Tips & tricks (2 Viewers)

[Essex Tern]

What size do I need to tap in?

Try 100 for height, and then trial and error til you’re happy 👍

 

[Deb Burhinus]

Thanks I will leave it as it will clog up the thread

The undo feature is really helpful (in top right)

 

[Deb Burhinus]

To see how many posts someone has made on BF and their join date, tap on their avatar

 

[Chosun Juan]

Interesting you can see my little Crow there - he should appear at the end of each post I make, as you can imagine (or have to imagine, as the case may be.....hopefully that is only the case currently though 😊)

You can opt to not see people’s signatures as a setting in preferences - I assume that hasn’t been selected in your settings and it is only a gif issue.

I have the 'see signatures' box checked, but I'm not seeing yours (no gif, no text, no nuthin), and I can't recall seeing anyone else's either .....




Chosun 🙆

 

[Kits]

Turn your phone to landscape and they will appear, Chosun.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

PAGE NAVIGATION IN THREADS and FORUMs (may be different for mobile users)

At the top and bottom of each thread is the sequence of page numbers.
If you want to go to particular pages or jump back and forth a set number of pages:

• click on the 3 dots in the middle of the sequence of page numbers displayed at the top/bottom of the thread
• select page you want to go to ie if the thread is on page 5, and you want to go forward 10 pages, enter 25 then press go. Or if the thread is at page 1 and you want to go roughly to the middle of a 400 page thread, enter 200.
• The number you last entered will remain in the box so if you then want to then go back 3 pages or forward another 3 from the page you just got to you can use the + and - toggles.

The same process works for finding threads in Forums
eg if you want to find an identification thread in the Q&A or an old thread in Ruffled Feathers for example.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

WHAT’S NEW
Under the ‘What’s New’ section (next to ‘Forums’ on the banner menu) there is a sub-section at the end of the row called ‘latest activity’ - this is a really handy feature. You can see all the latest activity on the site in a very neat list, it shows you what posts members have made and what replies, the thread title and the first line of the post - really useful to see at a glance whether or not you want to read more.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

Found this great ‘Squirrel-proof‘ feeder so decided to test out the new formatting functions!

...and so on 🤣

 

[Deb Burhinus]

Steps to get the above! You could do some or all!

1. Emailed video from phone to ipad, saved in photos
2. Downloaded an Mp3 compressor for £3 from App store
3. Compressed video to 8.43 mb -( before uploading to youtube not sure what the max mb is for BF)
4. Uploaded video to youtube (a few minutes to create an account) which creates a link
5. Opened post reply box - created several boxes (randomly using the grid icon next to the “ marks on the tool bar
6. chose which box I wanted my video in
7. selected landscape icon and ‘click here’ then inserted youtube link
8. Entered text in various boxes

Hopefully this is all ok - and it’s not against the rules for using too much bandwidth or anything

 

[Deb Burhinus]

Emojis

Apparently 😯my Ipad emojis work now in the text field, which is easier for me because they are larger and easier to type in straight from my ⌨️ than using the drop down in the 🛠🔨🔧 bar. This means more time to soak in the 🛁 with a glass of 🍷😁

 

[Essex Tern]

Emojis

Apparently 😯my Ipad emojis work now in the text field, which is easier for me because they are larger and easier to type in straight from my ⌨️ than using the drop down in the 🛠🔨🔧 bar. This means more time to soak in the 🛁 with a glass of 🍷😁

Yes have been using my keyboard emojis from the off, loads more choice including the 🍆 which has been a choice since time began, although never really understood the need for it and a few others 😂

......decided to replace being a Well known member with a list of my main hobbies once I knew where to change it 👍

 

[Essex Tern]

3. Compressed video to 8.43 mb -( before uploading to youtube not sure what the max mb is for BF)

Not sure if there is a limit for BF if we are hotlinking?

 

[Deb Burhinus]

MANAGING FORUM WATCH

Lots of people have been asking about not wanting to see threads or forums they are not interested in - referring to post # 46 above just wanted to show a screenshot of my watched forum page to illustrate an example - You can effectively create your personalised BF interface page which updates in real time to show the latest threads! Just click ‘watch’ at the top of a forum or thread and it will be saved to your ‘Watched’ interface pages (one for threads and one for forums’.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

SHARE A POST IN ANOTHER THREAD

This one is also really helpful. To post a link in another thread from a post elsewhere use the ‘share icon’ in the menu bar (the share icon only appears in a post thats already been uploaded so if you are intending to duplicate post, upload your initial post first). Click the share icon in the top right of the post you want to share. Go to the thread you want to link the post in, create a new reply dialogue box, then press ‘paste’. So now I have created a post to post link with the snagging thread. It’s that easy and instead of posting just a page link, it takes you straight to the actual post I want to link to.

Post in thread 'Tips & tricks'
https://www.birdforum.net/threads/tips-tricks.401722/post-4100066

So a slight modification to the above - I missed out one of the steps!*

To Directly Link A Post in One Thread to Another:

• Tap the share icon in the toolbar
• Select ‘copy’ *
• Create reply box in new thread
• Paste in link

The link in your new post on another thread will take you straight to the post that you wanted to share. Before ‘migration day’, we could only cut and paste text or copy and paste the page link to the whole thread. So this is a great little function imo.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

We can find you!! Locations linked to Google Maps

• Tap on a Members Avatar and bring up the info bubble
• Tap on ‘From [location]’
• Wait a second and it shows the member‘s location on Google Maps

This is a great feature for ID threads when someone is posting a bird seen in their State or region - it saves looking up the location on Google Earth (which I usually do) in order to compare it say to an ebird map. Or if someone forgets to put the location in the post, eg ’saw this when walking the dog’ or ‘this flew over my garden’ (it happens!) a quick check on the location in their avatar bubble, could make life much easier.

In the least, I would use this to get a rough idea of the habitat of people’s region/county/zip so it makes more sense of garden lists and birding day accounts for example and, it’s also quite nice to know at a touch what part of the person’s Country it is that they live in, if that information is in the avatar bubble.

I think I am going to enjoy using this feature!

 

[Deb Burhinus]

🦅 Keeping track of read and unread threads, new posts and visit updates:

Lots of people it seems, relied a lot on the old function tags that allowed members to mark forums/threads read and to keep track of recent posts and threads that have been updated since the member’s last visit. All those functions seem to be available (I didn’t personally use them myself on the ’old BF’) still but with the added convenience of being on a single interface that updates your reading activities automatically:

🦅 There‘s no need to mark threads as read, the NEW POSTS section does it all for us.

• if you go to ‘Whats New’ on the main menu bar (first one before Forums), when you go into that, then select ‘New Posts’ it displays a blue tag at the top left side above the threads that reads ‘show all unread x’. (nb There is a shortcut to New Posts from the Forums -ie the dark blue ‘new posts’ lightning tag in top right)
• Once in the New Posts sub-section, If you leave the blue tag in blue (ie dont tap it) then it shows only all recent threads with unread new posts at the top and underneath, it displays all threads with unread posts but that haven’t been updated (added to) since your last visit.
• All the unread thread titles are in bold and are in chronological order so you can go to next page for older unread threads
• If you uncheck the blue box, it will continue to show you all recent threads with new posts (in bold) but now the list includes all recent threads that you have read (these titles will not be in bold)
• It is not necessary to click separate forums as read, this function updates it automatically everytime you read a thread (or refresh the New Posts page), the thread title will still display but it will no longer be in bold.

🦅 Mark all Forums as ‘read’
If you use the main Forums page banner tag that says ‘mark all forums read’, if you confirm that, then immediately go back to the New Posts page, you will see there will be nothing on the list, it will say ’sorry you have no unread threads’ because you marked them all as read. However, it will still offer you the option of viewing all recent threads that you have marked as read (under the blanket ‘mark all forums read’ tag). Click that, and all recent threads with new posts will appear in the New Posts page but without titles in bold - It’s useful to use this feature periodically in conjunction with the New Posts interface as it effectively does the job of removing the bold/marking as read any new thread posts you are not interested in reading.

🦅 btw: Any recent new posts threads that you already have on you watch list will appear in the new post list as having a bell next to the post indicating its ‘on alert’

Basically the functionally of the ‘old BF’ for thread updating and keeping a check on what you have read/new posts since your last visit etc is all still available but it’s automated in the sense it is not necessary to mark individual threads as read.

Hope that helps someone! 🙂​

 

[Nutcracker]

One nice thing that's new - keyboard shortcut for italics (ctrl+i) now works in Birdforum, which it didn't before the upgrade. Makes adding italics a lot easier 😃

Also nice that all the markup options are now available in the "quick reply" now, no more need for the old "go to advanced reply"

 

[Essex Tern]

Filters on the New posts menu are your friend...

Select watch on the forums or threads you are interested in.



and within the New posts menu set a default filter for watched content



and New posts will show only new posts that you are interested in 😊👍

 

[Deb Burhinus]

The replacement of the old style Private Messaging with a ‘Conversations’ interface is so much better!

• Seeing the messages in ‘conversation’ format as you would on smart phones or instant messaging platforms makes it so much easier to follow - I used to get really muddled with the reply function of the old messaging facility - every subsequent reply built up boxes within boxes of quotes until it was hard to see who was quoting who or the order that it was being said.
• Having a ‘conversation format’ means you can see the whole interchange as a conservation whereas before, half the pms in an exchange were in the sent box and half in the received box.
• I love that you can invite people to join - I can see this particularly useful if people want to arrange group meet ups and companions for birding trips - everyone can be in on the planning.

The only thing I miss is that big yellow banner because it was easier to see than a little black number on the little envelope at the top of the page - although it was very intrusive to say the least!

ps I am only mentioning this in the manner of giving it a personal thumbs up - if anyone has any tips on how to use it to it’s full potential, I for one, would be pleased to hear any - thanks

EDIT! In the course of typing this, I have just noticed I have received a notification for a private message - it’s in RED ! Another issue taken on board and dealt with - thanks Ollie 👍

 

[Steve]

Filters on the New posts menu are your friend...

Select watch on the forums or threads you are interested in.

View attachment 1356106

and within the New posts menu set a default filter for watched content

View attachment 1356107

and New posts will show only new posts that you are interested in 😊👍

Good a happy member, hope mr Adcock sees this !🥊