Knowledge Forum FAQ’s

This page contains answers to the most common questions about how to do stuff in Knowledge Forum (KF).

• How to Log into Knowledge Forum using a Web Browser (like IE6)
• How do I create a new note?
• Delete any note (you have authored)
• Insert a Picture (Image) into your Note
• How to see if anyone has read your note (Note History)
• How do I annotate a note?
• Include Links to Web-pages in Notes
• How to Reference content from another Note
• How to see References Linked on a View Window
• To Create a Rise Above
• To Remove a Note from a Rise Above
• How to use My Reader
• How to create a new view
• To insert a heading or image into the view background
• How do I Move (or Copy) a note between one view and another?
• How do I use the Display Tool to move between views?
• How do I mark the key words in my note (for Search)?
• How can I search for something in the KF database?

How to Log into Knowledge Forum using a Web Browser (like IE6)

Use the URL: http://148.197.40.2:27320

Useful if you are working on a computer that doesn’t have the KF client software loaded.

How do I create a new Note?

• Click on the New Note button on the top menu of the KF view window.
• A new note automatically appears.
• Select your scaffold – drag over the support you need for your comment – and then in between the two yellow tags, type your entry.
• Select the ‘i’ button at the bottom of the note and enter a title.
• Close – and Contribute.
• Your new note will appear on the view.

How do I create a build-on?

Use 'build-on' notes to develop the ideas found in another note.

To create a 'build-on note':

• Open the note of interest,
• Click on the 'build-on' tab located at the bottom of the note,
• Enter your contribution in the new note window and contribute as normal.

Notice a 'build-on' note has a slightly different icon and is linked to the source note with a black line. If you don’t see your build-on link line then look at the very bottom of the view window, half-hidden, next to the ‘i’ button, you will see a drop-down menu with ‘Notes and Views’ displayed. Click on the drop-down box arrow and check “Build-on Links”

To delete a note (of any kind) which you have authored:

• Select Edit from the view's menu bar
• Select 'Clear note' which removes it from the current view but leaves it on any other views on which it may appear OR
• Select 'Cut note' which removes it from the database.

• Check the size of your image file and remember that many students are working on 56k modems.
• Open your picture, select and Copy it from the source document (ie to the Clipboard)
• Open your note and click 'Edit', 'Insert Picture' from the note's menu bar. A picture frame appears.
• Resize the picture frame in your note if necessary. If the frame is too small, you will loose any part of the picture which is not shown in the frame.
• Click in the picture frame and select 'Edit' then 'paste'. Sometimes the 'Edit' tab takes a while before it's ready to paste.

If you need to start again, select the picture frame, select 'Edit' then 'Clear Selection'. When you have been successful, you will be able to select and drag the image into position by using the markers on the picture frame.

To see if anyone has read your note:

• Open a note
• Click on the 'connections' button below
• Click on the arrow next to the word 'References'
• Select 'Note History'.

It can sometimes feel a little less lonely if you know that your contribution has been read!

To annotate a note (like attaching a yellow sticky)

• Open an existing note
• Click on 'Objects' from the note's menu
• Select annotate and a new window appears
• Type in your comments, click 'save', close the note and click 'contribute'

The annotation appears in the note. (Double click on the yellow tab ‘sticky’ in a note to read an annotation). You cannot move annotations. Only remove and re-annotate. Open the note, select the sticky, click Edit|Cut from the note's menu bar.

To Include a URL:

Just key in a web page address (URL) in full e.g. http://www.port.ac.uk

To Open a URL:

Hold down CTRL key when you click on the URL

To quote from or reference a note

• Open the note you wish to quote from (it has to be written by some-one else)
• Open a new note (or create a 'build-on' note)
• Select the text you wish to quote and click 'Edit' then 'copy' from the source note's menu.
• Click in your note, where you want the reference to appear and click 'Edit', then 'paste' from your note's menu. This is how the quoted text appears"This is a sample note".
• Close and contribute as normal

• Look at the very bottom of the view window, half-hidden, next to the ‘i’ button, you will see a drop-down menu with ‘Notes and Views’ displayed.
• Click on the drop-down box arrow and check “Reference Links”

When both ‘Build-on links’ and ‘Reference Links’ are ticked, you will see all the possible linking between notes in the view window.

A 'Rise Above' note is used to collect the ideas from several notes and move forward. It might contain a summary of the ideas and describe a new understanding based on those ideas.

• Select the notes which you wish to include in the Rise Above. To select multiple notes, hold down the shift key and continue to do so whilst you click on each note
• Click on the 'Connections' tab and selct 'Rise Above', a new note opens.
• Clicking on the 'Rise Above' icon contained in the note, will open a window which shows the details of the subsumed notes.
• Enter your contribution and close and contribute the new note. Notice that all notes included in the 'Rise Above' have been removed from the view.

A 'Rise Above' note has been created to collect the ideas from several notes and move forward. It might contain a summary of the ideas and describe a new understanding based on those ideas. This method will allow you to remove an individual note that has been incorporated into a rise-above so that it will appear again in the View Window.

• Open the Rise Above and double click on the icon
• Drag the note which you wish to remove and drop it into the view
• Click on the 'Save Changes' tab and close the window by clicking on the x in the top right hand corner

'My Reader' is a useful way of scanning several notes at once and is less wasteful of paper if printing!

• Click on the 'My Reader' tab, the My Reader window opens.
• Select:'Note' (to show the content of the note), 'Title', 'Authors' and any of the other tabs that you find helpful.
• Drag and drop a note into the My Reader window
• To remove one note from the reader, click on the note and click the 'Clear' tab.
• To remove all notes in the reader, click on the 'Clear All' tab

To create a new view for your group: 4 stages (each one is explained lower down):

1. Create the (second level) view
2. Create navigation back to your main group view (ie cut and paste an icon in the view window!)
3. Create navigation to your new view from the main group window.
4. Insert a heading or image into the background (if wanted).

• Open your group view
• File | New View (a text box opens)
• Enter the title of your new view
• Select working view
• Click on arrow next to 'level 1' and select 'level 2'
• Click OK - you will now be in your new view
• Open Display Tool

• Click on first arrow and select 'View'
• Click on second arrow and select 'All views'
• Highlight the icon next to your Group Number
• Drag and drop the icon onto the new view window.

• Click on the icon and return to your main group view
• Drag and drop your new view's icon onto your main group view.

• Check the size of the image file and remember that most people are working on 56k modems
• Open your new view and click on the arrow next to 'Notes and Views' at the bottom and in the middle of the view window.
• Click on the drop-down box arrow and select ‘Picture’. Blue grid lines then appear in the KF window.
• Click on Media > 'Insert Picture' from the view’s menu bar. A picture frame appears.
• Resize your picture frame if necessary
• Click in the picture frame and a drawing toolbar appears - if you want it.
• Open your image which must be in an image format e.g. gif, jpeg, select and copy it from the source document.
• Resize the picture frame in your note if necessary. If the frame is too small, you will loose any part of the picture which is not shown in the frame.
• Click in the picture frame and select 'Edit' then 'paste'. Sometimes the 'Edit' tab takes a long time before it's ready to paste
• If you need to start again, select the picture frame, select 'Edit' then 'Clear Selection'.
• You can drag the image to the position your require (and resize it) by selecting the image and dragging the whole image or the border.
• When you have finished, select ‘Notes and Views’ again at the bottom of the view window.

• Check the size of the image file and remember that most people are working on 56k modems
• Open your new view and first look at the very bottom of the new view window, half-hidden, next to the ‘i’ button, you will see a drop-down menu with ‘Notes and Views’ displayed. Click on the drop-down box arrow and select ‘Picture’. Blue grid lines then appear in the KF window.
• Click on Media > 'Insert Picture' from the view menu bar. A picture frame appears.
• Resize your picture frame if necessary
• Click in the picture frame and a drawing toolbar appears - if you want it.
• Open your image in the relevant application, select and copy it from the source document.
• Resize the picture frame in your note if necessary. If the frame is too small, you will loose any part of the picture which is not shown in the frame.
• Click in the picture frame and select 'Edit' then 'paste'. Sometimes the 'Edit' tab takes a long time before it's ready to paste
• If you need to start again, select the picture frame, select 'Edit' then 'Clear Selection'.
• You can drag the image to the position your require (and resize it) by selecting the image and dragging the whole image or the border.
• When you have finished, select ‘Notes and Views’ again at the bottom of the view window.

• Select the note.
• Edit > Then use Cut Note | Paste Note (in new view)
• OR Copy Note | Past Note (in new view)
  … exactly as these functions are normally used.

Note: Clear Note – will clear the note from the current view, but will not remove copies from other views if there are any. Delete Note will remove all instances of the note from the entire database… across all views. Use Delete with care.

Click on the Display Tool button at the top of the view window.

It is usually set to display all views. If you see all views in the bottom window then you can move to a view by clicking on the name in the Display Tool.

By selecting the drop down menu by Display – the Display tool will display other information. Like all the key words in use.

It is useful to mark the key words in any entry you make in a note. This is particulary useful when you have a large database of notes and want to use the Search facility to go through one or many views finding notes on a certain key topic.

Marking key words (or expressions)

• After completing the text entry in your note.
• Decide the key words you wish to mark.
• Click on the little ‘key sign’ button at the bottom of the note – the cursor changes to a small black rectangle.
• Using the new cursor – highlight the word or expression that you want to register as key. Your key words will immediately appear in the text box beside the ‘key sign’.
• Mark all the key words you need.
• Re-click on the little ‘key sign’ button at the bottom of the note, the words themselves will now be green in the note.
• When you close the note these key words will start to appear in the Display Tool list and can be searched on.

Removing key words (or expressions)

If you make a mistake and want to remove key words before closing the note.

Select and highlight any inaccurate key words in the small text box and ‘delete’.

These will be removed and the text will revert to black from green.

• In the top menu of a view, select the Search button.
• This enables you to specify the search you want to make to find a note on a certain subject.
• You can search on one or more parameters by combining the drop-down-list of search options with ‘More Choices’ (or ‘Fewer Choices’).
• All the notes that meet your criteria will be displayed in the Search Reader.
• The Search Reader itself has settings to specify the note display.

(Try a few searches with various options just to experiment and see how it works).

Terry King

January 2004