Help with using the Fulcrum website

Contents

1. About this Help page
2. Forum
3. Printer Friendly Version

Help

Click on the Help icon (located just above the menu bar on the right, to the left of the Printer icon) from any page to return to this page. You can also access this page from the 'my account' submenu.

Forum

The Forum postings may be read by everyone, but you must login in order to post a message. Posts are welcome on a wide range of subjects, provided they are polite, legal and at least vaguely relevant. Messages may be rejected, withdrawn or amended at the absolute discretion of Fulcrum.

• Moderation: The Forum is moderated - this means messages must be approved by one of the Sysops (System Operators). There will be some delay between submitting a message and it appearing on the Forum. Messages are approved as soon as possible, but all Fulcrum Sysops are volunteers and lead busy and often unpredictable lives!

• Forum Nickname: Everyone is encouraged to set a Nickname for use in the Forum. This can be as informative or enigmatic as you like. By default, your Nickname will appear as 'User xxx'. To set your Nickname, click on my account | options and then click on the 'Edit Name' button. You can change the 'Forum Nickname:' field and click on the 'Submit changes' button.

• My Posts: Click on the 'my posts' option on the Forum submenu to see a list of all your own posts. This will include any unapproved messages - this is a way to check that messages have been submitted to the system.

Printer Friendly Version

Click on the Printer icon (located just above the menu bar on the right) on any page to see a simplified version of the page which is suitable for printing. Please note that control over printing depends largely on the browser, operating system, and hardware set up. It is impossible for a website to guarantee the results of printing in every case. However, the Fulcrum site has been designed to give good results in as many cases as possible. The following points may help with printing:

• Format: In the printer friendly view, the text flows from one side of the screen to the other. This is so there is no restriction on the layout when it is composed for the printer. If you want to read the simplified layout on screen rather than print it, and the text is uncomfortably wide, make the browser window narrower.

• Print Preview: Using your browser's Print Preview option will often give much better results than sending the page directly to the printer. (In most versions of Internet Explorer, use File | Print Preview...) By previewing the page, you can spot any problems with the layout before wasting ink and paper. With long documents, you should be able to specify which pages you wish to print.

• Black: Printer friendly pages should contain only black text, but graphics and other images may still appear in colour. Remember to set the 'print colours as black/greyscale' option in your printer setup if you don't want to use up your colour ink.

• PDFs: If you are able to create PDF files as one of the printer options, this is a good way to experiment with different settings and to compare printing of the normal page with the printer friendly version. When you are happy with the layout of the PDF, you can then print that directly. Many Fulcrum pages are also available as PDF files, which should give better results when printed than web pages. Check the information at the top of each page, under the menu bar.

• Navigation: Click on the 'return to normal view' link at the bottom of the printer friendly page to return to the standard layout and navigation options.

• Clarity: Some people will find the screen contrast of the printer friendly version is more comfortable for them to read, especially as it doesn't include the Fulcrum logo watermark.