104- STRUCTURE AND NAVIGATION OF THE WEBSITE
STRUCTURE OF THE WEBSITE
Following a Home Page and a number of introductory Pages, the main body of the website consists of four parts centred on the lives of the four diarists.
A 4 figure Page numbering system has been used to maintain the chronological order of the material. As a bonus the initial number also indicates the diarist, and the other numbers the hierarchical level of a Page.
This arrangement can best be seen by clicking SITEMAP [top left hand side of screen] and then clicking 'Expand all' to show pages at all hierarchical levels.
The word PAGE is slightly misleading. Pages can be any length and have the characteristics of a Word document. For instance they can be searched by Control + F.
If the reader is likely to use this website often he might find it worthwhile printing a hard copy of the SITEMAP. This provides a useful guide to the contents of the Website and will make its navigation easier.
NAVIGATING THE WEBSITE
There are two main ways of navigating the website.
The first is to use the Search Site feature at the top right hand corner of the screen. This is probably the best way of searching if you know exactly what you are looking for. The Editor has little experience of this feature but at first sight it appears to be very effective.
This feature also provides a very quick way of finding a particular Page. Just enter the Page number and you go staight there.
The second method is to make use of the layout of the website. This method may be more suitable if the reader doesn't quite know what he is looking for or only has a general interest in the maritime affairs of the 19th Century. With this method he should start at QUICK START [PAGE100] which will take him to the OUTLINE of CONTENTS of one of the diarists, which with luck will indicate which Page will be of most interest to him. He may also receive help from the Site Map. Many of the Page titles give an indication of the contents of a Page.
LINKS
Links have been used where they help the reader follow the thread of a particular story and also to draw his attention to a footnote of the main story. However the linking method used only takes one to the beginning of the target Page. If the relevant target material is in a long Page a note has been inserted advising the reader to use CONTROL+F for the final stage of his journey. PAGE6910 is an example of one of the few occasions where this guidance has been necessary.
Links between parts of a page in George King-Hall's (GKH) diaries
It will be noticed that in GKH's diaries a number of Pages have been divided into parts. This has had to be done for technical reasons as movement round a Page tends to become rather sluggish if the Page is more that about 15 000 words long. (The Editor has found that keys 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' produce a smoother movement through long Pages that scrolling with the mouse).
The Outline of Contents will take you to the first part whose Page No ends with 00. From there Links will take you to the various Parts. Movement between Parts can be easily achieved via the first part by using the Back Browser button (see top left hand corner of this page).
.