Help

To send a member to member e-mail couldn’t be easier.

Trial members - can only send a message of ‘Notification of Interest’ which basically lets you tell another member that you are interested in getting in touch with them.

• When you look at the details of a potential travel companion you will see a link to ‘E-mail this Member’ which will open a Pop-Up window when clicked.
  
  
  
• If you then click on the ‘Send Notification’ button a message will be sent to the member you chose to contact containing a link to your details and a reciprocal link for them to mail you back if they wish to.
• A confirmation page will load telling you that your email has been sent and you will also receive an e-mail to your private address letting you know the same information. You can also see the e-mail you sent out in your ‘Mail Archive’ page which can be found in ‘My C2T’.

Full Members - can send a written e-mail to any of the members on the site be they Trial or Full.

• When you look at the details of a potential travel companion you will see a link to ‘E-mail this member’ which will open a Pop-Up window when clicked.
• The window will contain the title of the member you are e-mailing, a message title and a box in which you can write your e-mail.
• Once you have composed your e-mail and are happy with it click on the ‘Send E-mail’ button (please only click once, if you are using a slow internet connection it may take a few moments to send). Your message will be sent to the member you chose to contact containing a link to your details and a reciprocal link for them to mail you back if they wish to.
• A confirmation page will load telling you that your email has been sent and you will also receive an e-mail to your private address letting you know the same information. You can also see the e-mail you sent out in your ‘Mail Archive’ page which can be found in ‘My C2T’.

The message board has been put in place for our members to take get to know each other, to share ideas, have a laugh and to take part in discussions about all sorts of topics to do with travel. You can access the message board through a variety of different ways;

• By clicking on the ‘message board’ button (drawing pin icon), in the orange ‘My C2T’ tab
• By  clicking in the ‘C2T Message Boards’ window.
• By following the link at the bottom of the page.

You will see a list of available forums separated into three sections; Destinations, Travel Talk and General.

• Browse through the forums that are relevant to what you are seeking to read / write about and click on the name of it to read further or to post a new message.
  
• To post a message click on any of the ‘post message’ buttons, which will take you to a page where you can edit your message.
  
• Give your message a subject and fill in your text, there is plenty of room to write whatever you want.
  
• To add a photo to your message; click on ‘Browse’ to open an explorer window, use this to find the image on the computer you are using and select it.
  
• Once you have finished click on the ‘post message’ button at the bottom and you are done.
  
• To post a reply click on any of the ‘post reply’ buttons, which will take you to a page where you can edit your reply.
  
• Give the reply a subject and fill in your text, there is plenty of room to write whatever you want.
  
• To add a photo to your reply; click on ‘Browse’ to open an explorer window, use this to find the image on the computer you are using and select it.
  
• Once you have finished click on the ‘post a reply’ button at the bottom and you are done.

Use the My Photos (camera icon) button on the My C2T tab to get access to your photo albums pages. Here you can have a photo album for every occasion; one for your latest holiday snaps, maybe one to house your wildlife stills and how about one dedicated to your favourite pastimes, all with titles, descriptions and a front page picture.

• To add a photo album - click on the ‘Add a Photo Album’ button it will take you to a page where you can edit the front page of your album.
  
• Choose a name for your album e.g. ‘My Best Ever Holiday’ and give it a description ‘My New Year trip to Thailand in 2000’.
  
• Now to pick an image to use for your front page; click on ‘Browse’ to open an explorer window, use this to find the image on the computer you are using and select it.
  
• Click on the ‘Add Album’ button to save your album details and set the image upload going.
  
• You will then be taken to your photo album explorer page; you will see your album is displayed on the page.

Then

• To add photos to your album click on the ‘View/Edit Your Photos’ button which will open up your album.
  
• Use the link Click here to add a photo to the album’ and fill in the details as you did for your front page, the only difference being you are putting in details for photos this time.
  
• Keep adding photos until you are happy with your album.
  
• To edit your album – click on the ‘edit album’ button. This will take you to a page where you can alter the album name, description and image, in the same way that you add one.
  
• To delete an album – click on the ‘delete album’ button to delete an album if you no longer want it. A page will open displaying the album details, if you are sure you want to delete the album click on ‘Delete’. Please note there is no undo facility, once you delete an album you can not get it back.
  
• To add another album – The ‘add new’ button appears at the top right hand side of the page. When clicked the album add page will load. Follow the steps for setting up a photo album above.
  
• To view your albums – choose the album you want to look at and click on the ‘View/Edit Your Photos’ button. This will open up your photo album to view or add to.

Various poll questions will be available to you, the poll can be found on two pages, the home page and the ‘My C2T’ member page.

The Travel Companion Match facility finds potential companions for you automatically based on your saved travel companion match preferences and your Prefered holiday information. If you feel the companion match has returned too many or too few potential travel companions then click on the ‘Edit my companion match preferences’ to change your preferences/holidays to make the results more or less specific.

This page displays the companion(s) found using the criteria you just entered. From this results page you can view a potential companions details and also send an email to them.

If you would like to search manually using preferences different to those that are saved you may like to use the Travel Companion Search facility.

The travel companion search facility enables you to search for members using preferences different to those that you have saved for the travel companion match facility. When you click on Travel Companion Search the page that loads contains a form, the search is then carried out using the criteria you enter into this form.

Enter or select your preferences in the provided sections of the form, in order to find suitable potential travel companion(s). Leave the boxes blank if you have no preference for that particular item. Then click on the 'Search Now' button below the form. You can choose more than one item from the drop down menus by holding down CTRL and clciking the required items. You can either carry out a Basic Search or if you require more specific results you can carry out an Advanced Search which allows more refinment.

This takes you to a results page. This page displays the travel companion(s) found using the criteria you just entered. From this results page you can view a potential travel companions details and also send an email (full member) / notification mail (trial members) to them.If you feel the travel companion search has returned too many or too few potential travel companions, then click on the ‘Basic' or 'Advanced' link and fill out the form with this in mind.

To upgrade your account is easy and does not require you to re-enter your details. If you log in using your trial membership details and click one of the ‘Upgrade Membership’ links it will use your existing details (including username and password) to become a full member. You will still have to activate your account using the confirmation e-mail that will be sent out to you.

Once logged in you need to go to ‘My Profile’ you will find that the page displays the details you provided when you filled in the membership sign up form. Some more information is required in order for the site to work to its full potential in finding you Companions 2 Travel. These details are:

My Personal Profile - used for both 'Travel Companion Match' and 'Holiday Match'
My Personal Interest - used by members
My Preferred Travel Destinations, Holidays and Activities  - used for both 'Travel Companion Match' and 'Holiday Match'

Please click on the ‘Add New’ button next to each of the headings mentioned above and enter your own interests, destinations and accommodation types, for the preferred destination you also have the option of adding dates of travel, if you do not mind when you go away simply leave these blank you also have the option of stating where you want to leave from i.e. Heathrow again if you have no preference leave this space blank, once you have entered the information click on the ‘add’ button the ‘my details’ page will then open and you will find the information just added appearing under the relevant header. Below are a few examples of what you may like to enter:

My Interests

• Walking
• Dancing

My Preferred Travel Destinations

• Destination: Australia
• Activities: Cycling
• Accommodation types: Hotel, Motel, Self Catering

If you decide you want to remove one of your interests, destinations, activities and accommodation types, click on the ‘delete’ button next to the chosen text.

You also have the ability to go back and edit your preferred holidaysc lick on ‘edit’ you can then alter the information you supplied.

Once you have entered all those relevant to you, you may wish to then go and add details about your education and qualifications to do this click on the ‘edit’ button next to the My Personal Profile header and locate the education and qualification fields in the form. This information is displayed when another member finds you using the search / match facility and click on ‘View members full details’, if you do not want this information to be displayed for any reason just do not add it.

Now you have finished adding all your details the magic will start to happen…

Please click on the ‘My C2T’ tab located near the top of the page, you are taken back to your main area. You will now find that in ‘My Travel Companion Matches’ other members matching your preferences are listed, these people are your potential Companions 2 Travel.

If, in the unlikely event no other member have matched your preferences then a block of text will appear with a link to alter your saved preferences. If you broaden your preferences you will greatly increase the probability of finding matching Companions 2 Travel.