This tutorial is intended for moderators new to this discussion board program. This covers basic procedures of setting up your topics using the Page Manager, the User Manager, and the Access Manager.
This tutorial will be most valuable if you are actually performing the actions as you are directed in this tutorial. For this purpose, we recommend that you open a new browser window to access your board or that you print out a hard copy of this tutorial before proceeding further.
This tutorial goes into depth covering basic information that you as a moderator will need to know to utilize the Discus program fully. It will take approximately 20 minutes for a new user to complete this tutorial. We suggest that you complete this tutorial in one time block with minimal interruptions. Once you get the feel of the program, you will be able to figure out most everything for yourself without consulting tutorials or instructions.
Log in to the administration program
All administration functions are accessed and used through the administration program. Moderators may log in to the administration program by clicking the "Administration" link from the discussion board. (In some cases, the board administrator may hide the link to administration; in that case, the board administrator will supply a URL that you should enter into your browser to access administration.)
Moderators must supply their username and password, which are initially established by the board administrator, in order to log in. Once your username and password has been supplied, you will see the administration program Main Menu in the left frame and the first screen of the Page Manager in the right frame.
Locate the administration instructions
Upon logging in, the administration instructions are accessible from the Main Menu. To access the administration instructions, click on "Administration Instr." under the "Documentation" section. This brings you to an index of all administration instruction pages. This tutorial is part of those administration instructions.
Choose a topic to edit
Upon logging in after changing your password, you should see the first screen of the Page Manager in the right frame. If not, click on "Page Manager" from the Main Menu. You are presented with a list of topics that you are permitted to edit (the board administrator determines who is allowed to edit what topics). From that list, choose any topic you wish to edit by clicking on the topic name. We recommend that you choose a topic designed for test messages if such a topic has been created.
When you have chosen a topic to edit, you will be presented with the Page Manager interface to edit the first page in that topic. The Page Manager contains a lot of functionality to manipulate subtopic and message pages. This is divided into several tabs on the top of the screen. Depending on which discussion elements are enabled for that page, some of the tabs may not be available.
Here is a brief description of the functions that the Page Manager performs:
Page Layout: Choose which discussion elements (announcement message, list of subtopics, create new conversation button, about message, list of existing messages, add a message form) are to be present on your page. The elements you choose under this tab will control which tabs are available for your use.
Subtopics: Manage (delete, move, reorder) existing subtopics, or "threads." You can also add new subtopics and links to web pages outside your discussion board.
Messages: Manage (delete, edit, move, reorder) existing messages. You can also find a link to post new messages.
Announcement & About Msgs.: Set up and edit existing "Announcement" and "About" messages. "Announcement" messages appear above the list of subtopics, and "About" messages appear below the list of subtopics.
Navigation Tree: Brings up a navigation tree, indicating your current location and allowing you to jump quickly to other pages.
Jump to Board: Brings you into the user interface directly to the page that is being edited within the Page Manager. Clicking this link opens a new browser window.
Change the layout of the page
If subtopics are not displayed on the page you are editing, you will not see the subtopic editing options in the Page Manager and you won't be able to perform the following steps in this tutorial! To ensure that subtopics are displayed on the page you are editing, click "Page Layout" tab. Check the box next to "List Of Subtopics" if it is not already checked. Note that the selection under "Available Templates" will change as you check and un-check elements. To save your change, click "Save Page Layout."
Add your first subtopic
After completing the previous step, you are guaranteed to see the "Subtopics" tab enabled on the tab bar. Click the subtopics tab to see any existing subtopics (if there are any). What you want to do is to add a subtopic, so scroll down to "Add New Subtopic."
Your first subtopic will be created to hold all subtopics and messages you will create in the future. Think of this first subtopic as creating a "directory" for your future subtopics in this tutorial. (This does not technically happen but it is the best explanation for what you are trying to accomplish. You can then mess around entirely within this area so you don't accidentally destroy the work that other moderators have created.)
For the "Name" of the subtopic, enter "Frank Smith's first subtopic" (substituting in your own name). For the page type, choose "Discussion Page: Private Index" (we'll experiment with the other settings later). No URL is needed for this discussion page. You may try outthe options under "Optional Parameters" if you wish, but we recommend that you leave "After Creating:" set at "Edit newly created page." Click the "Create New Subtopic" button to add this page.
After you created the subtopic, since you chose "Edit newly created page" when creating, you are now editing the new page. Since your new page contains subtopics, you are automatically placed in the Subtopics tab.
Create a bunch of subtopics
We will now explore some of those settings under "Create New Subtopic" and learn first-hand what they do. Scroll down to the "Create New Subtopic" form (in the essentially empty page you just created, this should not be far to scroll).
Since you do not necessarily want to jump directly into editing these new subtopics once you've created them, choose "Continue editing this page" from "After Creating:" to ensure that you remain on the same page you were editing. If you forget to do this and you are placed into the new subtopic, you can use the navigation bar at the top of the page to go back to the previous page.
Once you've made that selection, create a subtopic named "Private Index" and choose "Discussion Page: Private Index" as the page type. Also create a Public Index named "Public Index" and a Message Page named "Message Page." Finally create a Closed Thread named "Closed Thread."
You can also create links to web pages, including them right in your subtopic list. This is useful to organize frequently added items. To create a link, first give the subtopic a name of "Discus Home Page - right frame." For the page type, select "Link: Open in New Window." Give the URL of "http://www.discusware.com/discus" in the appropriate blank. Then click the link by clicking on "Create New Subtopic."
Create other links as well, trying the other page types. Try creating a link to your own home page that opens in the top frame, and a link to Yahoo that opens in the right frame. You can also experiment with descriptions for your links.
View the subtopics in the user interface
Click the "Jump to Board" tab, which will open the user interface in a new browser window. You will now see the subtopics and links that you just created. Try clicking on your links to external sites.
Add a user account
The moderators (that's you) have control over who may post messages to their topics. You can configure the board to allow public posts, require logins, or even disable posting entirely. One way to control posting is to create user accounts, which allow authorized users to post. Even if you do not use accounts to control posting privileges, your regular users will benefit from user accounts because they will then be able to enable e-mail notification for themselves and establish a profile. Adding user accounts is accomplished through the "User Manager."
Click on "User Manager" from the Main Menu to bring up the first User Manager screen. Select the group that you wish to edit by clicking on the link. Note that the number of user accounts in the group is indicated.
Upon clicking on the group, you will see several tabs on the User Mananger screen. The first tab, "Users," shows all user accounts. The second section, "Add User," allows you to create one user account; we'll do this momentarily. The third section, "Add User List," allows you to paste in a delimited user list, such as from a spreadsheet program or database, to create user accounts rapidly without ever having to enter the names manually. You may also see a "Self-Registration" tab, which controls how users can create their own accounts through the user interface.
To add a user, click the "Add a User" tab. Using the username and password boxes, create a user with username apple and password orange. You can optionally specify an e-mail address and full name. Then click on "Add this user" to create the account. You should see a confirmation message on the top of the screen indicating that the account was successfully created.
Configure public posting
As stated in the previous section, the moderators (that's you) have control over who may post messages to their topics. In addition to creating user accounts, moderators can enable public posting (anyone at all may post, whether the poster has an account or not), or grant posting permissions to users and other moderators.
If your board administrator has purchased the professional version of this software, the moderator may also configure advanced permissions such as allowing (or disallowing) users from certain IP addresses to post and enabling a "Message Queue" so that a moderator approves all messages before they are put into public view.
To set up posting so that anyone can post to the topic regardless of whether the poster has an account, you need to use the "Access Manager." Remember that any changes you make here will affect the entire topic that you select, so if there are other moderators for this topic or there is serious discussion in this topic, you should probably not apply these changes.
Enter the "Access Manager" by selecting the link from the Main Menu. On the ensuing screen, select the topic for which you wish to configure access settings. To enable public posting, check the "Public Posting" box and click "Save." You can also authorize posting for users in particular groups or for all users and moderators on the board. If the board administrator has purchased the professional version of this software package, you can also use the "Advanced" button to specify additional settings, configure reading privileges, or enable a "Message Queue."
Conclusion
Congratulations, you have now seen some of the basic functionality available from within the administration program. You now know that you can create subtopics, change page layouts, add users, and enable/disable public posting. But there is a lot more...
You should continue to experiment with administrative tools and the posting interface to determine how the board works. To learn more about specific administrative functions, continue reading these administration instructions, or experiment on your own.