How to use the OPS Forum

[Alan Graham]

Lesson 1

You have just finished lesson 1.

A) You either have set up your notifications and received an email or,

B) You have just logged in to take a look. If you are a new member looking for the first time in 2040, welcome...



Lesson 2

Setting up notifications.

A) To set up notifications of new replies or topics you need to do this as you log in. Malcolm added how to do this under this section. It is pinned at the top of the 'Tutorials, Hints and Tips' page.

B) If you don't want to get these notifications you can change that also.

Lesson 3

Replying to message via email notifications.

When you get an email notification there are a number of things to consider.

A) Images will not show, this is a default of the forum that cannot change, also

B) If you reply straight from your email box 2 things happen.
i) You attach the whole message to your reply and this clutters the thread on the forum. Also,
ii) it attaches your email address to the message. This may not bother most but the idea of a forum is contact without too many personal details, hence the personal message service it also offers.

To solve both these issues you just need one click on the link at the bottom of the message. You will see a message stating: "If you reply to this email..." with a link below it.

By clicking on this link it will open the forum, with you already* logged in within your email account. In my Gmail account, the header changes to the www page and there is an X top left. Once you have looked, replied and visited elsewhere on the forum you just click the X and it returns you to the email you started with. Simples. (*if this doesn't happen let me know)

Any reply you make doing this will be a standard reply without attaching all the other messages to it.

I hope this is of help to everyone. Just to get you to test it here's a photo of something I have been working on:

[Alan Graham]

Lesson 3 addendum

*If you are in a habit of logging out of the forum and not just closing the page you will need to log back in when you click on the link. It is a personal choice if you log out each time. It will save time using the link method if you don't.

[Bazza]

Thanks Alan

Always good to get detailed instructions

[Alan Graham]

Lesson 4

Posting images

Most of you have managed to post images but here are some tips to note when doing so.

To prevent your images from looking too small follow the simple guide below.

I tend to save my images for the forum at 1000px wide but larger images should be automatically adjusted unless you leave 'None' clicked, this could overload the server...:

[JanGilkes]

This last note is very useful as I always believed everything should be small but now I know why mine never looked very clear/sharp, so thank you for the instructions!