Different Ways to View Threads

[AmyS]

Did you know that you can set your preferences up to view threads in a number of different ways? This thread will be a basic tutorial to how the different options look and how you set things up for each particular option.

Whenever you open a thread, there's a dark blue tool bar at the top with pull-down menus, one of which says "Display Modes." You can change between the different thread displays here whenever you want.

There are three different display modes: linear, threaded, and hybrid. I'll create a different post to show a pic of each and then give an explanation of how each works.

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: Yes, the photos in this thread exceed our general size guidelines. However, an exception is being made so the images are large enough to give as clear a view as possible of what I'm describing.

[AmyS]

Linear view shows each post in the order they were posted, time-wise. Here is what it looks like:

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e126/yarnaholic/Cville%20Hints/linear-1.jpg

[AmyS]

This view gives you a special box at the top of the page that shows the posts in threaded view: the posts appear in "tree branch" formation. This view allows you to easily see which post a new post is directly responding to. This organizational box will stay active and viewable on your page. You can scroll up and down through it to see all the posts.

People who are familiar with forums on about.com or delphi.com, since they are used to being able to see which previous post a new post is replying to.

To navigate the thread, you can highlight (click on) any post listed in the threaded view box. That post will then become active in your window. Only one post at a time is shown in full-view in this option.

There are Next and Previous buttons in the threaded view box that you can also use to navigate through a discussion.

Underneath the active post showing are buttons for Previous Thread and Next Thread to help you navigate through the different "branches" in the organizational view.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e126/yarnaholic/Cville%20Hints/threaded-1.jpg

[AmyS]

This view is a combination of Linear and Threaded.

You see the same preview screen at the top, but this time there are no navigation buttons underneath it.

Although you can't tell from this photo, the page will have a number of posts showing as visible. They will appear in the same order, top to bottom, as they appear in the threaded view box at the top of the page.

This option works great for those who like seeing more than one post on a page, especially if they also like knowing who is responding to which post.



http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e126/yarnaholic/Cville%20Hints/hybrid-1.jpg

[AmyS]

Okay, those are the 3 different ways of viewing threads available to us here.

I know someone on another forum was saying she'd never figured out how to set things up here so she'd know who was responding to what. Hopefully she'll visit here at some point and see this post, and be able to change her viewing options to something that better suits her preferences.

If you ever run across anybody, on or off Crochetville who wants to know how to do this, you're welcome to give them a link to this thread. :)