Dr. Ritamarie’s Vibrant Living Programs
Help Page for Community and Forum Features
On this page you’ll find a number of topics to help you navigate the community features of Dr. Ritamarie’s Vibrant Living programs.
Select a Topic:
- How do I access my personal profile?
- How do I change my display name?
- How do I change my profile picture (avatar)?
- How can I get help with a personal or program question?
- Where can I update my status and see what other members are doing in my program community?
- How do I become friends with other members in my program?
- How do I “tag” or mention other friends in my status updates?
- How do I send or reply to a private message to another group member?
- How do I use the forum?
- How do I share a document or file with other members in my program?
- How can I quickly save my program resources (files, audios, videos)?
- Don’t see your desired help topic? Let us know!
Community and Forum Help Topics
How do I access my personal profile?
Once you’re logged into the Vibrant Living website, you will find the link to your personal profile as indicated by the arrow below. Clicking the link will open a new page of options where you can customize your profile and access any of your community resources. You can update your display name and share your location, if desired.
How do I change my display name?
- Once you’re logged into the Vibrant Living website, locate and click the “My Profile” link.
- You should now see an “Edit” link that allows you to change features related to your profile. Click this link and a new screen will open.
- Now you can change whatever is typed in the “name” field to be whatever you’d like to use as your display name.
- Here is where you can also include your location (if you wish) and other information to help you connect with other members outside the Vibrant Living programs website.
How do I change my profile picture (avatar)?
- Once you’re logged into the Vibrant Living website, locate and click the “My Profile” link.
- All new members are given a placeholder image for the profile. Your profile image is called an “avatar.”
- You should see a row of menu options under the “My Profile” link. Look for and click the link that says “Change Avatar”.
- You should now see a “Browse” button that will allow you to look through your computer files. Find a profile image you’d like to associate with your profile (it can be a photo of you or a positive-feeling image you love) and once it’s selected, click “Upload Image”.
- You should now see a dotted box with part of your image inside. Drag the corners of the box with your mouse until the image inside the dotted box is what you’d like to display. When ready, click the “Crop Image” button and the image will be saved as your new profile picture.
How can I get help with a personal or program question?
There are several options for getting help from Dr. Ritamarie and team:
- If you’re participating in a LIVE group program, Dr. Ritamarie often hosts live Q&A calls. You can submit your health question in the forum and Dr. Ritamarie will answer it during the next scheduled live Q&A call. If your question isn’t answered within the timeframe of the Q&A call, it will be saved for the next call. If your program has a live Q&A call, you’ll see a “Ask Dr. Ritamarie ? for Q&A Calls” link under your program community menu options that will take you to the forum (see image below) where you can submit your question.
- If you need help finding a resource for your program, post a comment in the “Feedback and Support” topic of your program forum (the order of the topics may vary) and your message will be forwarded to a Dr. Ritamarie team member who can help you find what you’re looking for.
- If your program or product doesn’t come with a forum or community, you may wish to consider becoming a member of the VITAL Community. Membership in VITAL provides you with a minimum of 1 group Q&A call with Dr. Ritamarie per month, raw food support from a guest expert chef, and forum support access.
- You can also contact our helpdesk by e-mailing helpdesk@drritamarie.com.
Where can I update my status and see what’s happening in my program community?
You can update your status and see what your fellow members have been up to at any time by logging into your program and looking for the “Community” menu in your right-hand sidebar. There, you’ll see a link called “Recent Member Activity/Status“. Click this to see a news feed of all the latest member activity. Once you’re there, you can share how you’re doing or any interesting developments you’re experiencing through your program.
Note: You can also access this feature by clicking the “My Profile” link and selecting “Activity”.
How do I become friends with other members in my program?
You can invite any fellow members of any of your programs to become friends. Building a positive and friendly network of support is one of the ways you can ensure better success with following through on your goals.
1. First, find and click your program “Member Directory” (the name of your program may be different than the program in the image below). You’ll find a link in your right-hand sidebar under the “Community” menu options.
2. Now you’ll see a list of all the people in your program. Click the “Add Friend” buttons for anyone you’d like to connect with. They will be sent an invitation.
3. If you have invitations from other members you wish to accept, click the “My Profile” link, select the “Friends” option from the menu bar, then click the “Requests” link. You can either approve or reject any invitations from other members here.
4. You can see who joins your friend list at any time by clicking the “My Profile” link, followed by the “Friends” option from the menu bar. You will now see a list of all the people that have accepted your friend invitations. Note: It is possible to have friends from various Vibrant Living programs. They will all be displayed here in your friend list.
How do I “tag” or mention other friends in my status updates?
Similar to Facebook and Twitter, you can let people know you’re talking about them in your status updates by “tagging” them. Your profile is assigned a “tag” based on your name.
To see what your profile tag is, click the “My Profile” link and look for the phrase beside the ““” sign. The ““” sign is the symbol that triggers the creation of the tag. If you wanted to mention the user below, instead of writing simply their name (i.e. “Health-Seeker”), you would write ““health-seeker” and then their name will turn into a tag link.
For example, a phrase is typed into the status update box that tags/mentions a particular member (in this case, it’s the Vibrant-Living “admin member profile). Once you hit the “Post Update” button you’ll see the “admin turn into a tag link.
Generally, an e-mail is sent to a member to let them know they’ve been mentioned or “tagged” in an update (assuming his/her e-mail settings are set to allow notices).
To tag a fellow program member, click on their profile name and look to see what phrase is beside the ““” symbol beside their name. That will be the “tag” you’ll need to use to mention them.
Tagging is a useful feature for inviting people to notice something you’ve shared or done. You can also use it to thank people for resources or recipes they’ve shared, or just to get their attention for something you want to chat about. For example, in your status update you might write:
- Thanks to “ritamarie, I lost 2 lbs this month!
- Hey “bayarim, do you want to try and create a new smoothie recipe together?
- Greetings “membertagname — Would you like to be buddies on this program together?
Note: You must copy the profile tag name exactly for it to work and notify the member. If it doesn’t turn into a link after you post, the tag did not apply.
How do I send or reply to a private message to another group member?
To send a private message:
To send a private message to a member, you must click on the desired member’s profile. You can find his or her profile by either browsing through the program group member directory or typing in a search for the member’s name (Note: the member search window is only available when you have clicked the group member directory link).
Once you have selected the member you wish to contact, click the “Send Private Message” button underneath their profile name.
Now you should see a window where you can compose your message:
The next time this member logs into their profile area, they will be notified that there is a private message waiting. Some members may also have their notifications set so that they receive an e-mail letting them know there is a private message waiting for them.
To reply to a private message:
Important: If you receive an e-mail telling you that you’ve received a private message from another member, you must reply to the message by logging into the members site and following the instructions below. If you try to reply via your personal e-mail account, your reply will go into cyberspace and won’t be received.
If you know you have received a private message and want to read and reply, click the “My Profile” link. Now look for the menu that says “Messages” and click that link.
When you click the link, you will open up your personal inbox and you’ll see a list of all messages, both old and new. Click on the subject of the message to view it.
Once you’ve opened the message, below it will be an box for you to send a private reply if you desire:
How do I use the forum?
Since forum use is a bigger topic, skip ahead to any of the sub-topics below that interest you:
- Forum rules
- Forum terminology and structure
- How to access the forum
- How to post a reply to a forum topic
- How to follow a forum topic
- How to delete a reply you’ve posted in the forum
Forum rules
Generally, the only rule within any of the Vibrant Living program forums is to maintain a respectful and positive dialogue with other members at all times.
For the sake of forum monitoring, we do prefer that members try to use the existing Topics within a forum rather than starting a new topic. If a new topic is needed, please use the “Feedback and Support” Topic within your program forum to mention a new topic is needed and a topic that’s general enough for multiple discussions may be added by an administrator.
Forum terminology and structure
Here’s a little help with general forum terminology:
- Forum:an online meeting place for discussions
- Topic:A topic of discussion within a particular forum
- Post/Reply: An individual comment from a member within a topic
- Topic:A topic of discussion within a particular forum
Note: Some forums allow topics to be broken into multiple “threads” (for example a “blended greens” topic might be divided into threads on “sweet fruit smoothies,” “no-fruit smoothies,” and “green soups”); however ours is a very simple forum system, so a “thread” function is not available.
How to access the forum
There are two ways to access your program forums.
Option 1: If you login to a Vibrant Living program and click on your program dashboard, you’ll see a “Forum” link under your “Community” menu options in the right-hand sidebar. Clicking this link will take you to the forum for *that* program.
Once you’re in the program forum, you should see a list of all the available topics that are open for discussion. The order of the topics listed may change as the topics with the most recent individual posts/replies are listed at the top.
Option 2: Click the “My Profile” link and select the “Forums” menu option. Using this path will show you *any* program forum topics that you’ve participated in. For example, if you’ve commented in both B4 Be Gone and VITAL forum topics, then a list of those topics will appear. Use the “Posted in Group” (the group is the name of the program) column to distinguish between the topics that have the same name.
How to post a reply to a forum topic
Start by accessing the forum so that you see the list of available topics.
Note: Please do not click the “New Topic” button (the crossed out button in the image below). To help us keep our forums organized, use the “Introductions and Friendly Support Chat” topic as a general place for discussion. Or, if you’d like to make a suggestion for a new forum topic, please share your idea in the “Feedback and Support” topic.
Click on the topic title you want to discuss.
A new window will open and the topic title should display at the top. The first post in the topic will be an introduction that will guide you on what should be discussed in this topic. Below the introductory post, you’ll see the most recent posts/replies from other members.
To share your reply, click the “New Reply” button.
You’ll see a “Add a Reply” box where you can then type in what you’d like to say. Click the “Post Reply” button when you’re ready to share your comment. Your comment will now display at the top of the most recent posts.
How to follow a forum topic
You can choose to follow a forum topic and thus receive e-mail updates whenever a new post is added to the topic. Access your program’s forum and then click the “Follow” button for any of the topics you want to be notified about. This is helpful if you’ve asked a question and want to see the answer from other members.
If at any time you want to stop following a topic, or if you receive an answer and don’t need to follow any longer, simply click the “Mute” button for the topic you’re following.
How to delete a reply you’ve posted in the forum
If you want to edit or delete a post, go back to the forum topic where you shared your post. You should see the option along the side to “Edit” or “Delete” your post. Click your preferred option and proceed.
Note: If you can’t remember where you posted a comment that you want to delete, use the instructions for Option 2 under “how to access the forum” to help jog your memory. This path will show you a list of every topic in every forum where you’ve made a post.
How do I share a document or file with other members in my program?
Often program members may take the protocols or advise in Dr. Ritamarie’s programs and turn them into schedules, recipes, shopping lists, or other documents that they use and want to share with other members.
Each program group you belong to has its own “Documents” space for you to share a document with other program members.
Steps to share a document:
- Locate and click the “My Profile” link.
- From the menu bar, select the “Groups” link.
- Select the program group (the one that corresponds to the program your document is for) and click the title link for the group.
- Now that you’re within the specific program group area, you should see a menu option called “Documents“. Click this menu link.
- If there are any previous documents shared from other members, you’ll see a list of all the available documents you can use and access.
- To share a new document, scroll to the bottom of the document list and click “Upload a New Document“.
- A new window will pop open asking for details about your document.
- Use the “Browse” button to locate the file name from your computer folders of the document you wish to share.
- Type in an appropriate “Display Name” for your document (e.g. “Mary’s Blood Sugar Results – 2012”).
- Type in a “Description” that will help new and existing members to understand what sort of content and information is within the document you want to share.
- When ready, click “Submit” and your document will be added to the top of the document list.
How can I quickly save my program resources (files, audios, videos)?
Many Vibrant Living programs offer a variety of documents, audios, and videos that you can download and save for future reference. You can speed up the process — rather than saving each individual file, you can use a technology tool to save all of the files on a page at once.
You’ll find some resources here (choose the one that’s right for your browser) but as they are all free downloads, they are “use at your own risk” tools:
Internet Explorer:
- PimpFish Basic: http://www.pimpfish.com/
Firefox:
- DownTHEMall: http://www.downthemall.net/
- FlashGot: http://flashgot.net/
- Firefox Site Identity (built right into Firefox – no plugin or extension to download, but not quite as handy):
http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-download-and-save-all-images-icons-embed-flash-and-media-files-on-a-web-page-in-firefox-3/
Example Using Firefox FlashGot:
From Stacey: I use Firefox as my browser, and *if you’re comfortable with using technology and new tools*, there’s an “add-on” (an “add-on” is a small piece of software that adds new features to your browser) called “FlashGot” that can be used to download all the documents, audios, and videos on a single page at once.
(Tip: It’s always best to make sure your edition of Firefox is up to date when you try out new tools or add-ons.)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashgot/
You need to add and install this “add-on” if you want to use it (use at your own risk), but once it’s installed, it worked very nicely for me!
For example:
I installed FlashGot and then went to a spring 2012 B4BeGone page (select any page from a program where you are a current member):
The example page I chose had 4 audios and three documents. Instead of having to save them one-by-one, I was able to save them all in ONE save.
You can find the FlashGot instructions via the link below, but I’ll outline my simple steps as well.
http://flashgot.net/features#main
Step #1: Once FlashGot was installed and I restarted Firefox, I highlighted any part of the page that had a download link (normally the highlighting is blue, but the selection turned grey when I did my screenshot):
Step #2: After highlighting everything I want on the page (it will ignore page titles and anything else it can’t download), I right-click and get a little pop-up screen where there’s an option called “FlashGot Selection” (this will save anything that’s within the area I’ve highlighted). I select this option.
Step #3: A new window opens asking me where I want to save the files. I choose the destination save folder on my computer where I want to save everything and, once selected, click “OK”.
Step #4: ALL the files begin to download — the speed will depend on your individual internet speed and settings.
Step #5: When the downloads complete, all the files are saved in the appointed folder: 
Just a little something that may help save you time if you’re a tech-savvy Firefox user and looking for ideas.
Note: If anyone knows of similar recommended tools for these or other browsers, please share a comment at the bottom of the page.
Don’t see your desired help topic? Let us know!
Use the comment area below to let us know if there was a “Community” or “Forum” topic that we didn’t address above (comments will not appear until approved by a moderator). Your comment will be forwarded to our team and we will continue to improve our guidance and support. Thank you!
