This page answers many common, and more advanced, questions that you may have about using Correspondence.
General introduction to using Correspondence
Registration & Login
You need to register in order to submit correspondence (you do not need to be registered to read correspondence). Once registered, you can also take advantage of all the features offered by Correspondence, such as subscribing to e-mail alerts. It only takes a few seconds to register, and it is recommended you do so.
To create an account you will need to visit the registration page (click on 'Join' at the top right-hand corner of this page) and complete the form for creating a new account. Here you will be asked to specify details such as your login name and e-mail address.
Tip: Make sure that you use an easy to remember username. It is
not recommended that you use spaces.
After successfully registering you should have a username and password. Click on the 'Sign In' link at the top right-hand corner of the page and enter your username and password in the following page.
When logging in if you do not check the ‘Remember Me’ option you will be automatically logged off after an administrator-defined length of inactivity, usually 20 minutes. If you would like the site to always log you in automatically, please check the ‘Remember Me’ checkbox.
Follow the link on the sign in page ('I forgot my password'). This will take you to the Recover Password page. Here, you can have both your username and a new password e-mailed to you by entering the e-mail account you're registered with. You will be sent a new password since we store your password encrypted and have no way of retrieving the original value. Once you receive your username and new password you can login and change your password.
If you’ve registered and can’t login, check to ensure your username and password are correct.
First check to ensure your username and password are correct. If you still can’t login, your account has either been put on hold or deleted due to inactivity. Please e-mail the administrator
customsiteshelp@wiley.com.
User Profile & Settings
A profile is information about your account that controls how you view information within Correspondence. This includes details about threads of correspondence that you’ve contributed to, personal information you wish to share such as your web address or place of work, as well as settings that control how you interact with Correspondence such as time zones.
Once you are logged in, click on your username at the top-right hand corner of any page.
Setting your timezone will enable Correspondence to display dates and times relative to your own time zone.
A signature is a message that is appended to the end of any letters you submit. You can edit your signature from the
profile page. This signature will then appear at the bottom of any messages submitted by you.
An avatar is a feature which allows for a personal image to be displayed.
Avatars are disabled on the site.
The date format used to display any date information can be configured from your profile.
E-mail tracking is a feature which will send e-mail alerts to you when articles that you are interested in receive letters. You can turn off all e-mail tracking globally from your
profile.
Alternatively, you can change your
e-mail alert settings from the
E-mail
Alerts page (accessed from the Shortcuts menu on the home page).
There are many different icons that can show up next to usernames in the correspondence groups. Common examples are administrators, moderators, or most frequent letter submitters. Other images may be displayed based on groups the user belongs to.
Privacy & Security
Once logged in you can change your password from your
Profile page.
You cannot change your username.
Once logged in, you can change your private e-mail address from your
Profile page.
Navigation
A thread is a letter about an article topic and any responses to it. A thread contains one or more letters. The first letter becomes the thread and replies to the original letter increment details on the thread, such as the reply count or last letter .
A correspondence group is a collection of topics/threads. Each article has its own correspondence group.
You can move your mouse cursor over the icons to see what the different status / types of threads are.
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Thread Icon Legend
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Topic with letters you have not read.
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Topic with letters you have read. |
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Popular topic with letters you have not read. A topic
becomes popular after a certain number of views and letters (administrator
defined). |
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Popular topic with letters you have read. A topic becomes
popular after a certain number of views and letters (administrator
defined). |
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Announcement you have not read
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Announcement you have read
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A pinned topic with letters you have not read. Pinned topics are
displayed before other topics until they become unpinned. |
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A pinned topic with letters you have read. Pinned topics are displayed
before other topics until they become unpinned. |
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A pinned popular topic with letters you have not read. A pinned topic
with enough views or replies to become popular. |
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A pinned popular topic with letters you have read. A pinned topic with
enough views or replies to become popular. |
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A locked topic with letters you have not read. Locked topics do not
allow replies. |
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A locked topic with letters you have read. Locked topics do not allow
replies. |
A correspondence group may not display any threads if there are no threads in the group or if filters on the group have been applied and no threads match the filter. An example of a filter is filtering to display threads newer than a certain date, such as threads new in the past 2 weeks.
Filters can be viewed by clicking on 'More Options' on an Article page.
All correspondence is moderated. After submitting a letter, you will see a message stating that the letter is awaiting moderation. Once the moderator approves your correspondence it will become visible. The moderators may choose to move, edit, or delete your letter to ensure that the letter is topical to the current article.
An announcement is a special letter type that is always displayed at the top of a list of correspondence for a configured amount of time. The purpose of an announcement is to increase the visibility of certain topics.
A sticky thread is a special thread that remains at the top of the list of threads for an article. A sticky thread is similar to an announcement, however an announcement is displayed separately from other threads and usually does not allow replies.
A locked thread is a special thread that does not allow replies. Once a user locks a letter or an administrator/moderator locks a thread no more letters are allowed.
Yes, you can sort threads for an article by Author, Replies, Views, and Most Recent Letter date. The default sort for a correspondence group is to display the newest threads first (Last Post Date descending). To sort simply click on the 'More options' button at the bottom of the article screen and select your desired sort order and click 'Apply'.
The XML icon is linked to the RSS feed for Correspondence. RSS is used to allow other applications to subscribe to Correspondence's letters.
If you are attempting to access a correspondence (article) group that you have visited before, but now receive an ‘unknown forum’ error there are two likely causes. The first cause is that the correspondence group you are attempting to access has been made private and you are not signed in. The second cause is that the correspondence group has been removed.
Posting
Yes and no. You cannot type HTML directly into the editor. If you are using Internet Explorer the default editor for creating new letters will be a Rich Text Editor that will automatically format letters using HTML. If you submit with a browser other than Internet Explorer a standard HTML textbox is used and BBCode can be used to mark-up letters.
BBCode is a special syntax for formatting plain text letters.
Yes, you can attach one file. Files include Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint slides. The full list of allowed attachments is: zip; cab; jpg; gif; png; mpg; mpeg; avi; wmv; wma; mp3; ra; rar; rm; sql; txt; doc; xls; ppt. The max permitted file size is 500 Kb.
You can submit a new new letter to an article in several ways. The standard way is:
- Select an issue from the home page.
- Select an article from the table of contents.
- Click on the 'Submit New Correspondence' button. You should now see a form for entering a new letter.
You can reply to an existing letter using either the Reply or Quote buttons. If you do not see the Reply or Quote image buttons when viewing a letter you either do not have permissions to reply or the letter may not allow replies.
Only moderators or adminstrators can delete your letters.
See 'How do I add a signature to my letters?' in the User Profile and Settings section.
User Groups & Permissions
Permissions control what you are or are not allowed to do while browsing the site. The permissions you are granted control all aspects of your view within Correspondence.
An administrator is the highest permission level within Correspondence. By default, an administrator has full permissions to perform any action e.g. moderating letters, approving users, and so on.
A moderator is the second highest permission level within Correspondence. Moderators can approve, move, delete and edit letters.
Private Messages
A private message is like e-mail within Correspondence. You can send a private message to other users within this Correspondence site that is visible only to them. No private information, such as the user's e-mail address, is ever disclosed.
You can view any private messages that you have sent or received by clicking on the 'Inbox' link at the top right-hand corner of most pages.