The User Menu

When you are logged in the 'User Menu' will appear at the top of the left-hand column of the site. The user menu gives you access to your profile, other members, and other actions such as writing your blog. We'll go through each user menu item now.

My Profile - takes you directly to your user profile from any page on the site.

User List - takes you to a list of all The Environmental Illness Resource's registered users. The user list displays various information about users and allows you to view the profiles of other users and send them messages.

Message Inbox - takes you to your message inbox. This is just like any email inbox, displaying messages you may have been sent and allowing you to write messages to other users. To send a message just enter a username, write your message and hit send.

My Blog - takes you to the blog editor. From here you can add comments to your own personal blog. For detailed instructions see the blog help page.

My Reviews - takes you to a page displaying all the reviews you have written in full. From here you can edit your reviews.

Healthcare Professionals: Edit Listings - this allows healthcare professionals to edit their listings in our healthcare professionals directory. Listings can be paid for, edited, and deleted from here.

Your Profile Page

Tabs at the top of the page:

Community - a credit page for the company that developed the software we use for this section of the site. This tab can be ignored.

Edit - hover over this tab with the mouse pointer and options will drop down for editing your profile information and photo.

Click on 'Update Your Profile' to be taken to a page where you can edit your profile information and set preferences.

In the 'Forum Settings' tab you can set whether you wish forum posts to appear in flat or threaded format and whether you wish the oldest or newest posts to appear first. You can also add a signature that will appear at the bottom of any forum posts you make.

The 'Additional Info' tab allows you to add personal information about yourself such as illnesses your are suffering from and your hobbies. You can fill in as little or as much as you like here.

In the 'Gallery' tab you can write a short greeting message for visitors to your gallery. Near the bottom, the 'Display Format' menu allows you to choose different ways for your pictures to be displayed. Try them all out to see which you like best! With the final item 'Access Mode' you can choose who you would like to see your gallery. The 2nd and 3rd options are all we really need to look at. 'Allow Registered Access' will allow ALL registered users to view your gallery while 'Allow Connections Access' will only allow those members with whom you have a connection to access your gallery. Please ignore the other options here.

In the 'Guestbook' tab you can set preferences for your guestbook. 'Enable Profile Entries' if set to yes allows visitors to your profile to leave comments in your guestbook. Setting this to no effectively disables your guestbook. If 'Auto Publish' is set to yes visitors comments will automatically appear in your guestbook without you having to manually approve them. If 'Notify Me' is set to yes you will receive an email notifying you when someone has left a comment in your guestbook.

In the 'Contact Info' tab you may edit your contact information and change your password. To change your password simply type a new password in the password field and retype in the field below. The final item allows you to choose the type of editor you wish to use when writing reviews and other content items on the site. Unless you are an advanced user we would advise you to leave this menu alone.

Connections - is the final tab at the top of your profile page. The only option here is 'Manage Your Connections'. Clicking on this takes you to a page where you can take various actions relating to your connections. 'Connections' are users of the site with whom you have a relationship. In the 'Manage Actions' tab you will see the names and profile pictures of users who have requested a connection with you. From here you can choose to accept or deny their requests. In the 'Manage Connections' tab you will see all of your connections. With the 'Type' menu you can select the type of relationship you have with each user. In the 'Comment' box you can write a personal comment about each of your connections. This is entirely optional and is not seen by anybody but you.

Whenever your connections are shown you will see their name, profile picture, and underneath, a series of icons. Using these icons you can remove the connection with that user, view their profile, email then, and send them a private message.

(You can make new connections with other users from their profiles. We will get into this later in this article.)

Profile Picture and User Statistics:

Profile Picture - is the image you uploaded using the Edit > Update Your Image procedure as explained above. A thumbnail (small) version of your profile picture will appear in other areas of the site such as next to your blog entries and comments.

User Statistics - are shown to the right of your profile picture and most are self-explanatory. Forum ranking is based on how active you are in the forums and will increase with the number of posts you make. Karma is given by other forum users when then approve of your posts.

Central Profile Tabs:

The row of tabs in the central section of your profile page display various information in the area below.

Additional Info - displays your personal information which you can enter from the Edit > Update Your Profile > Additional Info tabs as described above.

Reviews - displays a list of reviews you have written on the site. You and other users visiting your profile can click on a review title to see that review.

Blog - displays various information about your blog. Information includes your blog description and a list of your blog entries with links to entries and comments other users have made.

Forum - displays the last 10 forum posts you have made with date, title (with link to the post), forum category, and number of hits (no. of people who have viewed that post).

Gallery - displays all the images in your gallery and allows you to upload new images. Click an image title to view a large version with your caption. You may also delete images using the icon below the image. Click 'Submit New Gallery Entry' to upload more images, following the instructions on screen.

Guestbook - displays comments other users have left for/about you.

Connections - displays all of your connections.

Other User's Profile Pages

You can view the profile pages of other users by clicking 'Show' in the profile column on the user list (accessed from the User Menu). You may also view a users profile by clicking a user name in other sections of the site, from a review that a user has written for example.

You will notice a few differences on other user's profiles compared to your own. These differences allow you to interact with that user and we'll go through them now.

Tabs at the top of the page:

View - instead of the 'Edit' tab on your profile you will see the 'View' tab. There is one option here 'View Your Profile' which will obviously take you to your own profile when clicked.

Messages - allows you to send a private message or email to the user. It is very straightforward to send either, simply a matter of writing your message/email and clicking 'send'. The email option does however have a security code that you need to fill in. Simply enter the code as you see it in the box then send your message. This feature proves you are human and stops automated computer programs sending junk mail to our users!

Connections - from this tab you can manage your connections as described previously. Depending on whether you have an existing connection with the user whose profile you are viewing you can either request a connection of remove a connection from this tab.

Connection Status:

If you have a connection with the user whose profile you are viewing this will be displayed directly under the tabs at the top of the page.

Central Profile Tabs:

Most of the tabs display exactly as they would in your own profile, so for example, you can view the reviews, blog posts, and forum posts that a user has made. You can also view the user's gallery and connections.

Guestbook - is the only tab that is significantly different from your own profile as from here you can leave a comment in a user's guestbook. Click the 'Guestbook' tab to see a the user's guestbook. Click the 'Sign Profile Book' link to sign a user's guestbook. A form will appear where you can enter your comment. Once you have done so click 'Submit Entry'. Your comment will now be added to the guestbook with an 'Edit' link so you can edit your comment at a later date.

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