In opening I would simply say "Go in and PLAY" you won't break anything and the best way to figure out what does what is poke some buttons and follow some links. If you bought a new car you could study the owners manual for a week OR fiddle with things and see what they do. This does not cost $20,000 and you can always delete or edit something if you don't like what you did.

The Features

• Send and receive Private Messages known as PM. These are messages that go to an "Inbox" located here on the web site.
• Send Email to people who have elected to receive email at their personal email address. Some will not due to having a work email and an employer who does not allow private email. They can still do Private Messaging.
• Post Topics in the Forums on the bulletin board. Topics are a way to open a discussion or let people know what is new in your life. Topics can then be posted to by other members.
• Leave a message or have an online conversation in the shout box.
• Work is being done to get pictures and some other sharp features online and as they get done people can look forward to announcements in the bulletin board.

Taking the features one at a time and giving you a brief description of what and how.

Private Messages

• You access this feature by clicking on the Member List link near the top of the page and then click the button labeled PM next to a members name. You may also see a PM button under a Post the person makes to the bulletin board.
• The PM button brings up a form for you to enter your message. Click in the text area next to Subject and enter a subject for the message. You must enter a subject.
• You then click in the large text area for the message body. You type your message.
• You can click on one of the emoticons to the left and it will be inserted in the message at the place your cursor is at in the message.
• The button labeled B, I and U above the message text area will put BBCode in the message to make the text Bold, Italic or Underlined. Note that the first time you click one of these buttons the button gets an asterisk next to it. This is to remind you that you have started typing with that text modification applied and will have to click the button again to end the modification. Modifications to text must have a beginning and end marked, see the sample that appears just above the message text area when you make click a modification button. The (alt+some letter) that is next to the sample is telling you that hitting the alt key and that letter at the same time is the same as clicking the button.
• The changes do not show up while you type, you can view how they will appear by clicking the preview button below the text area. Edit some more until you are satisfied then click submit to send the message. You can preview as many times as you like.
• The font color and size lists work a little different than the buttons. When you click on one of these selections it puts both a beginning and end for the modification into your text area. You must move your cursor between the two tags to type the text that will be effected by the selected modification. [color=red] Your text goes here [/color]. End tags always have a / in them.
• Under Options there is a link "BBcode is on" This will open a page with detailed explanations and examples of BBcode and how to use it in it's own window so you can read instructions while trying them out.
• Did I mention PLAY WITH IT.

• You access your messages from the messages link near the top of the bulletin board pages.
• You will be on a page with links to Inbox, SentBox, Outbox and SavedBox. Clicking these leads to the links to view, delete or save your messages.
• There is a limit on how many messages will are allowed in your inbox(50) sentbox(25) and savedbox(50).
• You use the little square check box to mark messages, then click the buttons to delete or save messages.
• PLAY WITH IT. Send someone a PM asking them to send you a PM.

Email

• You access this feature by clicking on the Member List link near the top of the bulletin board page and then click the button labeled Email next to a members name. You may also see an Email button under a Post the person makes to the bulletin board.
• The email button brings up a simple form with a place for subject and message.
• Remember your email address will go with the email you send no matter what.

Posting to the Forums

• Forums are grouped by Categories, Forums have Topics posted to them, Post are added to Topics. The only difference between a Topic and a Post are where they are in the hierarchy. Categories -> Forums -> Topics -> Posts.
• You create a new Topic by clicking on a Forum name then clicking the New Topic button.
• The form for entering a Topic is just like the form for entering a Private Message.
• You Post to a Topic by clicking a Forum name, clicking a Topic name then clicking the New Post button.
• The form for entering a Post is just like the form for entering a Private Message or Topic.
• Pay attention to the links above and to the left of the listings of Topics or Posts. The tell you where you are, how deep you are in the hierarchy and provide the links to move back through the hierarchy of Topics and Forums.

Using the ShoutBox

• The ShoutBox is located at the bottom of the Highlanders 1963 Forum Index.
• Simply put the shoutbox allows you to post messages that are available until enough messages are entered to push your message off (90 message limit).
• You type your message in the long text area and click submit. Your message appears at the bottom of the list.
• Clicking submit without entering any text will refresh the messages allowing you to see what others have posted since the last time you posted a message or refreshed the messages.
• Yes you can carry on a conversation with the registered users listed as online in Who is Online just above the shoutbox. You just have to take turns sending messages and clicking submit a few times with no message entered until the other persons reply appears.
• You can use BBCode in the shoutbox but you have to type it in yourself (no buttons). Use the same codes that the form for Private Messages, Topics and Posts use. Including the BBCode for emoticons.
• The title "ShoutBox" is a link to all the messages in one big page, you can't post or refresh from here but it is easier to see all the previous message. Use your browser back button to go back to the Bulletin Board.
• The link SB Hide will collapse the shoutbox into a single bar the next time the main page is refreshed or changes. If you collapse the shoutbox you can get it back by clicking the word "show" in the title of the shoutbox which will have changed to "ShoutBox - Show"

The rest of the site

• This area is access by clicking on the Howell High School logo.
• Most of this portion of the web site is still under construction. So for now it's just a few pages and some pages that indicate what will be going in a spot.
• There is a link on this part of the site back to the Highlanders 1963 Forum Index (Bulletin Board).