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How do communities work?
Communities provide a place for members or participants to search for information, read and post about topics of interest, and learn from each other. Depending on how the community is set up, you'll find:- boards where you can post questions and answers
- blogs where you can read and comment on articles
- idea exchanges where you can suggest ways to improve products and vote for ideas that other community members have posted
- and more...
Guests (unregistered visitors) can browse or search the community for information. Members (registered users) can post messages or comments, track discussions, and get email notifications on posting activity and other community actions.
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What is my role and responsibility in the community?
You are essential to the community, even if all you ever do is read messages or articles that someone else has posted. Communities offer all kinds of contributions: posting questions and sharing answers, leaving comments on blog articles or ideas, voting for ideas you like, or just searching for answers to your questions.We encourage you to visit often and participate. Ask your toughest questions. Chances are someone has a solution or can point you in the right direction. If you find a solution that works, let others know and pass on your own tips and insights. You might just have the answer someone else needs.
Remember to thank community members who have helped you. Show your appreciation by giving kudos to helpful posts, accepting a solution that answers your question, or posting thank-you replies.
We want the community to be appropriate, friendly, informative, and fun for everyone.
Be sure to read the Community Terms of Service and the community's Rules and Guidelines so that you know what to expect and what is expected of you when you're here.
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How do I register?
Registering to become a community member only takes a few minutes, using a gmail account. To follow steps to do this, please take a look at this community guide: How to register in the community?
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How do I change the image (avatar) next to my name?
Changing your avatar is an easy way to personalize your community identity. You can change your avatar as often as you like. Your current avatar appears at the top of the Avatar page.
To change your avatar:- Sign in to your community account.
- Go to My Settings > Avatars.
- Choose a new avatar in one of these ways:
- Choose an avatar from the Community collection. (Choose an avatar collection and click the avatar your want.)
- Use an image from your Image Gallery. (Click From Image Gallery and click the image you want.) You can only use this option if you have uploaded images that have been approved.
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How do I create a signature for my posts?
Your signature is text that appears at the bottom of your posts.
To create your personal signature:- Sign in to your community account.
- Go to My Settings > Personal Profile > Personal Information.
- Enter your signature text in the Signature box.
You can use HTML in your signature, please keep in mind the Community Guidelines when creating your signature. Check with the Community Manager if you have questions. - Click Save.
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How do I search for information?
To search the Community, enter your search in the search field and click Search. A page of search results is displayed. Browse the search results in the same manner you would a message board.
To perform a more in-depth search, click the Advanced link next to the Search button. Here, you can limit your query to a specific board, specific parts of the message (subject vs. body), and other advanced parameters.
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How do I search for posts?
You can search for posts and knowledge base articles at any level of the community. When you type a search term, the system automatically searches at the current level. For example, if you're on the community front page, the system searches the entire community. If you're looking at a forum or blog page, the system searches that forum (and the associated knowledge base, if any) or blog.
Tip: Searches for posts always include relevant knowledge bases. However, you can also search just in knowledge bases.
To search for posts:
- Choose the scope of the search in the drop-down list to the left of the Search button.
You can search at the current level and above in the community. - Start typing the search term.
Auto-suggest shows the topics that match the term you're typing.
Tip: You can enter the full search term, or use an asterisk as a wildcard in your search. - If you don't see the term you're looking for in the auto-suggest list, click Search to see the full search results.
When you get your search results, use the filters on the left side of the page to refine your results.
- Choose the scope of the search in the drop-down list to the left of the Search button.
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How do I use subscriptions?
Subscriptions let you get email updates whenever new content appears in an area of the community that you're interested in. You can subscribe to a board, a blog article, an idea exchange, or any other location in the community. You can also subscribe to a specific post.
To subscribe a piece of content:
- Go to the item you want to subscribe to.
- To subscribe to a location, click (Location) Options > Subscribe.
To subscribe to a specific post, go to the post and click (Post) Options > Subscribe
To view and manage your subscriptions:
- Go to My Settings > Subscriptions & Notifications.
- Click My Subscriptions to see a list of the items you've subscribed to.
You can click a subscription to go to the item. - To delete a subscription, click the check box for the subscription and click Email Subscription Options > Delete Selected Subscriptions.
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What are Kudos?
Kudos is a content rating system that lets you vote for the messages you think are the most useful or important.
When you give kudos to a message, you are giving a thumbs-up for good content and a pat on the back to its author. Your kudos help to boost the value of certain messages and enhance the reputation of their authors.
Giving kudos is as easy as a single click, but the impact of kudos ripples across the community.
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How do I give Kudos?
You can give Kudos to any posts in the community except your own.
To give kudos to a message and its author, click Kudos on the message.
If you change your mind about the quality of the message, you can revoke your kudos.
To revoke kudos you've given, click the Kudos button again.
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How do I post a message?
To post a message:
- Go to the board where you want to post.
- Click the New Message link.
- In the Subject field, enter your message title.
Tip: Make your subject clear and concise, as it's the only part of the message that shows up on the message-listing page. - In the Body field, type your message. Be sure to include all necessary details, especially for technical topics.
- Format and spell check your message, as needed.
- Click Submit Post.
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How do I reply to a message?
Click Reply to respond to a particular post.
The Reply Message screen is similar to the Post Message screen, with these differences:
- When you reply to a post, the subject line is filled in automatically. You can change it if you want.
- You can paste the message to which you are replying into the body of your reply by clicking Quote Message.
Your reply is added to the existing thread. It won't create a new thread.
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How do I upload images?
Depending on your starting point, you choose one or more images, choose the album where they'll be located, and upload. There are size limitations, of course, and a community moderator must approve your images before others can see them. You can upload images from:
- Your Albums and Images page
- Any of your individual Album pages
- Post Message, Answer, Comment, Article, and other Post pages
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How do I insert an image in a post?
To insert an image in a post:
- Start a new post.
- Click Insert Image.
- Choose an image source location.
- Follow the on-screen instructions
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What is an Accepted Solution?
An Accepted Solutions is a way for you to choose the reply that best answers a question that you've posted. When you accept a solution, both the question and the solution get special icons and links that take you directly from the question to the answer.
An Accepted Solutions icon also appears on boards and in search results so you can see which messages have solutions.
You can mark a solution as accepted only for questions that you've posted (you started the thread). The Community team can also mark one of the replies as an accepted solution.
To learn more about Accepted Solutions, take a look at this guide.
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How do I mark a message as a solution?
To mark a message as a solution, click Accept as Solution on the reply.
If you change your mind or if another reply provides an even better answer, you can revoke the first selection and accept the second reply.
To revoke an accepted solution, click Options > Not the Solution.
You can choose another solution or leave the question unsolved.
Take a look at this Community Guide to learn more: How to accept a solution
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What is the Private Messenger?
Private Messenger enables you to send private notes to other community members. Private Messenger has two big advantages over email:
- You don't have to know the other member's email address to send the note. (Also, you don't have to reveal yours.)
- You can read and send private messages without leaving the community, making it easy to a quick conversation with another community member.
To use the Private Messenger, you must be registered and signed in. You'll see a Private Message icon at the top of your page. If you have any new messages, you'll see the number of unread messages next to the envelope icon.
Click the message count or envelope icon to go to your Private Messages Inbox.
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How do I reply to a private message?
To reply to a private message:
- Sign in to the community.
- Click the message count or envelope icon to go to your Private Messages Inbox.
- To read a message, click the message subject.
- To reply to a message, click Reply.
The recipient and subject are automatically entered for you, but you can edit them. - Type the reply in the Message Body editor.
- Click Send Message.
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How do I send a private message?
To send a private message:
- Sign in to the community.
- Click the message count or envelope icon to go to your Private Messages Inbox.
- Click Compose New Message.
- Enter the recipient's name in the Send to area.
Note: Depending on your role in the community, you might be able to send a message to a group of users based on their role or rank in the community. If so, you can choose a role or a rank.
- Enter the subject for the message in the Message Subject area.
- Type the reply in the Message Body editor.
- Click Send Message.
You can look for the messages you've sent in the Sent tab.