7 Tips about using our discussion forums....

The discussion forums on ArtisticThreadWorks is probably different from the forums most people are accustomed to but has some great advantages over other forums.  Here are some tips to help you get the most out of this area of our site:

1) Pink folders vs. yellow folders... A pink folder has posts in it that are new since the last time you visited the discussion forum. You can quickly scan for pink ones when you login and get caught up.

2) "Expanded Index" vs. "Most Recent Posts".... On the top right side of the discussion forum (under the picture of Holly with Onyx) it says either "Expanded Index" or "Most Recent Posts". By clicking on either of those you can condense or expand your view of the forums.  I use "Expanded Posts" most of the time so I can scan the first line of each post and each reply as well as who wrote the message.

3) "Preview" feature.... When you make a new message or reply to a message - there is no button saying "post message" or "post reply" when you are done typing.  Instead it says "Preview Reply" or "Preview New Message".  Clicking on that button will show you what you just typed.  It's amazing when I read my own message how often I find a typo or grammar error that I know is wrong but didn't see until I did the preview.  From the preview you can either go ahead and post the message or choose to edit it instead.

4) "Notify by email".... Above the "Preview Reply" or "Preview New Message" there is a box that you can check that says "Check here to be notified by email of replies to this thread".  If you have a hot question and really want to know immediately if it has been answered, this button is for you.  What I like about this option is that I don't get another hundred emails every day because I only check this for stuff that I want to check it for.

5) Privacy.... While a message board is not private, this one is members only. We know each peerson here that posts and they are part of our "gated community".  It is very unlikely that a spammer is going to pay to become a member just so they can post their garbage on our forum. If they do, we can revoke their membership.

6) "Search Messages".... If I am looking for info about anything I saw in the past in the forums, I can use the "Search Messages" feature to find it quickly.

7) "Spell Check".... You can do a spell check on your postings with a free spell-check tool available at  www.iespell.com.  I love this product because a) it works! b) it's free and c) I can use it on any web page that I am typing into!

My adivce is to use the discussion forum a lot!  We have some very knowlegable people on our site every day and you could find it a quick way to get answers to questions or a great way to get to know others in embroidery.