A Word about Browsers

One of the most difficult aspects of web design is trying to build a site that looks good in all browsers. This site has been optimized for Internet Explorer on a Mac platform, but it also displays well in Safari, NetScape, Mozilla, Opera and MSN. If you're a NetScape user, please try and avoid using older versions before 6.0; the updated versions are far superior and they're free to download. Also for NetScape and Mozilla users: occasionally an image will "hang up" while downloading causing a white line to randomly appear somewhere within the image border. To fix this, simply click your browser's "reload" button.


About fonts

This site has been optimized for 4.0 and later browsers with a monitor resolution of 1024x768, but will view well at different resolution settings. If you find the text to be annoyingly too small or large, try changing your browser's "font" size. If you're using Internet Explorer as your browser, it's very easy to do: simply go up to your main menu, click on "View," and scroll down to select a different magnification. This menu also displays keyboard commands which make changing font size a snap. Most, if not all modern browsers have this feature.

You can also go into your browser's Preferences menu (usually found in the drop-down menu when clicking on the Edit tab at the top of the browser window) and select Fonts to choose a different font size. This won't work on all fonts and type (including the ones used in this website) but you may want to experiment with this feature for viewing other websites.

Finally, on some of my web pages the type is actually incorporated into the page as an image. When used in this manner, font size can not be changed by browser commands. Note that the suggestions in this section may or may not work depending on what system you're on, what browser you're using and specifically where you are in the website. But feel free to experiment; you can't hurt anything and there's a good chance you'll improve your overall internet viewing.


Navigation

One of my most important goals in designing this site was to make navigation easy and logical. As a result, I've incorporated the major links on most pages.

About the "back" button

The "back" button or "go back one page" button in any browser in any website may at times cause problems. But with a little browser knowledge, you can easily fix or prevent these problems from occurring. Feel free to use the "back" or "go back one page" buttons on your browser as you like, but be aware that some "rollover" type links may not update when you do this. This is not a real problem and it won't affect your navigation, but it can cause some minor confusion at times.

This is not any fault of your computer, the browser you're using, or the website you're visiting; it's just a direct result of your browser storing any given website page into its "cache" or memory. Using a "back" button allows you to quickly go back and forth between web pages, but unfortunately it can create update problems.

The solution to this is quite simple: If you're ever on a page in which the link colors seem incorrect or something else seems amiss, simply click on your browser's "refresh" or "reload" button. Your browser will then display a brand new version of the page. Or simply avoid using the "back" or "go back one page" buttons, instead using the site's navigation links.