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How do I . . . . ?

Bill Boehme

Bill Boehme

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Dalworthington Gardens, TX
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We're looking for ways to enhance the user experience on the forum and one major part of that is to have FAQs and tutorials that help members use all of the various features of the forum. I'm sure that many members have encountered difficulties getting up to speed with some features .... or perhaps may still be wrestling with using some features.

So, my question is what are your "how do I" questions? Even if you have already figured out the answer to one of your previous HDI questions, I would still like to hear it because without a doubt there will be a future new member with the same question.
 
Question... After I open a thumbnail in someones post, how do I close it out and get back to the forum?
Answer... You click on the X you cannot see in the upper right hand corner...
One of my favorites.:)
 
I have one ... How do I post a reply in this thread?

About 9 of every 10 new forum members never post messages in the forum. Of the nearly ten thousand forum members, only about a thousand have ever posted a message.
 
Jesse Tutterrow said:
To expand Gerald's question, how do I post a picture of something in my shop that is NOT a project? Evidently the only pictures allowed in a Gallery are projects.
Click to expand...

I'll answer that one. Only completed works are allowed in the gallery. No works in progress, no shop pictures, etc. You are encouraged to take pictures that are in good focus and reasonably well exposed. Of course in the discussion forums you can post any pictures that are relevant

john lucas said:
How do I stop posting. Hi my name is John Lucas and I'm addicted to woodturning
Click to expand...

We will be starting a new posters anonymous sub forum for those of us who are OCD posters. You are encouraged to post to your hearts content in the new forum. We will be awarding prizes for the greatest number of posts per day, per hour, and per minute.
 
john lucas said:
How do I stop posting. Hi my name is John Lucas and I'm addicted to woodturning
Click to expand...
Step one is we have to take your drugs away. I will send a container, part of the therapy will be to load everything in it, wood included. Cold turkey...
 
hockenbery said:
How do I remove a post
How do I edit a post
Click to expand...

All great questions so far!

@john lucas I don't have an answer to how you could post less, but actually we don't want you to post less because you're one of the best knowledge resources on this forum ... perhaps in all of woodturning.
 
How do I........ When I open a thread it always starts with the last entry. How do I open a thread with the first entry? Thanks
 
Lamar Wright said:
How do I........ When I open a thread it always starts with the last entry. How do I open a thread with the first entry? Thanks
Click to expand...

It knows which posts you have seen already so it skips to the first new post since your last visit which isn't necessarily the last post in the thread. I'm not sure if this will do what you want, but you could change your preferences by unchecking the box that says "Automatically watch threads that you create or when you reply" to see if that works.

Of course, if there haven't been any new posts since your last visit, you will go to the first post.
 
Bill Boehme said:
It knows which posts you have seen already so it skips to the first new post since your last visit which isn't necessarily the last post in the thread. I'm not sure if this will do what you want, but you could change your preferences by unchecking the box that says "Automatically watch threads that you create or when you reply" to see if that works.

Of course, if there haven't been any new posts since your last visit, you will go to the first post.
Click to expand...
Thanks Bill
 
Bill Boehme said:
I'll answer that one. Only completed works are allowed in the gallery. No works in progress, no shop pictures, etc. You are encouraged to take pictures that are in good focus and reasonably well exposed. Of course in the discussion forums you can post any pictures that are relevant



We will be starting a new posters anonymous sub forum for those of us who are OCD posters. You are encouraged to post to your hearts content in the new forum. We will be awarding prizes for the greatest number of posts per day, per hour, and per minute.
Click to expand...

Will this be a write-only forum (no reading).
 
How do I end up with a better picture of myself, or one of my cats, or my dog, for my avatar photo? It always ends up looking stretched or squished. I have noticed this in others as well.
 
Crop your photo square. The avatar size is 192 X 192 pixels. If your square cropped image is larger than that, you can eeither resize it down to 192 X 192 or let the forum software resize it for you. If you have photo editing software, you generally get better results by doing the editing than leaving it to the forum software to do it's hatchet job. If you want a good free photo editor, the best on the web is GIMP.
 
Bill I have a spelling error in Pinamint (should be Panamint) under the Forum and under Gallery. John Torchick good eye noticed it also. I don't know were to go to edit my uploads without losing the history of the discussion.
I added 4 new pictures in my album basket illusions. I saw them when I was doing it, but I don't see them now. Thank for your help.
 
Jean-Louis Meynier said:
Bill I have a spelling error in Pinamint (should be Panamint) under the Forum and under Gallery. John Torchick good eye noticed it also. I don't know were to go to edit my uploads without losing the history of the discussion.
I added 4 new pictures in my album basket illusions. I saw them when I was doing it, but I don't see them now. Thank for your help.
Click to expand...

It appears that you solved the problem.
 
Not Bill but this is how I do it. Do the quote then Highlight the area you do not want to quote and backspace to delete that unwanted part. You can also place curser at the end of unwanted area and backspace to delete one character at a time.
 
Gerald Lawrence said:
Not Bill but this is how I do it. Do the quote then Highlight the area you do not want to quote and backspace to delete that unwanted part. You can also place curser at the end of unwanted area and backspace to delete one character at a time.
Click to expand...
I will try it later! Thanks Bill! I mean, Gerald, LOL. Aloha.
 
Gerald Lawrence said:
Not Bill but this is how I do it. Do the quote then Highlight the area you do not want to quote and backspace to delete that unwanted part. You can also place curser at the end of unwanted area and backspace to delete one character at a time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer. The thread can be a bit confusing, but I'm mainly seeking questions for FAQS and not necessarily answers
 
When including pictures with a post what is the maximum file size? What is the optimum file size?

How do I attach a video? Length?

Is it possible to attach other files such as Excel or Sketchup?
 
Mark Jundanian said:
If after submitting a post I want to make a change how doI edit the body? How do I edit the title? How do I edit attached pictures?
Click to expand...

See the light gray bar at the bottom of your post. It allows you to edit or delete your post. You can't edit the title, but I will if you tell me about it. You can replace a picture with an edited version that you have edited with whatever photo editing software you have on your computer. The forum software has no provisions for doing that.

Mark Jundanian said:
When including pictures with a post what is the maximum file size? What is the optimum file size?

How do I attach a video? Length?

Is it possible to attach other files such as Excel or Sketchup?
Click to expand...

The forum rules and help answers image size questions, but think about how large it will look on screen. Even though the maximum size is 1920 X 1920 pixels, that's really way too big. Crop the image down to the essential part and/or resize it to something more reasonable that would fit within the browser window. Most images don't need to be greater than 800 pixels on the largest side.

You can embed a link to a YouTube or Vimeo video by

copying the URL and then pasting it in the text of your post. If you're not familiar with copying and pasting here's how.
  • Go to the YouTube or Vimeo video that you want to insert into the post
  • Double click the URL in the address bar to highlight it
  • Copy by typing Control-C (hold down the Control key while typing the letter c
  • Go to the post that you are typing and click the mouse where you want to insert the video and click Control-V to paste the URL
  • The video will show up in your post once it is posted
There isn't any restriction on length since it is just a link and not embedded.

I'll need to check on allowed attachments, but I don't think that you can attach Excel or SketchUp files. If you are wanting to show a chart that was created in Excel or a drawing created in SketchUp then a screenshot might be the simplest solution. On the top row of your computer keyboard is a Print Screen button that allows you to capture an image of your computer screen. You can then open it in an image program such as Photoshop or GIMP to crop and resize and save it as a JPG file.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the maximum file size. It's one megabyte, but if you are an AAW member then it's two megabytes. However, I would encourage everybody to compress the file size to a more reasonable number so that those who have a slower internet connection won't give up waiting for the file to finish loading. Most JPG images can be compressed quite a bit without suffering too much image quality.
 
BTW, thanks for the suggestion Mark. I got confused an thought that you were asking for help rather than suggesting a How To question.

Anyway, I looked up the allowable file types and I will post them here so I won't forget them again: zip, txt, pdf, png, jpg, jpeg, jpe, and gif.
 
Bill Boehme said:
We're looking for ways to enhance the user experience on the forum and one major part of that is to have FAQs and tutorials that help members use all of the various features of the forum. I'm sure that many members have encountered difficulties getting up to speed with some features .... or perhaps may still be wrestling with using some features.

So, my question is what are your "how do I" questions? Even if you have already figured out the answer to one of your previous HDI questions, I would still like to hear it because without a doubt there will be a future new member with the same question.
Click to expand...

You asked for FAQ questions for new turners. My suggested FAQ is: "Why am I always told not to sand at high speed or with too much pressure?"
Some answers:
1. When you sand at high speed or with too much pressure, you can develop little hairline cracks in the surface where moisture in the wood expands before it can escape. These little cracks are nearly impossible to get rid of.
2. Sanding at high speed wears out your sand paper more quickly. When the sand paper adhesive gets hot, it melts and the grit "disappears."
3. When the grit disappears, you will end up burnishing the wood rather than sanding it. This burnishing will make it more difficult to sand cleanly at higher grits and often requires that you go back to a coarser grit to re-establish a clean surface.
4. If you sand a high speed and get a flaw or contamination on the sand paper, there's a good chance you will get a groove in the wood. Even if you move the paper quickly, a groove may form before you notice it. When a groove forms, you either spend more time sanding at the same grit or start over with a coarser grit.

I'm sure other experienced turners have additional consequences to add to the list.
 
Thanks for the additional inputs. Updating the FAQ's is still in my bucket list. I might need to get a washtub to replace my bucket. Cute kitty in your avatar. Is your kitty playing the cello or just waving hi? :D
 
Jean-Louis Meynier said:
How do I rename an album that I created?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great suggestion, Jean-Louis. That question also leads me to think of some similar questions. Maybe I will find time while recovering from my back surgery to work on some of these "How do I " questions.

I also have been thinking of having some video help topics so if anybody has expertise in this area I would love work with you. It's OK to volunteer someone else if this isn't your field of expertise. :D
 
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