Barry Musikant

 AM VERY HAPPY to report that our new interactive endodontic fourm is up and running. As I become more familiar with its layout, I am finding it a very comfortable environment to post videos, photos, and x-rays. I thought it would be a good idea to walk you through some of the steps that give you the versatility to communicate in traditional as well as innovative new ways.
     The first thing you might want to do is go to EndoMail.com. If you are reading this article on the computer screen, you are already there. Once in EndoMail.com, click the endo forum button, which takes you to the “enter the forum” button. Click that, and you are in the EndoMail Message Board. By clicking the expand button on the left side of the screen, you will broaden the site’s borders so that more content can be placed on any one line. As soon as you go to any of the listed subjects that you wish to comment on, you will be asked to either log in or register. If you already have a username and password, ask your computer to remember them for future use so that you won’t have to type them in each time you enter the forum. Click the log-in button. If you have not logged in, you will first register; the process consists of agreeing to the terms and conditions of the website—the usual stuff—and then supplying a username, password, and e-mail address. Within a very short time you will receive an e-mail asking you to state what the “o” in “mod” stands for. Answering that question correctly makes you an active member; your active-member status is verified by a second e-mail officially confirming your username and password.
     Now here comes the fun part. You can enter any of the listed topics, read and comment on any of the threads under each and every topic. If you believe that a new topic should be started, write your comments under the subject “miscellaneous,” and we at the home station will add this to the list of topics. Once you enter a particular topic, a group of threads will appear. At this point you can click the “new topic” button to create a new thread or click a preexisting thread which allows you to view and comment on any of the posts that you are reading. To clarify your comments on any particular post, you can click the “quote” button and the previous post that you are referring to will appear, ready for you to make your additional comments.
     Your writing tablet has all sorts of useful features, including the size, color, and highlight of the font. You may write in boldface, italics, or underline. You can cut, paste, and copy, and you can insert an e-mail link. For those who feel they have a monotonic writing style, we have a whole array of emotion buttons. To the right of the emotion buttons is the upload function that allows you to browse through all your photos and x-rays for any appropriate to the post you are placing. To the right of the upload button are three video buttons—YouTube, Google, and Yahoo—that give you the ability to upload any videos you may have. We already have a library of videos and photos (x-rays) that you can view by going to either the video or photo library. Both will be growing over time. Much of what you can view in the photo library is in three dimensions. In the photo library is an e-mail address to obtain a free pair of 3-D glasses.
     When you upload an x-ray or photo, it will be automatically sized so that two pictures will take up the horizontal space in the writing area. Knowing this, those writing a post should simply be aware that hitting the space bar a couple of times between the first and second photo will slightly separate them. You can get vertical separation simply by hitting the return key once or twice. Once a post is finished, it is sent over to the message board when the author of the post clicks the submit button. Right off the bat it should be mentioned that none of us is perfect in this world. If you find a mistake you made or a thought you missed after submitting your post, you can always click the edit button and remove or add what you think is advisable. One nice feature I discovered is that I can enlarge any photo already placed into a post simply by clicking on it. And if I click on it again, it enlarges some more, giving me a highly detailed rendition of the original photo.
     These are just the initial tools. We plan to make further improvements. One that we have in mind that we hope to incorporate fairly soon is the ability to draw on any x-ray to better highlight hidden canals, root apices, pulpstones, and other features.
     While we are proud of the mechanics of the website, we realize that a website of this nature is no better than its content, which will be a product of all the participants. As founders of this website, we are dedicated to a completely open forum. In that light there will be no anonymity. Insulting behavior will not be acceptable. Ideas can be criticized from every angle imaginable, but the person stating those ideas will always be treated with respect.