This list of frequently asked questions should answer any questions you have about NAMFox. If you have another, feel free to post in this thread. You can return to this FAQ at any time by clicking on the NAMFox button in the toolbar and clicking on the "NAMFox FAQ" menu option.
Questions in red in the table of contents indicate new features. Check them out!
NAMFox is an add-on for Firefox, which is a web browser like Internet Explorer. NAMFox enhances your Neoseeker experience by providing enhanced quick reply, quick edit, and quick quote options, as well as ways to keep track of the various markup tags you use for a custom posting style. NAMFox also makes using the 50+ markup tags on Neoseeker easier than ever before.
Q: I've heard of NAM. What is the difference between NAM and NAMFox?
Here is a summary for each of them: NAM (pictured right)
Works only on Windows.
Is not integrated with a browser, like Internet Explorer or Firefox.
Can store custom messages, but you must copy and paste them manually to Neoseeker.
Is no longer being updated.
NAMFox
Works on all operating systems tested to date.
Is integrated with the Firefox browser.
Provides custom message management in addition to many other features, listed in other FAQ sections.
Is continuously being updated. Keep your suggestions coming!
Q: What do I need to run NAMFox?
All you need to run NAMFox is Firefox 3.0 or higher.
Q: How do I install NAMFox? My computer says it doesn't recognize the file type.
Instead of double clicking on the file, simply drag and drop it into the Firefox window. You can also choose to open the file directly from Firefox by choosing "Open File" on the "File" menu.
Q: What version of NAMFox do I have installed?
Go to the "Tools" menu and click on "Add-Ons." Then scroll down to the entry where it says "NAMFox," and you should see the version number to the right of the word "NAMFox." In the case below, I have version 1.0a, or 1.0 alpha, installed.
Q: How do I update NAMFox?
NAMFox is compatible with Firefox's automatic updates feature for add-ons. Usually, Firefox will automatically alert you when a new version of NAMFox is available. However, if you want to force updates, go to the "Tools" menu and click on "Add-Ons." Then click on the "Find Updates" button in the bottom left of the window.
Q: How do I edit my NAMFox preferences?
There are three ways to do this:
The first way is to go to the "Tools" menu and click on "NAMFox Preferences":
The second way is to click the NAMFox button on the toolbar and click on "NAMFox Preferences":
The third way is to go to the "Tools" menu and click on "Add-Ons." Then scroll down to the entry where it says "NAMFox" and click on the button which says "Options":
Features
The Toolbar
Q: What does the toolbar do?
The NAMFox toolbar appears near the top of the window, near your bookmark toolbar and navigation toolbar. The following images show what it looks like:
The toolbar is split into five different sections. The following descriptions break down each section and what you can do with them:
NAMFox Menu (pictured right)
my.neoforum – Takes you to your my.neoforum page.
my.blog – Takes you to your Neoseeker blog (if you are logged in).
my.gallery – Takes you to your Neoseeker gallery (if you are logged in).
my.post history – Takes you to your Neoseeker post history (if you are logged in).
Neoseeker – Provides links to the major parts of Neoseeker e.g. cheats, wikis, videos.
Your Settings – Provides links to manage your information, like your bio, avatar, and NeoHome.
Site Forums – Provides links to major Neoseeker forums.
Save Messages – Allows you to save over custom messages. See the Custom Messages section for more information.
Useful Info – Provides links to helpful threads, such as the Neoseeker Markup Guide.
Affiliates – Provides links to Neoseeker's affiliates, including GameGrep and Overclockers Club.
Save Messages – Provides links to save custom messages. More detail here.
NAMFox FAQ – Links to this FAQ.
NAMFox Help – Links to this forum.
NAMFox Preferences – Launches the NAMFox preferences.
About NAMFox – Shows who has contributed to NAMFox's development as well as the NAMFox version number.
Smileys Menu (pictured below)
Displays all of the smilies that you can use on any Neoseeker page, including your custom smiley. Clicking on one of the items will put the smiley into the text area in which you're typing.
Messages Menu (pictured below)
Allows you to recall your custom messages to use in a specific place. For example, just like with smileys, you can click on a message to have it put into the text area in which you're typing.
This menu also allows you to backup or restore custom messages. When you click on either menu item, you will be prompted for either a save location (in the case of backup) or a file to open (in the case of restore). Use this when you're changing computers and want to keep your custom messages.
Search Menus (pictured right)
Take advantage of Neoseeker's built-in searches for various things like hardware, games, movies, and members. You can also search Neoseeker files for patches, demos, movies, mods, maps, drivers, BIOS, benchmark utilities, performance utilities, editors, among other things.
To actually search, type your search text in the text box and press the enter key.
Support Neoseeker (pictured right)
Click here to find out how to support Neoseeker.
Q: How do I show or hide the toolbar?
You can show and hide the NAMFox toolbar just like any other Firefox toolbar. To do so, right click on the menu bar (the bar at the very top which contains menus like "File," "Edit," and so on), and then select the NAMFox Toolbar from the drop-down menu. If the box is not checked (see picture below), then clicking it will show the toolbar. If it is checked, then clicking it will hide the toolbar.
Q: How do I customize the toolbar?
In NAMFox 1.5, you can now choose to show as much or as little of the toolbar as you like. Right click on the menu bar (the bar at the very top which contains menus like "File," "Edit," and so on) and click "Customize...". A dialog box will appear, asking you which buttons you want to drag onto the toolbar. All the NAMFox buttons can be dragged into the box, or you can drag NAMFox buttons onto the toolbar. This is a great article on how to customize your toolbar. The dialog box is shown below.
Q: How do I change which smileys appear in the smileys menu?
Neoseeker has over fifty smileys for you to choose from, and because of this it can be painstaking to scroll through all of them to find the one you want. In NAMFox 1.5, I've introduced a way for you to choose which smileys appear in the smileys menu on the toolbar.
Click on the fourth tab, called "Markup and Smileys."
On the right side of the window you'll see a list of all the smileys on Neoseeker, including your custom smiley if you have one. Here you can check and uncheck smileys—smileys that are checked will appear in the toolbar. Smileys that are unchecked will not.
Custom Messages
Q: What are custom messages?
Custom messages are snippets of text (which can include markup tags) that you use in your posts from time to time. For example, if you have a posting style (e.g. [color=blue][/color]), then that can be saved as a custom message. Some moderators also have a custom message for closing threads as well.
You can create custom messages so that you can put them in your posts (or guestbook entries, PMs, and so on) at any time. See how to do that here.
Q: How do I make a custom message?
There are two ways to create custom messages. The first way is easier than the second, but the second may be faster for more advanced users.
As you can see below, the custom message named "NAMFox FAQ" is selected in the drop down. At this point I can change the title of this message or the message itself. It will be saved only if you click "OK" at the bottom of the form. If you click "Cancel," the changes will not be made. At any time you can change the message you're editing by using the drop-down list.
(If you're interested in what the "#selected#" text is for, check this out.
Method 2: Using the Normal Reply Screen
First, navigate to a page where you are replying to a thread. (Not through quick reply.)
You'll next need to specify the title of the custom message and the message itself. Click in the "Subject" text box (see #1 below) and type the title of your message. Next click in the "Message" text area (see #2 below) and type the message you want to save.
Finally, click on the NAMFox Menu in the toolbar, move your mouse down to "Save Messages, and finally click on the custom message entry you would like to overwrite (see #3 below).
As you can see below, the custom message named "NAMFox FAQ" is selected in the drop down. At this point I can change the title of this message or the message itself. It will be saved only if you click "OK" at the bottom of the form. If you click "Cancel," the changes will not be made. At any time you can change the message you're editing by using the drop-down list.
Q: How do I use a custom posting style?
If you want a default posting style, first open the preferences window. Then, click on the third tab, called "Messages." Select "Default Message" from the drop down list. (It will be at the bottom.) Then type your custom markup inside the text box and click OK.
Q: How do I use a custom message?
Now that you know how to create custom messages, it's important to know how to use them! Any message, except the default message, must be chosen from a drop-down list that exists in one of two places. The first drop-down list exists on the toolbar. Simply choosing one of the options in that list will put that message into the text area on the page.
The second drop-down list appears in most reply screens and looks like this:
It has the same behavior as the other drop-down list; simply choosing a message from the list will put that message into the text area you want.
Getting default messages to appear is covered here.
Q: How do I surround text with a custom message?
Most people know that you can surround text with markup by selecting the text you want to surround and then clicking the appropriate markup button. As of NAMFox 1.0, you can also do that with custom messages.
When you make your custom message, simply put the text "#selected#" somewhere inside the message. For example, if I had a custom message whose contents were "[color=#000066]#selected#[/color]," then if I selected text and then used this custom message, the text would be surrounded with the color tags.
This will not work on the default custom message, because there is no text to surround.
Q: How do I backup my custom messages?
If you're moving to a new computer, it may be helpful to back up your custom messages so you can use them on your other computer. Just like saving custom messages, there are two ways to do this.
Click on the second tab, called "Custom Messages."
As you can see below, use the "Backup..." button to save your messages to a location of your choice.
Method 2: Using the Toolbar
Go to the familiar Messages menu on the toolbar and select "Backup Messages...," the second-from-the-last option. Then choose a location to which to save your messages. That's it!
Q: How do I restore my custom messages from a backup?
Restoring your custom messages from a backup is as easy as backing your messages up. Again, there are two ways to do it.
Click on the second tab, called "Custom Messages."
Click the "Restore..." button to import messages from a backup.
Method 2: Using the Toolbar
Simply choose "Restore Messages..." from the Messages menu on the toolbar and find the file you backed up. NAMFox will then read the file and import your custom messages.
Warning: This will overwrite your custom messages, so be careful with this option!
Quick Reply
Q: What is Quick Reply?
Think of NAMFox's Quick Reply as an enhanced version of Neoseeker's Quick Reply. It appears at the bottom of every page in a thread and allows you to make replies straight from the thread page. At the end of each page in a thread, you'll see this:
It's a scaled back, but quick, way to reply to a thread. As you can see, it has a few markup buttons similar to the normal reply screen, a custom message drop down list, AutoComplete, and some other options common to the reply screen—the only difference is it's right in the thread.
Click the quick reply button to add your post to a thread faster than ever before; click the preview button to receive a live preview right where you are:
And if you ever find you want to go back to Neoseeker's full reply, then you have the option to do so with the "Go To Full Reply" button.
Q: How do I enable or disable Quick Reply?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Enable Quick Reply" (pictured right). Checking that option will show NAMFox's Quick Reply; unchecking it will hide it.
Q: How do I check or uncheck the "Append signature to this post" checkbox by default?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Append my signature to Quick Replies by default" (pictured right). Checking that option will check the signature checkbox every time you go to a page with a quick reply screen; unchecking it will keep it unchecked.
Q: How do I change the size of the Quick Reply textbox?
Open the preferences window and look for the text boxes which are annotated with "Text Box Rows" and "Text Box Width" (pictured right). The number of rows should be a positive integer (e.g. 10, 25), and the width should be a percentage of the size of the browser window.
Q: Sometimes I accidentally hit the back button and lose the text I type in Quick Reply. How can I save this text when I go back to the thread?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Restore my post in Quick Reply if I accidentally leave the thread I'm posting in" (pictured right). Checking that option will make NAMFox remember anything you type in Quick Reply—in the case you accidentally navigate away from the page before replying, NAMFox will restore the text for you in the Quick Reply text area.
Q: How do I confirm bugs in bug forums with Quick Reply?
As of NAMFox 1.6, bug forums like Forum Bug Reports will allow you to confirm that a bug exists. You can confirm any bug that is currently "Unconfirmed" by checking the check box which says "Can you confirm this bug?", pictured below.
Quick Edit
Q: What is Quick Edit?
Quick Edit is NAMFox's enhancement to the regular edit screen, and it actually lets you edit your posts while viewing a thread! Quick Edit is also useful when you want to copy markup from someone else's post but don't want the hassle of quoting the post and then copying the markup from there. Here's an example of what Quick Edit looks like when editing your own post:
You'll notice most of the features here mimic those of Quick Reply, so look there for specifics on each of the buttons.
Q: How do I activate Quick Edit?
By default there are two ways to activate Quick Edit. The first is to double click anywhere in the post area, and the second is to click on the quick edit link in the bottom right hand corner of a post. In the following image, the larger red rectangle outlines the area you must double click to quick edit, and the smaller red rectangle is the link you may click to access the same features.
Q: I often double click on words in posts to copy them. Can I disable the double click from activating Quick Edit?
Absolutely! Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Activate Quick Edit when I double click on a post" (pictured right). Unchecking that option will prevent the double click from editing posts.
Q: How do I check or uncheck the "Append signature to this post" checkbox by default?
You may be expecting a preference option here, but what NAMFox does makes more sense. If the post you edit has a signature, then the "Append signature to this post" checkbox will be checked. If the post you edit does not have a visible signature, then the "Append signature to this post" checkbox will be unchecked.
Q: How do I check or uncheck the "Hide edit tags" checkbox by default?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Hide my edit tags when I edit my posts" (pictured right). Checking or unchecking that option will check or uncheck the checkbox, respectively.
Quick Quote
Q: What is Quick Quote?
Quick Quote complements the Quick Reply by allowing you to quote others straight from the thread screen. A significant advantage of using this over regular quote is that you can now quote as many people as you want without leaving the page.
Q: How do I use Quick Quote?
The link for Quick Quote appears in the same location as Quick Edit, Quote, Edit, Delete, and Report:
Simply click the link and the quoted post will appear in the Quick Reply text area at the end of the page.
Q: How do I control where the quoted text appears?
When you click the Quick Quote link, the text will appear at the cursor position in the Quick Reply text area. If you haven't changed the cursor position, then it will appear at the beginning of the text area.
AutoComplete
Q: What is AutoComplete?
Neoseeker has over fifty markup tags, which allow users to do a wide range of things with their posts, from bolding and underlining text to embedding videos from Neoseeker and Youtube. Who can remember all of them at a moment's notice? Very few.
NAMFox has augmented the normal reply and PM screens with extra markup buttons, but it's not helpful to put 50 markup buttons on a single page. So, how do we make remembering markup tags easy for you? Simple. The new AutoComplete feature of NAMFox.
AutoComplete is designed to help type markup tags more quickly than ever before. Now, instead of typing a button you can control everything with the keyboard. And best of all, it's in almost every text area on Neoseeker. Have a look at AutoComplete on the normal reply page:
The focus of the picture above is obviously the scroll box with all of Neoseeker's markup tags inside of it. Forgotten what a tag does? No problem, just select it and you'll see a description of the tag along with an example usage. If you're interested in how to use it, look here.
Another great feature of AutoComplete is that it can surround text with any markup tag that exists:
Q: How do I use AutoComplete?
AutoComplete is something that takes a bit of getting used to, but you'll be able to write your markup faster than ever before. To get help from AutoComplete you must always be typing in a text area (multiline), not a text box (single line).
Here's a list of keys you can type to work with AutoComplete:
When AutoComplete Is Hidden:
Control and Space – Pressing these together will pop up AutoComplete at any time. If you select some text, and then press Control and Space together, you'll see the "Surround With:" box pop up too.
Any Character That Starts a Markup Tag – These are characters like "[". If you enable this option, then any time you start to type a markup tag, the AutoComplete will pop up.
When AutoComplete Is Shown:
Escape – Hides the AutoComplete window.
Tab – Takes the current AutoComplete suggestion or selection and adds it to your post.
Enter – Takes the current AutoComplete selection, if any, and adds it to your post. If there is no selection, then it hides the AutoComplete.
Space – Hides the AutoComplete window.
Arrow Up and Arrow Down – Move up and down the AutoComplete list of tags, respectively.
Page Up and Page Down – Move up and down the AutoComplete list of tags, respectively. Scrolls more quickly than arrow up and arrow down.
Any Other Character – Tries to find the best match for what tag you want to type in the AutoComplete.
That can be a little difficult to understand just from reading that, so let's look at a couple of examples:
Example 1
Step 1: I typed "Maybe this link will help:", pressed enter twice, and then press Control and Space together. (You can skip this step by enabling this option:
Step 2: I typed "[":
Step 3: I typed "l":
Step 4: I typed "in":
Step 5: I pressed the enter key. Notice that the cursor is in a location where I can type the name of the link immediately:
Example 2
Let's pick up from Step 5 in Example 1. Let's say instead of pressing the enter key, I typed "q":
There's no markup tag that starts with "[linq", so there's no selection, but AutoComplete does suggest that you meant "[link...". Here, if you press tab instead of enter, you'll end up with the same result as in Example 1. If you press enter, you'll end up with this:
Example 3
This last example demonstrates the "Surround With" feature of AutoComplete. The first step is to type some text ("This is bold.") and then select part of the text. I've selected the word "bold" in this example.
The next thing I do is type "[b". Notice how the text does not appear in the text area, but instead in the "Surround With" window:
When I press enter (or tab), I end up with this:
You can get used to these keys pretty quickly, and it will significantly improve the speed at which you can type markup. If you still need some more help, check out this video by yours truly:
Q: How do I enable or disable AutoComplete?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Enable AutoComplete" (pictured right). Unchecking that option will prevent AutoComplete from popping up.
Q: How do I make AutoComplete pop-up when I start typing a markup tag?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Only show AutoComplete when I press Control and Space together" (pictured right), which is checked by default. If you uncheck it, then AutoComplete will assist you whenever you start typing a markup tag. Alternatively, if you do not want AutoComplete to appear when you begin typing a markup tag, check this box.
Q: How do I hide AutoComplete at any time?
Press the Escape key or the Control key. Alternatively, you can click anywhere outside of the AutoComplete window but inside the page.
Q: How do I use custom messages from AutoComplete?
NAMFox allows you to use custom messages from AutoComplete. They appear at the bottom of the list and appear in the format "[c:Message Name]." This means that, following the rules above, you can always type "[c:" followed by the name of your desired custom message, and then press enter to have that custom message appear in the text area.
Custom messages also support the surround with feature of AutoComplete. If you use the special word "#selected#" in your custom message, then AutoComplete will replace that word with the currently selected text when you use the surround with feature.
Other Features
Q: How do I save private messages in my sent box by default?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Save sent PMs by default" (pictured below). Checking that option will check the checkbox on the PM screen which says "Keep message in your sent folder."
Q: How do I get PM read receipts by default?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Get read receipts for PMs by default" (pictured below). Checking that option will check the checkbox on the PM screen which says "Get a receipt when recipient reads message."
Q: How do I delete original PMs by default?
Open the preferences window and look for the checkbox which says "Delete PMs when I reply to them by default" (pictured below). Checking that option will check the checkbox on the PM screen which says "Delete Original PM after reply."
Q: How can I configure what markup buttons appear on the reply and PM screens?
Open the preferences window and look for all the checkboxes under the "Available Markup Buttons" header (pictured right). All of the markup buttons that are checked will appear in addition to the default Neoseeker ones in the PM, reply-to-thread, and edit-message screens.
Q: How does NAMFox make posting videos easier?
When you embed videos in posts from Gamespot, Gametrailers (Regular or User videos), Gamespot, or Youtube, NAMFox can automatically strip the unneeded parts of the URL from the respective site to help you use the tags. How does it do this? There are three ways:
Method 1: The Videos Drop Down
On the reply and PM screens, there is a videos drop down list (if configured in your preferences). If, for example, you select a Youtube URL (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE) in the post area and then select the Youtube option from the Videos drop down, you'll be left with [youtube]f99PcP0aFNE[/youtube].
Method 2: AutoComplete Surround With
On any almost text area that accepts markup, you can select a URL and then choose to surround it with a tag using AutoComplete's "Surround With" feature. The result should be that the only part of the URL that's left is the part that makes the tag work.
Method 3: On Paste
You can paste a URL between the right tags (e.g. right between [youtube] and [/youtube]), and NAMFox will paste only the portion of the URL that makes the tag work.
Q: I sometimes accidentally click buttons on the toolbar, and they overwrite the current page I'm visiting. How do I automatically open toolbar links in a new tab?
Open the preferences window and look for the radio button in the Toolbar group of options (shown below) which says "Always open the link in a new tab." Check the button to automatically open all toolbar links in a new tab. If you check the other option instead, links will only open in a new tab if you middle click on them.
Q: What keyboard shortcuts does NAMFox offer?
In any text area, you can use keyboard shortcuts to format your text. Here is the complete list of what you can do:
Ctrl+B: Bold
Ctrl+U: Underline
Ctrl+I: Italics
Ctrl+=: Subscript ([sub])
Ctrl+Shift+=: Superscript ([sup])
Q: How do I strip annoying colors and sizes from forum posts, blog posts, and blog comments?
Let's face it. Sometimes people just use extremely bright colors that are hard, if not impossible, to read. Others use extremely small sizes that are also difficult to read With NAMFox you can now choose to remove those colors and small sizes completely from forum posts, blog posts, and blog comments.* This means you can change them all to black and normal size!
To do this, open the preferences window and navigate to the Neoseeker tab. The first check box on the page asks if you want to strip color from forum posts, blog posts, and blog comments. (See below.) If you check it, you then get a second option to determine which colors you want to strip. Because the level of annoyance of a color seems to be directly correlated with its lightness, you can choose which colors you want to strip based on their lightness. If you want to strip everything, choose 0%, and if you want to strip nothing, choose 100%. Otherwise, try something in between! The colors in the boxes will show major colors at the lightness that you choose in order to show the kind of colors that would be stripped.
You can also choose to change all size 1 text, sub text, and sup text to normal size by checking the appropriate check box below.
Contributing
Q: How do I make a suggestion?
Feel free to post suggestions as a new thread in the NAMFox Forum. The template for creating suggestions is located here.
Please read through this article to see if it helps.
Q: I read the answer to the question above, and I still can't install NAMFox. Help!
Please PM me with as much information as you can about the problems you're having, and I will do my best to help you. Screenshots of error messages will also help.
[size=1][color=#666666]This message was edited by Artificer on Dec 01 2009.
I'll keep this thread open in case members have other questions that are not answered in the FAQ. Posts may be deleted as their Q&As are subsumed by the main FAQ.
------------------- 100% of innovation—from business to politics—is inspired not by "market analysis" but by people who are supremely pissed off by the way things are.
It would only work on blog comments, blog posts, and forum posts. Haven't had requests for fanart and gallery comments though that is a good idea.
------------------- 100% of innovation—from business to politics—is inspired not by "market analysis" but by people who are supremely pissed off by the way things are.
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Topic: NAMFox FAQ v. 1.6
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May 26, 08 at 5:52pm
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