Page Manager - Navigation & Overview

The Page Manager is the most commonly used administrative interface, as it allows moderators to administer all issues of content within discussion topics. The main manipulative powers of the Page Manager lie in administration of threads and messages, which can be deleted, moved around, edited, reordered, etc. The Page Manager also has some more subtle power, such as "locking" a page from receiving new messages by changing its layout. This page describes the basics of the Page Manager, including navigating around.

Navigating the Page Manager

The Page Manager provides various methods of navigation, and it's left up the individual moderator to choose his or her favorite. Here are some methods that are available on most boards:

• Clicking on threads: To descend into a thread, from the list of threads, click on the thread name (in the "Subtopic" column). You will be immediately lowered into that thread. If that thread has subtopics of its own, you'll be on the "thread" tab. If that thread has only messages, you'll be on the "messages" tab.

• Using the navigation tree: Click the "Navigation Tree" tab, which should be available on all pages within the Page Manager. You can then click on threads to navigate into them. The navigation tree shows the parent thread, all threads at the same level as the one you're currently at, and all of the currently selected thread's child pages. When you click on a link in the navigation tree, you're brought to the navigation tree for the page you've selected. When you get to your destination, click one of the other tabs at the top of the screen to do your edits. Also note that you can click any of the words on the green bar at the top ("Navigation", "Posts", "Pages", or "Last Modified") to sort your tree view by the selected field, without actually reordering any of the threads on the page.

• Using the navigation bar: At the top of each page, there is a navigation bar, similar to what is found in the user interface. This allows you to navigate easily to the thread's parent, or any of its ancestors, by clicking the links at the top.

• Jumping in from the user interface: More recent Discus skins support features allowing you to click on an administration link from the page you are viewing in the user interface, opening the Page Manager directly to that page. Discus Pro also has the ability to perform most administration through the user interface with clickable icons to move, delete, and otherwise manipulate threads and messages.

Once you're in the Page Manager and you want to get back to the user interface, there are two easy ways to do so:

• Clicking on the "Return to Board" link in the left frame: This link brings you to the top page of the board. This does not spawn a new browser window, so clicking this link will effectively end your Page Manager session. It may or may not be possible, depending on your browser and what you were doing, to use the browser's "Back" button to return to the Page Manager.

• Clicking the "Jump to Board" tab in the right frame: This link spawns a new browser window and opens the user interface to the page you are currently editing in Page Manager. This is a handy way to verify your changes, while at the same time keeping your Page Manager session open.

Page Manager Tab Overview

The following tabs hold the main functionality of the Page Manager. Depending on the page you're viewing, not all of the tabs near the top of the screen may be clickable. In fact, it's likely that, on a well-organized board, not all of the tabs will be visible for a majority of pages. If you want to use a particular tab, you'll need to change the Page Layout to enable the corresponding discussion element for the page.

• Page Layout: Allows you to select which "discussion elements" will be on a page. For example, you control whether a page will have threads, messages, or both. You control whether or not the page will accept new messages by deciding whether or not to turn on an "Add a Message" box. In Discus Pro, the layout tab also allows you to change the settings of multiple pages at once.

• Announcement & About Msgs.: Allows you to place bits of text onto discussion pages. Announcement and About Messages are not regular board messages, so they are not subject to being archived, moved, or reordered. This is a handy way for you to place descriptions or rules on your pages that will remain there forever (until you delete them). Note that the tab may say "Announcement Message" or "About Message" if just one, but not the other, has been enabled in Page Layout.

• Threads (Subtopics): Allows you to delete, edit, reorder, move, and add new threads to your board. This is also where you add hyperlinks to external web sites that will look like threads.

• Messages: Allows you to delete, edit, reorder, move, set and view properties of, and add new messages to your board. As the moderator, you can post messages onto a thread even if the "Add a Message" box has been turned off in the user interface!

• Navigation Tree: A display of the location of the thread you're viewing in relation to other threads on the board. Using the navigation tree is explained above.

• Jump to Board: Spawns a new browser window, opening the user interface directly to the page you're editing.