Hi,
First off, thanks for the scripts, Paul and the gang, great job.
I am far from being a programmer, still could use some guidance in the matter of setting some pre-defined text in the new message area. Instead of being just blank I want the new post/reply field to contain a number of lines, something like:

1. Gist:
2. Symbols:

etc. Is it an easy thing to do, or does it require extensive modification? Thank you very much.
Спасибо!

Not sure what exactly you want to achieve, but you may use placeholder to put some text in text area, like:

<textarea placeholder="Gist:" />

Thanks, Tom. I am making a kind of a message board with each message having the same layout, so to say. The messages are announcements. Placeholder sounds like a solution, but where exactly should I put it? I am after the very field I am using right now, the "Your Reply" field.

Here it is: How to find where to edit this and that.

Look up for 'textarea' in miniBB folder, most likely you will find the only one template holding message area, it is main_post_form.html.

Providing placeholder would be truly nice idea for your approach. There is a way to put straight "physical" text in the message area, but it should be handled on the coding level, because this template is also used in the other places - private messaging, editing message. Having some pre-defined text in it is impossible for these places.

Thanks, Paul. I am not going to allow private messaging or editing per se. Although "coding level" sounds too complicated to me, I could give it a try if you point out the files I need to work with.

In bb_plugins.php you just should pre-define some variable, holding your default text. For example:

then paste {$defaultMessageText} in between <textarea> tag of the template mentioned above.

Worked like a charm! Thanks a lot, Paul!