To take advantage of some of the best features of the message boards, make sure to log in before you begin reading.
If you log in, the board software will:

• Remember what you've read so when you return to a conversation you can start reading where you left off. If you've read messages 1, 2 and 3 in a discussion, you'll automatically start out at message 4 when you return to the board.
• Automatically mark discussions as "read" so you can tell if you've read every message in the discussion. (Tip: To mark a discussion as read -- even if you haven't read every message in the discussion -- open any message in the conversation, then jump to the last message. Once you've opened the last message in the discussion, the unread messages dot will disappear from the main page of the board.)
• Enable you to use Favorite Boards so you can easily return to recently visited boards and save a list of boards you visit regularly. ("Favorite Boards" is a link that appears after your member name in the top nav bar on every message board page. You need to log in to see this link.)
• Enable you to add other members to your list of Friends or choose to Ignore messages from them.

Find messages that you've written

• Be sure to sign all your posts with your member name. Then you can go to the board and use the Search function to bring up all the messages you've written.
• Another shortcut: If you're looking for a post you've written recently, open Outline View, then click Ctrl+F and enter your member name into the "find" box.
• After you post a message, return to the discussion, go to your message and then bookmark it by clicking on Bookmark in the box to the right of the text.
• You can flag all discussions where you post messages as High Interest. This option is available in Board Settings (linked from the top nav bar on every message board page).
• If you've opted to flag discussions where you post messages as High Interest, you can then use the Show Me box to sort for messages with High Interest flags.
• You can use Advanced Search to search for all messages you've written OR all messages that have been written to you.
• You can opt to get an Email Notification when someone replies to any message you have posted.

• The Show Me menu at the top of the list of discussion titles gives you an option to display messages "I've recently seen."
• If you can remember a few keywords from the conversation, try the Search box at the top of the page.
• You can opt to receive Email Digests to alert you when new messages are posted to a conversation that interests you. You can also opt to receive an Email Digest that lists new conversations that interest you that have taken place on a board (or boards).

• Save time by making your favorite board your browser's start page. To change your browser's start page, select "Tools" from the bar at the top of your browser. Select "Options" from the menu, then change the URL address to the address for your favorite board.
• When you find a board you like, make sure to click on the Add this board to my Favorites button next to the title of the board. Then you can open your list of Favorite Boards and use the links to move quickly from one favorite board to another.
• You can set your Board Settings to display up to 20 messages per page, making it easier to read more messages more quickly.

• Attach files and photos to your messages.
• Use color, special fonts, bold, italics and underlining in your posts via a handy formatting bar that will appear at the top of the text entry box (for IE users -- Mozilla/Firefox users can add these enhancements via HTML).
• Create a personal signature line that will be automatically added to every message you write.
• Upload a photo or graphic to your Member Profile.