Forum wants and desires - Patience though ;-)

If you want each one separate and distinct, ok, but I figured one thread as a catchall for your list.

Any way to automate when clicking on links so that the link pops up in a different tab?

I know we can right click, but I'm lazy.

You would grow to hate that very quickly if it were the default. 30 clicks...30 new browser tabs...

Any way to automate when clicking on links so that the link pops up in a different tab?

I'm gonna comment again, at the risk of further embarrassment, but isn't this an option you can select in your browser? I was schooled traditionally that links should not automatically open up new tabs/windows.

You would grow to hate that very quickly if it were the default. 30 clicks...30 new browser tabs...

He's referring to links to other websites referenced within posts. It's very convenient to open a new tab in those situations, otherwise TaxPro is shutdown and replaced by the linked site - no way to see both.

Exactly Frankly.

I usually right click and then hit open in new tab, but sometimes I don't.

As for 30 tabs open, not likely as how many different links to we truly click via the forum.

Usually after I open the new tab, I close it when finished.

Not a big deal, either way is fine. Just my preference.

And Mark, if it is, could you point me where to find it. I use Chrome.

I misunderstood. Sure, for external links that makes sense. I will see what it takes to make that change.

Just wondering out load if you could set a default for a href link in a stylesheet for the site (target="_new") or code in the BB template?, but that would load another window. Though it's second nature IMO, to right click for the option to open in another tab.

And Mark, if it is, could you point me where to find it. I use Chrome.

I actually tried installing Chrome recently on an older laptop I use in my kitchen, but unfortunately, Chrome does not allow one to change the default installation location (unlike almost all Windows programs), which violates my IT policies, so I had to uninstall it.

Anyone who uses HTML knows that a link can be coded in the source to either open a new page or not. However several major browsers (Firefox, Explorer) have Options settings that control such things as "open new links in a new tab", etc. I'm not sure if these options are limited to links opened from other programs (e.g. Adobe Reader) or from within the browser itself. What I do know is that I have Firefox on two different Windows machines, and on one machine, links from news.google.com always open in a new tab, and on the other, they do not, and I don't really know why, despite having the options configured the same.

You can search and find many indications about why it is bad form to automatically open a new window without warning. Here are a few:

Opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer's carpet. Don't pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management). If I want a new window, I will open it myself!

From the usability point of view the decision to enforce opening links in new windows violates one of the fundamental principles of the user interface design: users should always be in control of the interface they are interacting with.

Another suggestion for Chris: I notice the green topic bar which reads "last poster last post." Is the intent to eventually display the time lag from the last post, ie 1 day, 1 week, etc. Though the latest date is listed under the topic, this could help getting a quick sense of the age of posts.

Okay, I see now the last post does show the post time (but with smaller display resolution than I was using.)

I do like the "10 hours ago" or "4 months ago" style of dating a post, including the last post information on a topic, on the forum overview page. I think stating it that way conveys better information than simply showing the post timestamp and requiring the person looking at it to do the mental date math.

However, this is one of the weak spots in our phpBB software -- it really doesn't give me the option. Furthermore, since phpBB allows the user to change the date format (in the user control panel), I have even less control over how timestamps are rendered.

I'd have to write a simple date parser of my own, which I would like to do but will need some time to get to it. It's on the list

So far so good. I already like the ease of this better than TA.

While I am not sure I like it, but is there a way to reply to a specific post?

I know other boards have it. I do not like it by itself, but if users can switch formats on and off, i Like to both have the linear approach, making it easier to read all posts, but then I like to switch into the reply to poster mode to reply directly.

If have to choose one or the other, I prefer linear as opposed to the reply to poster format, but if i can switch back and forth, that would be awesome and yes I realize that I typed the request twice in slightly different ways, but it's late and I was out. lol

Nope, that's one of the things that vbulletin has which phpbb doesn't have. If you want to reply to a specific post here, you need to use that "quote" button at the upper right corner of the post you wish to reference.

So far so good. I already like the ease of this better than TA.

While I am not sure I like it, but is there a way to reply to a specific post?

I know other boards have it. I do not like it by itself, but if users can switch formats on and off, i Like to both have the linear approach, making it easier to read all posts, but then I like to switch into the reply to poster mode to reply directly.

If have to choose one or the other, I prefer linear as opposed to the reply to poster format, but if i can switch back and forth, that would be awesome and yes I realize that I typed the request twice in slightly different ways, but it's late and I was out. lol

Fred, if you click the Quote button in the upper right hand side, you ca reply to a specific post.

I do like the "10 hours ago" or "4 months ago" style of dating a post, including the last post information on a topic, on the forum overview page. I think stating it that way conveys better information than simply showing the post timestamp and requiring the person looking at it to do the mental date math.

I really hate the "10 hours ago" or "4 months ago" style of dating a post. I think stating it that way forces the user to do the mental math to determine whether or not the post was made before or after 11pm when I stopped surfing to go to bed, or before Friday the 2nd when I started vacation, or before or after April 15, etc. Mentally, until I do the math, my mind considers "4 months ago" to be the equivalent of "more than a week or two ago but less than a year" - in other words, without the mental math, it's pretty useless info to me.

With explicit dates, if I know a post was made Friday, May 16, it will always show as May 16. If I'm searching for it by date the following Tue, I can just look for May 16 instead of trying to figure out whether that was four days ago or five. If I see 9pm or 3am, I know right away whether or not I could have seen it last night before gong to bed.

I agree. But that's not a vote or a thumb's up. I just agree. But in the grand scheme of things it's the tiniest of nits. Much bigger issues to deal with - like posters who write nitty responses like this one.

Well at least you made the point that no matter what I do there will always be someone (or "someones") who like it to be different. That's a good thing and what differentiates us from Borg (I suppose).

The way boards like this "solve" that problem is by offering different themes or styles that the user can select from, as well as various settings in the user control panel. It is a little weak on the date/time formatting, admittedly.

Hey I could switch it to the number of elapsed seconds from the UNIX base timestamp (standard epoch) of 1/1/1970.

Then we could say things like "Hey did you see that post from MassTaxPro at 1400251788?"

Chris, you are a !! Wear it with pride.

Yeah, but what will you do when we overflow the epoch?