Forum Primer 05: Edit Your User Profile

The community system has a rich user profile feature that will allow users to set user specific settings for their account.  To access the profile editor, simply click the "Edit Profile" link in the top right corner of the page.

The Editor has six content tabs: Signature and Bio, About, Email, Site Options, Password and Statistics, and Favorites.

Signature and Bio:

Use this tab to add a signature that will appear at the end or each of your posts.  You can also add a Bio that will display in your community profile.

About:

Use this tab to add basic "About You" Information.

Site Options:

This tab contains settings for various site options.  Some key settings worth discussion are "Forum Posts Default View", "Enable Display Name", "Enable Collapsing Panels", and the "Control Panel" Options.  Each are discussed further below.

Forum Posts Default View:  This setting lets you pick how forums are displayed.  The "Flat" view is the default view and will result in forums displayed as a list of conversations.  The "Tree" view will provide a view similar to the "Windows Explorer" in most computers.  This vie lists conversations hierarchically on the left and posts on the right.  Because of its large horizontal layout, this view is best viewed on computers with wide screen monitors and higher resolutions. Below is a screen shot of that view (reduced to 75% for reference)

Enable Display Name:  This setting will change how your identity is shown within the site.  When it is set to "Yes" the system will show your identity based on your Name as set on the "About" tab above.  When set to "No" your identity will be displayed as your username.  Because most usernames in the system are the twelve digit member number, this can become confusing and is therefore not recommended.  For example, instead of "William Bruce", I would be listed as something like "000000123456."

Enable Collapsing Panels:  This setting will let you customize the display of forums groups.  If you would like to reduce the vertical screen space on the main forum page (www.communities.org/forums), you can turn this setting on.  Below are two screen shots showing a how this works. Forum groups can be collapsed or expanded by clicking the small button to the left of the forum group title.

First, a screen shot of the panels shown as expanded:

Now, a screen shot showing the General Members Forums as collapsed:

Control Panel options are for administrators and moderators and should will have no effect for most users.

Password and Statistics:

This tab will show basic statistics for your account and provide a button to change your password.

Favorites: 

This tab is used to manage your favorites.  You can share them with everybody on the site and delete items from your favorites here. (no image)