UIC User's Guide: WebBoard Version 3.5

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4. Working With WebBoard

Before you start using WebBoard, you need to become familiar with the navigational aids.

The Menubar:

Post: Post a new topic or message to the conference (a conference should be selected before doing this). A topic form will appear for you to fill in. The message posted appears as the first message in the new topic.

Refresh: Updates your conferences list to indicate any new activity. A new message or reply posted will not show up in the Conference Menu unless it is refreshed.

Chat: Displays the list of available chat rooms and the number of active users. Clicking on the name of a conference chat room opens it, allowing you to carry on real-time interactive discussion with other conference users.

Search: Opens the Message Search form, which you can use to find specific content in one or more messages and/or topics.

Mark All Read: Opens up the Mark Messages Read menu. Mark Messages Read allows you to mark messages read in one or all conferences. To mark all messages read in a single conference, click a conference. To mark all messages read in all conferences, click "Mark All Conferences Read". Marking messages as read eliminates the New icon and the italics from new messages. WebBoard does not automatically update a message you have read; you must do it manually, using this button.

More: Opens the More Options menu. The available options are:

• Edit your Profile Opens your personal profile. See Section V .
• Email Notify Notifies you by Email when there is a new message in a particular conference.
• Mailing Lists Lets you subscribe to a mailing list associated with a conference, if your board manager decided to create one. This is for receiving copies of WebBoard messages in your private email.
• Current Users Lists the users logged in to WebBoard right now, with the login time, users' location, and a hyperlink to their profile.
• Today's Users Lists the users who have logged in to WebBoard today, with the time, users' location, and a hyperlink to their profile.
• Search Users Opens a search form to locate users by their first or last name or by the first letter of their first name.
• Top 10 Users Lists the top 10 WebBoard users (by accesses) with a link to their profile and the total number of times they have logged in.
• Top 10 Posters Lists the top 10 WebBoard message/topic posters with a hyperlink to their profile and the total number of their postings.
• New Messages Lists all your unread messages, with the conference, subject, date, time, and a hyperlink to each message, sorted by time and date.
• Today's Messages Lists the messages posted today, with the conference, subject, time, and a hyperlink to each message, be they read or not.
• Conference Profiles Displays a description of all conferences in your board. Clicking on one shows activity statistics within that conference.
• List Boards Lists all boards you have previously accessed for quicker navigation. Normally there is only one board listed.
• Login as a Different User Tells you how to log in as a different user. You need to either use a second browser program or quit and restart your browser.

Help: Opens the WebBoard Help Index. It provides user help on the commands and features of WebBoard. To search in this long table of contents, use your browser's Find command (Control-F).

Logoff: This button takes you out of WebBoard, usually to your class homepage or to the UIC homepage . Although it says LOGOFF, it does not log you off. You can use the browser's back button to continue working in WebBoard. To actually log out, you have to quit your browser! Always do that when you are done in WebBoard, or others could manipulate/destroy your data!

The Conferences menu displays the conferences, topics and messages of a particular board in a hierarchical list. In a frames-enabled browser, the list appears on the left side of the screen.

The Conferences Menu:

All the conferences in the board are displayed in the Conferences Menu. The information in WebBoard is set up like a book, in that the conferences correspond to book titles, topics to chapter titles, and messages to the content of each topic.

An expansion icon (+) to the left of a conference indicates that the conference contains topics. The number in parentheses to the right of a conference name tells how many messages are in it. A NEW icon displayed to the right of a conference name denotes a new/unread message in a conference. To view the contents of a conference, click on its name. This action changes the + sign to -, indicating that the conference is open for viewing, and displays the list of topics.

The Message Window

If the frames option is turned on, the message window appears on the right side of the screen. The messages and the replies are displayed on this part of the screen. It has a white background (by default).

Topics and Messages

Topics and messages provide the information to the conferences. A topic is an original message. All the replies to a topic are considered to be messages. Also, a message can be an original statement posing a question or asking for some explanation. Conferences are made up of threaded messages.

Topics are indented 2 spaces under a conference heading. A conference may have many topics and messages under it. All messages in a topic may have the same name as the original topic or a different name; however, reply messages are indented under a topic message. The topics are displayed similar to conferences. A plus (+) sign to the left of a topic indicates there are replies. When the topic is viewed by clicking on the plus (+) sign, the sign changes to minus (-).

Clicking on the subject line (instead of the plus sign) will display all the messages in the message window.

Messages are arranged chronologically with the earliest (original) messages at the top of each topic list.

Follow these steps to read specific messages:

• From the Conferences list, choose the topic you want to view and click on the (+) icon.
• Choose the topic you want to read and then click on its name or on its (+) sign. This displays the messages under the topic.
• Locate the message you want to read and click on its name. This displays the message in the message window. Scroll down if the message does not fit in the screen.
• When finished, select another message to read or post a reply.

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