all those are my questions to is there a Tech manual somewhere???
No "tech-manual" that I've ever found. But here are your answers:
1. to change the name of a thread: go to the first post of a thread that you've created, and then edit that post #1. Once the edit screen comes up, press edit a SECOND TIME! When you do so, you will see that you have the option to edit the thread title.
2. hidden text: These are what we call "sblocks," short for "spoiler blocks". Now, obviously, I can't show you how to do this exactly, because the text of my peplanation would be hidden as well. So, I'm going to stick an extra asterisk in the code. Remember to omit the asterisks when you actually do this.
[*sblock=the title of the hidden text]the hidden text itself[/sblock]
2A. In the future, if you see some text or effect in a post that you wish to replicate in your own posts, the way to see the code used to create the text/effect is to QUOTE the message in a reply. You don't have to actually POST the reply, just act like you are going to do so to see the code, and the use the back button. (Unless you actually want to reply that is...)
3. altering link text: Ok, this one is a bit more tricky, and involves quite a bit of typing. I know it can be done, and I've seen how to do it, but, for me personally, it's just not worth the hassle, so I have hardly ever done it. But, find the effect you're looking to learn, QUOTE the message in a reply post, and you'll instantly see how it's done, just like I said above.
All better now?