To say that something is easy to use, is easy when you know how! I found out at the weekend in Scarborough that some people are not all that clued up on the use of the internet or the use of "navigation buttons". A navigation button or "link" is a means of moving from one page to another in a site or across the world wide web (www) to another site entirely.  A domain is a site that is actually owned by an individual or company, and what appears on that domain, is put there by the owner. My domain, as owned by me  http://www.mikekemble.com and that domain is sub divided into other sections, all accessible via navigation buttons (links) from my main page which you get to by clicking on the link that is underlined in the previous sentence. The default colour of a link is usually blue, but I changed it to yellow to make it stand out. When you find a page that you want to go straight back to, you make it a thing called a book mark in your browser. How to do this is in the next paragraph. This site is now removed from my own site and is on http://www.1rtr.net and can be navigated in the same way as any other site, via links.

The normal browser is Internet Explorer which is the blue "e" on your desktop. Now imagine that your on the page you want to book mark, for example, the 1 RTR homepage or the 1 RTR Forum. You click on the favourites button or "tag" on the top of the Internet Explorer and a column appears down the left hand side, click on "add" and click OK and it appears in that column. Now, whenever you want to return to that page, click on that "tag" and you will be instantly transported to that particular page. Another great way to return immediately to the forum or site home page is to extend that favourite link onto the desktop. To do this you right click on the link in favourites and then "send to" and then Desktop (create shortcut). Now look at your desktop there is an internet "e" with either 1 RTR members or 1 RTR forum underneath it. This is now your permanent link to the relevant page.

Forum home page is http://www.1rtr.net/forum and site home page is http://www.1rtr.net.

One or two of you, apparently, were only aware of one page - the messages page - and had that page book marked. WRONG! I was told by one person that that was the only page he ever visited! And he wondered why there had been no messages since August (when I opened Messages Page 3). All the pages in my site are linked via navigation links from the main, or "Home" page, and that is the page that should be book marked. Most messages nowadays appear directly in the forum, and there is not really much need for the Messages Pages now, but I leave them in for past references. For example, if you want to see what is on the Information Required page, you click on the link marked thus:

and that will take you to the page where people are asking for information or assistance.  Try it now and then click on "back" at the top left hand side of Internet Explorer to return here.

Similarly, if you want to read or view images about Command & Support Sqn, for example, you would click on this link:

and that takes you to Command & Support.

Images

When you open the page, you will see in most cases a small image, too small to clearly see properly. This is called a thumb nailed image. You need to click on the image to see it unfold into the full sized image. If I were to put all of the images full sized on pages, there would be masses of images cluttering up a huge page, which would take eons to get onto your screen, particularly if you are the one using a 56k modem on a telephone line! So I thumb nail (reduce the image) to allow the page to load that bit faster. When you have finished looking at the image, you can click "back" on your browser to return to the page you were on. If you find that on occasion, you click on an image and you get "page not displayed" then please tell me and I will fix it. It does happen sometimes, I am not perfect and sometimes forget to upload the complete image, eg: thumb nail and original. Anything else that you need help with on navigation etc, please feel free to email me (see link below) and let me know.

Emailing Me

Dotted around the site are links to click on to send me an email. These are in this particular format for a very good reason. If I were to put a button on the page simply with "email" on, it would allow my "secret" 1 RTR mailing address to be "spotted" by something known as a spiderbot which nicks the address and downloads it to someone who makes money out of passing emails onto spam merchants; hence the junk mail you see in your boxes. This particular "Email Me Here" has had something done to it to encrypt it, making it virtually "invisible" but it will work for you to send me an email. There is a way to encrypt buttons for you to click on but I don't know how to do that, not yet anyway. When you email me and ask that your email address be included on the contacts page - these are NOT encrypted, hence the spam warning notice on that page. If there was a way to encrypt the whole page, then I don't know of it. It obviously works, as spam is virtually none existent on that address. The only way I get any, I think, is if one of you gets your emails "bugged" and it copies your address books to an unscrupulous swine somewhere. If you have up to date anti virus programs, like Norton AV or McAfee, then these can not get to your address book. Believe me, anti virus and firewalls, these days, are an absolute must. If you have problems contacting me on the email "Email Me Here" hyperlink, it might be the coding, in that case, go to my main site and contact me from there. Alternatively now, you can join the forum and either send me a "pm" (private message) or post a query in the relevant section. Now we all have to 1 rtr email addresses this is the other option to use. Another less secure way of telling someone your email address is to use the word spamkiller in the middle as this stops any spider "bots" reading them; eg: fredbloggs@1rtrspamkiller.net anyone reading it would recognise that they have to remove "spamkiller" to use email address. Any word will do.

Message Boards

These are part of the site and do not have external access. If you want to leave a message on these pages, send me an email with your message on and I will cut and paste it onto the page then upload it for you. I have not figured out how to do it so that you can post messages but don't forget - there is a guestbook linked on the front page that WILL allow you to post messages. However, not everyone reads guestbooks, so its not the better option.

Members Forum

We now have a Members Forum, which can now be used for posting your messages DIRECT. When you register, please use your real name to avoid identification problems. You know who you are talking to if your real name is on there. When you go into the forum for the first time, register your details and then, when your registered, log in, and complete the Profile (link on top) and read the relevant pages to familiarise yourself with the Rules etc. Plus, you can now email me directly from the Forum, as well as all other members AND you can send each other Private Messages which do not appear on the Forum. An easy way to find the forum every time, and not have to go via the site, is to open up the forum on your browser, save it to your favourites column and then right click on the link and copy it to your desktop. An Internet Icon appears and from here, you can click into the forum at any time, direct. a direct "link" or url to the forum is:

http://www.1rtr.net/forum

 Email Me Here

Mike 10 Aug 2004 (updated)