I. About FuseTalk

FuseTalk™ Inc. is the leading provider of online collaboration applications for Macromedia ColdFusion. Flagship product FuseTalk Professional Edition is the leading discussion forum solution for Macromedia ColdFusion in the world and delivers a robust, rich environment for building online communities. FuseTalk Community Edition, built in and for Macromedia ColdFusion MX, is the ideal solution for delivering powerful multiple forums across departments, partners and distributed locations. Two-tier administration, powerful APIs and enhanced database capabilities make FuseTalk Community Edition the most flexible forum solution available today. To lean more about FuseTalk, visit FuseTalk Inc.

On the FuseTalk menu, you will see a menu tab labeled 'profile' and within there 'personal options'. This option allows you to tailor the forums to meet your own personal needs. Once you click on the profile tab, you will see a form with a series of options. Below is an explanation of the function of each option. After setting your options and clicking the 'Customize!' button at the bottom of the page, your settings will be saved. Option Description Color Themes the default color theme for the forum. Each swatch shows a different theme color. Background Color Customization your background color for the forum. There are two methods of selecting: a) select a preset color with the paint bucket icon; or b) if you are familiar with the RGB color schema, select the Red, Green, and Blue values. Background Shade indicate if the background you selected is dark or light. This feature ensures that the displayed text and logos are suited for either shade. Default Forum View the default view for your forum. This feature allows you to select the default view you wish to view your forum in. --Branch View: displays one of the parent-child relationship branch only. --Threaded (All Messages): display of the parent-child relationship at the top of every topic, indicating the relationship of each message in the topic to its parent. Viewing all messages. --Threaded (Single Messages): display of the parent-child relationship at the top of every topic, indicating the relationship of each message in the topic to its parent. Viewing only one message at a time. --Linear: displays topics in the standard format in which a topic is started and people can reply to it but cannot alter the topic's subject.

This section allows you to customize your profile. Below is an explanation of the function of each option. After setting your options and clicking the 'Update Profile' button at the bottom of the page, your profile settings will be saved. Field Description First Name* your first name Last Name* your last name Username* your username for logging in to the forums (e.g. jsmith). Password allows you to change your password Verify Password a second password field used to verify your password City the city in which you reside Province/State the state or province in which you reside; if your state is not listed, choose "Other". Country the country in which you reside Time Zone for the convenience of those not in the same time zone as the forums, you can select your time zone. All topic and message times will then be displayed in your time zone. Time Zone Adjust because some countries update their time systems randomly, rules for daylight savings time are not always the same. Manually adjust your offset to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Website your website address ICQ # if you have an ICQ (I Seek You) number, enter it here. ICQ is a program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. AIM if you have an AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) number, enter it here. AIM is an AOL program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. E-mail Address* your e-mail address E-mail Address Verification your e-mail address again for verification. Birth Date your birthday (MM/DD/YYYY) Profile Visibility if enabled, attaches an icon to each message you post allowing other users to view your profile information. E-mail Visibility if enabled, allows users to see your e-mail address in your profile and in other areas of the forum. View other users signatures if enabled, hides users signature lines in all messages. Allow Private Messages allows people to send you private messages using the private messaging module. Current Browser displays the users browser and version they are using. Additional Questions there might be questions that appear that have been created solely by the Administrator of the system. They are additional questions. Eg. Questions like "Where did you hear about this forum?" or "What operating system are you using?" could be questions the administrator could add. Additional Questions there might be questions that appear that have been created solely by the Administrator of the system. They are additional questions. Eg. Questions like "Where did you hear about this forum?" or "What operating system are you using?" could be questions the administrator could add. Additional Questions there might be questions that appear that have been created solely by the Administrator of the system. They are additional questions. Eg. Questions like "Where did you hear about this forum?" or "What operating system are you using?" could be questions the administrator could add. Additional Questions there might be questions that appear that have been created solely by the Administrator of the system. They are additional questions. Eg. Questions like "Where did you hear about this forum?" or "What operating system are you using?" could be questions the administrator could add. Signature your signature block that will appear below each of your posted messages. e.g. John Doe CEO John Doe Corporation Author Icons you can choose to have a personal "author" icon that is associated with your username. The icon will appear above your username every time you post a message.

The key actions of any forum are, of course, posting, replying, and viewing messages. The process of doing each of these tasks is as follows. I. Posting a new topic To post a new topic, enter a category or sub-category in which you want to post to and click the 'new topic' tab on the menu. The Post a Message form will appear, where you can enter the message title and description. Press on the 'Post Message' button when completed. See below for the list of fields in this form and their definitions. Above the message box, you will see a toolbar with symbols that resemble "B" and "I". This toolbar allows quick access to bolding text, changing font to italics, underlining text, and putting links around words/sentences. For a full description of these symbols, click on the 'symbols' link at the bottom of the form. Field/Function Description Message Title the title or short description of the message. Message Text the body text of the message. Subscribe to this topic allows you to subscribe to the topic; if anyone replies to your new message, you will be notified via e-mail or private message depending on your selection in your profile. Auto parse URLs makes it easier for you to create a link within messages using the HTML editor (not the WYSIWYG editor). FuseTalk now auto-parses URLs to create a link in a message that is clickable without having to type the entire HTML string, such as [L=http://www.fusetalk.com]http://www.fusetalk.com[/L]. Topic/Message rating allows you to add an icon that best describes the mood of your message. Attach Code click on this button to attach formatted text to your message. Note: this option will only appear if code attachments are enabled for that topic. Attach File(s) allows you to attach multiple files to your message. Note: this option will only appear if attachments are enabled for that topic. Clear File(s) clears all the attachments in which you have attached to your message. Note: this option will only appear if attachments are enabled for that topic. II. Replying To reply to a message/topic, click the 'Reply' or 'Quote' button located in each message within a topic. The difference between the two options is that by pressing the 'Quote' button, the original message is automatically added to the beginning of your reply message. See below for the list of fields in the Reply form that will appear, and their definitions. Above the message box, you will see a toolbar with symbols that resemble "B" and "I". This toolbar allows quick access to bolding text, changing font to italics, underlining text, and putting links around words/sentences. For a full description of these symbols, click on the 'symbols' link at the bottom of the form. Field Description Message Title the title or short description of the message. Message Text the body text of the message. Subscribe to this topic allows you to subscribe to the topic; if anyone replies to your new message, you will be notified via e-mail or private message depending on your selection in your profile. Auto parse URLs makes it easier for you to create a link within messages using the HTML editor (not the WYSIWYG editor). FuseTalk now auto-parses URLs to create a link in a message that is clickable without having to type the entire HTML string, such as [L=http://www.fusetalk.com]http://www.fusetalk.com[/L]. This question has been answered appearing if the Support Module is installed and you have permission to answer questions; allows you to mark/unmark the topic/question as answered. Topic/Message rating allows you to add an icon that best describes the mood of your message. Attach Code click on this button to attach formatted text to your message. Note: this option will only appear if code attachments are enabled for that topic. Attach File(s) allows you to attach multiple files to your message. Note: this option will only appear if attachments are enabled for that topic. Clear File(s) clears all the attachments in which you have attached to your message. Note: this option will only appear if attachments are enabled for that topic. III. Editing You can edit a message that you have posted. You can only edit messages if you are the originator of the message. To do this, navigate within the forums to locate your posted message. At the bottom right of the message, there is an 'Edit' link. Click on this link and the Edit Message form will appear. Above the message box, you will see a toolbar with symbols that resemble "B" and "I". This toolbar allows quick access to bolding text, changing font to italics, underlining text, and putting links around words/sentences. For a full description of these symbols, click on the 'symbols' link at the bottom of the form. IV. Viewing To view messages in the forum, navigate into a category and click on a topic that interests you. A list of messages will appear. If the number of messages in that topic exceeds the number of messages that you've allowed to be displayed per page, you will see page numbers at the top and bottom of the screen. This will assist you in navigating through the page(s) of messages. Every message consists of the following features: the message body, the posted date, the author of the message, and a toolbar at the top right and bottom right of the screen. Top Right Message Toolbar The toolbar located at the top right allows you to perform various tasks. Following is a description of each task. Icon Description Subscribe icon - allows you to subscribe to the topic; if any new messages are posted, you will be notified via e-mail or private messaging depending on your profile settings. Add to Favorites icon - allows you to bookmark topics and add them to your favorites list for viewing at a later time. The favorites listing is located within the today/my forums page. User Logged In - indicates that the user is logged in to the forums. User not Logged In - indicates that the user is not logged in to the forums. View Profile icon - allows you to view the profile of the user who posted the message. (This will only be displayed if the user has allowed user to view their profile.) Private Messaging icon - allows you to send the user (who posted the original message) a private message that can only be read by him. Print Topic icon - allows you to view text version of the topic and print it. Bottom Right Message Toolbar The toolbar located at the bottom right allows you to reply to a message, quote a message, and navigate through each message by the top, next, previous and bottom links, and edit a message (if you are the originator). Mark this message as the answer If you have permission to answer questions, or you are the topic originator, this allows you to mark the topic/question as answered. V. Member Ranking Ranking Each author is assigned a ranking based on the number of posted messages they have made. The ranking appears underneath the user's name. Below are the current ranks. Title Posts Required Junior Member 0 Member 20 Senior Member 200 Contributor 300 Senior Contributor 500

In FuseTalk, you can search the forum for topics and messages that are of particular interest to you. There are two ways in which you can search for forum information; selecting the "main" button in the main navigation area for an advanced search or by using the single keyword search function available in each category. See below for the descriptions of the fields and their functions. Field Description Search Phrase enter your search criteria here. What is it you are searching for? User can use Boolean logic which will search all aspects. Author filter your search by author name. You can also search for messages ONLY by the author name. Which Messages? Search within current messages, or the archived messages. Forum Categories select the categories that you want to search from the list. Date Range There are two options for selecting your date criteria: a) Use the drop down menu and select how many days prior to the current date; or b) Enter a start and end date (mm/dd/yyyy) of the message/topic. Date Range is a required selection for performing searches. Forum User Search search for a user in the forum. Search results will display the user and methods of communication, if they have enabled their profile information.

The Today page is a summary of what is currently happening in the forums as it relates to the user. If you subscribe to topics, have private messages, these will be displayed here. Hot Topics is defined by how many messages are in a topic. Also listed are the twenty most recent messages that you've posted to the forum, as well as the ten users who have posted the most messages.

Private Messaging allows users to send each other messages that can only be read by the recipient. This feature is managed and viewed in an area separate from the forums. To enter the private message center, click on the Private Message icon on the top of the forums. I. Sending To send a private message, type in the recipients name beside 'Send a Private Message to' and press 'Send Message'. You'll then be brought to the Private Message User screen which you'll type in your message and press 'Send Private Message'. II. Receiving To recognize when you have new private messages, the padlock icon will flash red and orange . The text beside the icon will also alert you to how many new private messages you have received. III. Viewing To view private messages, click on the Private Message icon and your new private messages will be displayed, along with the date and the name of the sender. Click on the 'Read' icon corresponding to the message you want to read. IV. View History When messages have been read, they are transferred into the Private Message User History. Search for the sender's name using the alphabet listing. These messages can be viewed by clicking on the 'View' icon . VI. Deleting To delete Private Messages, view Message History and search for a sender. When you have the history listing of that sender, you can delete each individual message, or click 'Select All' then 'Delete', which will delete the history associated with that sender. VII. Search To search your private messages, simply type in a keyword and press 'Search'. VIII. Add Buddy If you have enabled Buddy List in the Profile area, then you can add Buddy's to your list here. Once added, they will appear in a floating window, "The Buddy List".

On the main page of the forum, located above the category list to the right, is a link, "WHO'S ON", which directs you to a list of users who are currently logged in. This information is accurate to approximately 15 minutes. You can view the User profiles, send e-mail, or send a private message to any one of these users.

Clicking on the 'chat' tab will open the chat interface. To chat with people, simply type in your text and press 'send'.

Knowledge Base Once a topic has been answered, users who have been selected to populate the knowledge base (knowledge base miners) will have the opportunity to select them as a knowledge base article. To select them, knowledge base miners have to enter the topic, and click on the "Make this topic a Knowledge Base Article" link. The first message of the topic and the message marked as being answered will be sent to the knowledge base database for approval. Searching the Knowledge Base Clicking on the knowledge base button on the menu bar will bring you to the knowledge base search screen. Users may search knowledge base articles by title or by article ID. To view a knowledge base article, the user can click on the icon in the action column. Approving Knowledge Base Articles Forum administrators have authority to approve or decline knowledge base articles. To approve articles, administrators must search for them using the knowledge base search interface. To easily locate these articles, click on the checkbox "Pending Approval Articles". When the results are displayed, click on the Checkmark in the action column to approve the article. Answering Questions If the support package is installed, support personnel and the originator of the topic will have the ability to mark a question/topic as answered. This option appears in each message in the topic, and will also appear as a checkbox on the Reply To Topic form. Marking a question as answered allows users to see that a question has been answered, by the folder icon with the checkmark and a notice that appears at the top of the topic.

These shortcuts are only available to those using Microsoft Internet Explorer. A shortcut is a function that is shorter or saves time to do a step or operation.

Keystroke	Description
Alt-N	allows you to create a new message when you are in the categories.cfm or messageview.cfm screens.
Alt-R	allows you to reply to a message when you are in the messageview.cfm screen.
Alt-P	allows you to post a message when you are creating a new topic or replying to a topic.
Alt-L	allows you to automatically be re-directed to the login page or logout page.
Alt-Q	allows you to opens the quick reply window, if it is not docked.