Vanilla Tips and Tricks

Just had a quick look around and didn't see anything like this yet, though maybe missed it. Thought it might be helpful to have a little Tips and Tricks thread for getting around Vanilla.

Here's one I just recently stumbled across.

HOW TO FIND THE DIRECT URL FOR A POST
If you don't already know this, you can use the embedded link in the date beneath a username in a thread to capture that specific post's URL.

Mousing over the date, as shown above, reveals a preview of the embedded link in the status bar at the bottom left of Chrome and Firefox, for example. This is the direct URL of the post.


How might we use this information?
One of the things that I didn't know how to do before was quickly find the main URL for a thread. For example, if you come into a thread through one of the links in your notifications, as shown in the screenclip below, it will take you to a cryptic url for that specific comment
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2326518#Comment_2326518

This is fine to view that specific comment, but if you come into a thread like this, and find that you want to share that thread beginning with the opening post, how would you link to the original post when you only have the cryptic link to work with in your address bar? I didn't know how to do this before, and would kind of have to go around my elbow to get to my nose, through a forum search, typically, having to sift through the search results to find the one I was looking for.

There are a couple of quick ways to get a friendly URL for the opening post in a thread.

1. Simply browse up to the original post, and click the date beneath the username, and the page will reload to the opening post for the thread. You can copy the URL from your browser's address bar to use as you wish. Perhaps you want to bookmark it, or copy it your notes, or share as a reference in another post.
2. Or, my preference, right-click this date, and copy the link address to use.

In this simplified example, a right-click > copy of the link embedded in the date under Dan's username in his opening post on the Searching Club Polk Suggestions sticky thread provides the following URL:
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/149559/searching-club-polk-suggestions

Easy.

Along these lines, sometimes I've found that I've wanted to link directly to a specific post in a thread. In other forum hosting platforms, this is called Permalink. I didn't know how to do this in Vanilla. Again, you can use the link embedded in the date to capture the URL for a specific post in a thread. Click or right-click > copy, and you have the URL to use.

This link takes one directly to Darryl's Bar & Grill.
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2326301/#Comment_2326301


I thought Permalink was simply a missing feature in Vanilla, but it was hiding there all along as the embedded link in the post date.