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The New HTF Beginner's Guide: How To Use XenForo (1 Viewer)

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Dave Upton

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Home Theater Forum is now running on XenForo. New to XenForo? In this thread, I'll be sharing instructions for how to handle basic forum tasks.

Glossary
XenForo uses some terms that are slightly different from what we used when we were on IPBoard. Here are some key ones to be aware of:
  • Messages – These are what IPBoard and vBulletin calls “posts”. Your number of posts will be migrated over to become your current number of messages.
  • Discussions – These are what IPBoard calls "topics", and vBulletin calls "threads".
  • Alerts – These replace IPBoard's “notifications”. You’ll see an Alerts menu at the top right of the page when you’re signed in (next to your profile information). Here you’ll see notifications on threads and forums you’re watching, and you can manage your alert preferences from here.
  • Conversations – These are private messages you have with other users.
upload_2016-1-31_9-19-29.png

The Log In and Sign Up buttons are in the top right, next to the search bar. You can use the same username and password you used in the past.

How to View Threads/Discussions

Click on any forum title to view the threads in that forum. You’ll see the name of each thread, who started that thread and when, the number of replies and views, and the name of the last contributor to the thread (and when that contribution occurred). Click on the date below last message to be taken directly to the latest message in the thread. If you subscribe to that thread, clicking on the blue dot to the left of the thread title will take you to the first unread post.

upload_2016-1-31_9-23-12.png

Hover your mouse over a thread title to see the page count, and a preview of the first message in that discussion.

upload_2016-1-31_9-25-8.png
 
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Dave Upton

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How to Start a Discussion (Thread)

To start a new thread, go to any forum, and click the blue Post New Thread button:

upload_2016-1-31_9-27-28.png
 
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Dave Upton

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How To Use The XenForo Editor

When you create a new thread, or reply to one you will be using XenForo's Editor. It is superior to IPBoard's in many ways, but here are the highlights:
  • XenForo's editor is called a WYSIWYG editor, which means "What You See Is What You Get" - basically, the formatting in the editor will exactly match your post.
  • You can upload images by copy and paste, you don't need to manually upload a file anymore. You can paste directly from a screenshot or snipping tool in Windows (Grab in OS X), or you can drag and drop an image into the editor. It will automatically upload.
  • If you want to upload a bunch of files, just click the Upload A File button.
  • When you want to use a plain text editor, you can easily swap to the BBCode Editor by clicking on the wrench on the upper right corner.
  • The spoiler and quote shortcuts are hidden underneath the plus sign:
upload_2016-1-31_9-32-38.png
  • Posting a poll is as easy as scrolling down when creating a new Thead. Please note you can currently only post one poll question per thread:
upload_2016-1-31_9-35-34.png
 

Dave Upton

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How to Quote Other Users’ Posts
If you’re in a thread and want to reply specifically to another user’s post, use the “Reply” link at the bottom right of the post you want to quote. This will start a new post with that user’s post quoted. You can then add any additional information you want and submit your reply.
 
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Dave Upton

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How to Quote Multiple Posts
If you want to include multiple other posts within your post, use the Multi-Quote option. Go through a given thread and click the “+Quote” link on all the posts you want to include in your response. You'll see the text in the button turn light blue, to indicate it's not part of your multi-quote, and you'll get a confirmation at the top of the screen.

upload_2016-1-31_9-39-47.png

Once you click it it will show with a “-Quote” (you can click again to de-select).

upload_2016-1-31_9-40-34.png

Once you’ve selected all of the quotes, go down to the bottom of the thread and click “Insert Quotes…” in the Post Reply box. A box will pop up with all the quotes you’ve selected, which you can re-order if desired.

upload_2016-1-31_9-42-1.png

Click "Quote These Messages" and you’ll see the quotes in your post.

upload_2016-1-31_9-42-32.png
 
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Dave Upton

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How to Watch a Forum for New Threads
Want to know when new threads are created in a certain forum? Click the “Watch Forum” link at the top of any forum. You’ll then have the option to select the notifications you want to receive, and how – via email (notifications of new threads will come immediately after they are posted) or via alerts (alerts will update at the top right of the forum, next to your profile info and inbox).


upload_2016-1-31_9-59-36.png

upload_2016-1-31_10-1-46.png


How to Watch a Thread for New Posts
If you just want to know when a certain thread is updated, you can click “Watch Thread” at the top of that thread and choose whether you’ll receive email notifications or not (if not, notifications will be given to you as alerts). You can also sign up to watch a thread via the “More Options” button when making a post.

upload_2016-1-31_10-6-3.png



 

Dave Upton

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How To Use Conversations (Private Messages)
If you want to start a private conversation with another member, you can do it one of two ways:

Inbox menu
  1. Hover over the Inbox menu at the top right of any page. Click the link that says “Start a New Conversation”.
    upload_2016-1-31_10-9-31.png
    upload_2016-1-31_10-11-3.png
  2. Add participants by typing their usernames – matching names will auto-populate as you type.
    upload_2016-1-31_10-12-3.png
  3. Create a conversation title (subject line) and your message. You’ll have access to the same tools as you have when creating posts. You can give conversation participants the ability to invite others, if that’s something you want (will be unchecked by default), You can also preview your message before you send it, just like a post.
    upload_2016-1-31_10-13-6.png

From a thread
  1. Click on a user’s name within any thread.
  2. On the resulting profile pop-up, click on “Start a Conversation”.
    upload_2016-1-31_10-15-22.png
To follow existing conversations, check your Inbox.

Note: You can change the settings for who can start a Conversation with you by going to your profile and then "Privacy" and scroll down to the "People Who May..." section. You can also ignore certain users when viewing their profiles (as seen above) so they cannot start conversations with you.
 

Dave Upton

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How to Manage Alerts
Your Alerts menu is where you’ll find updates on recent activity from forums and threads you’re tracking. Hover over the Alerts menu (which looks like a bell) at the top right of any page to see recent alerts.
upload_2016-1-31_10-18-3.png

How to Edit Your Profile and General Preferences
Hover over your username in the top right menu to find a number of options to update your profile and general preferences. This includes updating your avatar (the forum is Gravatar-enabled), adding a custom title if you have this permission, add information and more.

upload_2016-1-31_10-19-37.png

How to Find Members
Click on Members in the main menu to view a list of members with the most messages, likes and points in the community. You can also search for members from this page.


How to Search
The search system we have implemented on the new Forum is vastly superior to what you used to have. You can search for content using the Search bar at the very top right of any page. You can specify what user’s posts you’re looking for, or date parameters for your search.

The search engine is also intelligent now, so if you search for a specific form of a word, eg: movies, it will also search for the root word, movie in this case.


How to Log Out
Done with your session? You can log out of your account by hovering over your username and then clicking “Log Out”.
 

Adam Gregorich

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Insert An Image Into A Post
There are two ways to insert an image into a post. If you have the image hosted off site, or its currently on the internet, you can insert the link by clicking the image button on the toolbar at the top of the reply box. You can also upload one from your computer or device by clicking the Upload A File button at the bottom of the reply box:

upload1a.jpg


If you click the image icon you will have to paste in the URL for the image you want to add. If you click the Upload button you can then browse your PC for the image you want. Select it and it should appear below your post:

upload2.jpg


Click thumbnail if you want to just insert a thumbnail and have people click to view full size, or click full image to see the full image (like I have done here).

Here is an example of the same image as a thumbnail:
upload2.jpg

If you upload multiple images you can insert them all at once into your post. You can also delete an image by clicking the delete button:

upload3.jpg
 

Adam Gregorich

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Still Getting Email Notifications From Threads?

If you were subscribed to get emails from threads on the old forum, you will continue to get those even if you turn email notifications off. The email notifications check box is there for how you want to receive notifications on future actions. To modify existing threads go to your watched thread listings: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/watched/threads/all
and look to see if you are getting email notifications for that specific thread:

notify1-jpg.29160


If you want to change that then select Manage Watched Threads and Disable Email Notifications:

notify2-jpg.29164


It will ask you for confirmation. If you want to unsubscribe, check the threads you want unsubscribed and selecting Stop Watching Threads will unsubscribe you from them.
 
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