Finding the Most Recent Posts

How do I find the most recent, newest, or most recently changed posts on this website?

Finding the most recent posts on this website is only one click away, do this:

1. Login with your user ID and password
2. Cick Recent Posts in the Navigation area on the right of the screen
3. A complete list of all recent posts are displayed
4. Posts which you have not read have a red new tag next to their name
5. Click on a link to read the post

Hints:

1. Posts which have been edited since you last read them also have a red new tag next to their name.
2. If you have logged in, you will see all the premium and guest content.
3. If you have not logged in, the list of recent posts displays only those items with guest access.

Making Text Bigger

I find the text size on this website too small to read comfortably. How can I make it easier to read?

That's a great question and it's a very easy fix.

All of the text on this site can be made larger or smaller using standard features built into web standard compliant sites like this one, and build into web standard compliant web browsers like Safari, FireFOX and others.

To make the text bigger in Safari, do this:

1. choose View menu > Make Bigger
2. all text on the site will be larger, including text in the body of pages like this one and all the navigation items.

Notice that the content of the site reflows automatically to accommodate your larger text size. To make the text smaller simply go back to the View menu and choose Make Smaller

Hint:You can also add an icon to the Safari tool bar that let's you enlarge and reduce the size of text by clicking on an icon. To add Text Sizing icons to your Safari tool bar, do this:

1. choose View menu > Customize Address Bar...
2. a sheet will drop down from the Safari document window
3. drag the Text Size icons from the Sheet onto the Safari Address Bar and press Done

Now you can change the text size up or down simply by clicking on the appropriate icon.

If you're using a web browser other than Safari, for example FireFOX, you're are going to be looking for menu items named something like Text Size. Typically those types of menu items appear in a web browsers View menu.

Hint: You can also use key command short cuts to do the same task, and they are often the same in man web browsers. Press Command + to make text bigger. Press Command - to make text smaller

Optimizing Screen Space

I'm using a computer with a small monitor and the main content area on this website is too small. How can I reclaim more screen space to make reading content easier?

The main content area (the white area you're reading this in) is designed to be readable at screen resolutions of 1024x768 or higher. However, we understand that not everyone has monitors which support that resolution, or perhaps you're using a smaller laptop display. With that condition in mind, we've provided the ability for you to customize some of the primary navigation elements of this website.

To shut off some of the navigation elements and reclaim more space for the main content area, do this:

1. login with your user name and password (or register if you don't have one)
2. click the my account link in the left hand navigation column
3. scroll down to the block configuration section
4. the blocks with check marks all appear on the right side of your screen
5. click on a box next to a block name to uncheck it
6. scroll down and press submit

If you unchecked all the blocks, then they no longer appear in the right hand navigation column and the main content are (the white area you're reading this in) will fill up that space. The settings are remembered by the website and are saved with your user account settings.

In most cases, all of the content that appeared in the right hand column was a summary of information from the primary site sections. To find that content just click on any link to go that site section. For example, click Forums to visit the forums and see the recent entries that were summarized in the right hand column.

Information such as Who's Online and Who's New is not displayed anywhere else on site except the right hand navigation column.

Seeing Additional Help

Contextual Help for website features

Some features of this website have specific help articles associated with them. For example, there is specific help instructions for posting Polls, Forum Topics or adding Comments.

Just look for this icon [inline:1] at the top right corner of the page when making a New Poll, Forum Topic or Comment. Clicking on that will display additional information, hints and tips.

If you're looking for help on how to format your messages for various special effects such as bold or italic fonts (and many others) click this icon [inline:2] next to various text and form fields to see additional information about the related item.

Generally, there is a lot that you can do within this online community to please take your time, look around, and explore. The water is fine so come on in

Working with bookmarks

How do I create and manage bookmarks?

Here are the general rules as they apply to working with bookmarks:

1. Bookmarks are available to registered visitors only.
2. Bookmarks are saved with your user name and stored on macintechsig.org, not in your browser. This allows you to access your bookmarks from any computer, not just the computer you might use at the office, in the school computer lab, in an internet cafe or other location.
3. Your bookmarks can contain links to macintechsig.org pages or to any page on a different website.

For detailed, step by step, instructions please visit the links noted below.