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How to Use the Website

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In order to best make use of this website, it's helpful to understand how each page is laid out and how the site is pieced together.

Jump to: Why JavaScript should be turned on ... Get notified when a page changes

Each page is divided into 7 major sections:

  1. The very top portion contains the 3 major navigation links: Home, Site Map, and Contact Us. We chose those three because if you get lost, or need to find something quickly, or need to contact someone, then those three pages are your best bets.

  2. Immediately below that is the section that contains the District Logo and the Page Name.

  3. Immediately below that are Breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs show you the path to the page you're on and which items in the Left Navigation Bar to choose to get back to a particular page. Look at the Breadcrumb for this page and you'll see
    Home : Website Info : How to Use the Website
    .
    On larger websites, sometimes you need that clue to help you figure out just where you are in the website. More about Breadcrumbs in the last paragraph of the next item (which discusses the Left Navigation Bar in the left column.

  4. The left column is extremely important because it contains the major way for you to navigate through the website. For example, take your mouse and hover over Resources in the left column. Assuming your browser has JavaScript turned on, all the pages that are in the Resources section, will appear because a little window will fly out to the right. You know that's going to happen because there is a little right arrow next to Resources that tells you that there is lower level information that is hiding. As you look through the fly out window, move your mouse cursor to Steal Our Images or Club Website Aids. Notice that an additional fly out occurs with even more pages.

    When you hover over almost any of the menu items, the cursor will be a Hand which means that the link is clickable. Clicking on any of those high-level menu items will take you to an Index Page which describes the purpose of the section and lists the pages within the section. On the bottom of every Index Page are the links to all the other pages in the section. That's to ensure that people who don't have JavaScript-enabled browsers can still see all the information on the website. Go ahead and click on the Contests Section link right now. The browser will open up a new window just so you can close it when you're done. On that page, scroll to the bottom of the white are and notice the list of pages in the Contests Section. Then close that window and continue reading this page.

    There is a clear relationship between the menu items in this portion of the page and the Breadcrumbs in the previous item. When you look at the Breadcrumbs, you can easily see what menu items you chose to get to the page you're on. If you followed a link to get to the page you're on, then the Breadcrumb shows you where it the menu structure that page can be found.

  5. The white part of every page is the most important part. It contains the content. It's the reason you're here. We use dark text on a white background to make sure the contrast is high so that the text is easily readable.

  6. On most pages, there is a right column which contains three items - (1) A Search Box at the top for you to search for anything within this website. For more information about searching this website, please see the How to Find Information On This Website page. (2) A Change Detection box (as either the last item in the right column or at the bottom of the Main Content Area) allows you to make use of a free service that monitors pages for changes and sends you an email when the page has changed. Don't worry about being spammed by them. In about 3 years of using their services, I have never been spammed by them. (3) In between those 2 boxes are several news items that get changed at various intervals. Each news item contains a teaser along with a link for more information.

  7. Below the white area, there are several more Navigational Links to sections that we think might be of major interest. Clicking one of those will take you to the Index Page of that section. Immediately below that is a link that will allow you to email us with questions and feedback.

Why you should have JavaScript turned on:

We've taken a lot of care to try to make the site useful and user-friendly to all visitors. However, it should be noted that to make the best use of this site, your browser must have JavaScript turned on for the following reasons:.

  1. On most pages, the left navigation menu bar has fly-out submenus which will allow you to best see the list of pages within each section. On browsers that do not have JavaScript turned on, then either the menus will all be fully exapnded when you load a page, or you will be able to click a menu item and go to a summary page for that section where you will see the other pages within that section.
  2. We have a number of pages that have Show/Hide (Expand/Collapse) sections so that, if you have JavaScript turned on, you will find it easier to see a summary of what's on the page before delving into the details. If you do not have JavaScript turned on, then those areas will all be fully expanded when you enter the page ... which means  you will have to scroll through a lot more information than you would otherwise.

How to be notified when a page changes

Most pages have a link to ChangeDetection.com. This link is either the last item in the right column or at the bottom of the main content area (the white area). ChangeDetection.com is a free independent service that will send you an email whenever the main contont portion of the page changes. It works best if you have your firewall's privacy features set to allow the browser to send the address of the current page to the webserver. If your firewall allows sending the address of the page, then ChangeDetection.com will automatically have the pagename entered. Otherwise, you will have to type it in. I've used ChangeDetection.com for several years and have necver had any spam from them, so you can be relatively assured of the privacy of your email address.

Let us know how we're doing.

Thanks ... Jeff and Donna

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Newsletter
See the August, 2008 edition of the District 27 newsletter.

News For Clubs
It's time to collect dues . . . read more

 
Be sure to check the TLI Training Results now!

 
On July 1, Club and District Officers take office . . . read more

 
It's Fall Contest Season and it's time to prepare for club contests . . . read more

 
Club Presidents - Be sure to get your Club Officer Manuals . . . read more

 
Club Presidents look for Proxies from International . . . more

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