is an explanation of the function of each option. After setting your options and clicking the 'Update Profile' button at the bottom of the page, your profile settings will be saved. Field Description First Name* your first name Last Name* your last name Username* your username for logging in to the forums (e.g. jsmith). Password allows you to change your password Verify Password a second password field used to verify your password City the city in which you reside Province/State the state or province in which you reside; if your state is not listed, choose "Other". Country the country in which you reside Time Zone for the convenience of those not in the same time zone as the forums, you can select your time zone. All topic and message times will then be displayed in your time zone. Time Zone Adjust because some countries update their time systems randomly, rules for daylight savings time are not always the same. Manually adjust your offset to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). E-mail Address* your e-mail address Birth Date your birthday (MM/DD/YYYY) Current Browser displays the users browser and version they are using.

The key actions of the forum are posting, replying, and viewing messages. Instructions for each of these tasks follows. I. Posting a new topic Note: Messages are posted Monday thru Friday (except holidays). Messages that do not have proper punctuation, misspelled words or abbreviations will be modified and will take longer to be approved. To post a new topic, enter the category you want to post to and click the 'new topic' tab on the menu. The Post a Message form will appear, where you can enter the message title and description. Press on the 'Post Message' button when completed. See below for the list of fields in this form and their definitions. Above the message box, you will see a toolbar which allows you to insert emotion icons into your message at any position within in. Field/Function Description Message Title the title or short description of the message. Message Text the body text of the message. Subscribe to this topic allows you to subscribe to the topic; if anyone replies to the topic, you will be notified via e-mail. Attach a File allows you to attach one or more files to your message. Note: Attachments containing images of children will not be posted. Attachments cannot exceed 150 Kbytes in size. Preview Button allows you to preview your messages prior to posting. II. Replying To reply to a message/topic, click the 'Reply' button located in each message within a topic. See below for the list of fields in the Reply form that will appear, and their definitions. Above the message box, you will see a toolbar which allows you to insert emotion icons into your message at any position within in. Field Description Message Text the body text of the message. Attach a File allows you to attach one or more files to your message. Note: Attachments containing images of children will not be posted. Attachments cannot exceed 150 Kbytes in size. Subscribe to this topic allows you to subscribe to the topic; if anyone replies to the topic, you will be notified via e-mail. Preview Button allows you to preview your messages prior to posting. III. Attachments File attachments can be added to a message when posting or replying. Attachments containing images of children will not be posted. Attachments cannot exceed 150 Kbytes in size. To add an attachment: Click on the 'Attach a file to this message...' link. Click on the 'Browse...' button to select the file you wish to upload from your computer. Click on the 'Upload this file' button. IV. Editing You may not edit your posts once they have been submitted. V. Viewing To view messages in the forum, navigate into a category and click on a topic that interests you. A list of messages will appear. If the number of messages in that topic exceeds the number of messages that you've allowed to be displayed per page, you will see page numbers at the top and bottom of the screen. This will assist you in navigating through the page(s) of messages. Every message consists of the following features: the message body, the posted date, the author of the message, and a toolbar at the top right and bottom right of the screen. Top Right Message Toolbar The toolbar located at the top right allows you to perform various tasks. Following is a description of each task. Icon Description Subscribe icon - allows you to subscribe to the topic; if any new messages are posted, you will be notified via e-mail or private messaging depending on your profile settings. E-mail Topic icon - allows you to send the URL link to this topic to someone else by e-mail. Add to Favorites icon - allows you to bookmark topics and add them to your favorites list for viewing at a later time. The favorites listing is located within the today/my forums page. Print Topic icon - allows you to view text version of the topic and print it. Bottom Right Message Toolbar The toolbar located at the bottom right allows you to reply to a message, and navigate through each message by the top, next, previous and bottom links, and edit a message (if you are the originator).

You can search the forum for topics and messages that are of particular interest to you. There are two ways in which you can search for forum information; selecting the "main" button in the main navigation area for an advanced search or by using the single keyword search function available in each category. See below for the descriptions of the fields and their functions. Field Description Search Phrase enter your search criteria here. What is it you are searching for? User can use Boolean logic which will search all aspects. Author filter your search by author name. You can also search for messages ONLY by the author name. Forum Categories select the categories that you want to search from the list. Date Range There are two options for selecting your date criteria: a) Use the drop down menu and select how many days prior to the current date; or b) Enter a start and end date (mm/dd/yyyy) of the message/topic. Date Range is a required selection for performing searches.

The My Stuff page is a summary of what is currently happening in the forum as it relates to you. If you subscribe to topics, these will be displayed here. Hot Topics is defined by how many messages are in a topic.