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Overview of Configuration Options You can specify the display mode of the Bulletin Board. There are three options: No Frames, Full Screen Frames and Split Screen Frames. Each of these options is explained in detail below. These configuration specifications are available on the Settings Menu. Whatever configuration option you specify is used each time you enter the Bulletin Board. No Frames or Frames View | Top To access this option, click Settings Menu. This will expand the menu so all of its options are visible. Click Hide Menu to hide all of these options. The default configuration for the layout of the right frame is to split it into two regions. This is called the split screen view; the message listing is displayed in the top half, while articles and interaction screens are displayed at the bottom of the screen(Figure 1). To change the frame view, click Settings in the Settings Menu. Here, you can select from No Frames, Full Screen Frames or Split Screen Frames. To select a frame view, click the appropriate option button and click Update.  Figure 1 The split screen (default configuration) for the bulletin board layout Another option allows either the message listing or the article to take up the entire right frame (full screen frames) as in Figure 2.  Figure 2 The full screen frames option for the bulletin board layout To change to this view, click Settings in the Settings Menu. The screen will refresh to the Settings window (see Figure 3). Select the Full Screen Frames view, and click Update.  Figure 3 Setting your bulletin board display The final option is the no frames view. Select the No Frames option from the Settings menu, as seen in Figure 3 above, and click Update. Your view of the Bulletin Board will change to the one shown in Figure 4. In the No Frames view, there will be one window.  Figure 4 No Frames view of the forums To change the page to the forum listings, click the hyperlinked forum you wish to view (see Figure 5). The remaining functionality is similar to that of the frames view, except that the options are displayed across the top of the window.  Figure 5 No frames view of a forums listing By default, WebCT organizes the messages by threads, with the threads sorted chronologically (see Figure 4).  Figure 4 Default message listing with chronological sorting by threads A thread is created when someone posts a reply to a message. When a listing is sorted by thread, the first message in each thread is shown with the subject above, and replies underneath, indented from the original message. The threads are sorted chronologically, according to the date that the first message was posted. The other option is to sort the entire listing chronologically, by listing the oldest messages at the top and the newest messages at the bottom (see Figure 5).  Figure 5 Sorting the entire message list chronologically To select this option, click Unthreaded in the Settings Menu. This will reload the message listing, sorting it chronologically. To switch back to the subject sorting by threads, click on Threaded. Whichever option you are using when you exit will be displayed when you return. Keep in mind that if you are in the No Frames view, you cannot sort the messages chronologically. |
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