Upgrades to "Add Emoticon" page on board posts

Thursday, November 01, 2007

We launched 2 enhancements to the "Add an Emoticon" popup page from message board posts:

- There are now 5 tabs organizing the emoticons. A big reason to do this was to enable the page to load faster, since not as many emoticons need to appear per page. The tabs also will hopefully help you better find emoticons, and it also will make it easier for us to add more emoticons in the future.
- You can now add multiple emoticons without closing the window (previously whenever you clicked an emoticon the window closed). You can simple hold down the "M" key (for multiple) on your keyboard, and when you click an emoticon the emoticon window will stay open.

We hope our faithful board posters like these enhancements!

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

NANCYLEE46 1/4/2008 8:05AM

i have been having difficulty learning all this about adding and also posting a sasying at the bottom of my entries to message boards. I am excited to go try this. It is hard for people who are not very good with computers, SO THANK YOU nancylee46 Report Inappropriate Comment

STARTSPARKING 11/2/2007 5:47AM

Thank you for the wonderful enhancement! Report Inappropriate Comment

WILDCARD1 11/1/2007 5:25PM

awesome improvement! I love it! Report Inappropriate Comment

SHERI1049 11/1/2007 2:17PM

Thank you - thank you - thank you! I stopped using emoticons for that very reason. You guys rock! Report Inappropriate Comment

LADYPI 11/1/2007 12:00PM

Love it....love it...love it... thanks you guys are listening! Report Inappropriate Comment

TURTLEGRANNY 11/1/2007 11:44AM

I found it this morning and Iike it, easier to find ones that apply to a post. I would like to ask if one more could be added - one that looks like a journal or something, so we can show we are keeping track of our food and activities. Thanks for all the great work here on SparkPeople. Janis Report Inappropriate Comment

YARDWALKER 11/1/2007 9:55AM

Yippe! Woohoo! Love it, going to try it now. Thank you Thank you Thank you! Report Inappropriate Comment

CYNTHIAS50 11/1/2007 9:55AM

Everytime I think this site can't be improved upon, you find a way to do just that! Thanks! Report Inappropriate Comment

Board enhancement - add links to your posts

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

When making a message board post you will now find an "Add Link" button at the top of the posting box, to the left of the Add an Emoticon button. You can use this to add links to either SparkPeople pages or pages outside of SparkPeople. This should enable members to better communicate and point to pages they feel are useful!

Please keep in mind that all of our community guidelines still apply to links within posts. You cannot post any types of advertisements and cannot link to any inappropriate sites.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

KITEFLYINGAL 11/1/2007 9:49AM

this is a great addition Thanks so much! ************************** ************************ I know that Spark is revamping the site but I have to protest the way we now add emotions to our posts.. Before we had a one click drop down with all of them listed except a few holiday ones. Now we have to go thru four or 5 tabs to find what we want.. I use them everyday and on almost every post and having all those extra clicks to get what I want just takes more time away from what I am doing here. Please change it back to the large drop down or give us the option of which way we would like to have it? Thank you, Debbie Holmberg Team Leader Depression and Dieting Report Inappropriate Comment

SparkRecipes recipes and cookbooks now on SparkPages

Friday, October 26, 2007

We launched a few enhancements to SparkPages today. The main one is that on the left side, under your photos on your main page, we display and link to any Recipes and Cookbooks you have shared on SparkRecipes. We're getting LOTS of great recipes and cookbooks from our members so we wanted to help you share them more.

Also, you may notice that we widened SparkPages a bit. This should make the pages more visually appealing and also push your content and pictures up higher on the page, since we can fit more text and pictures on each line.

You can check out Coach Nicole's SparkPage to see some of the recipes and cookbooks she has shared!
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=COACH%5FNICOLE

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

STARTSPARKING 11/2/2007 5:49AM

I love the new SparkPage design! Thank you! Report Inappropriate Comment

SP_STAFF 10/31/2007 3:17PM

We tweaked the SparkPage design a bit based on your feedback. It's now a little narrower, so that more of your background images show. Hope you like it! Report Inappropriate Comment

GECKO140 10/29/2007 9:12PM

Thanks to you all for the good work. This site is the best thing in the world. I've told everyone I know about it. What a blessing. Great site and great people, who could ask for more. Report Inappropriate Comment

DJHEILMANN 10/29/2007 11:11AM

You can still change your background image, it just won't appear quite as much on some monitors. On most/bigger monitors a lot will still appear. Report Inappropriate Comment

LAUREN1213 10/26/2007 11:25PM

Gosh, I hate to be the oddball out, beings that everyone else seems to love the change, but I LOVED being able to have backgrounds. I thought that was a major enhancement, and I'm sorely disappointed that we can't utilize it anymore. Please don't misunderstand, I appreciate all of the "wonders" that you guys do. I just wish while doing this one it didn't have to cost us something that lots of us really really enjoyed. Lauren Report Inappropriate Comment

KITEFLYINGAL 10/26/2007 9:40PM

It is nice to see some of the changes but I am going to miss having the ability to change our pages around. Now that they are so wide e cannot have backgrounds,, this does away with being able to change the pages to reflect the holidays and such. I really liked to be able to change mine to reflect how I was feeling at the time. I also enjoy seeing others changes too. The recipe section is great and I am so glad to see that added. I also like being able to nominate someone for most inspirational. I love Spark and thank you for all your dedication and hard work. Have a great day, debbie Team Leader Depression and Dieting Report Inappropriate Comment

LADYPI 10/26/2007 1:36PM

Thanks for all your fine efforts Dave, You guys/gals totally ROCK !! Report Inappropriate Comment

CYNTHIAS50 10/26/2007 12:24PM

I love it! Thanks for all of the great stuff you do here! Report Inappropriate Comment

myNutrition page enhancement - custom foods in grocery list

Thursday, October 25, 2007

We launched a much-requested enhancement to the Grocery List feature on our Meal Planner/Food tracker page today. The big change is that foods you add custom to your daily plan are reflected on your Grocery List. Also you now have a bit more control over your Grocery List to pick the day it starts and to pick the number of days to show.

For people not using our meal plans, you can use this if you like to plan your meals ahead using the food tracker, essentially tracking/planning for future days.

Here are some details:
- If you have our Meal Plans turned off and add foods you now have a "Grocery List For This Week" button at the bottom right of the page. Since you will typically want a grocery list for foods you enter in the future, by default we will bring up your list for the next 7 days, starting today. You can then change the starting day for your grocery list to any day over the next 7 days, and also specify the number of days to show, from 1 to 7.
- If you have our Meal plans turned on, the feature works pretty much the same. The only difference is that your grocery list will include our meal plan recommendations along with any other foods you add. There is also a checkbox that you can uncheck to NOT show your manually entered foods.

We hope this helps make meal planning much more useful. Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on this feature!
http://www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/nutrition.asp

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

TDANKO2001 2/28/2010 9:00PM

i agree with CRYSTAL50708, would like to add meals to my grocery list, but not for a particular day, as things to change.... Report Inappropriate Comment

CRYSTALSHINES 1/28/2010 10:26AM

I wish that I could just add ingredients for a recipe to my list without having to add it to a meal plan. I want to make something this week, but not sure which meal/day it will be for. Report Inappropriate Comment

NIGHTJAR1 1/16/2008 11:23AM

very usefull. also if you have popups blocked javascript dont work Report Inappropriate Comment

LADYPI 11/9/2007 9:05PM

Thanks Dave very helpful tool Deb Report Inappropriate Comment

KINGS_ROSE 10/29/2007 10:53AM

That is so awesome. Thank you so much. It is kinda like those recipe websites. I love that. It also makes shopping easier since it is broken up into catagories. God BLess Anna Report Inappropriate Comment

JPTOWNSEND 10/27/2007 12:39PM

I just noticed this feature the other day. I love it! I love that this encourages me to plan meals in advance. What would make this feature even better is if it went to the recipe page and pulled what you need to buy for a recipe, too. Right now it puts a recipe item as a fast food or restaurant item. Whether you implement this suggestion or not, SparkPeople is the best, most supportive, help I have ever had in my lifetime of attempts to lose weight. I am truly grateful. Thanks so much to Chris Downie for starting this and to all of you for this incredibly GOOD website. Report Inappropriate Comment

CYNTHIAS50 10/26/2007 8:48AM

I love it! This will really make things easier for me! Report Inappropriate Comment

COACHGIA 10/25/2007 6:46PM

Thanks Dave! Much appreciated. Gia Report Inappropriate Comment

Check this blog for feature updates!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Hi everyone

We're going to start using this blog to announce site enhancements and new features. If you'd like you can subscribe to this blog to know about updates right away. Typically we'll also link to announcements here from the message boards and other places. Feel free to also leave comments on this blog about our announcements.

We're working hard every day to make the site better, with about 90% of our enhancements coming from ideas from members like you!

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

NEWWAY1 10/27/2007 9:27AM

Thanks for all you guys do! This site has really changed my life. I was determined to make the changes this time around, but all of you have made it a lot easier for me. Thank you, thank you!!!!! Report Inappropriate Comment

JOEGIRL6113 10/26/2007 7:39PM

This will be great. I was not aware of it until someone shared this on a post. I am now subscribing to this blog. Thank you for all you do on SP! Rosy Report Inappropriate Comment

LOWTIDE 10/26/2007 12:30AM

Thanks this is awesome, makes it so easy to find!!! So many wonderful updates on site, thanks for all you do. Report Inappropriate Comment