• Author:
  This field is used to identify the author of the message.  You should type your real name here so that readers of your message can identify you.
   
• Respond To Email:
  Optionally enter your email address in this field so that readers will be able to click on your name to send you email regarding your message.  This should be of the form: .
   
• Date Created:
  This field will be filled in automatically with today's date whenever you create a message.  You can change this to a date in the future if you'd like to hide the message until that date.  Enter any date you wish as long as it is in the correct format: "MM-DD-YYYY" or "MM/DD/YYYY."
   
• Date Expires:
  This field specifies the date after which the message will no longer be displayed.  It is important that messages expire after a reasonable amount of time so that the bulletin board or swap shop areas don't become too crowded with obsolete information.  It's also not good to have a listing for an event that's already over or items that were long ago sold.
  
  The default for this field is 15 days from today's date, but you should use a shorter period of time if you can or know when the information will be out of date.  For instance, when announcing an upcoming event you should use its date as the expiration date.  As above, dates should be in the format: "MM-DD-YYYY" or "MM/DD/YYYY."
   
• Title:
  This is the headline for your message.   This should be something "catchy" and to the point.  Overly long titles may not fit in the display window and are often overlooked by readers.  In any case, titles longer that 64 characters will be truncated.
   
• Message Colors:
  Use the Background, Text and Link color fields to specify colors for your message. Use the palette buttons to select colors from a pop up display or type RGB color values directly.
  
  You can also choose to make the message's background transparent by clicking that choice on the pop up display or by simply typing the word "transparent" into the background field. In this case, the page's background will be used. If this is also transparent, your site's gutter color or background image will be used.
  
  Note that if you leave any of these fields blank (the default), your message will inherit its colors from those specified on the Admin/Configure/Appearance/Home Page form. If you make it a practice of not entering colors for individual messages, you can use the Appearance page settings to globally change all your messages.
   
• Message - This is where you type the body of the message you want displayed to readers.  It can be any type of free-form text you wish.
   
• Picture File:
  You can specify a picture file (.gif or .jpg) on your computer to upload and display with your message.  Press the "Browse" button to find the file on your computer or type its full path and name.  If a file has already been uploaded for this message, the check box can be used to turn the picture's display either on (checked) or off.  Note that images wider than 310 pixels will be truncated to that width.  Pictures taller than 400 pixels will be reduced to that height.
   
• Caption:
  Enter a caption for the photo you uploaded above.  This can be any text you like up to 255 characters in length.