[Susan]

While it may seem a little bewildering at first glance, the Forums Home is a powerful launching pad for anything and (almost) everything you'd need to see/do/touch/feel whilst on the forums. A quickie rundown:

• Header - Cute logo - self explanatory; Firefox Browser Banner - yeah, we hate banner ads too, but we love Firefox and we think you should try it too!
• Subheader - Breadcrumbs and Login or Welcome with Times and Dates and Your Personal Message Info and Link
• Blue Navbar - Menu Items variable depending on guest/member status
• Announcements
• Left Navigation - Your way to get around to places in and on the forums as well as the rest of the website. Tools for converting and translating (Hey, we're international, baby!), Related Links and yes...some advertising. We have to pay the bills somehow. There you go.
• Forum Listings - majority of your screen to the right with a "collapse" option to clean up your view.
• What's Going On - shows who else out there in cyberland is on at the moment, and basic usage statistics.
• Status Icons - Way down at the bottom are the status icons for the forums - these tell you which forums have new posts, or very popular topics.
• Bottom navigation - That brings us to the basement level - a few more navigation links, a way to easily contact us, a link to our privacy policy and an easy way to get back up to the top.

And that was the short list....let's take a look around. Wear comfortable shoes...it's a long walk, but worth it.

[Susan]

We love our little logo and we owe a ginormous debt of gratitude for the concept as well as the execution to a great graphic designer in, of all places, Serbia-Montenegro. PM me if you ever need a fantastic freelancer and I'll hook you up with Marko.

The banner to the right...this is a good banner, really! We heart Firefox with its increased functionality, open sourceness, powerful plugins and the ability to (are you ready for it? The irony of it...) turn off ads. Well, popups anyway. Give it a try - if you don't like it, you can return it.

	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]

We love our little logo and we owe a ginormous debt of gratitude for the concept as well as the execution to a great graphic designer in, of all places, Serbia-Montenegro. PM me if you ever need a fantastic freelancer and I'll hook you up with Marko.

The banner to the right...this is a good banner, really! We heart Firefox with its increased functionality, open sourceness, powerful plugins and the ability to (are you ready for it? The irony of it...) turn off ads. Well, popups anyway. Give it a try - if you don't like it, you can return it.

	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]

Breadcrumbs on the left. These are nifty because you can see where you are and from whence you came. Just like little Hansel and Gretle leaving their crumbs behind. Only this time? The birdies won't eat them.

Depending on your member and/or login status (whether you're a guest, a member who's not logged in, or a logged in member), you'll see one of the two screens below. Substitute your own personal information, of course. If the times shown look way off base for you, head on into your My Account and set the proper time zone under Options. Every member will see times relative to THEIR OWN time zone.

Members not logged in see the same screen as guests.

[Susan]

Underneath all of that, you'll see the navbar - blue to most, it has important links and functions such as the search function. Again, members logged in and guests will see different screens.

Starting Left (all marked with an asterisk, like so: * are only available to logged in members):

• *My Account - Make this your first stop. Check your private messages, manage your attachments, make changes to your profile and more. Please see the FAQ on My Account for more details.
• Register - well, if you're not, then please do so. If you are, and you're still seeing that, it's because we have a feeling there are more IKEAFANS in your vicinity and maybe they'd like to register as well. Worth a shot.
• Guidelines - these are the Community Guidelines that we ask you all to abide by. If you can't abide by them, please don't continue to use the forums. We'll miss you, but that's the way it has to be.
• FAQ - Yes, there's another FAQ. That one, while clever and witty, doesn't have any screenshots and isn't nearly as in depth as this one. However, it does have a search function. And, ok...it does answer some more fundamental questions. Check it out!
• *Members - The members list is kind of a fun way to get to know your fellow members. It is searchable and displays names, avatars, join dates, post counts, door style, locations and local IKEAs. Did I mention that you can search it?
• Calendar - There are multiple calendars, actually. One for birthdays, one for IKEAFANS events, and one for IKEA store events. Keep up to date on what's going on!
• *Recent - Ah, this is my portal. If you like to see everything new without browsing every forum, this basically serves up a set of search results which include the most recent posts/threads. Dude.
• *Search - Are you a searcher, not a browser? Click the yellow triangle to get a pop up box which will handle all your search requests. Advanced search too. There will be an advanced post on Search after school.
• *Quick Links - Well, just that. You can port mark forums read, open your buddy list, do stuff in My Account, etc. Lots of options with easy access.
• *Log out - only if you're logged in, of course.

See how much you're missing out on if you're not registered? Another good reason to join the club!

[Susan]

We have tour guides all over the place, don't we?

Left navigation will get you back to the homepage of the website (soon to be in its shiny new duds), to the sections of the website, and to each of the categories. It is available on all forum pages, excepting thread views, members list views and in My Account.This is just another way to navigate and one that may be more comfortable since it will also be the navigation for the site in its entirety. Click on one of the buttons, Fansite (Fansite will temporarily take you back to the old IKEAFANS site until the new one is operational) or Forums, and you'll get an expanding menu - click again or click another and watch them close back up.

Please note: The following links will take you to external websites. All rules regarding our responsibility for other websites' content in full force.

That said, we've provided links to the most common IKEA planners and guides for the North American market as well as a link for the main IKEA portal; you'll have to pick your flavor when you get there. These links should open in a new browser window, so be on the lookout for it.

Next up, there are some Tools to help with conversions - Metric, Currency and Language. Being an international site (154 countries represented in our detailed statistics at last count) it is often necessary to convert one of the above so that we can all have a better understanding of each other. This is your go-to place for converting. Check the screenshots below for a quickie preview of each.

Related Links are cool sites that we like that have something to do with IKEA. These are places we like to go for all the up to minute IKEA news and information and for photos and inspiration.

And those bug-a-boo ads. We don't charge admission, but this ain't free, folks. Big websites have big bills (we're getting bigger everyday!) and we've got to collect all the change we can. Sorry! Darn economics.

[Susan]

This is one area where you have mucho control. You can, at will, close all categories of forums except for the ones you are viewing, open them all to see what's out there, or keep open only the ones you have an interest in following.

How do you perform this magic you say? Click on that yellow button all the way to the right of the Category to collapse and expand the Categories as you desire.

[Susan]

What's going on? Not a question, a section. All the way at the bottom of all the Forum Listings, you'll see the list of who's online, how many people are active in using the forums over the last 2 weeks and the max number of folks ever at our party at once. Below that you'll see basic statistics on threads, posts and members, along with a redundant listing of how many active members there are. Also, a note of welcome to our newest member - don't forget to say hi!

Below that you'll see the Status Icons that will tell you which forums have new posts and which do not as well as forums which are closed. You shouldn't see the closed sign terribly often, unless you're a guest, in which case you can read, but not post to the forums.

[Susan]

Seems like there's nothing much to discuss here, but there is...

First off, there's a link to contact us -- you may need or want to from time to time. In most cases, you'll get a response immediately if not sooner - even guests can send us a query and we'll gladly oblige with a quick response. Do bear in mind that we do sleep, and we're only a party of 2 a this point.

Nextly, you'll have a link back to the Forums Home page - if you get lost, this is a guaranteed way back. All pages, every day. Privacy statements/policies are important these days and we invite you to please read ours. Important stuff here. And, finally...a way to get elevated -- rise straight to the top with the Top button.

Then is the legalese - our copyright info, our disclaimers in short form as well as IKEA's copyright and our forum software's copyright. Seems everyone has one.

And that's the bottom of it all. Thanks for joining us!