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The GCS-RSS website is pretty simple to navigate. There are some tips that are handy to know though.
- The title at the top of the page will return you to your last location on the web. This has the same effect as clicking the back arrow on your browser window. The same thing happens for most photographs or images when you view the enlarged version. Simply click the image again to go back to the same location that you were before.
- You may notice an asterisk (*) beside some words, usually at the end of a sentence. These are links that will give you additional information when you move the mouse pointer over the link (try it). Move the mouse pointer over names under portraits to see a popup tip too. Many other regular text and graphic links also have additional hover tip information when you move the mouse pointer over the link. Sometimes there is no clue that a hover tip exist so move your mouse around a bit, often you will be pleasantly surprised. The hover tip will be displayed below and to the left of, right of, or centered under the link. If the link is close to the bottom of the screen, you may not have enough room to be able to view all of the contents of the hover tip. In these cases, scroll the display up and then revisit the hover tip. Several hover tips on this page are lengthy so you will be able to see examples of this real soon.
- The background of our website is white for the main parts, and black on some sidebars. Text colors are the opposite color (black on white, and white on black). Text link colors are also a high contrast both before being clicked, and following.
Any background or color must have text that is in high-contrast, which is very important for reading. It is always easier to read our pages in an environment where the lighting will not reduce the effective contrast on the screen. It is easier to read any text on a computer screen when there is very little lighting at all. Most find that even at night, it is handy to have some lighting besides what the computer screen offers just to see other things such as the keyboard.
If our pages are difficult to see and read, then it is a good indication that you have less than perfect lighting conditions. If you adjust the lighting where our pages are easier to read, then all websites will be easier to view and read as well. Try for a room where there are no lights other than the outside light. Try it when the light filters in when the sun is directly overhead. This may differ from what you consider a normally lit room. What is often considered a normally lit room will still produce glares on the screen. It is usually because we get used to the lighting conditions even though they are less than perfect. The glares may be from outside light sources or inside sources. Improving the lighting conditions will make using your computer much more enjoyable and can help reduce the stress that accompanies our daily lives. One viewer thanked us because they hadn't thought about their lighting conditions (or noticed the glares) until reading this. Now they use our website as a reference to help others. Glad we could help.
When using artificial lighting, it is always a good idea to position your screen and the lighting so that you do not have any glares on the computer screen. Fluorescent lighting produces the most even lighting, especially if the bulbs are long (tube lights) to help spread out the light source.
- Links: A link may be for a different website (external link), or on our own website (local link). Link colors are dependent upon the color of the background.
- White Background
- Links that you have not visited yet are blue in color. They will turn to (bold) red when the mouse pointer is moved over the link if the link has not yet been visited. Once the link has been visited, the link turns to Fire Brick. While the link is being used (not supported by all browsers or versions of browsers), the color will be a bold gray.
- Black background
- Links that you have not visited yet may be blue, light blue, or gold on the black background. They will turn to (bold) red when the mouse pointer is moved over the link if the link has not yet been visited. Once the link has been visited, the link turns to light blue. While the link is being used (not supported by all browsers or versions of browsers), the color will be a bold gray.
- For local links, the link may be for a different page, or a section of a different page or even the same page you are already on. In the case where the link is on the same page you are already on, the link will be colored Fire Brick (since the page has already been visited). If a link takes you to a different page but the link does not take you to the top of that page, you might consider scrolling to the top of the page after you read the information that the link took you to. That way, you will know if there is something else you want to read on the same page (as its link will now be colored Fire Brick and you may think you have already visited the entire page). You might also want to visit the exploded version of the Site Map to see if there are any pages you missed.
- For external links, we are attempting to make all external text links be displayed in italics. This is to help the viewer know that an italic link will be for an external website. The original version of the website was not implemented with this in mind so changes are made when ones we missed are discovered. Hopefully, we have most converted.
- When you click on an external link, what happens depends on which browser (and Operating System) you use and how it is set up. For example, in Internet Explorer and MS Windows, the link will use a different window* to display the results. The first time you click on an external link, the window will be created and displayed in front of the "clicked-on" browser window.* You can switch back to our website window by choosing the original browser window. Depending on which operating system you use will determine where you select the original browser window. For Windows, the different windows (tasks) are displayed on the task bar, which is normally at the bottom of the screen (unless you have chosen to move it to the sides or to the top). Other browser and operating system pairs may work differently. For example, in some browsers (such as Opera, Mozilla, Firefox, Avant, Maxthon, Deepnet Explorer, and others), external links may cause a new window (task) to start, or it may cause a new "page" to start (depending on how you have set up the multi-tabbed browser). A new "page" uses the same window. Multi-tabbed browsers uses tabs to select different pages, therefore, you can view only one "page" at a time. That works well if you use the entire space of your screen for the window, plus it keeps the task bar (in Windows) from getting crowded. If you have a large screen and wish to display the different views at the same time, then configure your multi-tabbed browser to start a different window (task). In some multi-tabbed browsers (such as Opera), you can also use right mouse clicks to control where the new results are viewed (new "page" or new "window"). In addition to Opera, there are several other browsers that support "multi-tabbed" views. For example, you might like to check out Mozilla, Firefox, Deepnet Explorer, Maxthon, or Avant Browsers. Windows XP SP2 has a new version of Internet Explorer that also supports multi-tabbed window views.
- The first line of a text link under a graphic may be in gold, light blue, or dark blue (or Fire Brick if you have already visited the link). The text link may be in Italics or in Roman*. Each has different meanings. The links in Italics indicate that the linked page will be displayed in a different browser window than the main one* to display the results. The first time you click on an external link, the window will be created and the window will be displayed in front of our website's browser window*, often because it will be an external link, although it may also be a page on our website. The color of the links on the black background determines different things about the link. The link colors are ranked by visibility on black. Gold links are the highest ranked (more easily noticed). Light Blue links are next, and Dark Blue links follow. Generally links on the left hand side of the main pages will be in gold (to help ensure they are noticed). Links along the right side will usually be in Light Blue, or Dark Blue. Some links along the right side will also be in gold. These links are special links due to affiliations, advertising support, or several other things.
- If you hear the common motorized camera sound when you move the mouse pointer over a text link, it is an indication the link will reveal a picture. Make sure you have speakers turned on to catch the sounds.
- Accessibility: If you
are not able to use a mouse, you can move from one link to another on a webpage by using the tab key. If you need to use the right mouse button, keep in mind that you can do the equivalent of a right mouse click by pressing Shift F10 on the link (Windows).
- The quick menu at the bottom will get you to major sections of the website (Some pages have an additional topic menu on the left side). Notice that each menu item at the bottom has one letter underlined. The same letter is used for more than one item. Using the Alt key plus the letter will rotate through all choices for the letter. When the one you want is colored (bold) gray, you can press the Enter key to go to that page*.
- If you think the text is too small for the menus, some browsers allows you to change the size of displayed text. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, Internet Explorer and FireFox will allow you to change text sizes if you hold the Ctrl key down when rolling the mouse wheel. If you do not see an instant change it could mean the text is formatted with cascading style sheets or it could mean your system is slower or is maxed out on memory. Continued rolling back and forth without waiting for the change to take effect will make things worse on slower systems, maxing out to the point that the computer will hang! Faster systems will see instant feedback.
- Browser Differences It is our wish that the website look the same regardless of which web browser you use. We have attempted to implement technology that will ensure that happening, however, making it look exactly the same regardless of browser is next to impossible due to some differences being extreme. Internet Explorer is the most popular browser on the web, and therefore, it has higher priority when we make decisions on how a page should look. Mozilla is the second most popular browser (a continuation of Netscape and taking over the second place position previously held by Netscape), and always has had differences between what it displays and what Internet Explorer displays for the same pages. For example, Netscape/Mozilla typically displayed text one size smaller than Internet Explorer. Some websites (as we did) attempted to compensate to ensure that Netscape/Mozilla viewers saw text sizes the same as Internet Explorer users. This was accomplished by taking advantage of features of the HTML standard that Internet Explorer supported but Netscape/Mozilla did not. These "tricks" work only because the browsers supported different features, but these "work-arounds" cannot be guaranteed to work in the future. Netscape is no longer being developed, but its footsteps are being followed by the Mozilla browser, and the advanced version being FireFox, all functioning nearly identical to Netscape. The same "trick" used to make text sizes match worked in these browsers as well. Starting with Mozilla version 1.7, some parts of the trick didn't work since Mozilla started supporting more of the standard. Due to the complexities of attempting to keep up with every variant of browser, we had rather concentrate on the web content instead. We will assume that if you prefer to use a particular browser, then you accept the fact that there are differences.
- You should read the
About page for additional information.
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