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[melkathi]

I have seen a lot of people getting confused by the way Links work in this forum.
In hope that it will help those who don't know how, but would like to enhance their posts, I thought I'd create a little tutorial.

NOTE: If at any point you feel that I do not explain things in a way that helps you, also look at the Tutorial posted by DalishRanger on her Blog.

EDIT: As people are having a lot of other questions and troubles, I have added an "appendix" where I try to explain everything else that comes up. So if you have questions that don't have to do with links and images, scroll to the third post in this thread. If the question isn't answered there, let me know.


Content

• How to do a simple link to a page
• How to link to a specific post in a thread
• How to link to an image and have the image appear in the post
• Appendix: Various Forum Stuff

1. How to do a simple link to a page

In the first exercise we'll create a link to my forum profile.
The URL (Uniform Resource Locator - or let's just say: the address) is:

http://social.bioware.com/416594/

Instead of that, we want it to look like this:
Melkathi's Profile

This we'll do two ways:

1.1 Using the forum's link tool

The tool is rather complicated, but we'll ignore all the weird options and do it the simplest way.

Step 1:

Write the text you want to be shown as the link. In this instance:
Melkathi's Profile
and then highlight the text using you mouse. This should then look like this:


Step 2:

Now with the text highlighted click the Insert/Edit Link button:


Step 3:

Copy and paste the URL you want to link to into the box and press ok:








And tada! Your link is done!


1.2 Using BBCode

BBCode (Bulletin Board Code) is a language used on many a forum. Most important for us, it's used by this forum.
If trusting weird tools is not your style or if the tool acts funny, you may want to mess with the actual BBCode of what you are doing.

Step 1:

Click the BBCode button:


Step 2:

Manually type the code needed to create a link.
To do this you use tags. Tags are keywords inside square brackets, which tell the forum what it's supposed to do.
Every tag opens with a keyword and closes with the same keyword with a / in front of it.
The tag that interests us right now is URL and /URL to close it.
You open the tag with URL=the address you are linking to. Type the text you want displayed between the open and close tag and close the tag with /URL.
The link to my profile, when typed out, looks like this in BBCode:



Step 3:

Click the BBCode button again to return to the normal post view and you are done.

Modifié par melkathi, 13 mars 2010 - 07:29 .

[melkathi]

2. How to link to a specific post in a thread

There you are, happily arguing with someone online, when you realize that this person doesn't know that a dev has already confirmed your side of the argument as being true. You of course proceed to tell them this and quote the post. But wouldn't it be nice to rub it in and to provide concrete proof by linking directly to the comment?


As an example for this exercise, we'll link directly to a post by David Gaider about Loghain.
This one:

EDIT: Warning: The post I am currently using as an example, is from the SPOILERS section fo the Dragon Age forum. I will try to find a "safer" one to use (and am open to suggestions).

David's post

Step 1:

Locate the post you wish to link to and right-click on the word link in the top right corner of the post.
Click Copy Link Location (this should be the option regardless of the browser you are using - if not, you'll have to find your browser's equivalent)
Copy Link Location works the same way as if the address was written out and you had highlighted it and selected copy.





Step 2:

Using the URL you obtained this way*, create the link just like we did the previous time, using either the method described in section 1.1 or the one in 1.2.

*A Reminder: Copy Link Location works the same way as if the address was written out and you had highlighted it and selected copy. This means you can simply paste it!

If you look at the BBCode of your link to David's post, it should look like this:



What's the difference if you had simply linked to the thread? You'd be missing the /18#591250 part which is the bit that indicates the exact post in the thread you are linking to.



Now the person you are arguing with has no excuse that they didn't want to wade through 50 pages of posts to find the one you were talking about, as your link will take them directly to it.






3. How to link to an image and have the image appear in the post

There isn't much to say as an introduction. A lot of people put images in their posts, why shouldn't you?

We could do this with that link button the forum provides us with. This button has a tendency to mess up image links though, forcing you to use BBCode to correct it. (usually use of the button causes the image to appear twice)
So we'll just use BBCode from the start and get it done right.

First of all you'll need to have an image that people need to see AND you will need to upload this image to the internet. There are a number of sites that allow for free hosting of images. You can pick any of those.
For this tutorial I used imageshack since it requires no user account, but personally I also have a photobucket account. There are many others though and you are sure to find one that suits your needs best.

For this example I took a screenshot from the official DAO site and re-uploaded it to have a shorter URL than it previously had:



To do this, we use the IMG tag. As always, a tag is enclosed in square brackets and you open with one tag and close with a /tag . In this case IMG and /IMG each in square brackets.
Between those two, you type the URL of the image.
It should look something like this:



You will notice that the screenshot of Morrigan at this point is not a link.
If you want the image to also link to the image location, you will have to also use the URL tag just as we did in the first exercise. In this case, the image takes the place of the text you would otherwise have displayed as a link.
The link should then look something like this:



Most image hosting sites will provide you with a choice of links for the image you uploaded. One of these links usually includes the full URL and IMG tags, so you simply need to click the BBCode button in the forum and copy&paste the code you are provided with.
For example:




And that's all there is to it really.

Hope this helps some people!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If there is any other information that could be needed: let me know.
If there already are guides for this: I actually used the search function to look, but didn't find anything.
If people think these things are too simple to require explanation: Good for them

Modifié par melkathi, 03 mars 2010 - 05:21 .

[melkathi]

4. Appendix: Various Forum Stuff


Content

• Finding Stuff
• Subscribing to a specific thread
• Getting a nifty ingame avatar
• Creating a signature
• Eeek! The Forum changed language! Change it back!
• PMs: My SEND button has vanished!
• Weird Text appearing in posts

4.1 Finding Stuff


4.1.1 using: The Search Function

The Search Function can be found at the top of the forum:



If for some reason the search function has disappeared, you can manually find it through this address:

http://social.biowar.../forum/1/search

Which should send you here:




4.1.2 using: Your Profile

In your profile you wil find a tab named "Forum"
This tab lists all the threads you have created yourself.




4.1.3 using: The Jump To mechanic

Towards the top of the page, next to the search function, you will find the Jump To mechanic.
This provides you with a drop down menu, allowing you to choose between displaying all of Your Posts, Subscribed Topics/Threads and Recent Posts.




And since this brought it up:







4.2 Subscribing to a specific thread



Step 1:

At the top of each thread you will see a button saying Subscribe - just click it




Step 2:

Now you can easily find this thread again using the Jump To mechanic mentioned earlier:




Step 3:

The really nifty thing about subscribing to a thread is the ability to recieve Email Notifications when people reply to it.

To do this you have to visit your Forum Settings here:




Or using this URL:
http://social.biowar.../forum/settings

Once there, click the first checkbox if you want to recieve Email Notifications of new replies.










4.3 Getting a nifty ingame avatar



The forum should automaticaly give you the option of using any of your uploaded characters as forum avatar.

You can change your avatar through your profile by clicking here:




Or using this URL:
http://social.biowar...ofile_photo.php

This should bring you to a screen similar to this:





Attention:
The forum sometimes takes a while until it receives the character data. You may need to be patient until you can use your characters as avatars.
If you have been patient and still nothing happens, then it is very likely that not all character data had been uploaded properly.
There are other stickies where other people explain in great detail what to do.
I'd suggest visiting this thread by Darth Midville for example.
As well as a general visit to the Social.bioware.com Site Help section of this forum.








4.4 Creating a signature

Creating a signature is easy.

Basically it's exactly like posting in the forum.

All you have to do is go to your Forum Settings:




Or using this URL:
http://social.biowar.../forum/settings

Once there, simply write in the text box, the same way you would do when posting stuff in the forum.



You can use BBCode to add links and images just as you would in normal posts.

BUT:
Signatures have a height limit. Anything past this limit will be clipped (i.e. will not show up).
There are also limits on how long and high images in signatures may be. I am not sure what the exact limits are.
The height of signature should be no more than three lines of text though.


But Melkathi, how do I get those nifty sig images people have?
Those are usually made by the people themselves. And it is not difficult to do so yourself. As inspiration and to get you going have a look at this thread.









4.5 Eeek! The Forum changed language! Change it back!

A number of people have come to th forum to suddenly find it in a language they did not understand.
It is something that happens, apparently, though it hasn't happened to me yet.

The confusing thing about the language change, is that the forum has two language settings.
One setting is for the Forum part of the site, the other setting is for the whole Website.
So as not to make this too confusing:

If you ever find yourself staring at the wrong language, check BOTH language options as shown in the following two screenshots:


Towards the top of the forum:



At the far bottom of the website:




It usually is the website language that this hickup is encountered with. So usually changing the language setting at the bottom of the page should suffice.








4.6 PMs: My SEND button has vanished!

Sometimes when sending Private Messages, the Send button disappears from the bottom of the PM Box.
Various helpful people on the forum have tried to figure out what causes this. We have not yet found all the causes.
We do know that it can be caused by:
a) extremely low screen resolution
having more than 2 recipients
c) widescreen ratios (for me the button vanishes when screen resolution is set to 16:9 while it is visible with 16:10)

Regardless of what the cause is, the Send button usually has only been clipped and is still there.
You can reach it by using the tab key on your keyboard.
Hitting the tab key will cycle through the various boxes and buttons you can use. While typing text, the Send button should be the very first thing the tab key cycles to.

You can find the tab key just above the Caps Lock key. It is the one with the two arrows.


(image taken from the wiki entry)








4.7 Wierd Text appearing in posts

Sometimes you'll create a post and all of a sudden a lot of gibberish will appear after hiting the submit button.
You promptly try edit it, but still, even though you delete the stuff, it reappears once you submit.
This is actually a very easy thing to fix.
What has happened is that some wrong code has been added to your post, which the forum doesn't recognize. This can happen for various reasons, a common one: copy pasting from Word.

As you cannot alter code in the default view of the posting/editing window, what you need to do is to enter BBCode mode.
You do this by clicking the small icon above the text window:


Now you can edit the code in your post. So you can simply find the junk code and delete it. And this time, when you hit submit, the gibberish should stay deleted.

Modifié par melkathi, 14 mars 2010 - 02:41 .

[Chillwill]

Great guide, always wondered how to do that stuff but not bothered to find out until now

[Korvayer]

Fantastic.

[Fexelea]

Sticky?

[Sarielle]

Very nice tutorial Melkathi!

[melkathi]

Problem is, I think I posted it in the wrong forum section. Should really have put it in the Site Help section... if I had ever scrolled down past the Toolset part

At some point I want to experiment a bit and see what tags can be used and what can't. If there is enough cool stuff one can do, maybe it's worth writting  a small tutorial on formatting posts. But as it is, there doesn't seem to be anything other than what the normal text window already offers.
And it occured to me that perhaps I should put a line somewhere in the first post that all of this can be used to make awesome forum signatures...

Edit: oh and of course there had been some revisions to the original guide to make it less confusing, after proof reading by SusanStoHelit and her red marker:wizard:

Modifié par melkathi, 08 février 2010 - 09:31 .

[Spitz6860]

very useful nicely done.

[7th_Phoenix]

Hey! This is awesome... great tutorials! A lot easier than I thought it would be.

[miltos33]

Nice effort.

[Tottenham]

very helpful, ty

[SusanStoHelit]

Thanks Melkathi, I've actually learned how to do some of these things now. I actually just used my first link to a specific post in a thread.



Bravissimo!

[Looper128]

many already said it but its worth saying again: Great guide! good work =)

[cmathews03]

melkathi - Excellent guide. I actually feel that posting this guide in this forum is "better," seeing as how (strictly from numbers) a lot of the traffic, if not most of it, seems to generate here.

Sticky, please!

Modifié par cmathews03, 10 février 2010 - 12:44 .

[The Makinak]

I'm glad you posted here and not the site help. I never would have checked.

[melkathi]

The Makinak wrote...

I'm glad you posted here and not the site help. I never would have checked.

That implies, that unlike a lot of us, you at least knew that part of the forum existed


Anyway:
Not too active on forum at the moment. Going to be reading the Dragon Age books.
And playing King Arthur the rpg wargame. I always wanted strategy with meaningfull choices with consequences... be careful what you wish for lest they give it to you...
Now what do I do with Lady Isolde? Convince the Green Knight to let her and Sir Tristan go and let them live happily ever after in Camelot? Save her, hand her over to Sir Gawain, leaving Sir Tristan to rot? Or do I go all pagan on them and ally myself with the Green Knight?
Argh.
Of course allying with the Green Knight will boost my Old Faith rating, making it possible to convince the druids in Wales to withdraw their backing from the current king and throw in their lot with Camelot... though if the current king of Wales does not accept their decission and attacks me, then I am caught between the welsh archers on the west and the saxon christian knights on the east, the proverbial rock and hard place.
Double Aaargh


edit: what I ment to say is: I'm thinking of more stuff to add, or anything else that could use an explanation thread, but so far haven't com up with anything:wizard:

Modifié par melkathi, 10 février 2010 - 11:21 .

[ModerateOsprey]

I think it worth keeping this thread going even if it is the wrong place. If only to let folk know a forum thread exists!



But now its here, I have a question of my own. When I find a thread I like I select subscribe, but can I find where I view my subscribed threads?? Nope..Am I being really dumb?

[melkathi]

ModerateOsprey wrote...

I think it worth keeping this thread going even if it is the wrong place. If only to let folk know a forum thread exists!

But now its here, I have a question of my own. When I find a thread I like I select subscribe, but can I find where I view my subscribed threads?? Nope..Am I being really dumb?

One would think that, like in other Forums(/Fora/Fourmzzzzz), subscribing to a thread would result with an email being send when the thread is replied to. That's what I thought at first.

But it turns out that:

[ModerateOsprey]

Thank you so much for that. It has been driving me nuts. Yes, I am used to replies coming in email.

[melkathi]

ModerateOsprey wrote...

Thank you so much for that. It has been driving me nuts. Yes, I am used to replies coming in email.

Today I am good at finding stuff. I get these flashes of "Oooh that could be there!" So far I found the subscribed threads and the phone number I have been looking for for ages. Now all I need is to find the courage to call her <_<

[melkathi]

Well, just really happy right now:

From Tyrax Lightning's Post in another thread:



Hehe!

This game has a great community. Makes one almost sad it is single player :happy:

[DalishRanger]

I made a blog tutorial about this months ago. However, I think it's good to see someone else do one. I think there's a bigger chance of people finding one of them and learning how to use images and links, which is the most important thing.



Well done!

[melkathi]

DalishRanger wrote...

I made a blog tutorial about this months ago. However, I think it's good to see someone else do one. I think there's a bigger chance of people finding one of them and learning how to use images and links, which is the most important thing.

Well done!

Ah, I never noticed your tutorial. Awesome work.
Never even bothered to look at what one can do with Blogs on here.

For tutorials though they have one downside (even though they are awesome since they allow for much more formating than forum posts), they don't show up in the forum search, so fewer people will stumble upon them while seeking information.

[Eurypterid]

Fexelea wrote...

Sticky?

Sticky!