PROVIDA SUPPORT COMMUNITY

New Body University
Providaland, USA

Welcome to NBU101-The NBU Entrance Course

If you're here, chances are that you are new to NBU, Provida, or maybe even online forums in general. We know how overwhelming learning all the navigational elements of posting can be and we want to help.

The lessons posted in this thread are not required for admittance to NBU but we think that you'll be glad you took the time to learn these basics before you dive in to campus life with assignments, challenges, etc. Feel free to use this thread to practice the lessons and get comfortable with posting, etc.

On behalf of the faculty and staff of NBU, I welcome you. If you have any questions about NBU or how to do things on campus, post them below and we'll get you the answers you need.

Answers to Common 6 Week Body Makeover Questions 


Answers to Common Forum Use Questions


Answers to General Food and Eating Questions

In NBU, you'll be participating in your dorm by posting in the dorm thread. There are a few different ways to do this but the two most common are REPLY and QUOTE.

When you REPLY, you are simply adding a new post to the thread. When you QUOTE, you are adding a new post to the thread and you are copying information from a previous post with your message. Quoting is especially useful when you are answering a specific question or commenting on a certain topic.





To REPLY:
either click on the "REPLY" button (in the upper right hand corner of the other person's post), or on the "Post Reply" button that always shows up at the top and bottom of your computer screen. Either of these methods will bring up a blank format
for you to type your post.

To QUOTE:
click on the "QUOTE" button in the upper right corner of the person's original post.
Your computer will then quote the WHOLE post in it's entirety. This is great if you want the WHOLE original post quoted
(including colors and graphics) -- but sometimes, you only want to quote PART of what someone said, such as a sentence or a paragraph. If that's the case, you can simply delete the parts you don't want to include.


Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.

Changing your font size and format
is a simple matter.


Provida allows you to format your text in a varieties of ways to show emphasis, mood, etc. as well as for official NBU communications.   Depending on the level of your skils, there are a few different methods.  MOST users will follow the steps detailed below. 

Whether you are starting a new post or replying to an exisiting post, once you have the edit message window open:

1.  Simply type your text.

2. Select the area you wish to be applied with enhanced formatting.

3. Then choose and click on the desired formatting options from the top portion of that window.

4.  Your text should now have your desired characteristics.

Please note:  this has a few kinks in it and not all formats post as desired.  Please be patient while this new forum bug is exterminated.

5. Click Post to post your message.

 Below is a sample of the Edit Message screen with a few of the most used buttons highlighted.




For official communications, your RA will post in your dorm color.  If you have a question, it's a good idea that you use the dorm color as well.  Official things from the Provost or the Dean of Student Activities will be posted in BLUE.  Stats should always be posted in RED.  Food Services related questions should be posted in GREEN.


Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.

Did you know that you can edit your own posts?

To edit your post, click on the “Edit” button on the right side of the green bar on top of your post.



Your original post box will pop up, and you will be able to edit your original message.  When you are done editing, click on “OK” to submit the post.

You can edit your own posts multiple times, if needed but be aware, changes may take several minutes to become permanent.  So if you edit, then notice an error and to back to re-edit, you may find that you have to make the original changes as well if not enough time has expired.

Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.

In NBU, you'll be doing a lot of copying & pasting. For example, you will COPY and PASTE icon codes into your signature. So it's important that you understand how to copy and paste.




There are FOUR steps to copying and pasting:


Step #1 Locate and select the thing you want to copy.
To select the thing you want to copy, click your cursor just before the BEGINNING of item you want to copy, then drag your cursor to the END of the item and release your cursor. Your selected item will now appear highlighted.


Step #2 Copy the selected item.
To activate the COPY feature, use the Edit --> Copy menu button or press and hold down the "Control" key on the corner on your keyboard and the letter "C" simultaneously. Your computer has taken a "copy" of the selected item, and is saving it to a temporary holding spot called the "Clipboard".


Step #3 Locate the place where you want the copy to go.
--If you're copying the item into your signature, then open up your signature now.
--If you're copying the item into a post, open up the post in which you want the copy to appear.
--If you're copying into a word processing document, open up the document.


Step #4 Paste the item there.
Put your cursor in the EXACT SPOT where you want the copied item to appear. Use the Edit --> Paste menu button or press and hold down the "Control" key on the corner on your keyboard and letter "V" simultaneously. Your computer will then display the copied item in the place where you have pasted it.



Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.

 

Please be reminded that as a student at NBU, you are required to comply with all aspects of your Provida User Agreement.  Accordingly, you are not permitted to post cartoons, articles, images or other copyright protected materials without express written permission from the author/publisher of the material. Many websites allow you to repost their material when proper credit is given.  But it is incumbent on you to investigate their terms of use and act appropriately.

I know many of our students are in the habit of posting cute pictures, cartoons, articles, animations, and other things to their dorms and all of these things definitely enhance our campus.  I don’t want that type of energy to cease or for our campus to become a boring monochromatic dry boring place.  And I don’t think it will.  However, I do want all of us to do a better job of respecting the intellectual property of others and comply with our Provida User Agreements.

When you want to post something you’ve found on the internet, check it or chuck it.  If a picture has a © or repeating words watermarked over it, you can not use it without also posting the permission to do so.  When you want to post an article, do so in accordance with standard reference protocol. When you want to post cartoons that you didn’t draw you will need to post the permission to reprint that you received to do so.

All that being said, I don’t want any of you to become the copyright police.  Every student is responsible for themselves.  RAs will be asking students to remove anything that is an obvious violation.  Beyond that, I hope each of you will do your very best to keep NBU full of great (legal) fun and informative stuff from all over the internet and beyond.

If you have questions or concerns about anything I have posted here, please direct them to my PM box.

THANKS!

Rachel

Step-by-step Instructions

1.  Put your cursor on top of the picture you want to copy.

2.  Right click your mouse.  There should be a special button on your mouse that does right clicking.  On some mice, it's the right button on others it's the scroll wheel.

3.   When you right click your mouse, the computer will display a box with a list in it.  The last word on the list is "Properties".  Click on the word "Properties".

4.   Another box will show up on your screen.  Toward the center, it will display a URL Address.  This "address" will start with "http" and end with "gif" or "jpg" (or another short abbreviation).  Copy the entire address code, and then click on “OK” to close the box. 

5.   Now go to the place where you want to post the picture.  Click the Put your Insert/Edit Image button on the menu.

 

6.  This will bring up another window that looks like this:

7.   Now paste the URL of your image into the appropriate space in that box and then click Insert. (Please note, you can now resize your images in Provida to ensure that it will fit on the screen.  600 pixels is the Maximum width to ensure proper viewing. Also, the Dimensions are represented in pixels -- width x height.)

8.   Click Insert. 

Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.

Finding an image that you want to use and you have permission to use, you must copy the image to an image storage site that allows you to hotlink from it.  Using one of these sites will also help you ensure that the image is in a format that Provida can understand.

Many image storage sites offer free accounts. 
The most commonly used site by Provida Users is Photobucket.
To open an account, go to their website
www.photobucket.com and fill out the info required for an account. 

Once you have a Photobucket account set up,
you can start uploading pictures,
graphics, and animations into your account,
and then copy the “image” code from Photobucket into Provida.



If you plan to use images that you've found on the internet, you'll have to save them to your computer first and then upload them to Photobucket:


1.   When you find a picture on the internet that you want to use and you have permission to use, double click on it or right click on it.  A pop-up menu will appear.  Click on "Save Picture As" (in the middle of the list).  


2.  Another pop-up box appears, and prompts you for a file name.  Give it a short name that makes sense to you, and click on the "Save" button.  (NOTE:  Be sure to remember which file you save the picture in, on your computer so you can find it later.  You may want to use your "My Pictures" folder or create a new one for your “NBU Graphics”).


3.  Now open your Photobucket account.  Click on the "Browse" button. 


4.  A pop-up window will display, allowing you to maneuver through your computer files to find the picture.  Once you locate the picture, click on it (to highlight it), and click the "Open" button.  (Note:  The "open" button won't really open the picture, but will import it’s name into Photobucket).

5.  The name of your picture should now show up in Photobucket to the left of the "Browse" button.  Click on the "Submit" button below. 


6.  Photobucket will take a moment to upload the picture (you can watch the green progress bar at the bottom of your screen).


7.  Once it's done uploading, your screen will refresh and you can then scroll down a little to see a "thumbnail" (small) picture of the graphic you just uploaded. 


8.  If the graphic was large, you need to resize it now (use the "resize" button above the thumbnail).  As you resize it, you won't see any change in the size on your screen -- so it's a little deceptive!  You just have to trust that it works!


9.  Click on the "HTML Tag" under the picture (the bottom box).  This is the code you'll need to paste into Provida.


10.  When you paste the link to Provida, you'll need to make sure to paste it in HTML mode.


11.  Now click back to Design mode and check your image.  It should appear correct.


Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.

First of all, you have to have digital pictures saved in your computer.  They must be saved in file format JPG, JPEG, or GIF, and be 900 KB or less.  Once your pictures are actually IN your computer, follow these steps to upload them into Provida:

To add pictures to your Gallery:

1.  Click on the “Profile” button in the “Toolbox” section (at the top of your Provida screen).



2.  Click on the “Upload Image” link (on the second page of your user profile).



3.  Click on the “Browse” button, and then locate the picture in your computer.  Once you have found it, click “OPEN” (this won’t really open the picture, but will instead type the picture’s address in the browse box).   When you are done locating the picture you want to insert, click “Upload”.  Wait while your computer uploads your picture into the Provida album.



4.  Whenever you finish working in your Profile, remember to click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page to make the changes take affect.



To delete a picture:

1.  Click on the “Gallery” button in the “Toolbox” section (at the top of your Provida screen).



2.  Click on the green “Edit Gallery” button.



3. Click on the box next to “Delete” to select the image.



4.  Whenever you finish working in your Profile, remember to click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page to make the changes take affect.



A special note about size:
Each member is allowed a certain amount of space for pictures.  Once your maximum space has been reached, the “Add Photo” button will no longer show up.  GIFS are usually very large files, so they will use up your allowed space very quickly.  You can resize your photos (to make them smaller), or reformat them to be JPG or JPEG files, which take up less space. 

Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.

Due to character limitations in the signature area of the Provida profile, there may come a time when you'll need to learn to combine some of your icons into one image.

There is a simple way to do this using software that usually comes with any Windows computer--Microsoft Paint.

Start by opening Microsoft Paint (usually found by going to Start -> Accessories -> Paint).




This will open a blank "canvas" for you.




Next, find the icon image you want to include. Right click the icon and choose "Copy"




Go back to Microsoft Paint and select Edit -> Paste. This will place your image on the canvas. Click once on the image and drag it to the upper left corner of the page. Continue this copy and paste process until you have all the images you wish to include aligned on the canvas.




If you find that you need to move or adjust some of you icon alignments, select the area to move using the dotted-rectangle too. Then click, hold down and move to the desired location.

Once all your icons are together and lined up, go to File - Save As. Save this file to your computer. You'll use this original file the next time you need to add icons.



Now, look down at the lower right hand corner of your canvas. You'll notice a small blue square sizing handle.




Put your cursor over that and it will change to an arrow. Drag the handle to resize your canvas to fit your icons.

Go to File - Save As. Save this resized image file to your computer and then upload it to your Provida Gallery or an online image storage site like Photobucket. You'll then have the URL link you need to copy to your Provida Signature.


To add icons to your image later, open that file you originally created. Add the new icon and align it with the others. SAVE. Now, repeat the steps to resize the image and upload. As long as you use the same file name and replace the image when you upload, your signature will automatically update when you "refresh" your browser.

Contributions to this post by brwright.

How to group icons on a MAC

Here is a way to group the icons that you've earned in NBU into one image, so that it fits in your signature line.

First, bring up your TextEdit program.

I found mine by going to the FINDER icon.  In the search box, I typed in TextEdit. Then I clicked on the title TextEdit as shown below.

This empty document came up on my screen.

From there, I pulled the four icons from my desktop to the empty page and lined them all up side by side.

Then I clicked these three keys together   (command shift 4)  You can copy a selection with this little tool.  I line up the cross at the very top corner and dragged the box around the images.  (Just like you do when you use the CUT feature in Photobucket)

When you let go of your mouse, the image is saved on your desktop titled Picture 1 or 2, 3, etc.  Then I open up Photobucket and put in the picture.  Or you can put this picture into your Provida gallery.

Now it's ready to put into your signature line.  You can do this each week when you get your new icons.  

You can save your TextEdit document and add the new icons to the icons you have already earned.

Once you get the hang of it, it's a breeze!

EVERYONE is encouraged to put a Student ID icon in his or her signature.

It tells people that you have your BEFORE pictures loaded into your gallery and you're ready to start posting AFTER pictures!

We use Student IDs for a few reasons. One, it gives everyone practice putting a picture in their Provida Gallery (that's the best place to store your before and after photos so the Provida bigwigs can see your success). Two, it gives everyone practice with icons, etc.

To insert a Student ID icon in your signature:

1. First, you must have a photo saved in the Provida Photo Gallery.(See the lesson "Adding Image to your Provida Gallery" for detailed instructions.)

2. Award yourself this icon.  You can post it directly to your signature or combine it with other icons in your signature (See lesson "Icons into One Image" for more detailed instructions.)



Contributions to this post by brwright.

Creating links to other posts or threads is a simple matter.

1.  To start you need the URL of the post or thread to which you want to link. Navigate to that post.

2.  Right click your mouse on the thread name from the forum list or on the Post # in the lower right-hand corner of the post.  There should be a special button on your mouse that does right clicking.  On some mice, it's the right button on others it's the scroll wheel.

3.   Now, open the post you want to put the link in or create a new reply.

Your Provida Signature is a fun way to express yourself on the forum.

The number of characters that you can fit in the signature is now quite small. However, you now have the option of creating 3 different signatures. So you can have one for NBU, one for your tickers or glittermaker stuff, and still have one left for goals, etc.

Before you start creating your signature, you'll want to gather up a few things especially the URLs for any images, links, etc.  Your character limit is 256 for each signature.  That means you can fit about one image and one link in each.

You'll want to review some of the previous posts lessons for instructions to combine all your images in to one, how to create links, etc.

To upload a new signature:

1.  Click on the “Profile” button in the “Toolbox” section (at the top of your Provida screen).



2.  Click on the “Upload a Signature” link (on the first page of your user profile).



3.  A pop up window will open and you can create your signature just like you would any other post or reply.

4. Click "OK" to go back to your profile.

5. To view your signatures and choose which one to have as your active signature, click on "View Active Signature".

6.  Whenever you finish working on your Signature, click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page to make the changes take affect.





Contributions to this post by brwright.

PM's are a way for you to send a personal note to another Provida user without the rest of the group being able to see what you've written.

When you post a message in our dorm, everyone can read it - but a PM goes ONLY to the person you sent it to, and no one else can see it.

To access the PM area of the Provida site, simply click on the PMs button on you toolbar.




This will bring up your PM page.




If you have received a PM it will show up in a list here. Click on the one you want to read. After reading it, you can either close it (which saves it in the list so you can reread or delete it later) or delete it immediately. Your PM box will only hold a limited number of PM's, and if it fills up, no one else can PM you so make your choices accordingly.

Sending a PM is VERY similar to posting a reply to a thread.
You can either go to your PM area and click Compose Private Message or click on the "PM" button on the lower left corner of the person's post. When you're done filling in the blanks on the blank PM screen, you can send the message.

Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.

In an effort to ensure that all recipes posted in NBU are on-plan and that we are providing our students with only the best advice and information we no longer allow students to post recipes in the dorms that have not yet been approved by Provida. Having your recipe approved is a simple process. You can email it directly to recipes@provida.com. This should be done only by the person who created or discovered the recipe and not forwarded by a dorm chef, RA, or anyone else.

Once you've had your recipe approved, then you're welcome to share it with your dorm mates, etc. We are enforcing it in the NBU threads but EVERY user is supposed to have their recipes approved before they are posted ANYWHERE.  As always, students are allowed to post recipes they discover in the Recipe Exchange (or post the link to the recipe) but those found in the Makeover America Cookbook are not to be shared online.

THANKS in advance for your understanding.

Each week, you have the opportunity to earn NBU points:

Food: 7 per week
Water: 7 per week
Cardio: 5 per week
Toning: 2 per week

These points allow you to earn icons for your signature.
The more points you have,
the better your icons will be!

Your dorm's total points are averaged together,
and the dorm with the highest average
is announced in the Student Records Office
and wins "bragging rights"  for the week!

You signed up for NBU because you wanted a
group to belong to for extra accountability.
So, YES, your points matter to the dorm.

HOWEVER, if you're struggling, it's far more important for you
to work to get on plan and stay there than to worry about
how the dorm competitions.

We care about you and we want you to succeed.
Your long term success our long term goal!

So as you proceed into your week
keep in mind that your decisions affect not only YOU
but also your dorm which
is exactly what you wanted when you signed up.


Contributions to this post by brwright and janiselain.