Hello,

Welcome! This ADF online forum system you are looking at right now is similar to many others on the Internet which you may or may not have encountered before. If this is your first time, don't worry - it's easy and even fun!  Below is some guidance for you on things to do when you first start using this forum, and tips and tricks on how to go about doing it. If you have questions  , respond to this topic or click on my name to contact me privately. I'm here to help! (Also, let me know if something is missing from here or is unclear - I'd be happy to update it.)

1. Checklist of things to do

• Acquaint yourself with this system. Click on all the links, learn how the site is structured using the horizontal menu above, and see who else is here by viewing the Member Directory.
• Update your profile. Add a photograph of yourself, put in your birthday to display in the calendar, and add your personal contact data. Add text to your "signature" which is included automatically at the bottom of every post you write. When you update your signature, it will be updated everywhere your name appears.
• Introduce yourself! In the General Discussion, post a message to let others know you are here and to introduce yourself.

2. Getting around
Use the horizontal menu above to get around the forum, and look closely at links throughout, especially on the forum home page. There's lots to do here!

• Click Home at any time to get back to the main screen, from which you can access just about everything the forum has to offer. Know this and you can never get lost!
  
• Help is a complete "user's manual" that has lots of detailed explanations of how this forum works.
  
• Search lets you perform a keyword search of forum posts.
  
• Profile is where you can view YOUR profile as others see it and update it to your liking. You can add a picture of yourself, and put in your personal data. This will only be visible to other people registered in the system and approved by the ADF secretariat. The Profile page also has links to your personal settings, where you can set for example whether or not you want to be notified by e-mail when someone sends you a personal message.
  
• The Calendar is a simple monthly calendar where you can add your events and view those posted by others.
  
• And of course, when you are done for the day, you can Log out!  This is especially important if you are using a cybercafe or a computer used by many people, and you want to avoid other people accidentally accessing your account in the ADF forum.
  

3. Nifty tips and tricks

• Everywhere you go, you will see names of other people registered in this system. You can learn more about them by clicking on their name to view their profile. There are also small icons next to names which represent different things you can do to contact them or learn about them - i.e. send them a private message or contact them via Yahoo Messenger. Move your mouse cursor over an icon to see a description of what it means.
• You don't have to log into the system every day to participate actively in forum topics. When you post a new message or respond to a message from someone else, be sure the option "notify me of replies" is ticked. If it is, then you will get an e-mail everytime someone replies. You can decide to turn this off at any time if too many messages clutter up your inbox. Click "Notify" when reading any forum or topic in the forum to turn e-mail notifications on or off, or click on e-mail preferences and notifications from your Profile page to manage your subscriptions. This is very practical!
  
• To post a new message, click your way into a forum and then click on "New Topic". To reply to a message posted by someone else, click to view their topic and then click on "Reply". You can also click on "Quote" to reply to a specifiic contribution to a topic and quote the text as you might in an email message.
• As you can see in this post you're reading right now, you have alot of control over the formatting when writing a post. You can add smiley faces to indicate emotion or confusion, and make text bold, change the color, create links, etc. To simplify the interface we turned off the formatting menu, but you can still do it using simple codes. See the manual for details.