Posting FAQ for the Bogleheads® forum

The Bogleheads&reg; forum has a comprehensive FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list to assistance members with:
 * Login and Registration Issues
 * User Preferences and settings
 * Posting Issues
 * Formatting and Topic Types
 * User Levels and Groups
 * Private Messaging
 * Friends and Foes (disabled on this forum)
 * Searching the Forums
 * Topic Subscriptions and Bookmarks
 * Attachments (disabled on this forum)
 * phpBB 3 Issues

See: Frequently Asked Questions, which is located at the top of every forum page ("FAQ").

Forum policy
The Bogleheads&reg; forum policy can be found at: Board rules, which is located at the top left of every forum page ("Forum Rules").

Was my private message read?
A Private Message (PM) stays in the "Outbox" folder until it is read by the recipient. From the phpBB 3.2 User Guide: "Sent messages will appear in either the Outbox or the Sent messages folder. As long as the recipient(s) have not yet read the message, it will stay in the Outbox. As soon as someone reads the message it will be archived to the Sent messages folder. If the administrator allows it, you can edit messages after sending them as long as they are in the Outbox and the recipients have not yet read them." For further clarification, see this.

How do I receive email notifications if a topic is updated?
When you are viewing a topic, there’s a checkbox in the menu bar at the bottom of the screen to subscribe or unsubscribe to the topic.

You can set the default to subscribe or not in your profile.


 * Click on: User Control Panel > Board Preferences > Edit posting defaults > Notify me upon replies by default (Yes/No)

You can remove topics from your notification list by going to the User Control Panel > Manage subscriptions menu

You can also click on "view your posts" for a quick look to see if the last poster was someone other than you, and/or whether the date of the last post is since the last time you logged in.

How do I create a table in my forum post?
The forum's built-in editor ignores TAB and extra SPACE characters thereby making the creation of tables difficult. Use a third-party tool to create legible tables from either Microsoft Excel or Google Docs spreadsheets.

How to convert a Microsoft Excel or Google Docs spreadsheet to a legible table
 * 1) Create your table in Microsoft Excel or Google Docs
 * 2) Select and then copy data in Excel.
 * 3) Visit Table Convert Online
 * 4) Click the Import menu.
 * 5) Paste the table.
 * 6) Click Import Data. The bottom of the page will show the text formatted as a table.
 * 7) Select the Text menu and click Copy.
 * 8) Start your post in the Forum. Insert a Code Display tag using the tool bar or by typing [code][/code].
 * 9) Paste the plain-text table between the code display tags.
 * 10) Preview the post to make sure it appears properly.

Other workarounds can be found in this

Add a wiki link to your signature
Members are welcome to add a link to the wiki in their signature. There are four graphics available:


 * {| style="border: 1px solid #00608f"

! Graphic ! Copy/Paste into Your Signature [BogleheadsWiki][/BogleheadsWiki] [LinkToWiki][/LinkToWiki] [WikiWorker][/WikiWorker] [WorkTheWiki][/WorkTheWiki] Be sure that the "Disable BBCode" option under the signature is NOT checked.
 * align="center"|[[File:BogleheadsWiki.png]]
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * align="center"|[[File:LinkToWiki.png]]
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * align="center"|[[File:WikiWorker.png]]
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * align="center"|[[File:Workthewiki2.png]]
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * }

The code will not only show the graphic in your signature block, but will also make the graphic clickable. Anyone clicking on the graphic will go straight to the main page of the wiki.

Google Docs
Google Docs is a freeware web-based office suite offered by Google within its Google Drive service. This article describes how you can use Google Docs to share word-processing documents and spreadsheets with other forum members:


 * 1) Go to http://docs.google.com
 * 2) Create a no-cost Google account if you do not have one.
 * 3) Log in.
 * 4) Next to "Create" you will see a red button with a icon on it that means "upload". Press it.
 * 5) Upload a word processing document or a spreadsheet in many common formats, notably Microsoft Word and Excel.
 * 6) Click on the document. It may show a preview. Examine it to see if the format conversion is acceptable. Perhaps click "open" and view it in the Google Docs word processing or spreadsheet application itself. When you are sure you are ready, click on the Share button.
 * 7) Change "visibility" to "Anyone with the link."
 * 8) Leave "access" at the default, "Anyone (no sign-in required), Can View."
 * 9) Click on "save."
 * 10) Copy the "link to share."
 * 11) Post the link, being aware that once posted publicly in Bogleheads, anyone can find the link in Bogleheads and then can read your document. While the name of the Google Docs account is not obviously embedded in the link, remember that the purpose of Google Docs is to share documents, not to hide them, and you are probably disclosing clues to your personal identity and possibly to the name of your Google Docs account.

Helping new investors
In addition to the wiki link graphics, there is a dedicated link to Asking Portfolio Questions - the forum's standardized portfolio format for helping new investors. This allows members to help new investors by simply saying "See my signature for more information."


 * {| style="border: 1px solid #00608f"

! Link ! Copy/Paste into Your Signature [AskPortQuestions][/AskPortQuestions] Be sure that the "Disable BBCode" option under the signature is NOT checked.
 * align="center"|Asking Portfolio Questions
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * style="border: 1px solid #00608f" align="center" v-align="center"|
 * }