Technical Issues and Plug-ins
Your Browser
This site should function correctly for the traditional browsers used. All browsers have free upgrades and we recommend that you use the most current one available. If you find a page that does not seem to display correctly after you have upgraded, please report it to the Webmaster and we will try to get the problem corrected. Note in particular that we have not designed to accommodate IE 5.0 for Mac as this browser is now obsolete.
Important Note Regarding Internet Explorer: Current versions of IE use protocol that is not compliant with current web design standards. There are usually ways to work around those problems in site design. Without going into the technical reasons for the problem we must advise that in order for our dropdowns to function correctly in IE, you MUST use the www address for our site - http://www.sggee.org . If you use - http://sggee.org , the dropdowns will not work. Another option for you is to use the Beta version of IE 7.0. The problem has been corrected in that version and will work with either address. This problem does not exist in good quality browsers. We will continue to look at a viable method for eliminating this problem which has not been previously documented by web design sites.
Text Size
It is difficult to design a site with text size that suits all people. There is a special problem with Internet Explorer in that it does not always use recognized design standards. If the size is not right for you, please use your browser sizing function to change it. In most cases, this will mean clicking - View >> Text Size - or similar, in your browser.
Links
In the transposition of the original site to the new format, we have attempted to ensure that all links function correctly. If you find any broken links, please report them to the Webmaster.
Plug-ins
There are currently two browser plugins that are used at this site: DjVu and Acrobat. Read on to learn where to get these plugins and how to install them.
Please note that printing Acrobat from within your browser is accomplished with the toolbar icon, NOT with the print command found in the browser's file menu.
Free Adobe Acrobat Reader (software and plugin)
This plugin allows you to view documents in a format that maintains complete fidelity to its original format (usually items intended for print). As with the browsers, we recommend that you return to the Adobe site from time to time to download the most recent version of the Acrobat Reader.
Instructions for obtaining and installing Acrobat Reader
1. You must have Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader software installed. It is available for numerous platforms, including Macintosh, Windows, and many Unix systems. Clicking on the yellow link above will take you to Adobe’s web site. Select the operating system you use and click “Download.”
2. Once you have Acrobat Reader downloaded, double-click the installation file and follow the instructions to install it. You will probably have to quit your web browser so that the installer can put a plugin for your browser in the proper place. This plugin will allow you to view the application form from within your browser.
3. Go back to the page with the Acrobat file and click on it. Or, alternately, you may download the application to your hard drive and view it with the Acrobat Reader (without your web browser). To download the file for later viewing, either click and hold (Macintosh) or right click (Unix/Windows) and select Save Link As... in the popup menu (Netscape Navigator or Communicator).
4. If you have trouble with this installation, please check out the discussion board, and read the Acrobat installation help.
Free DjVu (deja vu) Plugin
This plugin allows you to view text that has been scanned at very high resolution, but with very small file sizes and without visual artifacts introduced by other compression methods. As with the browsers, we recommend that you return to the Djvu site from time to time to download the most recent version of the Djvu Viewer.
As an example of the compression involved, some of the documents on this site were originally scanned at 300 dots per inch (dpi), and occupied over 3MB as a TIFF file. They now take less than 130KB each. You must have the Djvu plugin installed on your computer in order to view these files. The Djvu plugin can be obtained by clicking on the icon:
Viewer Use Instructions
The viewer gives you the ability to zoom in on the image (up to 300%), print, change contrast and pan around. To see these options, do the following:
Macintosh: With the mouse over the djvu image, hold down the Control key (and sometimes the Option key, if you have certain extensions installed) and then press and hold the mouse button to see the popup menu.
Unix and Windows: With the mouse over the djvu image, click and hold down the right mouse button to see the menu popup.