Newbie need some basic guidance

[mattintosh]

I just got SMF 2.2 and I am struggling. Don't know how to do anything! I read the posts here and  the online manual and , well its foreign to me. Code? Where? I don't see any files that have any code in them. How do you get these files and how do you open them. Was program do you use to open and replace code? Man this is frustrating because I had a lic for Vbulletin and dropped it because I was told SMF was way easier to use. I guess so but man I need some simple hand holding here.

[Dzonny]

Hello there and welcome to smf community.

Did you manage to isntall smf forum? Can you please tell us about specific question that you have?

You can find all smf files in package that you downloaded from our site. That package should be uploaded and extracted on your server before installation proces starts. You can open every file from there with some text editor (i would suggest to use notepad++), but i don't see a reason to open and changea any files/codes for now.

Please take a look on our Installing SMF instructions if you didn't manage to install smf, and let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards.

[mattintosh]

Well my problem is that I am a rookie to forums. I now have one and am running into brick walls. One thing would be if there was a set of directions on how to use the forum that was just for members and not administrator level. Like how to post, add a smiley log in what to do when and if stuff. Basic but needed for other rookies like me.

[Dzonny]

Please take a look at this links:
Introduction
Registering
Logging In
Profile
Posting

Also, take a look at the whole "As a regular user" cateogory at wiki:
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Category:As_a_regular_user

[mattintosh]

Dzonny!!!! Wow, Thank you, thank you, thank you....
That is a big help.
I have my forum hosted at siteground. They handled posting the software for free.
I hope to not need to code anything but I see some have need from time to time. Such as security issues ect. Changing logos adding stuff. Sounds like fun actually but need to go in small steps. Could you suggest some things I can do to learn more about changing and repair and making my site  safer and more friendly yo my users in the future?
Again thanks for the help so far...
Matt

[Dzonny]

You're welcome, i'm glad that i can help.

Well, you can take a look at Themes And Layout section, and try to change/add a theme, and maybe take some Anti-Spam measures, or take a look at Security and Moderation instructions.

Let us know if you need any further assistance

[mattintosh]

OK great, but let me ask you this, Are these steps I can easily follow? As a non programmer?
I want to learn all I can but don't want to mess things up...
Thanks for getting back to me. Oh and can I copy and paste the links to the portions of the
manual that would help new visitors to navigate my site?Is there more to it than that? I would like visitors to be able to click on links to the manual that are directed to visitors.
Matt

[Dzonny]

You can administrate smf without being a programmer, but eventually you will probably need to change/add/modify some html/css/php codes, so the best is to learn some of the basic html/css for the start.

About manual - did you saw the "Help" menu link on your forum? Links from it are directed to smf wiki site, so your visitors can use it.

I will mark this topic as solved now, as i believe that your primary question is solved. Feel free to post here more questions if you need any further help, or open new topic for some specific problem.

Regards.