Guide to Using The Discussion Boards

The discussion board system provides "reply-chained-styled" discussion groups integrated into webpages. In the discussion boards there are a number of topic areas, each area contains messages divided into threads of messages and replies.

The top of each screen contains a row of buttons - each button is either inactive or active, depending upon the page you are on. These buttons provide easy access to all the functions of the discussion group:

	Previous Message When active, this button will take you to the message that the current one is replying to, allowing you to move back up the discussion thread. When inactive, you are either not viewing a message or that message is the first in it's discussion thread.
	Next Message When active, this button will take you to the next message in reply to the current discussion thread. When inactive, you are either no viewing a message or that message is the last in it's discussion thread.
	Post New Message Active from anywhere in a discussion topic, this button will allow you to enter a new message as the first in a new discussion thread. Your message is not considered a reply to any of the existing messages in that topic.
	Reply To Message Active whenever reading a message, this button will allow you to enter a reply to the current message, adding it to the discussion thread.
	Topics Menu This button will take you to the menu of all discussion topics that are a part of the discussion board system.
	Summary of Topic This button takes you to the summary of messages (and threads) within a particular discussion topic. It is inactive only when on the Topics Menu.
	Search The discussion boards provide a keyword search engine that allows you to identify messages within the current discussion topic based on subject line, message contents and author's name.
	Guide to Discussion Leads from anywhere to this help guide.