The "save board" button

Underneath the board diagram is the button. When you have finished creating your board and adding match information, click once on this button. If you want a plain text rendering of your board, skip this section and go to save the board as plain text.

The page will be redrawn with an extension that looks like this:

Using the links

There are three different links shown. These links can be copied and pasted into forums or bulletin boards. Which link to use will depend on the requirements of the forum or bulletin board. The first link can be used in the Australian Backgammon Forum or other forums that use the BB Code standards. The next link can be used if BB Code is not supported — it provides the link in regular html format. The final link on the page is one you can actually click on and a new window will open with your board. You should save this link if you want to get back to your board later.

The links all contain the same data, which is the address of the file on the GABBI server that contains your saved board image.

Saving a copy to your hard drive

If you click on the final link to open a new window with your board, you can then right click on the board image to bring up a menu that allows you to save the image to your local hard drive. You have the option of renaming the image if you wish. The exact dialogue will depend on your browser and operating system.

Saving as plain text

Plain text boards are useful for posting where images are not allowed, or where they are too cumbersome. If you check the "Save board as text" box next to the "save board" button and then click on "save board", the page will be redrawn with an extension that looks like this:

To copy the text board into an email or newsgroup message, click somewhere in the text area, then press <ctrl>a to select all the text, then <ctrl>c to copy it to the system clipboard. Start a new mail message, click on the body of the mail and then press <ctrl>v to paste the saved text into your message. You may also be able to simply drag and drop the text — it depends on your mail client.

Notes:

• You cannot directly edit the text that is displayed in the GABBI window. However, once you've copied it to somewhere else (eg a mail message or Notepad), it can be edited.
• The text output produced by GABBI has been designed to be "thin". It is less than 50 characters wide and will therefore not wrap when posted to newsgroups, even after quoting has indented the board.
• In order for the board to display properly, you must use a fixed-width font such as Courier when you post your board. If you don't the board may appear garbled!

Accessing your board at a later date

Regardless of whether you choose to copy your board images to your local hard drive, they are saved on the GABBI server. You will need to keep a record of the links (or urls) to your images if you want to come back to them later. You could do this by bookmarking them, or emailing the link to yourself.

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© Simon Woodhead 2008-2010. All rights reserved.