• Author:
    This field is used to identify the author of the message.  You should type your real name here so that readers of your message can identify you.
     
  • Respond To Email:
    Optionally enter your email address in this field so that readers will be able to click on your name to send you email regarding your message.  This should be of the form: yourname@hostname.com.
     
  • Date Created:
    This field will be filled in automatically with today's date whenever you create a message.  You can change this to a date in the future if you'd like to hide the message until that date.  Enter any date you wish as long as it is in the correct format: "MM-DD-YYYY" or "MM/DD/YYYY."
     
  • Date Expires:
    This field specifies the date after which the message will no longer be displayed.  It is important that messages expire after a reasonable amount of time so that the bulletin board or swap shop areas don't become too crowded with obsolete information.  It's also not good to have a listing for an event that's already over or items that were long ago sold.

    The default for this field is 15 days from today's date, but you should use a shorter period of time if you can or know when the information will be out of date.  For instance, when announcing an upcoming event you should use its date as the expiration date.  As above, dates should be in the format: "MM-DD-YYYY" or "MM/DD/YYYY."
     
  • Title:
    This is the headline for your message.   This should be something "catchy" and to the point.  Overly long titles may not fit in the display window and are often overlooked by readers.  In any case, titles longer that 64 characters will be truncated.
     
  • Message - This is where you type the body of the message you want displayed to readers.  It can be any type of free-form text you wish.  Since the text will be displayed as part of an HTML document, you can include any HTML formatting codes you wish, such as the following:

        <b>This will be bold.</b>  This will be <font size='5'>big.</font>

            becomes:

        This will be bold.  This will be big.

    You can also include hyperlinks to web sites or pages using the following syntax:

        <a href='http://www.mywebsite.com'>Click here</a> for my web site.

            becomes:

        Click here for my web site.

    Click here for a more in depth tutorial on HTML formatting.
     

  • Picture File:
    You can specify a picture file (.gif or .jpg) on your computer to upload and display with your message.  Press the "Browse" button to find the file on your computer or type its full path and name.  If a file has already been uploaded for this message, the check box can be used to turn the picture's display either on (checked) or off.  Note that images wider than 310 pixels will be truncated to that width.  Pictures taller than 400 pixels will be reduced to that height.
     
  • Caption:
    Enter a caption for the photo you uploaded above.  This can be any text you like up to 255 characters in length.