"How to" Guideline series is coordinated by Helen Mongan-Rallis of the Education Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to improve these guidelines please e-mail hrallis@d.umn.edu.

Guidelines for Web Crossing Discussion Forum

Developed by Helen Mongan-Rallis for M.Ed Cohort Students.

These guidelines provide step-by-step directions for some of the common tasks in the Web Crossing discussion forum.

Logging in to Web Crossing and Changing your password

1. Go to Web Crossing Login Page (http://www.d.umn.edu/webx) or link to this from the CEHSP Graduate Programs webpage/your cohort web page.
2. The first time you login to WebX, Enter your Internet (e-mail) ID and the default password of webx. [Note: you should change this password from the default to one of your own choosing once you have logged in. See the directions below for how to do this].
3. Click on the Login button.
4. This takes you to a list of folders to which you have access.
5. Next you need to change your password from the generic "webx" to one that only you know. To do this:
6. Click on the preferences button.
7. This takes you to a screen with a series of links. You can experiment with changing these later as you become more familiar with Web Crossing. For now, click on the change password link.
8. Enter in your new password in the first box, enter it again in the second, and enter your old password in the third box. To make it easier for you to remember this password you may choose the same password as your UMD x.500 password (your current e-mail password). Web Crossing uses a secure server so it is safe to use this same password.
9. Scroll down to the end of the page and click on the Set Preference button.
10. You will get a screen saying "preferences updated" and showing you your new preferences. Click the OK button.

Posting & editing messages

1. To read and to participate in a discussion, click on the discussion of your choice (discussions are shown by a picture of two small pages followed by the discussion name or question which is in blue and underlined).
2. When you click on a discussion it will show you the initial discussion question as well as any responses others have made to the question.To participate in a discussion related to this topic, you must type a message in the message post box. Caution: If you type a message that is more than a few lines and/or if you take more than a few minutes to compose your message, it is a very good idea to compose it in a separate word processing document (such as in MS Word or even a simple text editor) and then paste it into the message post box in WebX when you are done. The reason for this is that WebX "times out" after about half an hour if you haven't been active, and you will loose all your hard work! (when you post your message you may find that it doesn't show up -- and you are left thinking, "I know I posted a message!" This means you took too long to post it after you first began typing in the post message box).
3. When you have typed your message in this box, to post it to the discussion board you need to click on the button that says "Post My Message." That's it!
4. Once you have posted your message, you may go back and edit the message if you want to add to it or make any changes (to do this, click on the "edit" button that appears next to the message that you have posted.This will bring up a screen with your old message in a text box. You can click on the part that you want to edit, make your changes, and then submit these by clicking on the "post my message" button.

Creating a link

To insert a web link as part of your message without having the link be the actual URL:

1. Open a new browser window (or browser tab), so that your WebX discussion is in one window and another web page in the second window.
2. In the second browser window, locate the web page to which you want to make a link from within your WebX message --> copy the address (URL) of this web page (highlight the URL, then from edit menu, select "copy")
3. Click on the WebX discussion window and place the cursor at the point in your message where you wish to insert the link
4. Click on the icon that says "URL" in the toolbar below the message window --> this opens a text box --> paste the URL into this box --> another window opens and you are directed to type the text you want to become the hotlink (e.g. type "Helen's WebX Guidelines") --> click the OK button
5. In your message a string of strange characters will appear. Don't worry!! Just finish typing anything else you want to add to your message following this strange set of characters. Then scroll down and click on the "post my message" button.
6. Check it out! You message should show a hotlink. Move your cursor over this hotlink. If it "gives you the finger" then you know you were successful :)

Inserting an emoticon

To show readers your non-verbal facial expressions or the emotions you intended to convey along with your written message, you can insert an emoticon in the appropriate place in your message. To do this, just click on one of the emoticon icons that appears below the post message box. Note:

• Although it may, at first, seem a bit silly to use emoticons, they are really helpful and valuable in helping other readers to understand your intentions as you were "speaking." In a verbal, face-to-face conversation, even if you say something that might seem a bit harsh but you do so with a smile on your face, people listening and watching you will know that you didn't intend to be unkind and were just joking. Or you may say something that seems happy, but if you look sad, people will know that you are not happy about it.
• If you decide to insert an emoticon after you have finished typing your message (as often is the case when you re-read what you wrote and realize that your intentions may be misinterpreted): when you click in the middle of a message and then insert an emoticon, the code (html symbols and words) for the emoticon will appear right at the end of your message and not where you actually intended them to go. To fix this, delete (edit--> cut) the code (e.g. :smile: is the code for a smiley face) and paste it in your message at the point where you want it to go.

Attaching a file to your WebX posting

1. If you want viewers to look at a document or picture along with your posting, you can attach this to your message. To do this, scroll to below the post message box
2. Next to where it says, "attachments" click on the button that says "choose file"
3. Navigate to where the file you wish to attach is located on your computer, and select this
4. The name of your file will now appear next to the "choose file" button.
5. Click on the "post my message" button.

Inserting your photograph into Web Crossing

Once in Web Crossing you will see that some people have their photos next to the messages that they post. This feature is especially useful in classes in which students may never see each other face-to-face, but with any size or type of class it adds a personal touch and helps you to get to know the people in the class. To insert your picture or change the one that is already there you need to do the following:

1. Scan in a photo of yourself or have one taken with a digital camera.
2. Open the photo using a photo editing application such as PhotoShop or PhotoDeluxe.
3. Crop the photo so that it shows only your head (try to cut out any extra space so you can make the photo as small as possible).
4. Change the size of the photo so that it is about .75 inch square and at a resolution of 72 dpi, with a size around 5K bytes (The maximum size of the graphics image should be 10K bytes). Having a small picture reduces the time the page takes to load and also means your picture takes up only a small space on the discussion screen.
5. Save this photo into jpeg or gif format.
6. Login to Web Crossing (Go to Web Crossing Login Page at http://webapps.d.umn.edu/cgi-bin/etc/webx/WebX)
7. Click on the preferences button.
8. Click on the link for Your picture.
9. Click the browse button and locate your picture on your computer and upload it.
10. When you are done, scroll down and click the OK button.

Page last updated: September 16, 2006

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