The focus of the Share Community is supporting parents of children who spent time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or were born prematurely.

The sections below will provide you basic information about using the most valuable features of Share.
 

Share is divided into four major areas, each represented by the little animal icons at the top of the page in blue. At any time you can move to a new section of the site using these icons.

All sections of the site, except "Share Your Story", are very similar in the way they work. In these sections, you'll find a list of items in pink. These items contain all the communications that occur on Share. There are two basic types of items you'll see, a "folder" and a "discussion".

Discussion
A discussion is similar to a real-life discussion. A member starts a discussion and then other members reply to that discussion with their input.

You can start a new discussion in any place that you see the button that says

Folder
A Folder, is like a real-life folder, or a folder in your computer -- they help the site stay organized by grouping together related discussions and other folders. Clicking on folders enable you to view their contents.

Another useful way to move around the site is referred to as "breadcrumbs". Like Hansel and Gretel in the fairly tale, bread crumbs help you understand where you have been on the site (except animals don't eat these!)

Bread crumbs
The bread crumbs are found at the top of the site in blue writing. They begin with "Share Home" and are separated by these symbols: Path division icon. On this page, for example, look up above the Quick Help title to see this:

        SHARE HOME >

Bread crumbs add a link each time you click into a new folder or discussion. You can use them to remember where you are on the site and how you got there. Further you can click them to return to a previous location.

One of the most popular features of Share is the "Share Your Story" section. This section offers you two options in sharing your story. They are:

1.	Short Stories
	Short Stories are for members who would like to tell their story in one sitting. These are much like discussions, where members can reply to your story. Notice too that you can include a link to your story on your member profile so that other members can read your story more easily.

2.	Blogs/Online Journals
	Blogs are for members who prefer to tell their story over time in multiple posts. By creating a blog, you are creating a personal resource for documenting your life over time. If you create a blog, a link will appear on your member profile, enabling members to find it easily.

Discussions are how members of Share communicate with one another. As mentioned previously, you can start a new discussion whenever you see the just make sure that you are posting it in an appropriate location.

Discussions are made up of an original discussion starter (often a question or request) and replies. Some discussions get many, many replies.

Replying to a Discussion
Replying to a Discussion can be done a number of ways. You may click the button that appears on each discussion page, the reply icon in the heading of a reply, or scroll to the bottom of a discussion to find the reply box and type your message there. To post your reply, click the button and your reply will appear with the others.

Edit or Delete a Message
To edit or delete a message click the or buttons next to your post. You can edit for only 30 minutes, to allow you to fix typos or reword something, but you can't edit after that. Use the "Edit" button to correct errors rather than using the "Back" button in your browser. If you use the "Back" button your comment will be posted twice instead of edited. It's possible to delete a post at any time if you're a registered user.

Registering and Logging In
To Register as a community member, click on the "Register" button in the toolbar on the left side of the page.

To Log In with your user name from a previous session, click the "Login" button in the pink bar on the left of each page.

Keeping up with new posts

Subscriptions are a way to keep up with new information posted to Share. You can track just the discussions and folders you're interested in following. To subscribe to a folder or discussion, click the button on each discussion page.

•	Find new posts by clicking the button on the web site
•	Get posts in individual emails, one for each message posted
•	Get an email digest that contains messages complied over a period of time.

Share enables you to subscribe to specific parts of Share using an option called "Check Messages". Once you are subscribed using this option, you can quickly view new messages posted to that area using the web site.

1.	Message Center -- On the left you'll see an option for "Message Center" with a "#new" indicator. When you subscribe using , snippets of new messages will appear in the Message Center along with links to view them.

2.

Check Messages/Read New -- On discussion pages, you'll see a button that either says or (depending on the presence of new messages). Clicking this button will reveal new messages in your subscriptions, one-by-one. Just keep clicking Read New Messages until you've seen them all. To start over and clear out the old messages, visit the Message Center and click "Clear Entire List".

If you're subscribed by email, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in an email message or by using the
button here in the toolbar.

To unsubscribe from web checking, use the

If you are experiencing problems receiving emails from Share, check to see if Spam Blocking software may be intercepting the emails.

To set your Profile and Settings such as your personal profile, email settings, or change your password, use the "Profile and Settings" button on the upper left. Profile and Settings can only be managed by registered users.

The button next to each message allows you to bookmark a post so you can find it easily later. If you add a note to your bookmark, you will need to click the "Set" button to save it.