FAQ for those coming from Sparkpeople
JaneGSN2
Posts: 124 Member
Here are the most common things people are asking how do I do that in MFP.
1) EMOTICONS
-- If you are doing posts from your phone, you can use the emojis from your phone.
-- If you are on a Windows computer, press the windows key and period at same time and a list of emojis show (thanks to Mocha's for finding this).
-- If you are on a MAC computer, press control-command-space at the same time and a list of emojis show (easy to find this once I heard about the windows key combination).
-- If you have favorite ones from other places, including Sparkpeople, you can copy them (try a right click, then choose save image, and put it someplace you can find it again. To use it, just load it as a picture into your post.
-- There are many you can type in that will work in MFP. You can just try typing in a : followed by a word to see what comes up (e.g. : followed immediately by the word smile ). Here is a thread showing ones that work: MFP emoticons
2) SIGNATURES - MFP doesn't have this feature.
-- You can ask MFP to add this feature (go to top right corner of this page has a "submit a request" link
-- You can put your signature information somewhere you can find it and then copy it at the bottom of each post.
-- You can sign your posts with the name you want people to call you (since it is not in your signature).
-- You can change your profile default picture to one that has the name you want people to call you.
-- You can include the information you normally put in your signature into your profile so people can find it there.
3) NAVIGATION - Web page:
From inside a group or at the main groups page (you can’t see any of this from the home page):
You can bookmark (choose the star) any post you want to find easily.
Then when you are either in a group or at the groups main page, you can:
-- Choose the star at the top right to see your bookmarked threads.
— See notifications (the bell) if someone posted on one of your bookmarked threads (if you set up this notification).
If you are looking in a group, if you choose Home it will take you back to your home page out of groups. You can choose the name of the group (top of the page) and that takes you to the main group page.
Many people use bookmarks on their browser to find places they look at often (e.g. your team chat thread, where Admin reports weekly reports or the WECs, etc.).
NAVIGATING - App:
If you go to the bottom right (the ... which is the more choice), you can choose community.
Once you are there (at least on the iphone app), you will see at the top:
A star which will take you to your bookmarked threads,
A bell which will take you to your reminders.
If you scroll to the bottom you will find your groups (choose them to get inside the group and read those posts).
Note: You still see the star and the reminder when you are inside your group.
If you choose messages (instead of community) you will see your messages.
When you done reading/replying to a thread (or reading/sending a message), you can use the back button (less than sign) and go back to the previous page to look at something else.
4) I CAN'T FIND MY TEAM THREAD/A SPECIFIC THREAD IN OUR GROUP
Only a certain amount of threads are listed.
If you scroll to the bottom of the list of threads, you will see the words "All discussions". Choose that and it will show your more threads. If you bookmark (star) your thread you can then choose the star to see all your bookmarked threads (the star to show all your bookmarks is at the top of the page/screen, in a browser window it is next to the team name, in an app it is in a bar across the top of the screen).
4) NOTIFICATIONS:
There are two places to set notifications.
a) Inside your profile - choose your MFP name at the top and look for "Change email address/email preferences". Choose that and you can set notifications for when you want a regular email sent to you (note it shows all of them checked even if you set it different last time but it doesn't change which ones send an email until you do a "save changes".) MFP can send a lot of notifications so play with this until you have it set for what works for you.
b) Inside the Community area (colored bar at the top) - at the top right is the cog wheel, when you choose this (left click on a computer) it shows two choices. The Preferences choice is where you set notifications. Ones that can very useful to light up your "bell" icon are:
-- Notify me when people reply to my bookmarked discussions - bookmark your team thread and your bell will lightup whenever a teammate replies.
-- Notify me when people mention me (e.g. tag you with the @ before your MFP name).
-- Notify me when people comment on discussions I've participated in (similar to the checkbox at the bottom of SP posts that tells you when someone replies to that discussion).
You will see notifications when you are inside MFP by looking for the Bell symbol at the top and if it is colored in (rather than just a drawn shape).
Using this and the star (for bookmarked threads) it is easy to see the threads/message most important to you (e.g. depending on your notification settings it can be where you were tagged, that a new reply is on a bookmarked thread, that you have a message from someone, etc.).
You will see a badge notification on your phone app IF the app is running.
There is no way to get a notification that someone posted to your team thread (like you could in sparkpeople), but having the notifications set so you see your bookmarked (star) threads and/or see when someone has replied to a discussion you have posted on will turn the notification bell on: 1) when you are on your computer browser or in your phone app and in the groups area 2) when your MFP app is running on your phone will show a badge for the app.
When you are in MFP, the notification that you have new mail (the envelope) is only shown on the home page (viewing with a browser). You will not see new mail notifications if you are inside a group.
5) DOING A REPLY/READING POSTS:
To reply, go to the bottom to the thread (last page) and there will be a box already there for your reply.
When you do a post on a thread, you get one hour only to edit it (look for the cog icon, you may need to put your curser near but not on the cog to see the edit/delete choice). If you make a big mistake (autocorrect used a very inappropriate word or you put some personal information there you don’t want everyone to see) admin can edit it, but please leave this for only very very big mistakes as Admin is very busy supporting us to keep this team going.
There are new items at the bottom of each post. You can mark the post Like, Hug, Inspiring, Insightful, and disagree (please don’t use this one, we encourage everyone to take what works for them and leave the rest and supporting people where they are).
You can also Quote part of someone’s post to include it in your reply.
The flag is for reporting a problem post to MFP admin. If you have a problem with a post, please let your team leader and/or Admin know before contacting MFP. The general rule is to take what you want and leave the rest (except please work with your leader for participation).
Posts show oldest one first. But once you have read some, when you return you will be automatically placed where you last looked.
You can always go to the bottom of the page and to the last page to look at the newest posts.
6) SENDING MESSAGES / VIEWING SOMEONE’S PROFILE and LEAVING THEM A COMMENT / YOUR FRIEND LIST
You can choose someone’s profile picture and go to their page to learn more about them. However each person can decide who sees their page - you can set this for your page by going to Home, then Settings, then choosing Privacy Settings 4th item under the large print Privacy Settings).
If you can see someone’s profile you can also post a comment (similar to on Sparkpeople).
You can only send messages to one person at a time.
— You can ask MFP to add a new feature where a message can be sent to more than one person at a time. Go to ** and at the top right corner is a “submit a request” link.
— Admin and others are still working on how to handle this.
You can see your friends by going to My Home, then Friends. If you go to the bottom you can sort friends in different orders. You can send messages from friends easily from this page.
7) YOUR TICKER, MFP RECIPES, USING MFP HELP
Your ticker shows only on your page and you get to choose if it is private or public. You can set your ticker up by starting at the Home screen, then going to APPS, and then going to the Ticker.
MFP recipes has some features some people have liked: You can paste an URL (web page link) for your favorite recipes into MFP and it will copy the ingredients into a MFP recipe. However, this doesn’t seem to work for Sparkpeople recipes, it may or may not work on various recipe web sites.
You can also copy ingredients in and it seems to match them fairly well.
Help is available if you choose Help from the top line (towards the high) of the browser window or in the same list of choices as Community and Messages on your phone app. You can put in specific words to search for something. You can also use a browser window and put in myfltnesspal plus other words to do an internet search for things inside myfitnesspal.
THANKS TO EVERYONE who helped create this list.
If you have any additional tips you think would be useful to people migrating from Sparkpeople, please reply to this post. Please include anything like how to get to a page or a link to information.
1) EMOTICONS
-- If you are doing posts from your phone, you can use the emojis from your phone.
-- If you are on a Windows computer, press the windows key and period at same time and a list of emojis show (thanks to Mocha's for finding this).
-- If you are on a MAC computer, press control-command-space at the same time and a list of emojis show (easy to find this once I heard about the windows key combination).
-- If you have favorite ones from other places, including Sparkpeople, you can copy them (try a right click, then choose save image, and put it someplace you can find it again. To use it, just load it as a picture into your post.
-- There are many you can type in that will work in MFP. You can just try typing in a : followed by a word to see what comes up (e.g. : followed immediately by the word smile ). Here is a thread showing ones that work: MFP emoticons
2) SIGNATURES - MFP doesn't have this feature.
-- You can ask MFP to add this feature (go to top right corner of this page has a "submit a request" link
-- You can put your signature information somewhere you can find it and then copy it at the bottom of each post.
-- You can sign your posts with the name you want people to call you (since it is not in your signature).
-- You can change your profile default picture to one that has the name you want people to call you.
-- You can include the information you normally put in your signature into your profile so people can find it there.
3) NAVIGATION - Web page:
From inside a group or at the main groups page (you can’t see any of this from the home page):
You can bookmark (choose the star) any post you want to find easily.
Then when you are either in a group or at the groups main page, you can:
-- Choose the star at the top right to see your bookmarked threads.
— See notifications (the bell) if someone posted on one of your bookmarked threads (if you set up this notification).
If you are looking in a group, if you choose Home it will take you back to your home page out of groups. You can choose the name of the group (top of the page) and that takes you to the main group page.
Many people use bookmarks on their browser to find places they look at often (e.g. your team chat thread, where Admin reports weekly reports or the WECs, etc.).
NAVIGATING - App:
If you go to the bottom right (the ... which is the more choice), you can choose community.
Once you are there (at least on the iphone app), you will see at the top:
A star which will take you to your bookmarked threads,
A bell which will take you to your reminders.
If you scroll to the bottom you will find your groups (choose them to get inside the group and read those posts).
Note: You still see the star and the reminder when you are inside your group.
If you choose messages (instead of community) you will see your messages.
When you done reading/replying to a thread (or reading/sending a message), you can use the back button (less than sign) and go back to the previous page to look at something else.
4) I CAN'T FIND MY TEAM THREAD/A SPECIFIC THREAD IN OUR GROUP
Only a certain amount of threads are listed.
If you scroll to the bottom of the list of threads, you will see the words "All discussions". Choose that and it will show your more threads. If you bookmark (star) your thread you can then choose the star to see all your bookmarked threads (the star to show all your bookmarks is at the top of the page/screen, in a browser window it is next to the team name, in an app it is in a bar across the top of the screen).
4) NOTIFICATIONS:
There are two places to set notifications.
a) Inside your profile - choose your MFP name at the top and look for "Change email address/email preferences". Choose that and you can set notifications for when you want a regular email sent to you (note it shows all of them checked even if you set it different last time but it doesn't change which ones send an email until you do a "save changes".) MFP can send a lot of notifications so play with this until you have it set for what works for you.
b) Inside the Community area (colored bar at the top) - at the top right is the cog wheel, when you choose this (left click on a computer) it shows two choices. The Preferences choice is where you set notifications. Ones that can very useful to light up your "bell" icon are:
-- Notify me when people reply to my bookmarked discussions - bookmark your team thread and your bell will lightup whenever a teammate replies.
-- Notify me when people mention me (e.g. tag you with the @ before your MFP name).
-- Notify me when people comment on discussions I've participated in (similar to the checkbox at the bottom of SP posts that tells you when someone replies to that discussion).
You will see notifications when you are inside MFP by looking for the Bell symbol at the top and if it is colored in (rather than just a drawn shape).
Using this and the star (for bookmarked threads) it is easy to see the threads/message most important to you (e.g. depending on your notification settings it can be where you were tagged, that a new reply is on a bookmarked thread, that you have a message from someone, etc.).
You will see a badge notification on your phone app IF the app is running.
There is no way to get a notification that someone posted to your team thread (like you could in sparkpeople), but having the notifications set so you see your bookmarked (star) threads and/or see when someone has replied to a discussion you have posted on will turn the notification bell on: 1) when you are on your computer browser or in your phone app and in the groups area 2) when your MFP app is running on your phone will show a badge for the app.
When you are in MFP, the notification that you have new mail (the envelope) is only shown on the home page (viewing with a browser). You will not see new mail notifications if you are inside a group.
5) DOING A REPLY/READING POSTS:
To reply, go to the bottom to the thread (last page) and there will be a box already there for your reply.
When you do a post on a thread, you get one hour only to edit it (look for the cog icon, you may need to put your curser near but not on the cog to see the edit/delete choice). If you make a big mistake (autocorrect used a very inappropriate word or you put some personal information there you don’t want everyone to see) admin can edit it, but please leave this for only very very big mistakes as Admin is very busy supporting us to keep this team going.
There are new items at the bottom of each post. You can mark the post Like, Hug, Inspiring, Insightful, and disagree (please don’t use this one, we encourage everyone to take what works for them and leave the rest and supporting people where they are).
You can also Quote part of someone’s post to include it in your reply.
The flag is for reporting a problem post to MFP admin. If you have a problem with a post, please let your team leader and/or Admin know before contacting MFP. The general rule is to take what you want and leave the rest (except please work with your leader for participation).
Posts show oldest one first. But once you have read some, when you return you will be automatically placed where you last looked.
You can always go to the bottom of the page and to the last page to look at the newest posts.
6) SENDING MESSAGES / VIEWING SOMEONE’S PROFILE and LEAVING THEM A COMMENT / YOUR FRIEND LIST
You can choose someone’s profile picture and go to their page to learn more about them. However each person can decide who sees their page - you can set this for your page by going to Home, then Settings, then choosing Privacy Settings 4th item under the large print Privacy Settings).
If you can see someone’s profile you can also post a comment (similar to on Sparkpeople).
You can only send messages to one person at a time.
— You can ask MFP to add a new feature where a message can be sent to more than one person at a time. Go to ** and at the top right corner is a “submit a request” link.
— Admin and others are still working on how to handle this.
You can see your friends by going to My Home, then Friends. If you go to the bottom you can sort friends in different orders. You can send messages from friends easily from this page.
7) YOUR TICKER, MFP RECIPES, USING MFP HELP
Your ticker shows only on your page and you get to choose if it is private or public. You can set your ticker up by starting at the Home screen, then going to APPS, and then going to the Ticker.
MFP recipes has some features some people have liked: You can paste an URL (web page link) for your favorite recipes into MFP and it will copy the ingredients into a MFP recipe. However, this doesn’t seem to work for Sparkpeople recipes, it may or may not work on various recipe web sites.
You can also copy ingredients in and it seems to match them fairly well.
Help is available if you choose Help from the top line (towards the high) of the browser window or in the same list of choices as Community and Messages on your phone app. You can put in specific words to search for something. You can also use a browser window and put in myfltnesspal plus other words to do an internet search for things inside myfitnesspal.
THANKS TO EVERYONE who helped create this list.
If you have any additional tips you think would be useful to people migrating from Sparkpeople, please reply to this post. Please include anything like how to get to a page or a link to information.
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Replies
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Here's a tip that was shared and it works to help find blogs. Thank you, ItsTime2BMe
ItsTime2BMe wrote 2 hours ago:
I have to use this link to get to blogs
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/recent
When I click on Blogs it brings up this link
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/popular
I just delete the word popular and put in recent
or I have the 'recent' link bookmarked somewhere, depending what device I'm on3 -
. If you want to put your blog link in your status for your friends to see.
first go to setting. then go to automatic News Feed Update Settings then
go to I create a new blog post and click on it.
2 -
Ticker problems: When you are sharing this with the public and make a change to your ticker it can show incorrect information.
Support replied saying: We are aware that the weight loss ticker located on your profile page online is not updating. We are currently working on a resolution and hope to have a fix in place as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you log in at www.myfitnesspal.com and click Settings>Privacy Settings and change Tickers & Badges to Myself Only, your weight loss should update.
You can keep track of the issue at https://myfitnesspal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625451-Known-Issues-Website.
The trick above, making my ticker private, then making it public correctly showed the ticker.2
