HELP!!! For first Time Users.
 
 
HELP!!! INDEX
INTRODUCTION BROWSERS BASICS E-MAIL SEARCH TOOLS TERMINOLOGY
 
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the "Help For First Time Users" section of "DESIGN WORKS". Most of you have already had some experience with the Internet, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Internet or have not used it a great deal, we have attempted to make your life a little easier.
If you managed to get this far by yourself, or if one of your assistants helped you to get here, you have already learned a little bit about computers and the Internet. The following help guide will take you through some of the different things that you can do with your browser and will help you to make better use of web site in general.
 
Provider
If you are viewing this page, you probalbly already have an Internet Service Provider (ISP). If you are viewing this page from someone elses machine and you currently do not have an ISP - then this section will be of interest.
You require an Internet Service Provider to connect to the internet. Here you have several choices. You can use your local cable provider, local telephone (land line) provider or mobile cell provider (wireless modem). Local providers offer a wide range of service packages and payment schedules.
 
 

BROWSERS

To surf the internet you will need a Web Browser. Your personal computer (PC) or Apple computer should already have browser software installed. Your ISP may also have provided you with a browser in your start-up package.
There are several internet browsers available including: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome and Opera. Internet Explorer (Windows) is the most widely used browser software used by approx. 65% of internet viewers. Mozilla Firefox (Windows / Mac OS) is the second most used browser, used by approx. 23% of internet viewers. Safari accounts for approx. 9% of viewers and is used with Apple (Mac OS) computers.
Most internet browsers are available free via download and offer additional services including: Bookmark, Download, Password and Form managing; Spell Cheking; and Search Engine toolbar.
Your ISP will should provide you with the necessary manual(s) to get startted. If you have downloaded your browser off of the internet, you should be able to locate a printable mannual at your suppliers web site.
 
Special Note
How your web pages look is greatly controlled by how the options in your own browser are set. With your browser you control type size and fonts, page background colours, links and how underlined and coloured words look. Spend some time with the manual provided by your internet provider or downloaded off of the Internet to optimize your browser to suit your tastes and needs.
Also, remember that each monitor will see colours differently depending on the type of monitor (VGA or SVGA) and the colour settings it has been set to.
 
Status Indicator
No matter which browser you are using the company logo in the top right hand corner will be active when a transfer is in progress. If it ceases to move there may have been an interruption in transfer. You can click on "reload" to get it going again.
If you click on the logo it will take you to that company's " Home Page".
 
Progress Bar
Located in the bottom left hand corner of your browser it will show the status of the current operation. It will tell you the size of the page being loaded and how much of it has already been loaded. It shows it as a percentage and how fast it is loading in terms of kilobytes per second.
 
Access Speed
Your browser settings, modem speed, type of connection (normal phone line, cable modem, T-1 line) and the amount of memory in your computer will all affect the speed at which pages will load onto your screen.
You can set your browser to support pictures or you can set your browser to turn off any pictures and thus speed up loading of the page.
 
 
 
INTERNET BASICS
The Internet links people and information. It allows you to source personal, general and business information from around the world and it allows you to have direct access to your own web site, Intranet or Extranet and to get the information you need when you want it, at any time of the day and night when it best suites your busy schedule.
Don't worry about all of the technical terms and lingo that you keep hearing about the Internet. It is basically pretty simple.
 
Cursor and Moving Around
Your cursor is always an arrow. When it covers an item and the arrow changes into a hand then you can go to that information with a single click of the mouse.
Also, when you come to words of a different colour or underlined that will mean that there is a link to another page and more information and a click of the mouse will take you there.
 
Home
Home takes you back to where you began when you first started your session. You can have any page you want as your home page but most people use the their internet provider as the home page.
You can set your web site as your home page if you so desire.
For Internet Explorer - click "Tools" on the menu bar at the top of the screen - select "Internet Options / General" - type "http://www.your-web-site.com as your Home Page.
For Mozilla Firefox - click "Tools" on the menu bar at the top of the screen - select "Options / Main" - type "http://www.your-web-site.com as your Home Page.
 
Back Button
The back button will take you back to the previous page. You can keep going back as often as you like.
 
Forward Button
This will advance you to the next page if you have used the back button to move. You can keep clicking forward until you get to the last page loaded.
 
Stop Button
The stop button will stop a page from loading. This is useful if you change your mind or find out from the progress bar in the bottom left of the browser that the page is 300 k and will take a few minutes to load and you don't want to wait that long right now.
 
Reload Button
This allows you to reload a page if it did not load properly or if there was an interruption during loading.
 
Go/Location Button
If you want to go back to a previous site "Go/Location" will provide you with a list of sites that you have recently viewed. Select a link and it will automatically take you right back there.
 
Home
This will always take you back to your own designated "Home Page" that you have set-up in Preferences in your browser.
 
Print Button
Print is handy if you want to print out an interesting article for reading later. It is important to know that if you decide to print a web site page, you will print the entire page file. In some cases, a page file may be comprised of the equivalent of several printed pages. If you want to print only a portion of a page, highlight the area that you want to print with the cursor, go to "Edit" and click "Copy". Open your word processing program, click on "New" file, go to "Edit" and click on "Paste". This will copy the desired information onto the new file in your word processor. Now simply print the word processor page.
 
Bookmarks
Bookmark allows you to save the Domain Name to a file for easy access the next time you want to go to that particular web site.
Simply press ("ctrl" / "d") and the site name will be saved in your bookmark file. You can now go to bookmark and click. Go to the name and double click to immediately load that web site
Bookmarks are useful for saving the addresses of your favourite web sites.
 
 
 
E-MAIL
Electronic mail is one of the most cost effective ways of communicating with another individual or company anywhere in the world as there is no cost involved. This is one of the primary communication benefits of your web site. Viewers can now contact you at any time of the day or night when it is convenient for them! You no longer have to worry about office hours and time zone differences. There should be an "E-Mail" button on every one of your web site pages!
 
E-mail Options
Once you have become familiar with the internet and your e-mail you will find that it offers a number of useful options:
  • You can cc. a number of people on your message, so if you want several members to receive the information simultaneously it is easily done.
  • If you receive an e-mail and you think someone else would be interested in it, it is easy to forward it on to that individual.
  • You can respond to an e-mail by simply clicking on the appropriate button at the top of the screen. You can mail simultaneously to a number of individuals at one time.
  • You can save your e-mail or print it out for future reading and reference.
 
Getting Started with E-Mail
Browsers come with an E-mail function built into them. You do not need to download special software such as Eudora to be able to use E-mail. Your ISP will provide you with an E-mail address when you sign-up and provide you with E-mail software if need be.
TOWNHALL Internet Communications provides E-Mail addresses as part of our TOWNHALL Network support including: E-mail with Multi-Device Synchronization, Announcer Pro , Newsletter Application, Autoresponder, POP / SMTP, Webmail and Spam Filtering. Ask your partner consultant to take you through our tutorial.
E-mail Addresses
The address is critical in getting your E-mail delivered to the correct individual. The address will look something like this: "tomdoe@your-web-site.com". There will always be an @ and a number of periods.
The easiest way to keep track of E-mail addresses is to use the Address Book provided in your browser. When you are sending an E-mail, open the address book, click on the name of the individual you want to E-mail and click OK. It will automatically put in the address. You don't have to re-type it every time!
The section to the right of the @ is the Domain Name and is followed by a period. The Internet uses this to find the individuals account.
Spaces are not used in Internet E-mail addresses. If you have a space you have the wrong address and the mail will go nowhere.
 
 
 
SEARCH TOOLS
Now that you are familiar with the Internet you will want to do some exploring. There are thousands of sites on the Internet. You will need one of a number of popular search engines to help you find the type of site that you are looking for.
Search engines simply scan the Internet for the sites that contain the words or descriptors that you have entered. They then create a catalogue of all the sites they have found relative to your directions.
When searching, be as specific as possible so as your search is narrowed down. As we said earlier there are thousands of sites out there.
Some of the most popular All-Purpose search engines are:
  • Google - the world's most popular search engine - has a Canadian version that searches only Canadian sites.
  • Yahoo - the second largest search engine - has a Canadian version that searches only Canadian sites.
  • Alta Vista
  • Lycos
There are hundreds of Search Engines dedicated to specific categories including: All-Purpose Search Engines, Accounting, Bit Torrent, Blog, Books, Business, E-mail, Enterprise, Forum, Games, Human Search, International, Job Legal Maps, Medical, MetaSearch, MultiMedia, News, Open Source, People, Question & Answer, Real Estate, School, Scientific, Shopping, Source Code, Usenet and Visual Search Engines.
A detailed list of Search Engines presented by category is available at: http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/
 
 
 
SOME TERMINOLOGY FOR THE CURIOUS
The internet is now ubiquitious and has generated thousands of new words and technical expressions. The list presented below is representative of only a few of these new terms. You can access a more complete dictionary of terms at: http://www.netlingo.com/dictionary/s.php
 
ActiveX - A set of technologies created by Microsoft to enable interactive content on Web sites. With ActiveX, Web sites can be animated using multimedia effects, interactive objects, and sophisticated applications that create a user experience comparable to a high-quality CD-ROM. The same effects can be experienced with Java, Shockwave, Flash, and numerous other applets and programs-the difference is that ActiveX is an exclusive Microsoft product making use of ActiveX Controls. For more information about ActiveX, visit this definition on NetLingo.com.
 
Ad Banner - An online advertisement on a Web page, it links to another Web site or buffer page or landing page.
 
Ad Click - A click on an online ad, it takes a user to another Web site. If you see the term "ad clicks" it refers to the number of times a user clicks on an online ad.
 
Ad Space - The name for the space on a Web page that is reserved for online ads.
 
Animated GIF - A type of GIF format that allows a series of static images to be displayed one after another or on top of each other, giving the effect of motion or animation. Since their implementation in Netscape Navigator 2.0, animated GIFs have been one of the easiest ways to put animation and movement on Web pages. Animated GIFs have been around since the introduction of the GIF89a format in 1989, but they didn't appear on the Web at that time because Web browsers initially did not support GIF89a's animation features.
 
Anonymous FTP - An option in File Transfer Protocol (FTP) that allows you to connect to an FTP site, search through available files, and download any file, document, or program without having to establish an account (a username and password) on the system where the material resides. Most FTP servers allow a limited amount of anonymous FTP users to login at the same time and access only designated files.
 
Backbone - The Internet high-speed data highway, it serves as a major access point to which other networks connect.
 
Bandwidth - The technical definition of "bandwidth" involves the difference between two frequencies and the amount of information that can flow through a channel, as expressed in cycles per second (hertz). It also refers to the range of frequencies (not the speed), or the measured amount of information, that can be transmitted over a connection: the higher the frequency, the higher the bandwidth and the greater the capacity of a channel to carry information. For a digital channel, bandwidth is defined in bits per second (bps). For an analog channel, it is dependent on the type and method of modulation used to encode the data. Broadcast TV channels, for example, all have the same bandwidth, by FCC rule.
 
BlackBuried - Slang for being inundated and exhausted trying to be on top of all your email 24/7 with your handheld mobile device.
 
Blog - a.k.a. blogger -or- blogrolling -or- weblog -or- Web log - A Web site (or section of a Web site) where users can post a chronological, up-to-date e-journal entry of their thoughts. Each post usually contains a Web link. Basically, it is an open forum communication tool that, depending on the Web site, is either very individualistic or performs a crucial function for an organization or company. There are three basic varieties of blogs: those that post links to other sources, those that compile news and articles, and those that provide a forum for opinions and commentary.
 
Cache or Caching (pronounced: cash or cashing) - The action of storing Web files for later reuse so that they can be accessed more quickly by the end-user. When you're on the Web, the cache improves your Web browser's performance: It stores HTML page code, graphics, and multimedia elements so that when you return to that particular Web page (even if you just hit the back button), the information doesn't have to be downloaded all over again. The cache is a form of high-speed memory that your computer sets aside to store frequently accessed data; once the data is stored, it can be retrieved directly from your hard drive rather than from a server. Accessing your hard drive is much faster than Internet access, so this speeds things up. Hard disk access, however, is slower than RAM, which is why your computer also has a disk cache, an area that stores information you might need from your hard disk. It's a good thing to clean out your cache every now and then (only because it helps your computer run faster), but keep in mind that recently accessed Web pages may have to be reloaded.
 
CrackBerry - A funny nickname for a BlackBerry, it is popular because people get addicted to this electronic device. For example, "My boss is out of town but I can ping him on his CrackBerry, it's the one thing he checks while traveling." RIM (Research In Motion) is known for making the BlackBerry two-way messaging device and for providing the corresponding service that allows subscribers to wirelessly update their calendars and send and receive e-mail remotely.
 
HTML / Hypertext Markup Language - this is the coding language used world wide for web pages. It determines text, graphics location, layout and how a web page looks.
 
Hyper Text Link - This is the code that links one document to another. You see this when you click on an underlined or coloured word and it takes you to another page or site.
 
Infotisement - a.k.a. advertorial - Small advertisements that run primarily in e-mail newsletters and appear to be editorial matter, but actually promote a companys products and services. Its a steal from the world of print advertising, which calls them "advertorials."
 
ISP - As detailed earlier this is an Internet Service Provider. You will have to have one or your club may already have one that you can access from your pro shop.
 
Laptop Nomad - A person who works primarily on their laptop outside of a traditional office setting. Usually freelancers, "laptop nomads" often work out of their home offices and are regularly seen typing away in cafes with hotspots. Similar to a road warrior in the sense that the laptop nomad is able to do his or her work from anywhere, there is a movement called "co-working" which gives independent workers and solo entrepreneurs the opportunity to share one big office space with perks they might not get a t home, such as conference rooms espresso machines, and opportunities for socializing. Co-workers can either drop in or rent a dedicated area in spaces ranging from funky industrial lofts to sleeker sites with a more corporate ambiance.
 
Legacy - Computers haven't been around all that long, but they've already left a legacy - and for most companies it's a nightmare. As companies move to more modern and sophisticated computer systems, they have to find a way to integrate their old or "legacy" systems into the new system. That's not always easy. The old systems often were written specifically for the functions they performed. Data can't always be transferred. In some cases, the old systems have to be kept running and the new systems are rigged to pull data from the older system as necessary.
 
M or MB - Abbreviation for megabyte.
 
Newsgroup - This is a part of the Internet where people can leave messages on certain topics for other people to read. Other people may or may not reply to these postings. The News Group will provide a list of messages and you simply click on the ones you would like to read or respond to.
 
Now Economy - A play on the term new economy, the "now economy" is so named to reflect that the customer now controls the marketplace, not business. As the theory goes, the customer wants "it" now and they can have it now because of the Internet.
 
POP - This stands for Point of Presence and indicates the cities that have a local phone connection to your Internet Provider. You will want to ensure that the provider you are looking at using has this as it avoids any long distance charges. This is of particular importance for golf clubs as they tend to be outside of the major urban centres from a telephone access standpoint.


Social Networking - a.k.a. user-generated content, user-created content, social media, live Web, Web 2.0 - On a broad level, it is an online community of people who are socializing with each other via a particular Web site. On an individual level, it is the practice of growing the number of one's business and/or social contacts by networking with individuals. Most of the social networks on the Web are public, allowing anyone to join. It is based on the idea of "six degrees of separation" (the concept that any two people on the planet could meet through a chain of no more than five people), social networking is a popular way to connect socially or professionally with other people!
 
URL - This is the Uniform Resource Locator and is a web site address name that is used when the internet is searching for what you typed into the location line i.e. http://www.townhall.net.
 
 

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