Understanding Personal Messages & Buddy List

[upyourcadillac]

With the upgrade to this latest version of the forum software, the look has changed and there are new and improved features. Here are some highlights. I'll add more later as I think of them.

Personal Messages
After you log in, you will see a bar below where your avatar appears (if you have uploaded one) at the top of the page. There are buttons there labeled "home", "help", "search"...etc. There is a button there called "my messages". If you click on that it takes you to your PM inbox.

When you log in, if you see a number in parenthesis next to "my messages", that indicates the number of new messages that you have received. For instance "my messages (2)" means you have 2 new messages.

When you access your Personal Messages (PMs), you will notice that the whole look of that area has changed. It now looks and can be organized much like an email account.

On the left, you will see a narrow box. At the top, it is labeled "Messages". Here, there are live links. If you click on "New Message" it will give you a blank message screen to compose a new message in. There are also live links to your Inbox and Outbox here.

A "Preferences" section lets you search your messages. Underneath that is a "Prune Messages" option. If you click this, you can choose to delete all messages that are older than the number of days you choose. Handy for cleaning things up quickly.

Labeling PMs: Keeping You Organized
You will see the option "Manage Labels" above the Prune Messages option. This is REALLY cool I think. Now, you can create your own words that you can apply as labels for messages. This option works just like creating folders in your email program.

For instance, you can create a Label called "Trades" or "To Save".

Now, go into your PM inbox. Look at one of the messages there. On the bottom right of each individual message is a pull down menu that says "Label Message:". If you click the arrow to the right of these words, it pulls down a menu for you to choose the label you want to apply to the message. Once messages are labeled, they are sorted. You will see on the left a heading called "Labels" and all the labels you created are links there. When you click on any of them it takes you to all the messages with that label.

Be Notified When You Receive New PMs

Now you can choose to have a pop-up window appear when you sign on to the forum that tells you that you have new PMs.

To activate this feature, click on "Profile" at the top (to the left of "my messages"), then "Personal Message Options" on the left. Put a check mark in the box next to "Show a popup when you receive new messages?"

You can also set it to send you an email when you receive new PMs. That check box is right below. You can choose to have it send email when any PM is received or only when PMs are received from a Buddy.

What's a buddy? Well, read on!

Your Buddy List

Something brand new is the ability to create a list of those people you are closest to.

Every member can have their own Buddy List.

You can manage your buddies and view the list of your current buddies in your profile under "Edit Buddies".

All of your buddies on your list will be shown with their display name and their current status, whether they are online or offline on the forum. Other things like the users PMs and email address will be shown if the buddy has entered it in their profile.

You can add a Member to your buddy list straight from the Edit Buddies page, where it says "Add To Buddy List" at the bottom of the page.

Those are just some of the fun features that mostly relate to your messages.

More info to come on other features!

Laura J.