Hi There:
I have set up my forum at http://medsleuth.groupee.net/groupee Now I have two problems:
1. I can't seem to figure out how to get the forum page to look like my site by inserting the HTML from my site into the board custom HTML section, and get it to look right. The fonts and the borders on the tables are all wrong, some of the colors are incorrect, and the whole forum tables get messed up.

2. In addition, I can't get my ads to show up either. (I use FrontPage, so I know this is going to be a challenge. My website is located at http://www.medsleuth.com

I would really appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Joanne

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JRRW,

1. When putting your website html around your community, the goal is to put anything you want to appear above or to the left of the page in the box labeled "Insert AFTER Opening Body Tag" and anything you want to appear to the right or below the page in the box labeled "Insert BEFORE Closing Body Tag." This might prove to be a bit of a challenge if you are used to working in FrontPage, since you probably aren't accustomed to working directly with the HTML code for your pages.

2. In your Groupee Community control panel, go to Groupee Community > Master Settings. On the Advanced tab, uncheck the "Display Title Graphic" box.

Yes, you are right. I'n definitely not much of an HTML person (only the very, very basics)-- medical research online is my service -- and I just don't have a lot of time for HTML. This was the same difficulty I had with php, and my forum actually got really close to what I needed on php after many months of tinkering, but I still never got the fonts or tables to look right, similar to what happens here. I guess I should have learned HTML from the beginning (

Thanks for your reply.

Joanne

Just so you don't get too freaked out...remember that when you try to look at your raw HTML code now, it has all sorts of weird and scary code in it that you wouldn't have in there if you had hand-coded it without Frontpage.

Speaking as a non-geek, I can tell you honestly that investing a little bit of time in learning HTML will get you pretty far. Here is a good tutorial site that may help you a bit:
http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/

Have you decided which parts of your content you want on which sides of the board? If you share that with us, I (or one of our other wizards) may be able to help you figure out where to separate your code.

Hi Rosemary:
Thanks so much for your reply. Yes, it does freak me out. But only because of the time issues I am dealing with. I've actually had to do more work in the HTML view with FrontPage than I ever wanted to --

If you take a look at the index page at http://www.medsleuth.com, what I would like to be able to do is have the header of my site (all the tables that appear with the green background -- and the ads) to appear on the page with the board, as well as the ad on the right side of the page, and the ad on the bottom. Since Groupee allows me to enter the copyright and privacy policy information, I don't really need the footer.

Any help or advice you might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated. I've pretty much given up at this point, mainly because of the time issue. I have so much research backing up on me because of all the time I have been spending trying to get a forum going, and yet it would be great to have a forum running for this type of site.

I've tried to put the code in several different ways and tinkered with it for the most part of two days and I just can't get it right. The fonts for the MedSleuth name aren't displaying correctly, nor is the font for "Empowerment through Understanding", and the tables where the links appear are not appearing correctly. Further, when I do try to put the code in, the tables for the actual forum getted messed up. It is the exact same problem I went through with the php bulletin board, and I never was able to get that to completely work -- I got close, but not close enough. Thanks for the HTML link. I will definitely check that out.

Any help anyone might be able to provide would be sooooo appreciated. I know that FrontPage makes things so much more complicated than they need to be . . .and in the end it may not even be possible to do what I want, but I do appreciate the responsiveness (and compassion) in this forum.

Joanne

I've been doing a little noodling, but the Frontpage blah blah makes it tough. I may be able to continue a bit tomorrow, and see if I can help you figure out where to divide it.

Any other HTML jockeys out there, you're welcome to join in if you have the skillz

Thanks Rosemary. It is really kind of you to take the time to take a look. I tried again yesterday afternoon, and read all the tutorials you sent (which are great by the way), but still can't get it to work.

Joanne

Try putting this on the AFTER Opening Body Tag box

 <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td bgcolor="#267759"><div align="center">
        <center>
          <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="700" height="47">
            <tr>
              <td height="47" valign="top"><p align="center" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><u> <font size="1" color="#FFFCE3">Advertisement</font></u></p>
                <p align="center" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><u> <font size="1" color="#FFFCE3">
                  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!-- This is the Top Banner
OAS_AD('Top'); 
--> </SCRIPT>
                  </font></u></td>
            </tr>
          </table>
          <p> </p>
        </center>
      </div>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
          <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="650" height="88" bgcolor="#000000">
            <tr>
              <td width="208" height="49" bgcolor="#FFFCE3" rowspan="2" valign="bottom"><p align="center"><b><font face="Monotype Corsiva" size="7">M</font><font face="Verdana" size="5">ed</font><font face="Monotype Corsiva" size="7">S</font><font face="Verdana" size="5">leuth</font></b></td>
              <td width="72" bgcolor="#FFFCE3" height="14"> </td>
              <td width="86" bgcolor="#000000" height="14"> </td>
              <td width="153" height="14" bgcolor="#000000"> </td>
              <td width="221" bgcolor="#000000" height="14"> </td>
              <td width="106" height="49" bgcolor="#000000" rowspan="2"><p align="left"></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
              <td width="158" bgcolor="#69012E" height="40" colspan="2"> </td>
              <td width="153" height="40" bgcolor="#780134"> </td>
              <td width="221" bgcolor="#89013A" height="40"> </td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </center>
      </div>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
          <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="650" bgcolor="#FFFCE3" height="14">
            <tr>
              <td width="321" bgcolor="#FFFCE3"> </td>
              <td width="534" height="14" bgcolor="#000000"> </td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </center>
      </div>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
          <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="650" bgcolor="#267759" height="31">
            <tr>
              <td width="759"><p align="right" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-right:5"><b> <i><font face="Garamond" color="#FFFACC"> Empowerment through Understanding</font></i></b></td>
              <td width="92" height="31" bgcolor="#000000"> </td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </center>
      </div>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
          <table border="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#3F011C" width="650" bgcolor="#FFFACC" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0" height="24">
            <tr>
              <td width="149" style="border-right-style: double; border-right-width: 3; padding-left: 4; padding-right: 4; padding-top: 1; padding-bottom: 1" height="24"><p align="center"><b><font face="Verdana" color="#3F011C" size="2"> <a style="text-decoration: none" href="index.html">Home</a></font></b></td>
              <td width="149" style="border-right-style: double; border-right-width: 3; padding-left: 4; padding-right: 4; padding-top: 1; padding-bottom: 1" height="24"><p align="center"><b><font face="Verdana" color="#3F011C" size="2"> <a href="Mission.htm" style="text-decoration: none">Mission</a></font></b></td>
              <td width="150" style="border-right-style: double; border-right-width: 3; padding-left: 4; padding-right: 4; padding-top: 1; padding-bottom: 1" height="24"><p align="center"><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a style="text-decoration: none" href="services.htm">Services</a></font></b></td>
              <td width="150" style="border-right-style: double; border-right-width: 3; padding-left: 4; padding-right: 4; padding-top: 1; padding-bottom: 1" height="24"><p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="contactus.htm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: 700"> Contact Us</a></font></td>
              <td width="150" style="padding-left: 4; padding-right: 4; padding-top: 1; padding-bottom: 1" height="24"><p align="center"><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="donations.htm" style="text-decoration: none">Donations</a></font></b></td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </center>
      </div>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
          <table border="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#3F011C" width="650" bgcolor="#FFFCE3" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0" height="23">
            <tr>
              <td width="50" style="border-right-width: 3; " height="23"> </td>
              <td width="127" style="border-right-width: 3; " height="23"><p align="center"><span style="font-weight: 700"> <font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a style="text-decoration: none" href="newsletter.htm">Newsletter</a></font></span></td>
              <td width="285" style="border-right-width: 3; " height="23"><p align="center"><b><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="health_news.htm" style="text-decoration: none">Health in the News</a></font></b></td>
              <td width="129" style="border-right-style:none" height="23"><p align="center"> <font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a style="text-decoration: none; font-weight:700" href="readingrecommendations.htm">Books</a></font></td>
              <td width="126" style="border-right-style:none" height="23"><p align="center"><span style="font-weight: 700"> <font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="links.htm" style="text-decoration: none">Links</a></font></span></td>
              <td width="118" style="border-right-style:none" height="23"><p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="sponsors.htm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: 700"> Sponsors</a></font></td>
              <td width="46" style="border-right-style:none" height="23"> </td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </center>
      </div></td>
  </tr>
  <!--msnavigation-->
</table>
<!--msnavigation-->
<table dir="ltr" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <!--msnavigation-->
    <td valign="top"><div align="center">
        <center>
          <p> </p>
        </center>
      </div>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
          <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="801" height="791">
            <tr>
              <td width="630" height="100%" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" align="center"> 

An this in the BEFORE Closing Body Tag box:

 </td>
              <td width="140" height="100%" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFACC"><p align="center" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><u><font size="1" face="Times New Roman"> Advertisement</font></u>
                <p align="center" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> <font face="Times New Roman" size="1">
                  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!-- This is the Right Skyscraper
OAS_AD('Right1');
--> </SCRIPT>
                  </font></td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </center>
      </div>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
          <p> </p>
          <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="800" height="35" bgcolor="#FFFACC">
            <tr>
              <td align="center" height="20" bgcolor="#FFFACC"><p><u><font size="1" face="Times New Roman">Advertisement</font></u></p></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
              <td align="center" height="15" bgcolor="#FFFACC"><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!-- This is the Buttom Banner
OAS_AD('Bottom');  
--> </SCRIPT></td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </center>
      </div>
      <p>  </p>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
          <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="700" bgcolor="#FFFACC">
            <tr>
              <td bordercolor="#FFFACC"><p align="left"><A TARGET="_blank" 
HREF="http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html?HONConduct743613"> <IMG 
SRC="http://www.hon.ch/docs/HONcode/coc_velv_s.gif" ALIGN="LEFT" BORDER="0" 
ALT="We subscribe to the HONcode principles of the HON Foundation. Click to 
verify." width="45" height="50"></A> <b>We subscribe to the HONcode principles of the <a href="http://www.hon.ch/" style="text-decoration: none">Health on the Net Foundation</a>.</b> <B><A 
TARGET="_blank" 
HREF="http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html?HONConduct743613">Verify here</A></B>.</td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </center>
      </div>
      <p align="right"> </p>
      <p align="left">      </p>
      <p align="right"><font size="2">   Page Last Updated: 
        <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%A %B %d, %Y" startspan -->
        Tuesday August 02, 2005
        <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" i-checksum="39939" endspan -->
        </font></p>
      <!--msnavigation--></td>
  </tr>
  <!--msnavigation-->
</table>
<!--msnavigation-->
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td bgcolor="#FFFCE3"><p align="center"> </p>
      <p align="center" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> <font size="2" face="Times New Roman">© MedSleuth  2005  All Rights Reserved.  </font></p>
      <p align="center" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> <font size="2" face="Times New Roman"> Reproduction or Distribution in Whole or in Part Prohibited Without Express Permission.  </font></p>
      <p align="center" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> <font size="2" face="Times New Roman"> <a href="termsnconditions.htm">Terms & Conditions</a><a href="termsnconditions.htm" style="text-decoration: none">   </a> <a href="termsnconditions.htm#Privacy">Privacy Policy</a>   <a href="termsnconditions.htm#copyright">Copyright Policy</a></font></p>
      <p align="center"> </p></td>
  </tr>
  <!--msnavigation-->
</table>

Well, now I can't access my Control Panel to try the last suggestion. I just get a blank yellow screen when I try to go to my control panel. Do I need to submit this for support?

Thanks,
Joanne

Hmmm yeah that's a weird one. A support ticket is probably called for in that situation.

Thanks Rosemary. I submitted a support ticket. I was able to find a work-around for accessing my control panel -- it appears the problem with getting to it is with the login page -- the login page has expanded and has navigation bars at the bottom and at the sides. After hunting around for 15 minutes to find the boxes to enter the e-mail and password, I finally got in.

Anyway, I put in the suggested code above (thank you Jae-P (This is actually one of the configurations I tried yesterday), and I have left it up so you can see how awful it looks. The fonts are all wrong, the ads don't appear, and a whole host of other problems.

The group is at http://medsleuth.groupee.net/groupee and my website is at http://www.medsleuth.com

Thanks again for all of your input.

Joanne

I use Frontpage and have no problems.. Pauline (another member) told me her workaround andit is easy. Set up your page in Frontpage as you like it. Make sure you have a table for the forum. When I set it up I left MESSAGE BOARD written in the table so I knew where I had to copy from. Then I viewed the code and copy and paste everything after the closing head tag to where I wrote MESSAGE BOARD. Next I copy and paste (in the other box BEFORE closing body tag) everything from after where I wrote MESSAGE BOARD to right before the closing body tag.

Hope this makes sense.

If you want to stick with writting the HTML by hand than I would recommend doing some research into CSS:

http://w3schools.com/css

Our application uses css heavily and doesnt really play nicely with standard font or alignement attributes. Just FYI.

PS: Dont feel bad about having trouble, the Groupee Community HTML is pretty intense and probably a tough way to learn. Just keep up the good work and the effort and I am sure you will get there.

Thanks for your responses. I will try all of the suggestions out.

Question: As for the workaround for FrontPage, if you create a table in FrontPage for the forum, I assume you are not copying this code when you put into the Groupee HTML boxes. Correct?

Question: If I choose to write the code by hand, if I use css, will this allow me to have the fonts that I want? Or will I still be limited in that regard. The Monotype Corsiva font in the name of my site does not show up in the forum.

Question: I still cant get vertical alignment working with valign="middle" Any suggestions?

Thanks for eveyone's input.

Joanne

I copy everything, includingthe tables.
I copy everything after (body) until where I have MESSAGE BOARD written into the after opening body section. Then I copy everything after MESSAGE BOARD until the last line before the (/body) and put this in the Before closing body section. If you want for me to send you how I have it set up I can via email since I think it will be too long here.

I posted a pretty thorough example here:

http://community.groupee.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/797...10748763#63310748763

Thanks for the clarification.

J