RASC Calgary Centre - Visiting Our Site

By: Larry McNish
Page last updated March 16, 2011

This website contains a lot of pages on astronomy and the Calgary RASC.
That's both good and bad because there is a lot of information, but,
like any website, you must be able to find what you are looking for.
Contents:

1. Seeing What's New


1.1 The What's New Link

If you are a regular visitor to our website, then you are probably interested in what's new since the last time you visited.

On the Home Page there is a section of links near the top with a What's New link specifically for you:



Each Sunday night our site is scanned by the FreeFind service and a web page is created that shows which web pages changed or were added on which dates. Clicking the What's New link takes you to that web page.

As long as you do not erase your internet browser's "cache" (or if you don't know what this means) you get an additional benefit - namely, that pages you have visited are one colour and those you have not visited are another colour as shown in the example below.

If you regularly erase your internet browser's "cache", all the page titles are the same colour, but at least they are sorted in order so you can pick a date and review new or changed pages from that point on (upwards).



Note: Each page is listed only once, regardless of how many times it has changed. For instance, the Home Page changes every few days as I add or change links or content, but it will show up only one time. Therefore this is not a complete chronological history of changes to every page on the entire site. (I have a page like that - but it's really boring.)

Note: Since this list is only updated weekly you should still know how to find something (see the next section).

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1.2 Article Markers

If you just scroll down the Home Page, you will see the following markers beside different articles:
  • NEW! - This is a new item on the page
  • Updated - This item has been updated recently
These markers are usually removed after a month.

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2. Finding Something Specific


2.1 Home Page Table of Contents



The Home Page contains a Table of Contents section that has links to the 13 sections of the Home Page as well as a few popular links to other site pages:
Since most of the links are to sections of the Home Page itself, they will be of one colour, and the others will be a different colour if you have not visited them.

Clicking these links takes you to the appropriate section or page. Use the "Back" button (or hit backspace) to return to the Table of Contents after you visit one of these items.

Note: - Some web sites use a complex system of menus down the left or across the top with sections and subsections appearing and disappearing as you move your mouse over them to provide their "Contents" feature. We do not do this for many reasons:
  1. Menu systems don't always work on all possible browsers (and if it doesn't work on your browser you can't find something) Calgary RASC members use a large variety of different computer systems and browsers.
  2. Menu systems take much more web code to make them work therefore taking more time to load the Home Page. Many of the Calgary RASC members only have access to dial-up internet, not high-speed internet. (This is the reason I removed the complete list of RASC eNews items and replaced it with a single link.)
  3. Visitors often miss whole important sections of a site simply because they didn't "mouse over" something
  4. You can print off the entire page and read it later or take it with you - the alternative requires you to print off a lot of smaller pages.
  5. You can "Find" something on the page (more on this later) without having to repeat your "Find" on a whole bunch of smaller pages
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2.2 Other Pages Tables of Contents

Other pages (like this one) often contain their own Table of Contents (if they are lengthy).
This is done:
  • To make it easy to locate to the section of that page you are looking for
  • To allow me to keep all relevant information on one page (for ease of updating)
  • You can print off the entire page and read it later or take it with you - the alternative requires you to print off a lot of smaller pages.
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2.3 Home Page Notice Section



This section is reserved for several important items, namely:
  • Notifications about special events, meetings etc.
  • National RASC eNews Service link - click this to see what's going on across the nation
  • Call for Volunteers - If you haven't volunteered try it - it's fun, educational and rewarding
  • Items for sale - Got something you want to sell? Looking for a telescope? - click it
  • Membership Benefits - A handy link for when someone says "Why Should I Join the Calgary Centre of the RASC?
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2.4 Finding Something On A Lengthy Web Page

If you know that something you are looking for is on a particularly long page but you can't easily find it, use the browser's "Find" feature to search that page for the specific word or phrase.

Click on Edit, then click on Find (on This Page)...



This opens a "Find dialog box":


  • type in your phrase; select options; and then click Find Next
  • This will take you to the first occurrence of the particular word or phrase on that page
  • If that is not the one you want, click on Find Next again
  • When you have found the item you are looking for, click on Cancel (or type the Esc key)
Note: - a quick (shorthand) way to open the Find box is to use the keyboard sequence F
i.e. hold down either Ctrl key on the keyboard while typing the letter "F".

Note: - in Internet Explorer, the search starts at the top of the page and proceeds downwards. The browser "remembers" where you are on the page at all times. If you change the search phrase, or close the Find box and then re-open it, Internet Explorer will search from the last point downwards. If the item was actually above where you were on the page it may not be found. There are two ways to resolve this:
  • Select Up or Down before hitting Find Next - this reverses the direction but Internet Explorer will not "wrap around" at the top or bottom of the page
  • close the Find box, scroll up and click on some text at the top of the page, then repeat your Find - this causes Internet Explorer to start the search at the top of the page and search downwards again
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2.5 Finding Which Pages Have Something About The Item You Are Looking For

If you are looking for something on the Calgary Centre's web site but have no idea which page it is on, the Home Page has a section of links near the top with a Search this site facility specifically for you:



  • Type in a phrase you are looking for
  • Click the Find button (or hit Enter)
Each Sunday night our site is scanned by the FreeFind service. Clicking the Find button takes you to a FreeFind page that shows the results of searching their database of our site for that phrase.

Scroll down the list of pages shown on the search results for a page that most likely matches what you are looking for, then click on the page link to go directly to that page.

Note: - your search may produce more than one page of results. Check the top and bottom of the Search page for the following hints:
  • - at the top shows the count of matches and the count being displayed on the page
  • - at the bottom shows if other pages are available
If you go to a page that is not the one you want - use the "Back" button (or hit backspace) to return to the list of possible pages instead of repeating the search.

Once you are on a selected page, you can browse through it, or use the technique for "2.4 Finding Something On A Lengthy Web Page" above.



Using Google (or another web search engine)



You can search our site using Google by specifying our site address as shown above.

Note: - We have no control over how often Google or other search engines scan our site or whether they scan all the pages or not.

I recommend the FreeFind Search facility we provide to ensure you get the latest search and the latest page references.

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2.6 Site Map



If you are just interested in a list of the titles of every page in our site to see if there is something that you missed, then click on Site Map.

You will be presented with several pages of links - one for each page (in alphabetical order) - that is maintained whenever FreeFind scans or site.

Use the techniques mentioned above (clicking, backspacing, and Finding) to look through the pages.


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3. Printing Something

OK - you found a page with something really important on it and you want to print this out for posterity.

If you want to print the entire page:
  • Click File, then Print..., select your options, printer etc. and click OK, or
  • Click the "Print this page" icon in the browser toolbar , or
  • A few pages on the website that use "frames" have a special "Print this page" icon Print This Page to print the right-hand page of information without printing the navigation bar on the left.
If you want to print only a portion of a page:
  • Click and "drag" your mouse over the section you want to print,
  • (In the Monthly Events Calendar for example, this might be the whole month of October)
  • (This can include text, tables, images, photos etc.)
  • (do *NOT* click the "Print this page" icon in the browser toolbar - it always prints the entire page)
  • Click File, then Print...,
  • Make sure the Selection option is set as shown below,
  • click OK


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