Using the WebBoard computer conferencing system

Wayne State University
College of Lifelong Learning
Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Last updated: 9/4/01

Using the Computer Conferencing System
(WebBoard)

Contents (click on one of these links to go to that section, or scroll down to see it all):

Logging in for the first time and creating a profile
Adding a signature / Changing your personal profile
User Name and Password are permanent
Viewing this help and the conference at the same time
Reading your new messages
Reading your old messages
Finding existing messages (new or old) using "Search"
Posting a new main topic
Replying to a message -- first use #1, #2 or #3 to view the message you want to reply to. When you are viewing the message you want to reply to, then
1. Reply
2. Reply/quote
Printing a message -- first use #1, #2 or #3 to view the message you want to print. When you are viewing the message you want to print, then use these directions to print it.
Saving a message or messages to a file
Using the chat system

Want to see another topic? Let me know. / David Bowen

Specific content:

Logging in for the first time and creating a profile. When you follow a link to this conferencing system for the first time, you have to log in and create a computer profile or identity for yourself, unless someone has already done this for you earlier. After you this first time, logging in will be simpler. Since most of our conferences are "Private", you will still have to be added to the conference(s) you need; contact David Bowen, your Instructor, or the other person in charge of your conference. In this section we will step you through that first login.
1. Start your web browser (for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator or Communicator or AOL - whatever you are using to read this), then follow (click on) a link to computer conferencing. This can be the link on the ISP web site, or from the web site for a course you are taking.
2. The login box shown below will pop up. Make up a User Name for yourself and a Password, and type them in. Two common choices for a User Name are (a) first initial and full last name, and (b) full first name and last initial. A good password is something that (a) you will remember, and (b) has at least six characters. Both the User Name and the Password are completely independent of all of the other User Names and Passwords that you have on other systems. Once you have filled these in, click on the "OK" button. Note that the background for the login box will be different, depending on what web page you are coming from.
  
  After this first login, you will not need to go through the following steps again.
3. Because you are new to this conference system, the system will not recognize you yet, and will ask if you are really a new person, or are you already known here, but you have mistyped your login information. Here is what you will see, in the upper left corner of the screen:
  
  Click on the top link (underlined and in blue), "Yes, I am entering as a new user." That will take you to the screen in section D below.
  NOTE: If you ever see this screen after the first login, it means that you have mistyped. Never panic and choose the top link again! If you do, you will create a new profile, which is not connected to any of the conferences you are looking for. If all of your conferences "disappear," that is what has happened. This is the most-reported problem with this computer conferencing system, which otherwise is very easy to use. If you have forgotten your User Name and / or Password, do not guess! Contact David Bowen who can recover them for you.
4. After you have clicked on "Yes, I am entering as a new user," you will see the screen below. This is where you create your computer profile, for the first time only (if you ever see this screen after completing it the first time, see the note under C above).
  
  Repeat your Login name (which was called User Name earlier - sorry about that!) and Password (twice, the second time to make sure you didn't mistype it the first time). You will also need, as shown, to type your First and Last names, and an email address (email is used for direct, personal replies, and also you can ask to be notified if there are new messages in your conferences). The system will not check the validity of the email address; it only has to have "@" in it. There is other information on the screen below the section shown here, but that is not required. But you will have to scroll down and click on the "Create" button to finish creating your profile. Then you will see the confirmation message, as explained below.
5. After you have clicked on the "Create" button, you will see the confirmation message shown below, indicating that you were successful.
  
  You will not need your user number, just your User Name or Login name, and your Password,
Adding a signature / changing your personal profile. You can set up a signature for yourself that will be added at the bottom of each of your messages and postings. One reason you may want to do this is that you can then search for a unique field in your signature to find all of your postings. Your signature is anything you want it to be. It can include your name, nickname, telephone number and/or a favorite saying or motto. This is done by changing your "personal profile" in the conferencing system. Besides setting up or changing a signature, you can change your name, address, password, User Name and email address. Here is how to set up a signature:
1. Log on to the conferencing system as you would normally.
2. Click on the black-and-white "PROFILES" button in the row of buttons just above the left and right message panes, as outlined in red in the figure below.
3. In the "Profiles" page that appears in the right pane, click on the link to "Change your personal profile" as outlined in red in the figure below.
4. In the "User Profile" page that appears in the right pane, scroll down to the bottom to set up or change your signature. If you want to make another change, look for the information you want to change as you scroll.
5. When you get to the bottom of the "User Profile" page, which is shown in the figure below, type in your signature in the "Signature" box outlined in red below, and then click on the "Save" button to send in and save your changes. After this, the signature that you typed in will be automatically added at the bottom of all of your messages. If you come back to edit or change your signature, the present version will be shown in the box when you start.
  
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User Name and Password are permanent. Your User Name and Password for this system are permanent, for as long as you are a student in ISP. If an Instructor for another course asks you to select a new User Name and Password, or assigns you one, please let this Instructor know that you already have one. Choosing a new one will cause you and me and your Instructor a lot of confusion, and lost time. Your cooperation will be appreciated.
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Viewing this help and the conference at the same time. You can view this help and the conference at the same time by running two copies of your web Browser. This will slow things down. Be sure to close all programs except for your web Browser before you do this. You can switch between the two copies using their two icons on the task bar at the bottom of the Windows 95 screen. Mac users, your two copies are in the upper right corner of the screen (I think).
Some newer Browsers will let you open two web pages at the same time, in separate windows.
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Reading your new messages.
Click on the new messages link on right (white) pane of the computer conference opening screen. This link is outlined in red below.

The list of new messages appears, as shown below. Click on the link to a specific message to read the message.

NOTE: You need to clear the list of new messages regularly. There appears to be a maximum length allowed, and you will not see the most recent messages if your list is too long. To clear you list of new messages, click on the link, "Mark all messages read" outlined in red above.
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Reading your old messages. It is also important to be able to read old messages for the following reasons: (a) You are responsible for reading all messages, even those that will not show up in your list of new messages because you joined the conference after these messages were posted, (b) you may want to refer to a message in your Essay or Term Paper, and (c) later in the semester there is an assignment to dig up your original "Creative people we know" posting and revise it as a result of your work in the course. To read old messages,
1. Click on the conference in the left (yellow) pane as shown below. For this step, you may also click on the "+" sign to the left of the conference.
2. The list of all main topics appears in the left (yellow) pane. Click on the link to the first message, as outline in red below. Do NOT click on the "+" sign; that will expand the list. Do NOT click on the poster's name; that will show your their conferencing information.
3. That main topic, and all of its replies, and all of the replies to replies, and the replies to those, and so forth, appear in a single scrollable list in the right (white) pane, as shown in the figure below. Just scroll through the list.
4. Repeat i through iii for the other main topics that were posted after you joined the conference.
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Search. The third way to locate messages is to use the computer conference search (not your Browser's search). This is probably more useful if you want to locate conference material for your Essay or Term Paper. To search a conference,
1. Click on the conference search button, outline in red in the figure below.
2. The search form appears. Fill it in and click "Search", as shown in the figure below.
3. The result will be a clickable list of messages, similar to the list of new messages.
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Posting a new main topic. Conference messages are arranged in outline format (also called hierarchical). Main topics are the highest level within a conference. Replies to main topics are the second level, replies to replies are the third level, and so forth. To post a new main topic, there are two methods:
1. Make sure that you have selected the conference you want to post a main topic in. To select a conference, click on its name in the list of conferences in the left (yellow) pane, as outlined in the red box in the figure below. Then, click the "POST" button in the row of black and white buttons up near the top of the Browser window, outlined in green in the figure below. The figure illustrates a particular conference; if the conference you want to work on has a different name, then click on that name.
2. The message composition form appears in the left pane, as shown in the figure below. Directions for posting your message are given at the bottom of this section. Type a title for your topic in the top text line outlined in red, and your message in the large text area outlined in green. When your message is reads the way you want it to, click on the "Post" button outlined in blue.
  2. After you click the "Post" button, if you had the "Preview" or "Preview/Spell Check" boxes checked in the figure above ("Preview/Spell Check is the default), you will see a Preview of your message as shown in the figure below. You cannot edit in this Preview, but you can use your Browser's "Back" button to go back to the message composition window in the above figure, then edit and click on the "Post" button again. In the Preview, you can change spelling. When the message in Preview looks the way you want it to, click on the "Post" button in the Preview, outlined in blue below. You will then see the actual posted message.
3. You can also post a main topic in a conference if you are reading a message from that conference, and click the "Post" link in the light blue bar above the message, as shown in the figure below, outlined in red. This will result in displaying the message composition and preview windows as in i and ii above.
  
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Replying to a message. To reply to a message, you must first be viewing the message. Use topic 1 above to view a new message, topic 2 above to view an old message, or topic 3 above to search for and view a new or an old message. Whichever method you choose, we will assume that you are viewing the message to which you wish to reply. OK. Now to reply, click on either the "Reply" link or the "Reply/Quote" link in the light blue bar above the message.
1. Reply. Click on the "Reply" link in the light blue bar above the message, as shown outlined in red in the figure below.
  
  Clicking on this link will call up the message composition form, as described above in the 4.b.i and ii. in the section above on posting a new main topic. The only difference will be that the title will be filled in with the title of the message your are replying to. You should change this title so that readers will understand that you are not just repeating the original message, but adding to it. To follow this recommendation and change the title, click in the title box and edit the title.
2. Reply/Quote. This choice will let you compose and post a reply, with the difference that the original message is included in the message composition window. Choose this option when your reply comes a long time after the original message, or otherwise when you think it may not be clear to readers what the original message was, and when they need to understand what you are replying to.
  
  If you are only replying to one aspect of the message, it is polite to edit out the parts you are not replying to, since we are all busy and have enough to read. All of the contents of the message composition window, including the original message, can be edited.
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Printing messages. You can print messages, but you need to be careful in selecting the part of the screen that you want to print. The left (yellow) and right (white) panes of the conferencing screen are called "frames" in web-speak. And even the row of black and white buttons above these parts is a third frame. Your web Browser will print only one frame at a time, so you need to be able to control which frame is selected for printing. To select the frame to be printed, normally the white (right) pane in which you read messages, click inside of that frame, away from any of the links. If the mouse icon is over a link, it switches to a hand with a pointing finger. Otherwise, it is the normal arrow. So, you want to click in the frame that you want to print which the mouse icon is an arrow, not a hand with a pointing finger. A slight change in the screen confirms which frame is selected, as show in the side-by-side comparison below.

Then select the "File" menu item and then the "Print Frame..." item on the drop-down menu list as shown outlined in red in the figure below.

(You can also save the file on your local computer, for later use, using "Save Frame As..." menu item shown outlined in green in the figure above.)
You can double-check your selection of the correct frame using the "Print Preview" menu item underneath "Print Frame...", and not waste the printer paper to see that your choice wasn't correct. Finally, "Page Setup..." lets you set margins and headers and footers, for printing only.

Warning: This will print all of the messages that are in the right (white) frame, including those that are off the screen, that you have to scroll down to see. Make sure you really want to print them all!

But hey, we're all modern and online and all that and we don't need no stinkin' paper, right!

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Saving messages to a file. You may want to save messages to a file to read them later, off-line. (But note that you will not be able to reply unless you go back on-line.) This is very similar to printing messages, and the detailed procedure is given under that heading.
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Using the chat system. "chat" is a two-way to multi-way real-time online conversation between people who are logged on simultaneously. To chat,
1. Log on to the conferencing system as you would normally.
2. Click on the black-and-white "CHAT" button in the row of buttons just above the left and right message panes, as outlined in red in the figure below.
3. In the right (white) pane, a list of chat rooms appears. Click on the link for the chat room for ISP 5500/5990, as outlined in red in the figure below. The number of people already in the chat room is shown in the column to the left, as outlined in green in the figure.
4. After you click on the link, the chat window appears -- a separate window that you can move around on the screen. At first you will see who else is in the chat room, and their messages. To "talk", type in the text box outlined in red in the figure below, and then click on the "Send" button that is outlined in green.
5. Your talk will appear in the main window, as outlined in red in the figure below. There is a fancier window where you can talk in colors, italics and so on. To use this, click on the "COMPOSE" button outlined in green.
  
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