how do I...

[blazinchuck]

learn all that the tinyportal can do? I'm new to this, just installed it yesterday.

the TP=TinyPortal v1.0 beta 3 Ã,© Bloc
the SMF=Powered by SMF 1.1.8
the wdesite=http://gdimofo.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php
the theme=blackrain/crip(has been modified some...just some icons)

I have seen a few TP's that look really cool. Im not having any luck with making the blocks or panels show up. I would also like the fornpage to be seperate from the forum... so if your on the front page, you would click a menu link from the left side and it would take you to the forum in full width.Does that make sence? Also do I need any other mods so I can place ads in the blocks? I hope i have proved some of what yall need from me and i hope i placed this in the right section for some help. Usually if i get stuck on soemthing...I can click on the help icons...but there arent a lot of those in this mod. Thanks again,Chuck

[blazinchuck]

also...I cannot get the shout box to work...in the frontpage, I have to select the "tp module" and check the tpshout...for it to even show up in the top bloack on the site, but its not active...wont do anything(just says"shout box"

[JPDeni]

Docs -- http://docs.tinyportal.co.uk/index.php?action=forum
FAQ -- http://www.tinyportal.net/index.php/topic,21346.0.html

The thing really to do, though, is to poke around. Click buttons and links and see what they do. You can't break it.

[blazinchuck]

well, I have looked through the FAQ and didnt really find anything on the shoutbox...and making the boxes or panels work. Im not even sure Im calling things what I think they are. ex....are the boxes(just that) they are the boxes top/bottom/right/left? if so...what are panels??? I havent clicked the 1st link you offered, I will check that out now.Thanks,Chuck

[blazinchuck]

ok...i was able to get the shout box to work...with some help from the 1st link. i will check it out some more later for more help...thank you,Chuck

[IchBin]

Think of the terms literally. What is a panel? A panel is what all the blocks sit in. So there is multiple panel's. The left side is a panel here. You may also notice that we have some links in our upper panel here. Blocks are the individual blocks of content inside the panel.

[blazinchuck]

so...i need to apply a panel before i can do a block? I would like to have a panel on the left with links...not the standard link within the forum, but other sites we as a group enjoy. also I want the cent panel on the front page so we can have articles,news,or video player,etc.

one other Q...is it possible to have the forum open up automatically full width with no side bar,panels,or blocks? and can I have another wed site open up just under the header, but within the front page wrapper? hope that makes sence...thanks,Chuck

here's what Ive been able to do so far.

added the pics by the threads mod, simple gallery mod, thinking about adding the ad management mod too.

[IchBin]

Panels are already created. You cannot create additional panels. You can only control whether it displays or not, and various other things like the width, layout of blocks within it, and where it displays etc. If you look at the panels page when you are in panels and blocks Admin you will see how it works.

As to your question, yes you can just tell the panel settings to turn off the panels for which ever panel you don't want to show when in the forum.

Be careful with adding too many mods, you can really run into a mess if you don't know what you're doing. Make sure you backup your files and DB before you start adding a lot of mods  in case you need to restore.

[G6Cad]

Be careful with adding too many mods, you can really run into a mess if you don't know what you're doing.

I can really agree on that one.
Crashed my site 3 times to day hahaha, had one of these ( test new SMF mods day to day ) 

[JPDeni]

Another suggestion is to figure out TP before you do anything else. It will be time well spent.