When I responding on a thread I do not have access to icon, text color chnages etc.

But I do when I start a thread

Is there s setting or something I need to look at ?

Do you mean using the "Reply", or the "Quick Reply" at the bottom of the screen?

If you mean the Quick Reply, then you can click the "Switch to Full Screen Reply", and the tools will all be there.

got it thanks YTown...

You're welcome.

hey it works!

you know how many times i clicked reply on a name just so i could those tools? not computer literate

It's a lot easier if you can just remember the UBBCodes you want..

whats a UBBCode?

Well, when a man loves a woman...

Kidding. it's the tags that are used to format text in a post.

Stuff like b in [] those brackets does bold as long as you end with a b in [/] after the /

One other trick, if you are in the full reply screed, and you want to bold, or italicize, or quote a specific part of something you wrote, or copied and pasted, you can highlight the area you want to alter, and then, while that area is highlighted, click on the appropriate command.

So, to bold a sentence, highlight the sentence, and click on the "B". You can do this with more than one command, but you will have to re-highlight the entire sentence to do so.

Just one more little trick.