[Susan]

Assuming we're all rested up, (and I sure hope so, because this is pretty data intensive) we'll start with the Private Messaging system. This allows you to exchange internal email with other members on subjects that are not relevant to the discussions on the forums, or those which contain personal information, like a mailing address for an exchange or swap.

You and they have to have enabled Private Messaging in your Edit Options. A caveat: The limit of old PMs (sent and received) is 50 - you'll probably want to periodically prune your old messages, because once you've reached your limit, you'll be shut out! Say it isn't so! Don't worry, all you have to do is prune it. More on that below.

That said, let's get on with it!

[Susan]

a.k.a. The Inbox. Most important screen.

At the top, you will see Folder Controls. This is how you know how many PMs you currently have in your various folders -- remember, 50 is the magic number. You don't want to be cut off from your mail service. In this box, you can also jump to your Sent Items from the drop down. If you just don't want to see this section, you can collapse (and expand it again) by clicking on the yellow button in the top right corner under the blue nav bar.

Below that, "Private Messages in Folder: Inbox" - This is where all the action is, where you'll see all your messages (you may have to click a red link that says "List all messages" back up in that box above). They are listed by the day they were received. You can collapse the list of PMs from, say...yesterday or last week by clicking on the minus sign that is to the left if you don't want to see them anymore. And, you can click on that yellow triangle next to "Private Messages in Folder: Inbox" (on the right) to get a menu to take you to Sent Items (and back again).

Now, see the date and time the PMs were received all the way over on the right? Next to that is a box that you can use to select any thread or threads. You can also multi-select. Once you've selected the threads you wish to affect, you can use the drop-down menu near the bottom next to the red "Selected Messages" to choose to move the threads to Delete, Mark as Read, Mark as Unread, Download threads as XML, CSV or a Text file. If you need more info on what these mean, don't ask me. Ask your local tech guy.

There are icons at the bottom of the page that indicate what state your PM 's are in - Unread, Read, Replied To or Forwarded. AND, last but not least, there's a forum jump menu like the ones in the rest of the forums.

	PM definition PM means Private Message or when addended by an S, can refer to PMS. If you don't know what that means, don't ask.

[Susan]

This is where the outgoing gets going. You can access this screen by clicking on the link on the navbar to the left (when you're in your Account, not here), or if you happen to be cruising through the forums and suddenly become overwhelmed with a desire to tell someone you like their hair, you can click on their username (which will take you to their Public Profile) and then hit "Send a Private Message" under Contact Info.

Now you're all set to send a PM - Congratulations for following this far. I need your attention for a few more minutes.

If you don't have the name of the recipient in the Recipients Username(s) box, type it now. This is where you find out how really smart we are. We will try to guess what you're going to type. Give it a try -- for fun, start typing Jen into the box and watch what happens. That little popup menu will give you a list of choices that you may choose from or ignore it and keep on typing. Clicking on that BCC gets you another Recipient Username box in case you want to copy someone else on the PM.

Type a title or subject line for your post, and then you're on to the meat of the matter. In order to save my breath, I'm going to refer you to this post on using the Text Editor.

At the bottom are a few more options, "Save a copy", "Disable smilies", yada, yada, yada. Those are pretty self-explanatory. "Automatically parse links in text" is a more perplexing statement, but it is pretty well explained in the post about the Message Editor linked to above. You can also close up this section so you don't have to look at it by clicking that yellow triangle in the top right corner.

	PM definition PM means Private Message or when addended by an S, can refer to PMS. If you don't know what that means, don't ask.

[Susan]

One more thing, and then I'm through. You know you have a folder called Inbox and Sent Items, but did you know that you could create your own personal folders? It's true! Try it! Click on the Edit Folders link on the left navbar on your My Account screen. You'll see that you can type in new names for folders and then save them. When you go back to your inbox, you'll be able to select, then move messages into this new folder at your whim!

I told you it was true.