Carcassonne Central
Off Topic => Anything Else => Topic started by: Paul on December 22, 2015, 11:24:23 PM
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Hi everyone!
Starting this thread that will contain some general tips for forum members that will help us to improve the usage for this forum.
If you have any ideas you would like to add, feel free to send me a message and I will work up a nice little guide for it if it's a valid request.
You can also send me a message if you have thoughts on how to improve the content or errors.
There are many things that will be added over time here and I will try to make the guide universal, not just for Windows!
Table of content
1. Special characters (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2266.msg32018#msg32018) (á ┴ Ü © etc) - This guide will help you access these quick and easy and generally supports any software or platform.
(Last updated January 24, 2016)
2. Input box size (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2266.msg32442#msg32442) - how to make it larger (or smaller)
(Last updated January 24, 2016)
3. Known Issues (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2266.msg33627#msg33627) - A list of known issues with compatibility (forum, browser etc)
(Last updated January 24, 2016)
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Nice idea Paul. I think something like this could come in very handy! :) :(y)
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Thank you Paul.
some emotions smilies as figures from Carcassonne...
quevy has created some examples.
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Is it possible to show how the colours looks like in "Change Color" ?
There are only the name of the colours such as "Teal" or "Navy" - in the drop down list all the names are in black but not in their colour...
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perhaps some examples how to put a "Insert Hyperlink" into a posting:
example - link to this topic "Tips and tricks for the forum"
please use the button "Insert Hyperlink" and then:
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2266.0 (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2266.0)
(url)www.link...(/url)
(url)http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2266.0(/url)
Tips and tricks for the forum (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2266.0)
(url=www.link...)text(/url)
(url=http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2266.0)Tips and tricks for the forum(/url)
Please use the [...] instead of (...)
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Special Characters
Adding a special character when typing can be a nuisance for many but there are a few ways to easy find them. Most European keyboards comes equipped with labels on the keys themselves.
Windows OS
There are several ways to fetch a special character for Windows. I'll list the two ways I usually use, which have proven to work like a charm.
1. Alt Codes
Using alt codes is easy and simple, even if you do not know the code in your head.
You can look up the codes online here: http://altcod.es/all-alt-code-symbols (http://altcod.es/all-alt-code-symbols)
The code is 4-digit (for easy reference) but you can skip the zero(s) if the number is below 1000. Ex: Dollar sign $ has the alt code 36 so you can input 0036 or simply 36.
To type in a special character using alt codes simply hold down the Alt key and while keeping it down press the numbers and release the Alt key.
You will not notice anything until you actually release the Alt key.
Example: Typing in the Dollar sign you would hold down the Alt key and press 36 and then release the Alt key.
2. Character Map
Character Map is a free program / app that comes installed on nearly all Windows versions by default. Depending on the version you have, you can access this under respective Accessories menu.
For Windows 10: Start menu -- All apps -- W -- Windows Accessories -- Character Map
Tip: If you are using this a lot, pin it to the start menu.
Mac users
Mac has a similar way of accessing the special characters, like Character Map for Windows. It's called Character Viewer (formerly Character Palette).
This can be found under Apple menu -- System Preferences -- Keyboard
For more on this check out this neat little guide: http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/keyboards/charpalosx.html (http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/keyboards/charpalosx.html)
Android and other devices
Default settings on most of these devices should be sufficient. When typing a text message or inside a browser or other apps, there is a button you can press to open up a special character list. Most characters can also be accessed by it's native character. Pressing and holding down e for example will pop up a list of variants such as é, è, ê etc. and while keeping the finger down move to the desired character and then let go.
This does not list all the characters but you can download apps that will add the rest and even other languages such as Arabic, Persian, Chinese etc. A good, free and even ad free at that is AnySoft Keyboard. Once installed you can then download any language pack for usage on any other app you use for character input. And it's easy to switch between the languages!
My mother uses this app to communicate with relatives around the world that types in Arabic. Gotta love technology!
IMPORTANT: Most special characters will limit your text messange size from 160 characters down to 70 due to the encoding type required. That's 3x time the cost (typing more than 140 characters) if you can't message for free.
That's all there is to it! Hope this will help you as much as it has helped me for the past 2 decades. :yellow-meeple:
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I'll have a go at the requests tonight or tomorrow. I'll be away from the computer all day and.. gotta rush or I'll be late for today's activities! :yellow-meeple:
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the button "Insert Quote"
(quote)(/quote)
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when you like to have some text in the row "Quote":
1. draw and place a landscape tile
(quote='text')text(/quote)
(quote='official rule from HiG')1. draw and place a landscape tile(/quote)
Please use the [...] instead of (...)
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Is there an autocorrect function that can change danisthirsty to danisthirty(five)?
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Is there an autocorrect function that can change danisthirsty to danisthirty(five)?
If I ever needed motivation to learn PHP so that I could build an SMF mod, this would be it! :@
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Is there an autocorrect function that can change danisthirsty to danisthirty(five)?
I believe there is for Chrome at least. Type it once and add to the library by right clicking on the name. For Android it should be added automatically after typed in once.
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Is there an autocorrect function that can change danisthirsty to danisthirty(five)?
I believe there is for Chrome at least. Type it once and add to the library by right clicking on the name. For Android it should be added automatically after typed in once.
That'll save me some time. :)
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Increasing the box size when typing
I'm sure many of us have noticed the increase in size of post content lately. This can get a little frustrating for us that does the typing.
Our best solution was typing a draft in a separate text editor such as Notepad or Word. But the final input needs to be edited in the forum box itself for the emoticons and formatting. Ok, not really needed but it helps a lot! :@
But fear not. With a simple hold down and a drag you can increase the field to your likes!
See image below, where you would hold down the left mouse button in that small dual-diagonal line area and drag up or down to decrease / increase the size.
On Android you can do the same (though a bit tricky as it's a small area) by tapping and holding your finger over the same area and then move up or down and then release.
(http://sydby.com/carcassonne/screenshots/tipstricks/replyboxsize.jpg)
Simple and yet I myself missed this feature up until last night when someone pointed it out for me! :-[ :(y)
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:(y) :(y) :(y)
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Thanks for the tip Paul. Sometimes the seemingly obvious things can be the most difficult to find!
Merit for your efforts so far... :(y)
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Embedded video
In order to make it work, posters just need to put the link to the video, no [tag] necessary.
Right now I've only enabled embedded Facebook, Google Maps, Instagram, Vimeo, and Youtube (both long and short links). If anyone has any further video sites to add, please feel free to ask me and I can add them.
https://youtu.be/Lrle0x_DHBM
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One thing I really like on the tapatalk app is that not only can you see unread threads (as you can on the forum proper), but you can also see a timeline of posts, showing the most recent. That's such a better way of accessing 'trending' threads than having to navigate through the different sub-forums. Is there a way to see the most recent posts like that when not on a mobile device?
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One thing I really like on the tapatalk app is that not only can you see unread threads (as you can on the forum proper), but you can also see a timeline of posts, showing the most recent. That's such a better way of accessing 'trending' threads than having to navigate through the different sub-forums. Is there a way to see the most recent posts like that when not on a mobile device?
If you click on Forum (between Home and Help) upper menu bar, you get to the forum main page. Scroll down all the way to the bottom you'll find "Carcassonne Central - Info Center" there is a link to view the most recent posts newest first.
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If you click on Forum (between Home and Help) upper menu bar, you get to the forum main page. Scroll down all the way to the bottom you'll find "Carcassonne Central - Info Center" there is a link to view the most recent posts newest first.
Oh, cool tip, thanks! :(y)
I have made a bookmark for it next to the main bookmark in my Favourites bar at the top of my browser for easy access.
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Probably my most visited page! I can't imagine trying to keep up with everything that goes on without this link...
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If you click on Forum (between Home and Help) upper menu bar, you get to the forum main page. Scroll down all the way to the bottom you'll find "Carcassonne Central - Info Center" there is a link to view the most recent posts newest first.
This is what I use almost exclusively, but it only goes back 10 pages. No access to archive beyond that :'(
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If you click on Forum (between Home and Help) upper menu bar, you get to the forum main page. Scroll down all the way to the bottom you'll find "Carcassonne Central - Info Center" there is a link to view the most recent posts newest first.
This is what I use almost exclusively, but it only goes back 10 pages. No access to archive beyond that :'(
Ten pages is 100 posts that usually is more than one day worth of posts.
I myself don't use this, rather I read every post I haven't read from "Show unread posts since last visit." under "Hello profilename.
Any post that I may have missed but is still unread, I simply click on "Click here to try all unread topics" link on the very same page to find every unread post, no matter how old.
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I myself don't use this, rather I read every post I haven't read from "Show unread posts since last visit." under "Hello profilename.
I also primarily use this. But I often use the app to read posts while I'm out of the house, though I don't often write any posts this way unless it's very short. So when I come home, it's nice to be able to see a list of recent posts to remind me which are the posts that I want to reply to.
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I myself don't use this, rather I read every post I haven't read from "Show unread posts since last visit." under "Hello profilename.
I also primarily use this. But I often use the app to read posts while I'm out of the house, though I don't often write any posts this way unless it's very short. So when I come home, it's nice to be able to see a list of recent posts to remind me which are the posts that I want to reply to.
I got Tapatalk to mainly remind me of new posts. As for reading them, I use the phone's browser (Chrome). I don't have the forum bookmarked, rather a tab already loaded for the forum so it's instant read when I open the browser.
May be a bit weird, but I'm not comfortable with Tapatalk with the (to me) somewhat messy ui.
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Interesting reading how people like to keep up to date with the forums! I can offer yet another alternative as I stay in touch mostly through email. I'm usually able to visit the forums via my laptop for 20 minutes or so each morning, during which time, If I see a new topic that interests me (which is most of them), I'll either click the "notify" button or post to it which enables email notifications by default. Then I have a special folder/ "label" set up in my gmail account which all emails from CarcC go into and from which I receive an alert on my phone whenever anything new arrives. So I probably do the majority of my forum reading via phone without using Tapatalk or even actually visiting the forums. If I feel inclined to respond to anything I can do so via Chrome on my phone (by following the link in the email) if it's a short message, log onto the forums from my computer at work (shhh :-X), or I can wait until the evening and usually have a slightly longer CarcC session on the laptop then.
I always go straight to the "View the most recent posts on the forum" page whenever I'm visiting CarcC from the laptop, although this isn't an especially good way of discovering new topics.
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Is there a way to turn off email notifications (but keep Tapatalk notifications) for subscriptions & PMs? I've looked in the "usual" places to disable it (it's normal to be able to do this in Xenforo, vBulletin, myBB,...)
edit - do I counterintuitively have to set when I want to be notified (replies, 1st reply only, daily, weekly) and then tell it not to alert me?
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So I probably do the majority of my forum reading via phone without using Tapatalk or even actually visiting the forums.
There is one disadvantage in this - you are not notified about editing the posts, so you see only the original post, not modified one.
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So I probably do the majority of my forum reading via phone without using Tapatalk or even actually visiting the forums.
There is one disadvantage in this - you are not notified about editing the posts, so you see only the original post, not modified one.
Yes this has caused me some confusion in the past, especially if people have gone on to quote something that was added after the original post! ???
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3. Known Issues
Here are some known issues with SMF (Simple Machines Forum) that we know of so far.
1. Microsoft Edge has some issues with the forum (Edge's fault not ours)
• Any button in the Post Reply such as emoticons and formatting / adding links and images won't work.
• You cannot increase or decrease the Post Reply text area.
•Links open up in a new tab when clicking on them.
If you are aware of any known issues not listed here, feel free to let us know!
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This isn't a tip or trick, but more of a bug. If you attach a file that is larger than the limit and then hit Post, it takes you to a new screen telling you the image is too large and giving you a link to go back to your post. But once you go back and modify/remove the image and click Post again, it doesn't work (i.e. it doesn't do anything). You need to copy your text and start your reply from the beginning before you're able to post it.
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Does anyone have any tips for how to use the search function effectively? (Or, put another way: can the search function be made better?)
There is a thread called Carcassonne Travel Set. When you search for carcassonne travel set (the exact words without capital letters), there are no results. When you search with capital letters, it returns three results but none of them are the thread that has the exact search words in the title! Why isn't this better?
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When faced with similar on other forums, I just use a targeted Google search...
Enter the terms you want into the search box and add "site:carcassonnecentral.com/community" to the end. Then all the results will be from the forums here on CC.
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First of all: search function works "locally". When you are in one of the subforums, search works only in this subforum. If you try the same query when you are on the main forum page, it perfectly finds all related topics.
Second: you can use the same syntax, as in other search engines, e.g., use quotas ("") to find exact words match
"Carcassonne Travel Set"ADDED:
Third: there is another good thing called "Advanced search". It allows you to use even more search options (see screenshot). In order to access it press on "Search" button without entering any search string, you will see empty results page, but there you can press "Advanced search" button.
EDIT2: The same way to access it was described by Paul: just press on "Search" button after "Help" menu on the top-left corner.
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Does anyone have any tips for how to use the search function effectively? (Or, put another way: can the search function be made better?)
There is a thread called Carcassonne Travel Set. When you search for carcassonne travel set (the exact words without capital letters), there are no results. When you search with capital letters, it returns three results but none of them are the thread that has the exact search words in the title! Why isn't this better?
If you use the Search function top-right corner of a page, it only seaches the thread you are in, as mentioned by MrNumbers.
Instead, go to the Search page using the link between Help and Admin top-left and search there and it will search the entire forum.
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Thanks a million guys! Great tips! Paul's method looks like the quickest and easiest way to a comprehensive search.
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During my private messaging with totor66 concerning Cathars, he pointed out to me that it isn't possible to send an attached file/photo via pm. Perhaps a suggestion for in the future, if it is possible to implement something like that?
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If both of you are able to join the irc chat you could send a file thru there or mail one another.
We'll look in to this see what is viable regarding sendin files with forum pm.
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It's not built-in, but for my work I often use this free service to send files of any size to others, the only downside is you have to keep the browser tab open until the other person receives it: https://www.reep.io/ (https://www.reep.io/)
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At the moment there is not a great connection between the browser and mobile (Tapatalk) versions of the forum. Emojis and other symbols used on one of these platforms don't appear properly on the other. Is there any way to fix this?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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At the moment there is not a great connection between the browser and mobile (Tapatalk) versions of the forum. Emojis and other symbols used on one of these platforms don't appear properly on the other. Is there any way to fix this?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sounds like work for Gantry. From what I've been poking around with I could not find any Tapatalk emoticon settings on this forum. What I do know is, that this forum uses a customized Icon set, which may very well not exist or is in par with Tapatalks version.
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I tend to use Tapatalk and it really bugs me that polls don't appear - does anyone know if it's possible to view them in the app?
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I tend to use Tapatalk and it really bugs me that polls don't appear - does anyone know if it's possible to view them in the app?
So I finally got around to install Tapatalk again. Did some searching and tampering and wow... just wow.... How is anyone using this? It's awful! Not only is the forum so much different, but you can barely find anything in an instant!
And then there are the ads, so many ads, accidently clicked them a few times. I for one would not recommend using this program.
A better way, in my experience, is to use a shortcut on your phone to this forum. Simply tap it and you're in, surfing like on a computer and you'll be able to use all the features.
To make a shortcut (in Chrome) go to "Show unread posts since last visit." page (what I use so everytime I click the shortcut I can see all unread first) and then use the 3 dots top right in Chrome to make a shortcut on start screen.
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Thanks for taking the time to look into this Paul, much appreciated. The main reason I started using the app is that typing messages in the browser was problematic - partially typing a word and clicking on one of the suggestions (SwiftKey keyboard helpfully provides) would add the whole word to whatever you'd already typed and it just did my head in. I agree that the app is poor, and only tend to use it to quickly catch up with threads that I'm following. It's possible to navigate the site using the path at the top of the page but it's not good. I do like that the app provides regular suggestions of threads / posts which might be of interest. I'm sure that there is loads of interesting stuff I've missed though, so I need to make more of an effort and get back into the habit of visiting the site regularly! I'll definitely give the shortcut to unread posts since last visit a go and also see if the message typing issue is still there (I've changed my phone since and now use Chrome instead of default browser too). Cheers
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The auto-fill and suggestion in todays technology is something I will never get used to, but I do recognize it's functionality and I've certainly had to look up words myself! My English is pretty much self-taught.
Meanwhile, I will continue monitoring the situation, I can't believe that polls aren't available in such a huge app as Tapatalk. This and the emoticons issue in another thread.
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Yeah, me neither - most dissapointing. The notifications are pretty helpful too though - I'd miss them if I stopped using the app.
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On my mobile I am using WAP version (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?wap2) of the forum (See "WAP2" link at the bottom of each page). Minimalistic design, no pictures, no attachments, no emoticons, but all posts' text could be read, without any ads. If I want to read thread as intended, I can press "Go to full version", and it will open current thread in original design.
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Thanks, I'll give that a go too.