South
West Herts
Astronomical Society
Using the Site
Links -
• Home
Using
this site
The following
notes cover navigation around the site, accessing the members area,
user names / passwords, screen size and browser types.
The navigation bar
Home
Page
Links -
•
About
•
Meetings
<< Sample
navigation bar
Each page has a navigation
bar at the left hand side, coloured black, and headed with the name of
the current page.
These bars contain one or more links to other pages, or to email forms. You can tell if a link is 'active' if the colour changes from red to green when you place the mouse pointer over it. Links that do not change colour are not yet active. Try this with the Home link on this page.
Most pages have a link to take you directly back to the Home page, or to the start of a group of pages where applicable.
Members
Area
The Members Area of
the site can only be accessed by current SWHAS members who have the correct
User Name and Password.
When you click on Login, you will be presented with the following 'pop-up' screen:
Enter the details as requested and click
OK.
Important
Note - the user name must be in lowercase
- do not Capitalize the first letter.
Members
Area - error message
If you enter incorrect details in one
of the boxes, you will be re-presented with the above screen for another
try - just re-enter the correct details and click OK.
However, if you click on Cancel or enter the wrong details you will be presented with the following rather unfriendly screen:
This message is generated by the server at the hosting company (computer where the site is stored), so it is not possible to change the wording.
Please don't be 'put-off' by the message - it simply
means that you have 'messed things up', when entering the user name and/or
password and the server wont accept your offering!
At the least the message is straight and to the point - you have attempted
something that is Unauthorized!
Just click on Back at the top left of your screen
and you will be returned to the Login page, where you can either try again,
email the Webmaster or give up!
Screen
size and settings
There are
many different screen sizes in use today and each can be set to various
'pixel settings'.
(A pixel represents one 'dot on the screen and the screen is composed of rows of pixels - similar in a way to the 'lines' on a television screen - or the dots that can be seen in newsprint).
Your screen size will probably measure 15, 17,19 or 21 inches across the diagonal and the number of pixels will probably be set somewhere between 640 x 480 (w x h) to 1280 x 1024, according to the size of the screen. The setting may also depend on whether you are using a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube - as a standard TV) or a LCD / TFT flat panel type.
Due to this range and variation, it is difficult to produce a web site that will look the same on all screens - so one deigned for a 15 inch set at 640 x 480 would look lost on a 19 inch set at 1280 x 1024 and vice versa. Therefore an 'average screen size' has to be assumed when designing a site.
This site should be fine on screens set to between 1024 x 768 to 1280 x 1024 and may well be acceptable on lower settings. However, you may need to alter your screen if you normally use a lower setting. To do this (assuming that you are using Windows) go to the Desktop, Control Panel, Display and then click on the Settings Tab.
At the bottom right hand corner there will be a slider that allows you to alter the Screen area. If you don't like the result after changing, you can just go back and reset. (It is advisable to make a note of the current setting, before making any alterations).
As you can see from the above image, my screen is set to 1152 x 864 - it is a 17 inch LCD.
As a further attempt to ensure that the site is readable by all users, the page width in each case has been set at 700 pixels, so as long as your page is set to more than the smallest (640 x 480), you should see the full width of the page, without having to scroll across the screen.
Browsers
This site has been
developed with Macromedia Dreamweaver and is known to work accurately
when using Microsoft Explorer v 6. It should work satisfactorily
on most earlier versions of Explorer, and most versions of Netscape.
Problems
not answered by these notes
If you have a problem with using this site
(including different browser types) and these notes don't cover it, then
please