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Forum Signatures, Posting Pics, and All That Other Forum Stuff
Click here to visit the LotRO Forum thread and join the discussion!
Change Your Default Editor
By default the LotRO Forums' editor is a basic one (Visual) where you are able to type in text and code, but if you're like me and would like the boards to do the work for you, your editor could look like this:
To change these settings:
- Click on "User CP" (User Control Panel) at the top of the forums' page > Click on "Edit Options" on the side menu. (Visual)
- Scroll all the way down to the bottom and in the drop down list under "Miscellaneous Options" you want to select the option for "Enhanced Interface - Full WYSIWYG Editing." (Visual)
Set Up Your Signature
Get tired of having to type out your life's story at the bottom of each of each of your posts? Well set up your signature and you'll never have to do it again!
- Click on "User CP" (aka User Control Panel) at the top of the forums' page.
- Click on "Edit Signature" on the side menu. (Visual)
- Type away! You have a limit to 4 lines, but you'll be amazed how much you can fit in such a small space. Don't be shy with the colors and smiley faces!
Character Signatures
What do I need to do to display my character?
In your User CP, choose Edit Signature. Select your character from the list and specify the portrait you wish to use (or no portrait to display a silhouette). Copy the code which appears in the box, and paste it into your forum signature to use it on our forums.
What if I don't want to view the signatures?
You can enable or disable the display of graphical signatures in your User CP. If you choose not to display the graphical sig, the forums will display the user's text signature by default. (Visual.)
To view the full Character Signature FAQ, click here.[LINK MISSING]
Character Signature Bug Workaround
A big thank you to Milambar for finding this fix!
They do not seem to be using the server name as part of the query. They have accurately "found" characters (those over level 5) and then it looks like they did a search for the character names.The problem is that though names are unique to a particular server, they are not unique cross-server. So the query returns the first name it finds without verifying the server.
You can see that in action if you go to MyLotro.com. Do a search for one of your characters, if that character name exists across multiple servers, you will get a picklist.
Assuming the query sorts by server alphabetically, simply change the first number in the sig link to refer to your correct server.
Examples: 03 = Brandywine 05 = Landroval
The Multi-Quote
In order to avoid spamming a thread with a thousand responses to people one post at a time, we've got a great feature called the Multi-Quote. When you want to quote a person in a response you can hit the nice red "Quote" button and it begins a response with their post quoted. Now, if you'd like to quote multiple posts, into one reply, you can just click the """ button located to the right of the "Quote" button on each of the posts you want to be quoting then hit "Post Reply." You'll receive a visual that you have the post selected to quote with a green check mark. There is no limit to how many posts you can quote so go multi-quote crazy!
Nesting Quotes
Unfortunately, there's no button that allows you to nest quotes, however you can do it manually by just getting the quote from both and then moving your nested quote to the beginning/inside of the original quote instead of the end/outside. Here's an example of the visual of it:
Here's the code to get that nesting quote:
[quote=Calabar;4168141][quote=Frishia;4018853]OMG, i LOVE you!!! I'm usually pretty good about figuring things out, but that dang multi quote has bugged me for a long time.... i feel relatively dingy about now for not figuring that one out on my own.[/quote] I hear you. I thought that option was for quoting a post and including the quoted post within that post. And I could never get it to work. Now I know how to use tool properly. Though I still don’t know how to quote a post and the quote within that post. Oh well, at least I learned something and a mystery was solved. *smiles*[/quote]
The Reputation System
Starting January 11, 2010 the forums introduced a reputation system.
What is the Reputation System?
The Reputation System on the LOTRO forums allows forum members to give and receive "Reputation" points to each other based on each others' posts. Did someone write a really killer guide to the Warden class? Did another member help you out when you had a question? Give them props through the Reputation system! The higher your Reputation, and the longer you've been a LOTRO forums member, the more power you have to raise (or lower) other players' Reputations!
How do I give Reputation?
When you're looking at a post and want to give Reputation points to the poster, click on the Reputation icon in the bottom left corner of the post, which looks like greyed-out star. You'll be asked if you approve or disapprove of the post; choose whichever you like, add an anonymous comment if you want to, then click on "Add to Reputation." (Visual)
What does Reputation look like on the forums?
When you have positive Reputation, it is displayed as green boxes. The boxes are grey if you have 0 Reputation (or if someone has turned off the feature), and red if you have negative Reputation. (Visual)
Is there an easy way for me to see what Reputation I've received?
Once you've received Reputation from other users, clicking on User CP will show you the last 10 Reputation clicks you've received and on which of your posts. You cannot see who left the Reputation. (Visual)
What if I don't want to display my Reputation to other forum members?
You can toggle whether your Reputation is displayed to other members by going to User CP -> Edit Options and checking or unchecking the "Show My Reputation Level" box. (Visual)
To view the full Reputation System FAQ, click here.
Taking and Posting Screenshots
Here's a step-by-step guide to taking and posting screenshots using the free image hosting website from Photobucket. There are several free hosting sites out there for you to pick from, this one just happens to be the one I use.
- Take a Screenshot using "F11" or the "Print Screen" on your keyboard.
(Note: If you would like to turn off your user inface, you can hit "F12" to have a clean screen.) - You can find your screenshots in the My Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online folder.
- Go to www.photobucket.com and sign up for a free membership.
- Once logged into the site, you are able to create folders/directories to help keep your images organized.
- To upload images to this website, simply clike on the "My Albums" tab and then once there, hit the "browse" button and select the location of your image you would like to upload.
- Once the image is uploaded, you are able to then just copy and paste the image tag code directly to the lotro forum's website. (Visual) The specific image tag you need is [img]html_link_for_image.jpg[/img].
Your end result should look like this:
Screenshots from LotRO (F11) vs. FRAPS (Video Capture Software)
Generally speaking I just use the Screenies from LotRO's capture feature. I used to enjoy taking SS from Fraps because the quality is higher (it takes a .png instead of a .jpg) but LotRO has gradually become a stress on my system so I've stopped running Fraps in the background. Since I convert everything to a .jpg to post on the forums anyway I'm usually not too worried about only using the LotRO feature.
Taken With Fraps:
Taken with LotRO:
I mean really... can you see the difference? I can't.
FRAPS and a potential strain on your system?
It truly doesn't take that much more of your system's resources. The only aspect you may consider draining is when you take a screenshot (based on the quality you have set) your system will think through it and that may take longer than you'd like, especially when in the heat of battle.
Commands to use to take screenies (in game or Fraps).
When I use the in-game function, I used F11 and if I'm in Fraps I set it up to use F9. LotRO's default for taking a screenshot is F11 and F9 is defaulted in to be "Select Nearest Friendly" but that doesn't effect the shot; it does, however potentially change your targets.
Note: Using Print Screen will also send the image to your LotRO folder but it comes with an additional step of copying the image to your clipboard which takes up system resources as it takes the copy of your desktop but also holding the image in the clipboard.
Turning Off your UI for a SS During Action
Being a healer, I understand the struggle with this one. It used to not be as big of an issue as it is now with the faster combat speed. In any case (then and now) I utalize down time to take the shots. The reason you see me either glowing green, on the verge of death or feigned in most all my shots is because those are the best times for us healers to grab a shot with no UI!
Posting a Beautiful Screenie Even on Low Quality Graphics
Here's one of the best tips I can give to someone that's looking to post a good looking screenshot that will not only look amazing (even if taken on a bad computer/low settings) but won't piss off everyone that opens the page. RESIZE IT!!!! When you size your images down, it compresses the image and the quality will appear sharper and more attractive than the original. It's the same concept behind the quality of an image blown up onto the big screen vs. the quality of an image on a small laptop. (I resize mine down to 1000 wide.)
Resizing Images Using XnView (Free Software)
To do that I use a reeeeealy easy and free program called XnView. I have it installed on not only my main PC, but my laptop and my two work computers and use it for nearly everything. I've got Photoshop as well as Fireworks that I use for more elaborate things (like my MS Paint images) but as far as a quick edit to screenshots XnView is my preference. And while we're on the subject here, you want to make sure you're maintaing enough quality when editing the images that they still look good. I find when I export an image, turning the quality down to 90% is plenty to decrease the file size yet maintain a good looking shot.
Pop-Up Links from the Lorebook
Hover your mouse --> here <-- to see what I'm referring to.
Talking about skills and gear is all fine and dandy but adding a link to your info. is even better. Turbine went one further for us and added a feature through the Lorebook (link on the top of the forums) that allows you to link with a pop-up making your smarty pants post even more grounded in fact.
There's really nothing other than the knowledge that it exists for you to learn how to do it. Simply put the link anywhere you'd like and as the reader hovers over the link with their mouse, you get a pop up. Check out the example here with a pop up about the Blackarrow skill Moving Target.
If the link is bad or if you miss copied it, you'll get a pop up that says "Item Not Found" so you'll know you need to re-check the address. Keep in mind that you can only point people to items, skills and traits. You cannot link anything that isn't representative by an in-game icon.
If you're unfamilar with how to insert a link inside text, all you have to do is simply highlight the word(s) you'd like to be links and then click the globe button and instert the link. You can remove the link by clicking the link button with the red X across it located next to the globe with your cursor anywhere in the word that's linked.
Check Previous Edits/Original Post
Special thank you to Bogo for giving me this tip!
Ever make an edit to a post and then later wish you hadn't? Well our forums have a great feature that tracks each and every edit for you, allowing you to compare any combonation of edits to bring back what you once had said! Simply click on the "last edited" link on the bottom left of your post. (Visual) Once there, you are able to click on any "old" and "new" radial buttons to compare any two specific edits. (Visual) The text that shows in white is the same on both posts, the text in red is found in the new version but not in the old and text in green is found in the old version but not the new. (Visual) You'll have to do the editing yourself at that point, but all the information you need is right there!
Misc. Forum Posting Tips
Various tips on making your post look even better.
Gð Šymbol ¢razÿ
So here's the suUUuuUuuUper sneakys seekret behind posting symbols in your posts. You could go get really smart and learn the html codes behind each symbol, change your editor to the standard mode, then type in the codes..... OOOOOOOR you can be an uber nerd like me and just use copy and paste!!!
Copy = Ctrl + C | Paste = Ctrl + V
There's a thousand sites you can get the list from, but I use this site: W3Schools
You can find whatever symbol you want to use and just highlight it, copy it and paste it!
Have fun!
Ophelia Darkfell, Minstankion™
⌈→ ♠ ↔ ♥ ↔ ♣ ← ⌋
Even more Posting Tips!
Brought to you by Grackaw the Overpowered.
We all are made aware at some time or another of the 10 character minimum post size... but rather than adding some garbage text at the end of your post consider one of these two approaches.
- Use embedded spaces. Each space you type counts toward the minimum but spaces between words or smilies or punctuation are compressed to only one space for display purposes. i.e. OK<spc><spc><spc><spc><spc><sp c><spc>! is displayed as OK ! and still meets the 10 character post size requirement.
- Take it a step further and hide the trailing punctuation by setting the color equal to the background. Keep this text in a handy .txt file for a quick cut-n-paste to the end of your cleverly crafted one or two letter reply.
[color=#303030] .[/color]
Also, you can get even more special characters from the Character Map applet that comes with Windows. Go to Start> Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Character Map. If you find a character that you like or use often it will even show you a way to type it into nearly any text editor; at the bottom right of the window is the keystroke code for most characters. For example ™ is Alt+0153 which means hold down the Alt key while you type '0153' on your numeric keypad (using the numbers across the top will not work.)
Finally (I love keyboard shortcuts) in the Enhanced Editor which Ophy is touting you can select a block of text and hit Ctrl-B to bold it, Ctrl-I to italicize it, or Ctrl-U to underline it. You can also hit those keys to turn the attributes on or off as you are typing.
