Features in XenForo

mmm4444bot

mmm4444bot

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I've started this thread for members to post useful features/tips about the new forum software (XenForo). This thread is not for posting questions on how to do things in the forum. Please start a thread on the Administrative Issues board, to ask questions about the forum or to report issues. Thanks. ?


Here are some new BBCodes. (A complete list may be found in the forum's Help section; use the page link at bottom-right, to get there.)

Spoilers are back, now in three varieties: Spoiler Button, Spoiler Button with Custom Label and Inline Spoiler.

BBCode tags [spoiler] and [/spoiler] produce a simple spoiler button, on its own line.

For example, typing [spoiler]Now it is spoiled.[/spoiler] produces:

Now it is spoiled.

The tags [spoiler=label] and [/spoiler] allow adding personalized text on the button. (Replace the word 'label' with your custom text.)

Cheater!!

The tags [ispoiler] and [/ispoiler] produce an inline spoiler that looks like this example. Hopefully, most readers will recognize what that fog means.


Rich [code] tags. The original tags [code] and [/code] work as usual, but now we also have [code=rich] and [/code] tags.

Rich (BB code): 
The rich code allows formatting
like colors and bold & italic,
also underlining and strikeouts.


Indents work, too​
(See next section)​
​
Size changes available

Even inline spoilers work within rich code.



We can offset blocks of text, by indentation.

The tags [indent] and [/indent] will
indent your​
text this​
far.​

While [indent=2] and [/indent] tags will
indent your​
text this​
far.​


There's a no-parse BBCode here, but now it's called 'plain'.

[plain] and [/plain] tags suppress other BBCode between them. This is handy when you want the system to ignore tags, for showing others what the tags actually look like or to prevent the system from creating links in your post, for example. (Each of the tags displayed in this post were enclosed within [plain] and [/plain] tags.)

Suppress the rendering of LaTeX, for displaying code, including the required tags:

[tex]\dfrac{x}{y}[/tex] \(\displaystyle \;\) yields\(\displaystyle \;\) \(\displaystyle \dfrac{x}{y} \;\)

If you use the @name notation in a post (to address a specific member), the system will convert it to a profile-page link and also send a system alert to the member that their name was mentioned. To post @name as plain text, type it as [plain]@name[/plain].
\(\displaystyle \;\)
 
You may have noticed red or green dots in front of some thread titles, on a board's index page or other thread list. These dots indicate 'Unsolved' or 'Solved' status, as set by the thread author.

When a member starts a new thread, options are available (near the bottom of the page). One of these options specifies whether the new thread is to be a 'Thread' or a 'Question'. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that selecting 'Question' places a dot in front of the thread title, to indicate whether the author considers their question unsolved or solved.

A red dot indicates 'Unsolved' and a green dot indicates 'Solved'.

Here's what the dots looks like.

11097
11099


If you've submitted a thread as a 'Question', then you may set the status to 'Solved' by clicking the green button which appears near the top of your thread. Here's what it looks like.

11098

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Members may edit the title of their thread or change the thread-type ('Thread' vs 'Question'). These options are available for 30 minutes after creating the thread.

To make either of these edits, use the 'More options' drop-down menu (located near the upper-right of the first post in your thread) and select 'Edit thread'.

11101


This takes you to the following form.

11102

\(\displaystyle \;\)
 
Some of the smiley names have changed. For example, I often typed :cool: for 8-) but the new name is :sunglasses:

Typing :cool: now inserts 🆒.
\(\displaystyle \;\)
 
? Here's a tip. When you type a smiley name, you don't need to type the entire name. Typing a colon followed by the first few letters of the :code: name will generate a pop-up list of matches. Or, if you know the descriptive name, you can type the first few letters of that, instead. Descriptive names have no colons, as shown on the screen shot below, but you still need to type a colon first to get pop-up lists. Look at what I typed (below), to generate that list. I could have typed :bul also.

11118

If the smiley you desire is highlighted blue in the list (often at the top), then you can simply hit enter to insert it. If the desired smiley is not highlighted blue, then you can continue typing the name until it is or you can use arrow keys to highlight your selection and hit enter.

You can get both descriptive names and :code: names (from posts or in the toolbar's pop-up smiley list), by hovering the mouse pointer over any smiley.
\(\displaystyle \;\)
 
After you insert an image into a post, you can click it (in the composition field) and drag controls will appear at the corners, for resizing. Click and drag one of the blue corner squares, until the image size looks good to you.

11123

That image was too large, originally, but I easily resized it by dragging one corner. (This is the ranch in the high desert of northern Arizona, where I like to spend as much time as possible.)

Note the pop-up toolbar, at the bottom. You'll find additional options there.

Also, images can be dragged and dropped to new locations, in your composition. If you're having position issues (eg: trying to get the image out from the middle of a paragraph), you may also temporarily remove the image, by clicking it and hitting the delete key. Next, position the insertion point (i.e., the blinking cursor) on a blank line where you would like the image inserted, and then click the bottom button labeled 'Full image'. Resize, if desired.
\(\displaystyle \;\)
 
To add or edit personalized information on your profile page (eg: location, occupation), please see this post. ? (New members are restricted from making certain changes to their profile page, until later.)
\(\displaystyle \;\)
 
Ted has created a custom BBCode for inserting a horizontal dividing line. These lines are handy for offsetting information in a thread. The toolbar button is a small horizontal line (technically, a minus sign) located next to the smiley button.


The divider was green (now it's grey), and the line scales to the reader's screen width.

To manually type the code, use tags [hr][/hr] (hr stands for 'horizontal rule', I suppose). The horizontal line spaces nicely, with a blank line above the tags and no blank line after them (see post #1).

Note: Any text placed between the tags will not render. Also, if you don't place the tags on their own line, then the system will insert a carriage return for you.
 
💡 In a post, if something like LaTeX or formatting is not posting correctly, then here's one troubleshooting step you can try: Reveal hidden BBCode tags inserted by XenForo (if there are any), to look for problems. For example, normally-hidden formatting code may have ended up between the LaTeX tags, and you can check if that's the case by revealing all tags.

Click the gear icon (far right, on the toolbar). The gear icon toggles between displaying or hiding these tags, and it changes color: orange when displaying tags and black when hiding them.

Sometimes, it may be easier to remove formatting tags from part or all of a post, followed by reformatting what you want. To remove formatting, highlight a section of the post (or all of it) and then click the eraser icon (far left, on the toolbar). The eraser icon is not a toggle; once you click it, all highlighted formatting is lost.
\(\displaystyle \;\)
 
I just noticed something new. (If this feature is not new, then I can't explain why I've missed it until now.)

After highlighting part of an existing post, a pop-up link appears: Reply. If you click that link, XenForo will copy the highlighted text into the reply field as a quote of the source post.

That's simpler than manually quoting the entire post, followed by editing out parts you're not commenting on.

💡 Members who desire to separately quote multiple parts in a single post can repeat the process as much as needed. For each quote, simply position the insertion point in your reply where you would like the next quote to appear, and then scroll up within the thread to highlight the next part. Very handy.

[imath]\;[/imath]
 
Click HERE to scroll up to the top of this thread. [math]\;\Big\uparrow\;[/math]
(This post is for thread-bumps only.)
 
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