October 2020 Forum Update

smozgur

BatCoder
Joined
Feb 28, 2002
Messages
2,518
Mark as solution

Although the "Mark as solved" concept has never been used at the MrExcel Message Board since Bill launched the forum in 1998, the new feature "Mark as solution" is different in that marking a post as a solution does not lock the thread. This allows members to offer alternative solutions even after the original poster has marked one as a solution.

The original posters now can select the post which includes the solution to their question and mark it as the solution.

It would be a big help if you could visit your old questions and, if a useful answer was posted, mark the most helpful post as the solution in each question thread. We created a 'Your unsolved questions' link in the top bar of each question forum which you can use to see a list of your questions. You can also click here to see your Excel Questions quickly.

The screenshot below is shown from the perspective of the poster of the question. So you can see that the original poster has the option to mark any post that answered the question, allowing it to become the solution.

Mark as solution

Click the checkmark icon to mark as the solution

As soon as you click on the icon, the solution is highlighted and is now brought up out of the melee of the other answers and placed below the question, regardless of where it might've come from in the thread.
It is important to select the best post as the answer to the original question. You can always show your reaction by using the Like button below any post, but the solution post should provide information about the actual answer as much as possible because it will be placed below the question and quickly visible to the new visitors who are seeking for help on the same subject. Although new questions should be always posted as a new thread, new comments or solution methods can be always posted in the existing threads no matter the original question has a solution or not.

Solution below the question

An excerpt from the solution post is placed right below the question

Clicking "view full post" will take you to the solution in its original position where it can be interacted with like any other post.

Solution post in the original place

Actual post with the green indicator




Member profile banners

Forum regulars who have more than 50 posts can upload their profile banners.

Banners must not be offensive, spam or inappropriate as outlined in 1-3 of the Forum Rules. See also Note B at the start of the rules. Members may be required to remove or amend a profile banner deemed inappropriate, for any reason, by the moderators.

To upload your profile banner, go to your Account details page, and click on the "Edit profile banner" button.

Account details

Account details

Choose an image file to upload as a profile banner.

Profile banner dialog

Profile banner dialog

You can change the focal point of the banner by dragging to reposition it to a different part of the image then click "Okay" to confirm.

You can delete the existing profile banner by following the same steps but using the "Delete" button.



Similar threads

The MrExcel Message Board includes 5.5 million posts, and it is possible that the question you've asked has been already answered before, so posting the exact same question will require waiting time to receive an answer while the answered one is already there.

The new enhanced search module aims to minimize the occurrence of this, by suggesting related threads that may contain content similar to that which you are about to post, while you are composing. The enhanced search module is fast enough that sensible suggestions can be made in real-time while you are typing the title of your new thread, which may prompt you to visit one of the suggested existing threads rather than posting a potential duplicate.

Similar threads suggestion

Similar threads suggestion

Please note this is not to encourage you to post your question in one of the existing old threads, as we call "hijacking a thread", but just to save your time if the same question has been already asked and solved that might also solve your problem. Otherwise, every situation is different and might have to be handled in a different way or by using different methods. If the suggested threads are not answering your question then go ahead and post your own question instead of asking your question in someone else's thread.


For the existing threads, a similar feature, the Similar Threads widget is displayed below the quick reply area.

Similar threads widget

Similar threads widget

The Similar Threads widget is actually much more efficient than the original search feature of the software since it makes the search against all the posts in threads instead of search keywords.

Although it is not a user preference that is coming with the forum software, we created an option to hide the "Similar threads" widget for the members who wouldn't prefer to see this section. You can go to account preferences, and check the "Hide Similar Threads widget" option.

Hide similar threads widget option

Hide similar threads widget option




Text editor updates

We recently added special code buttons for Excel functions, VBA, Power Query, and SQL codes, and more info about the code buttons are here. Please help the community members who are trying to answer your question, and try to use code tags to highlight your code snippets and XL2BB to post the sample mini-sheet.

The recent forum software upgrade provides a new editor look, as well as new functionality. The most exciting one is the new "Preview" method.

Initially, the preview (the fully-rendered preview output of the editor's contents) was placed below the main editor box and was not dismissible once inserted. If a long message was previewed, this would involve a lot of tedious scrolling backward and forward.

With the recent upgrade, the forum software team introduced an entirely new preview method, using a tab built into the editor itself.

Preview button on the toolbar

Click the Preview button on the toolbar to preview the post content

Clicking the preview control will switch the editor to preview mode, disabling the editor and displaying the rendered final content in its place.

Preview mode

In place preview mode

Clicking the preview control again, or attempting to click on the editor tab will immediately deactivate preview mode and return you to where you were in your editing.

Another update is about how the quoted text shown in the edit mode. When you select and reply to a text in another post, you'll see the actual rendered quote content now instead of [QUOTE]replied text[/QUOTE] tags.

Quote BB code

The QUOTE BB code tag rendering




Advanced search between two dates

MrExcel Message Board contains 5.5 million posts sent by 400K members in 20+ years, and even there is an amazing search engine installed in the background, it is not that easy to find a post which was sent in a specific time range. Even you know who posted it, by entering some keywords you might end up with hundreds or even thousands of results to find the actual post you remember.
That's why we often recommend creating bookmarks for the content you'd like to refer to in the future.

With the improved search module, you can now make a search between two dates.

The following screenshots show how to find a member's post contains a specific keyword and more importantly, between two specific dates. As a sample search, I am looking for a specific post contains the "vba" keyword which I have submitted in March 2002. So, it should be newer than March 01, 2002, and older than April 01, 2002.

Search between two dates

Search between two dates

It will surely return fewer posts and I'll be able to find the exact post much easier than before!

Search results

Search results

Go to Advanced Search to try the new search option!



Push notifications​

Push notifications or browser notifications are notifications that you can opt-in to receive notifications from an online service to stay updated. These clickable rich content messages can be sent to your devices by a website or a web app. Push notifications are supported by Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Edge on Desktop and by Chrome, Firefox, Opera on Android Mobile. Unfortunately, browsers installed on iOS devices do not support push notifications yet.

We recently enabled push notifications in the MrExcel Message Board. so you can now choose to receive notifications to your mobile or desktop device even when you are not on the forum. These notifications can only be sent if you opted-in to receive these notifications and simply be disabled in your account settings in case you would like to opt-out.

To enable, simply click on the "enable push notifications" link in the message displayed at the bottom of the page:

Push notifications message

Push notifications message


And confirm the action:
Browser confirmation

Browser confirmation




Progressive web app​


And finally, the "Progressive web app", PWA. It is actually nothing much different than browsing in the browser at first look. However, PWAs can be installed on the home page of your mobile device or saved as an application shortcut on the desktop computer and they act like a standalone application that communicates with a website on your device.

We enabled PWA in the MrExcel Message Board to provide a better user experience. When browsing with Chrome on desktop or Android, the app can be installed via the address bar on both mobile and desktop devices. You can also install it on Mac by using the Chrome browser. However, iOS devices do not support installing PWAs yet.
 

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