# Syndie help - Thread tree panel

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The thread tree panel offers a way to review the messages in the selected forum(s) and take appropriate action. Individual messages are organized into threads where possible - replies are listed under the message they are in reply to, etc.

The top of the panel displays what forum is being shown, including the avatar, title, and description. However, if more than one forum is being shown, it instead shows a generic avatar and displays the title as `"Browsing multiple forums"`.

The number of threads can grow very large, depending upon the filter criteria used, and when it does, the threads are split up into `pages` - groups of 20 threads at a time. Underneath the title bar and above the actual thread tree, the pagination bar offers buttons to go back to the first page ("<<"), to the previous page ("<"), the next page (">"), and the last page (">>"). In addition, the page size can be adjusted from the default value of 20.

The thread tree itself is the meat of the panel, displaying the subject, author, target forum, and posting date of relevent messages. When multiple forums are displayed, the top level item refers to the forum itself, prefixed by the number of threads underneath it (e.g. "(1) Polecat" or "(1) Potatomus"). The font used shows the read status - normal text means the message has been read, italics means the message has been read but something underneath it hasn't been, and bold means the message has not yet been read (or at least not yet marked as read).

When individual messages or forums are right clicked, the context menu is shown, though most of that functionality is available through the buttons on the right and bottom of the panel.

- View the message brings up the selected message in a new Message panel
- Reply to the message brings up a new Message editor panel in reply to the selected message, targetting the forum (when possible)
- View the forum's messages brings up a new Thread tree panel focusing in on just the targetted forum of the selected message
- View the forum's profile brings up a new Profile panel displaying the targetted forum's profile
- Bookmark the forum adds the targetted forum to the user's watched list, allowing for easy and more secure access. the security aspects come from the fact that Syndie only shows the avatars of watched forums, except on the forum selection panel, so as to reduce any confusion between similarly named forums.
- View the author's blog brings up a new Thread tree panel focusing in on just the author of the selected message
- View the author's profile brings up a new Profile panel displaying the author's profile
- Bookmark the author adds the author to the user's watched list
- Expand the thread fully simply expands any messages and replies in the currently selected thread
- Collapse the thread fully simply unexpands any messages and replies in the currently selected thread
- Mark the message as read marks only the selected message as read
- Mark the message as unread marks only the selected message as unread
- Mark the thread as read marks all messages in the current thread as read
- Mark the thread as unread marks all messages in the current thread as unread

The filter bar offers a number of powerful controls to limit what threads and messages to show. The first is a drop down specifying the message's age - anything as recent as the selected value is allowed (e.g. "This week" means any message posted or received in the last 7 days). The second is a full text search for a word or phrase - if "foo" is entered, only messages whose subject, author, keywords, or the body of any of its pages are allowed. Note that currently it is a strict substring match - entering "foo bar" will not match messages containing "foo baz bar". The third filter only matches messages who have been tagged by their author with one of the selected tags (or if "Any tags" is selected, this filter is not applied). The fourth is a checkbox to limit messages to those that the user hasn't already read.

The basic filter bar covers most scenarios, but there are a number of advanced filtering options, accessible by hitting the "Advanced" button:

The first three options allow the set of forums whose messages are being matched to be adjusted - All forums means all locally known forums, Bookmarked forums means all of the forums the user is watching, and Specific forum... means a specific forum or forums (this is almost always the case).

The next four options filter the messages based on the privacy level used by the authors - Readable by anyone means messages that the author allowed anyone to read, Readable by authorized readers means messages that the author used one of the forum's secret read keys to limit the message's readership, Readable by those with a passphrase means messages that the author protected with a passphrase, and Readable by forum administrators means messages that the author protected so that only the authorized administrators of the forum it was written in could read it.

The next four options adjust the tree's display and behavior - if the Organize results in threads option is not checked, the messages will be ordered chronologically without regard to any relationship between them. If the Show a preview of the selected message option is selected, when the user hovers their mouse over a message or selects it by the keyboard, a preview window will pop up showing the body of the message's first page. If the Mark messages read when opened option is selected, whenever a message is shown in a Message panel, it is automatically marked as read. If the Mark messages read when previewed option is selected, the popup previews will trigger the message to be marked as read as well.

The right hand side of the panel has size buttons - Expand adjusts the tree so that the currently selected thread is fully expanded, while Collapse does the opposite. Profile pulls up the profile of the selected forum. View opens up the selected message in a new Message panel. Read/unread toggles the read/unread status of the selected message. Create ref fires up a wizard to save a reference to the selected message or forum in the user's references (accessed through the Forum selection panel).

The bottom row of buttons offer access to some key actions - Post a new message fires up a new Message editor panel targetting the selected forum (the button is disabled if the user is not authorized to create new threads in that forum). The Reply button fires up a new Message editor panel targetting the selected forum as well, acting as a reply to the selected message (the button is disabled if the user is not authorized to reply to messages in that forum). The Send a private message fires up (yet another) Message editor panel targetting the selected forum, except it has the privacy level set so that only that forum's administrators can read it. Watch the forum adds the currently selected forum to the user's watched list, and Ban the forum deletes all messages in the forum, all messages written by the forum's owner, and makes sure their messages are never imported again