UIC Board Manager's Guide: WebBoard Version 3.5

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7. Change Board Settings

You can change for all users of your board:

• your board's colors
• the order of the conferences

There is also an option in the Manager Menu to view some general WebBoard Statistics . This option really is useful only for the WebBoard administrator. The same is true about the http-logs , which are disabled at UIC. They can only be turned on for all boards together, which would waste lots of resources and might only be done for a short time for administrative purposes. Thus you can disregard the two buttons relating to it.

Version 3.5 of WebBoard allows you to specify the colors used in displaying various elements of your board. These colors will appear on older browsers as well, as they modify the source code on the server and do not use style-sheets. To use the color tools, your browser must have JavaScript enabled. You find this setting in Netscape under Edit->Preferences->Advanced and in Internet Explorer under View->Internet Options->Security (choose Medium ), as well as Advanced .

From the Manager Menu , choose Change Board Colors . The following form displays your current settings and supplies some tools for changing them:

The colors for table background, contrast color, and left frame (conference menu) have to be filled in, as they are included in the HTML code on the server side. The other settings can be left blank to allow the user to specify his own browser settings.

To change any of the values, you can type in a JavaScript color name or a hexadecimal code. Two tools help you choosing the right color:

• the color selector
• the color names table

Click on the little color button beside the field you want to change. That brings up a floating window displaying the 256-color web palette. Move your mouse over this window and the window's background color changes to show the current color (the one your mouse is pointing at) in a larger area. Click on a color, and its hex-code is entered into the respective field. The window closes. When you are happy with your color choices, click the SAVE button to commit your changes.

The words click here in the second paragraph are a link to a pop-up window with all JavaScript colors and their names. Type the name of the desired color into the respective field in the form.

When you are happy with your color choices, click the SAVE button to commit your changes.

If you decide at any time to go back to WebBoard's default settings, click on the words Click here in the fourth paragraph. You will still need to hit Save .

This option allows you to specify the order in which conferences are displayed in the conference list. The standard ordering is alphabetic. If you have e.g. one conference per topic or chapter, but prefer descriptive titles over calling the conferences "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2", and so on, you can set up all conferences and then re-order them. The order can be changed again at any time.

Choose Conference Order from the Manager's Menu . A listing of all your current conferences and their weights appears:

Conference order is determined by a weight system. Each conference is given a number between 0 and 255. The lower the number, the earlier it will appear in the list. Higher weight makes the conference "sink down" in the display order. If two or more conferences have the same number, those conferences are sorted alphabetically. The conference you want to always appear at the top (probably called "Announcements") should thus get the number 0. Conferences about general questions could follow it, before you list your topic-conferences or group-based conferences. Leave some numbers free in between, so it is easier to insert other conferences later! E.g. you might make the main conference on chapter one have the number 10, the conference on chapter two have the number 20. Then you can add group-conferences about chapter one with numbers 11–19 whenever you feel like it, without having to change around your whole weighting system.

When you have filled in all weights, hit the SAVE button to commit the changes. In the example depicted, the only change would be that Chatting in WebBoard now moves below Places to Visit .

The display of the conferences will be in the newly specified order once you hit Refresh.

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