The Board Manager allows the superuser to add, remove, and configure topics as well as to change several options that directly affect the front page (such as the message displayed on the bottom of the page, the appearance of the board logo section, and the color scheme of the board). The Board Manager is restricted to the superuser -- ordinary moderators cannot access the Board Manager. To access the Board Manager, click on "Board Manager" from the administration program main menu.

Title message

The appearance of the top of the screen, where the board logo normally appears by default, can be customized by the superuser by editing the "Title Message" through the Board Manager.

To change the title message, enter the desired message in the text entry box under "Title Message." You may use all formatting tags except image upload in your message. Then click on "Preview/Save Message." If you wish to change your entry, modify the contents of the text entry box and then click on "Refresh Preview." When your message is correct, click on "Save Message."

The default for the title message is the board logo centered on the screen, which can be achieved by entering \c{\clipart{board_logo}} as your title message. If you wish to use your own logo, upload a file called board_logo.gif to the "clipart" directory, and use the formatting code stated here to include your new logo.

Topics

The superuser has several options dealing with topics. The superuser can delete, rename, reorder, change the group of, or add subtopics from the administration interface.

• Deleting a topic

  Click on the delete icon () next to the topic you wish to delete. You may also use the check boxes in the "Mark" column to select the topics you wish to delete, and then click on the delete icon in the "(Marked)" row. You must click on "OK" to confirm the deletion of a topic. WARNING! If you delete a topic, the contents of the deleted page will be permanently lost; in addition, any subtopics of the deleted topic will also be recursively deleted.

• Changing the group of a topic

  Click on the group icon () next to the topic for which you wish to change the group. You may also use the check boxes in the "Mark" column to select the topics you wish to change the group of, and then click on the group icon in the "(Marked)" row. You are then presented with a form prompting you for the new group of the topic. Select the new group for the topic from the dropdown menu box and then click on "Change Topic Group" to make the change.

• Changing properties of a topic

  Click on the properties icon () next to the topic for which you wish to edit properties. The following properties are available:

  • Topic Name

    This allows you to rename the topic. Enter the desired name for the topic into the text box next to "Name:" and click "Rename Topic" to rename the topic. You can use simple formatting tags (bold, italics) in the topic name if you wish.

  • Topic Description

    The topic description appears on the top page, indented and directly under the topic name. You can enter a sentence or two describing the purpose of the topic. To enter or edit a description, type the description into the provided text box, and click "Preview/Save Description" to preview the description. To save the description, click the "Save Message" button on the next page. If you do not wish to use a topic description, delete all text in the box and preview and save the message (i.e., blank descriptions are permitted).

  • META Tags

    To use META tags for the description, key words, and robots directives, enter the desired META tags into the blanks and click the "Save META Tags" button. This applies the selected META tags to all pages in the topic. Consult one of the many available WWW pages describing META tags for more information.

• Reordering topics

  Enter numbers corresponding to the new order for the topics (lower numbers will move topics higher in the list). You may use decimals or negative numbers for convenience. To impose your new order, click on the reorder icon ().

• Adding a topic

  Enter the name for the topic in the "Topic Name:" text entry box under "Add a Topic." Then, select the group for the topic from the dropdown menu box. To finish adding the topic, click on "Add this Topic."

Main Message

To change the main message, enter the desired message in the text entry box under "Main Message." You may use all formatting tags except image upload in your message. Then click on "Preview/Save Message." If you wish to change your entry, modify the contents of the text entry box and then click on "Refresh Preview." When your message is correct, click on "Save Message."

Board Appearance

The color scheme, font, and background image of each page on the discussion board can be modified using the "Board Appearance" option. Changes are made on the top page and all subtopic pages. Settings can be changed at any time.

The board colors (for background, text, link, visited link, and active link) are set in traditional HTML hex codes or by typing in the name of a recognized color. The font face can be a comma delimited list of fonts (such as "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica") and the browser will choose the first available font on the system to display. The font size is a number between 1 (small) and 7 (large) -- "12 point" fonts correspond to size 3 and are generally the most readable, although for Verdana, size 2 is most readable. The background image is a URL (such as "http://your.server.com/images/background.jpg") and must be a valid URL to an existing image.

To change the board appearance, enter or modify any of the settings using the text entry boxes provided. Click on "Preview/Save Appearance" for a preview of your settings. To revise your settings, change any of the text entry boxes on the preview screen and then click on "Refresh Preview" to preview again your settings. To save your settings, click on "Save Appearance." The program will apply your new settings to all pages on the board recursively.

If you are importing message files from a different URL onto this new URL, click the box for "Check this box if you are moving the board from one server to another". This requires extra processing time, so use this option only if you are importing message files from a different board onto your board.

Changing the board appearance has the intended effect of regenerating all pages from the template files. The layout of the page is controlled by the newpage.conf file in the administration files directory. The "Add a Message" boxes are controlled by the addmessage-private.conf file (for private posting areas) and the addmessage-public.conf file (for public posting areas). Customizations to these files must be made with caution, as corrupting these files could result in data loss or erratic program behavior.

WARNING! The program performs no error checking of your colors, fonts, or background URLs. The program will not warn you if the colors will not go well together or if you have entered invalid fonts. It is strongly recommended that you consider carefully the colors, fonts, and background image for maximum readability by your users. It is important to check your new color scheme in both Netscape and Internet Explorer, as these programs sometimes display colors differently.

Top page options

You may select whether the topic names (on the top page) are in bold, whether to display the group name in parentheses, and whether to display the date and time of the most recent page update on the top page. In previous versions of this software, bolded topic names and group names in parentheses were the default. In recent versions, bolded topic names and the date and time of the most recent update is the default. Select the options you wish by checking the appropriate check boxes, and click "Save Changes" to apply your preferences.

In the professional version, you can specify options regarding the appearance of topics that are access-restricted. You can choose to place a lock icon next to restricted topics, or to hide the restricted topics from the list entirely. Note that if you hide the topics from the list, you need to post elsewhere on your site (either in another Discus topic or on another static page) the URLs to access the private discussion(s) if you want anyone to be able to access those private discussions.

META tags

To use META tags for the description, key words, and robots directives, enter the desired META tags into the blanks and click the "Save META Tags" button. This applies the selected META tags to the top page only. If you want to apply those META tags to all topics on the board, check the "Apply to all pages on board" box before saving the META tags (this overwrites any of the individual settings chosen when configuring topic properties). Consult one of the many available WWW pages describing META tags for more information.