ZCrew Online Help :: Viewing & Replying to Private Messages

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Viewing & Replying to Private Messages

When it comes to your attention that a Private Message is in your Inbox (How?) you can open it and reply by following the instructions below.

Note: In order to receive Private Messages, it is important to keep your Inbox relatively clear. There is an indicator in your Inbox (shown below) that lets you know how full it is, in terms of the limit placed on the storage space. As the percentage nears 100%, we recommend that you delete some messages (How?) or move them to your Savebox (How?) so that there is always enough room in your Inbox for new messages.

To view a private message, do the following:

Do any one of the following:

•	If you are informed of a new Private Message via an e-mail message, click the link inside the e-mail message. If you are prompted to log in, do so at that point (How?).
•	If you are informed of a new Private Message via a pop-up message while visiting the forum, click the link inside the pop-up message.
•	If the"x new messages" button at the top of any forum page reads "1 new message," "2 new messages," etc. instead of "No new messages," click on the button.

Your PM Inbox appears.

To view any message in your Inbox, click the Subject line link.

Tip: Messages that you have not yet opened are preceded by a yellow envelope. Those you have opened in the past are preceded by a plain envelope. Both are shown below. You can sort messages by selecting a time frame from the Display messages from previous drop-down list and clicking the Go button.

Note: Members who send PM's are able to delete them from their Outboxes between the time they send them to you and the time you open them. If you click on a link in a PM notification message, and no new message appears in your Inbox, it means that the member deleted the message and it was removed from your Inbox before you "picked it up."

The message opens.

At this point, you can reply to the message (see instructions below), save it (How?), or delete it (How?). You can also click on any icon that appears inside the message block, such as the profile, e-mail, web site, and/or "chat" account (such as Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger) to view the member's profile or web site or to contact the member via e-mail or "chat."

To reply to a private message, do the following:

1)	Open the message to which you want to reply by clicking on the Subject line link.
2)	Click on the New reply icon on the page where the message is displayed.

	Tip: If you want to quote part of the message to which you are replying, you can click the quote icon (shown below) inside the message, instead. Or, you can click post reply and then use the Quote button on the formatting toolbar of the message creation form. For more information, see Quoting Other Posts or Offline Content.
	or
	A message creation form appears. It is nearly identical to the one the you use to post a topic message. The only difference is that it does not contain a Subject description text box or Message icon option, and a Username text box is added for the PM recipient's username. The username of the member to whom you are replying appears in this text box, automatically.
3)	Type your message in the large text box inside the form. Press the Enter key twice to separate paragraphs.
3)	Tip: To format your text, use the rectangular BBCode buttons and drop-down lists above the message text box (How?). For more information about BBCode, click here. To insert smilies, use the Emoticons inside the form (How?).
4)	If you want to enable or disable BBCode or smilies for the current message, select or deselect the corresponding check box in the form.
	Tip: An Options indicator inside the form lets you know whether or not BBCode and smilies are automatically turned on or off. These are preferences that you select in your profile (How?). You can override your default preferences during this step.
	Note: If you do turn BBCode off, the PM's sent to you by other forum members who use BBCode to format words and phrases are likely appear odd. You might see the actual codes in their messages, rather than the formatting that those codes display. For example, instead of seeing bold text, you might see [b] and [/b] codes around the words that they are intending to display as bold.
5)	If you want to include or exclude a signature at the end of your message, select or deselect the Attach signature check box in the form.
5)	Note: The Attach signature check box appears only if you have a signature defined in your profile. To add a signature to your profile, see Changing Profile Preferences. For more information, see Attaching a Signature.
6)	Click the Preview button to preview your message. Edit your text and formatting, as needed.
6)	Note: It is very tempting to skip this step, but members should preview all PM's before sending them. It is amazing how many corrections you might need to make, once you see how your message actually appears in the browser.
7)	Click the Submit button to send your PM.
8)	At this point, a page appears, offering you the choice to either go to the forum index or to view the list of messages in your Inbox. Click the link that corresponds to your preference.
8)	Note: Your message is stored in your Outbox until the member opens it or saves it to the Savebox to read later. While it is in the Outbox, you can edit it (How?) or delete it (How?). After the recipient opens or saves it, the PM is moved to your Sentbox and its contents are no longer under your control.