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This how-to is for those who are not familiar with the various ways you can reply to a topic. Whether you want to add your
in your own special way, want to quote what someone else said to make your comments more relevant, wish to quote several people in the same reply to cover many points or just want to post a quick and easy reply - this will help you do just that.
I'll illustrate this how-to with graphics and code. Be sure to click any of the images to see them full-size. Keep in mind that even when the style and design of the site changes, the concepts and directions do not. If newer versions of the forum software add features or change the functions, I will update this how-to.
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There are 4 separate and distinct ways to reply to a topic. The image below shows the 4 graphics you can click to activate your method of choice. At the top and bottom left of each page of a topic is a large graphic we call the "
Post Reply" button. In each message of the topic, in the lower right corner, is a row of graphics. Left to right they are the "
Quote" button, the "
Multi-Quote" button and the "
Quick Reply" button.
Post Reply
If you click the big
Post Reply button, you'll get either the
Standard Editor - Extra formatting controls or the
Enhanced Interface - Full WYSIWYG editing (you can change these at the bottom of your
User CP Edit Options page). The editor will look something like this:
You have a number of icons and options at your disposal. You are able to decorate your posts and format them very easily. One too little used icon is the List icon (actually, there are 2 - one for a button list and one for a numbered list). You can also use different fonts, colors, sizes and some of the icons will guide you in making links or posting pictures you have on your computer or found on the internet. Using these features can help to convey your thoughts and ideas in a legible and professional manner, but the over-use of some of these makes posts difficult to read. That's why I always encourage people to proof read their posts by clicking the Preview Post button in the message editor - see what it looks like and if the sentences make sense.
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Quote Message
If you wish to quote all or part of a message someone else left in the topic, you click the
Quote button, as shown above, in the message you want to quote. So, if you want to quote what Joe Blow said in his message, go to his message and click the big Quote button. The message editor will open with all of Joe's message already in the editor - but it has special code at the beginning and the end of it that makes it appear in that cool way you see below.
Joe Blow said
The message editor will open with all of Joe's message already in the editor - but it has special code at the beginning and the end of it that makes it appear in that cool way you see below.
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This is what it looked like in the editor:
The important part, the code, cannot be altered or the quote will be broken. The code consists of these characters at the begging and end of the quoted message:
[quote] and
[/quote] - it's not case sensitive. Everything else between this code can be edited. Just edit the text of the quote, which usually means taking out the part that is irrelevant to the conversation. But be careful not to remove the code. The most common mistake is removing one of the square brackets in the code. When you do it right, it looks like this:
Joe Blow said
...but it has special code at the beginning and the end of it...
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When you make a mistake, like accidentally removing the first square bracket of the end quote code, it will look like this:
[quote=Joe Blow;000000]...but it has special code at the beginning and the end of it.../quote]
Not very pretty - and hard to read. My oft-repeated admonishment: Proof read!
You can manually add the quote tags, as they are called, by either typing them in, or using the small quote graphic in the editor:
Using the above graphic example, you would get something like this:
...but it has special code at the beginning and the end of it...
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Notice that the name of the person you are quoting is missing, along with the tiny graphic that, when clicked, will take the reader to the post you are quoting (in our examples, I am using a non-existent message, so clicking it will give you an error page). You can manually add
=Joe Blow (or whoever) just as you see in the examples and it will help the reader understand your message better, knowing who you are quoting and referring to.
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Multi-Quote - or - Quoting several messages in a single reply
There are times where you want to reply to 2 or more people in the same topic. You can use the big Quote button and make several replies that way, but it's easier and quicker to use the Multi-Quote feature and post only one message that has several different quotes. Simply click the Multi-Quote button in each of the messages you want to quote from. When you click the button, it changes color so you can tell which messages you will quote. You can click the button again to turn it off, if you change your mind. The off and on states, in that order, look like this:
Once you have clicked all the
MQ buttons in the messages you want to quote, you can click the big
Post Reply button and the editor will open with all your chosen messages quoted for you:
You can edit these quotes in the same manner I described for the regular quoted messages.
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Quick Reply
The fastest and easiest way to reply to a topic is with the Quick Reply editor you see at the bottom of each page of a discussion. To use it, you must click the
Quick Reply button, as shown in the first illustration - it's labeled
QR. I have tried to make it self-explanatory. It has several icons that will help you enhance your post. It even has a Quote icon that you can use to manually add a portion of quoted text.
You can also quote a whole post in the Quick Reply editor if you click the QR button in the post you want quoted and then place a check mark in the small box below the editor that says, "Quote message in reply?"
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If you have any questions about the different methods of replying to a topic, please speak up. I'll be happy to help. Do keep in mind that off-topic comments and banter will be pruned out of this topic at some point so that others will have an easier time understanding how this all works. If I have made it too complicated, say so and I will try to make it simpler. I get carried away sometimes with too much unnecessary detail. The most important thing to me is that you enjoy participating in the way that you want to. That's my goal, but I won't know if I am doing it unless you let me know.
Thanks,
Jim
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