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The SSQA Members-Only
Forum – An Introduction
What is an online forum, anyway, and
what is it for?
An online forum is akin
to a bulletin board, where Forum Members can post messages (and
replies) and Forum Members can read them.
What is it for?
It’s for fun! It’s an
informal way for SSQA members to communicate with one another.
There are many buttons
and pieces of text that will do something if you click on them. Like
the Internet, it can be a bit confusing at first, but don’t panic!
There is no way that you can mess things up or harm the forum by
clicking on things. There is no wrong way to use the forum.
How to join the
SSQA Members Only Forum:
You must be a member of SSQA in order to be a member of
the Forum.
Send email to
anotherpat@aol.com, using an email account that is on file with
SSQA.
Subject: Join SSQA Forum.
Include your First Name and Last Name and your email address in the
message. |
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How to reply
to a thread/subject |
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Here's an example:
From the HOME page -
1) Click on JUST CHAT Board, you will see a list of
threads/subjects.
(A thread is one person replying to another, etc.)
2) Click on one of the threads/subjects to read the
thread/subject.
You now see all the messages/posts in that thread/subject.
~~Click on the PRINT THREAD button to see how nice that feature
works. Use browser button to go back~~
If you wish to reply to that thread/subject:
3) Scroll on down the page and fill in the QUICK REPLY field.
4) Click POST REPLY |
| How
to create a new thread |
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From the HOME page –
Click on the JUST CHAT Board, you will see a list of
threads/subjects. (A thread is one person replying to another,
etc.)
If you want to start a new thread, click the NEW THREAD button.
Type in the “Message Subject” and type your comments in the
message field.
Scroll to bottom – Click POST.
You now see your message/post as others will see it. You can
modify (or delete) it here, also.
Near top of page, click on JUST CHAT & it takes you back to the
list of threads.
Your new thread is at the top of the list! |
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How do I read threads & posts in a logical sequence? |
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There are two main
ways. The first way is to
click on each board in each category to see if there are new
threads or new posts on old threads. When a thread is new or has
been updated since you last logged on, it appears at the top, in
bold print, with a little orange square to the left of it. If
there are several new or recently modified threads, they will all
appear at the top, in bold, with the little orange square. The
very most recently modified thread will appear at the very top,
and the least recently modified thread will be last of the threads
in bold print. It really doesn’t matter what order you read the
individual threads in, because each one is completely separate.
When you click on a thread's name,
you will then see all the posts on the thread in the order in
which they were posted – that is, oldest to newest, in
chronological order.
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The second way to read threads, and
the way you’ll probably use when you’ve read all the old stuff and
are only interested in what’s new, is to click on the words All
Unread in the upper right hand corner of the Home page. This will
show you all the threads that are new or that have had new replies
posted to them since you last looked. A minor disadvantage of this
is that the threads aren’t sorted by category and board on this
page. You don’t even get to see what category and board a thread
is on until you start reading it (alas). When you do start reading
a thread, you will see the "trail" of the thread at the top, for
example,
SSQA Members only Forum > Information Booth > How To > Smiles and
Other Special Effects.
This can help you get your bearings if you decide you want to come
back to this thread later.
Some browsers (mine, for instance) only show the first one or two
posts, even though there are new posts there. If this happens,
click on the Print Thread button to see the whole thread in an
easy-to-read format.
Disclaimer: I haven’t yet figured
out the difference between All Unread and Last Visit Unread.
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A third way to read posts is to
click on Recent Posts (near the top right corner of the Home
page). This shows the text of all posts – regardless of what
thread they’re on – in order from most recent to least recent.
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If you are new to the forum, then
nearly every board in every category will have threads on it that
you haven’t
read. So, I would recommend that (starting from the Home page) you
start by clicking on a board, and reading
some of the recent unread threads on it. They will appear in bold
print near the top. You don’t have to read
them all at one go. Maybe go back to the Home page, click on a
different board, and read some threads on
that board.
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*Trick: If you feel completely
overwhelmed with a long backlog of posts, you can click on the
words Mark forum as read (on the right, just after the list of
categories and boards). Then you can use the All Unread function
to start reading new posts on your future visits to the forum. You
can go back and read those old threads at your leisure, any old
time.
Subtle trick: You can mark individual boards as read by clicking
on the board’s name, then at the bottom of the list of threads (on
the right), click on the words Mark as Read. |
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Avatars - Those cool pictures by
people's names |
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First you
will need a file on your computer with a picture in it, like a
digital photo, or a block that has been exported from EQ6.
Go to the Home page.
At the top, click on Member Center
On the left, under Edit Profile, click on Avatar Settings.
In the box where it says "Upload File", you can choose a file. It
works just like attaching a file to an email. |
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How to make an Avatar from a quilt block |
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Elizabeth asked how
I made my Avatar of a Quilt Block. In Electric Quilt 6, of course!
I saw the block in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting May/June 2007
issue, page 84. It's in a quilt by Nancy Martin. I wanted
something other than the star in the middle, as pictured in quilt,
so I drew the woven frame of Nancy's block in EQ. (Drawing quilt
blocks from magazines is good drawing practice in EQ.) Then I put
that block in a quilt and put an appliqué of a palm tree that I
had designed on to Layer 2.
I've been working on making graphics from Electric Quilt for
webpages for a long time now. I have found that you have to make
the block a "certain size" - a size that looks, on your screen, as
close to the size that you're going to want to see when you put it
where it eventually will go. Hope that makes sense! Otherwise, the
fabrics you chose might just not look as nice as they did in EQ,
if you have to "size them down" for a webpage.
Finding that "certain size" becomes trial and error. But, I'm
going to save you that tedious process of trial and error when
making an Avatar for the SSQA Forum.
Besides EQ6, you will need a graphics program. I use PaintShopPro
(PSP). If you don't have a graphics program, Irfanview is free and
it is excellent and will do what you need to do to make an Avatar.
http://www.irfanview.com
Good tutorial -
http://www.sticksite.com/irfanview
You could also use MS Paint which comes with your computer.
SSQA Forum Avatars are, at maximum, 150 pixels x 150 pixels or
less.
These directions make a 142 pixels x 142 pixels Avatar.
1) Have your block in the SKETCHBOOK
2) EQ QUILT LAYOUT -- 9" blocks - 3 blocks x 3 blocks, border 4"
3) Set one block in center of quilt
4) Press the PRINT SCREEN key on your keyboard. (Move your cursor
away from the block, otherwise it will be in the graphic)
5) Paste in PSP, crop the graphic, you want only the block and
want to get rid of the rest. When you are
satisfied that you have all the excess cropped away from the edges
of the block, save the block as a GIF or
JPG file, whichever is the lowest in bytes (weight). SAVE.
Remember where you have saved that file & what
you named the file. Jot it down. And also jot down the dimensions
of your Avatar. Mine is 142 x 142.
6) Go to the SSQA Forum. Login and go to your Member Center >
Avatar Settings.
7) UPLOAD AVATAR - click the BROWSE button. Browse to where you
saved that file and click on the name
of the file. OPEN. The path to your file is now in the UPLOAD
AVATAR field.
8- Be sure and enter "your dimensions" of "your Avatar", not to
exceed 150 x 150. If you don't put the actual
dimensions of your Avatar in the fields provided and your Avatar
is smaller than 150 x 150, the program will
make the Avatar 150 x 150 (or whatever dimensions are typed in the
field) and you might not be happy with the
results.
9) Click the SAVE button.
The background of the SSQA Forum pages is white. If you color the
background of your block a solid white,
and you crop (remove) the black outline of the block, the block
will appear to float -- like the fish below.
I have not tested this in EQ5. If you will be using EQ5 to make an
Avatar, you might have to do the trial and
error method. |
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