Tips and Tools

Firefox users users can use the Bookmarks Tool Bar as a launchpad to their favourite sites. In Click on View on the menu at the top of your browser, then move your cursor over Toolbars, and make sure that Bookmarks Toolbar has a checkmark beside it. The next time you visit a favourite site, just place your cursor over the icon that appears to the left of the URL (site address) in the Address window on your browser. When it turns into a hand, drag it to your Bookmarks Tool Bar and release. Voilà! Instant access to that site as soon as you open your browser thereafter. You can also create folders on that toolbar, and save links in that folder.

Internet Explorer has a similar feature called the Links Toolbar; in Netscape, it's called the Personal Toolbar.

Check out the What's New page to get a feel for the type of information you'll find throughout the site. If you like what you see, subscribe to the mailing list to receive a weekly e-mail message listing all the new links just added to this site. 
There's also an online version of the newsletter (see the bottom of the newsletter page).
Watch for other sites that offer either (i) periodic newsletters on topics that interest you or (ii) e-mail alerts when a particular site is updated. Both services are generally free - try subscribing for a few issues to see how things work out. Reputable sites always include information on how to unsubscribe in each newsletter they send by e-mail, and reputable sites will always promise up front not to give or sell the mailing list with your name on it to anyone (unless it's part of the terms of your original agreement).

If you plan to check a number of links on any given page, it's more efficient to open a new window to check each link and to keep the original window open in the background. That way, after you've checked a link, you don't have to reload the previous page - just close the window of the new link and the original window is already there, ready to go. In fact, you can open many new browser windows at the same time - your Internet connection and browser can download several pages at once. Right-click on a link and select "Open in New Window" (IE and Firescape). When the new window opens and the page starts downloading, minimize the new page by clicking on the button with the minus sign at the top right of your computer screen. Repeat the process (right-clicking on a link in the original page and selecting "Open in New Window"). You'll be surprised at how many new browser windows your computer can handle. Even with a slow modem, you'll find this trick speeds up your surfing...

If you're a regular visitor to this or any other site that's updated frequently, Reload (or Refresh, depending on your browser) the page every time you visit . If you don't, you may be looking at an old version of a particular page that's stored in your browser's cache instead of the updated page on the Internet. 

Links to outside sites sometimes go dead - when a web author or administrator decides to change a site's directory structure, for example. 
When a link takes you to an error message (404 or File not Found), go to the Address/Location box (where the URL appears) in your browser, delete everything after the forward slash that follows the domain extension (e.g., .ca, .com, .org, .net) in the URL, then hit Enter. Unless the site has completely shut down, you'll end up at its home page, where you can retrace or search for the missing file. 

NOTE: When you find a broken link to a file or page that you really wanted to save for whatever reason, select and copy the entire link (URL), then paste it into the box on the home page of The Internet Archive [ http://www.archive.org/ ] and click "Take Me Back". On the results page, you'll find links to archived copies of the missing file.

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Avoid broken links when you send e-mail : shorten long URLs!!

- If you send a URL by e-mail and it's a long database URL, for example:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1095113408349

...chances are the person who receives your message won't be able to access the site because the URL will wrap to a second line after 72 or 80 characters, and it will look like this in the e-mail:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Arti
cle_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1095113408349

If you wish to send a long URL via e-mail, you can use a free online service to shorten that URL.
TinyURL is one of several free services that will convert long URLs to short ones specifically to avoid broken URLs.
http://tinyurl.com/48pgn - this is the short version of the Toronto Star URL above, and it takes you to the same page

The What's New across Canada page is a launchpad to over 100 "What's New" web pages of the federal and provincial/territorial governments and Canadian non-governmental organizations, where you can find find the latest news releases and additions to their websites. Try it - you'll want to bookmark it!

The Google Site Search feature is a commercial service that regularly indexes every word on my site.
( Try to be specific in your choice of keywords - the word "poverty" appears about 8,000 times in the site...)

(;-)

Online Courses   
*Canada's Unique Social History (from Steve Hick, Carleton University - Ottawa)
*Hyperhistory online

Online Translation

* Google Language Tools
* Alta Vista Translation Service
* Freetranslation.com
* Dictionary.com Translation
* T-Text(text only) 
* T-Sail(websites only) 
* These are free translation services where you can type (or cut-and-paste) a word, a paragraph, a page or even a URL (Internet address) and see the translation almost immediately. This is machine translation , most suitable for someone who is looking for the gist of a word/text/web page. Don't try using these services in lieu of human translators, though -- they're pretty rough around the edges. 

You can search single pages quickly and efficiently using a combination of keys on your keyboard in Firefox, Netscape Communicator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. 
Say you're looking for a specific word or group of words. 
While holding down the "Ctrl" key (bottom left of the keyboard), hit the "f" key. 
"Ctrl-F" pops up a FIND window. Type in a keyword (or a specific title or name) and hit Enter to go directly to the first occurrence of that word (or those exact words, as the case may be) on the page that appears in your browser. To continue searching using the same keyword(s) throughout the rest of the page and on any other link until you change the term(s) in the Find Box, keep clicking on the FIND NEXT button.
A great time-saver!

Some of the pages on this site are quite large. Think twice before hitting PRINT... 
NOTE: It's possible to print only selected pages from an online report. Both Internet Explorer offer you the option of printing a single page or a range of pages from a web page. Instead of clicking on the Print icon at the top of your browser, use File-Print Preview (or Page Setup, depending on your browser) from the drop-down menu. The Print Preview/Page Setup selection also shows you how many pages your printer will spew out when you want the whole thing...

Font Sizes
If you find the font on this site a bit small to read, it's because I like to cram as much information on a page as possible.

Here's a trick to make your online reading more enjoyable (not just on this site, either - this works on all HTML sites, but unfortunately not on Flash animated sites and other fancy pages..):

Firefox and Netscape users -- Hold your Ctrl key down while pressing on the "=" key on your keyboard. Every time you press "=" the font size increases by one point. To reverse the process - or to reduce the size of the font at any time - hold the Ctrl key while pressing on the "-" symbol; every time you press "-" the font size decreases by one point. Experiment to see what font size is best for you.

Internet Explorer users -- Press your Alt key, then release it. Immediately press "v", then " x" -- and watch the menu at the top of your page. You'll be given a choice of sizes with one letter underlined in each choice. Click on different choices to see which is best for you.