NWMBA | Site Help and Information

Lost or can't open something???

We want this web site to be as simple to use as Shimano indexed gears. This page is intended to let you find more about how these pages are arranged to ease navigation. Because we can now easily use the power of modern PC's to give you Movies, Interactive material and immersive panoramas it may be necessary for some additional software to be installed on your computer. We only utilise proven technology that is so common it is normally installed on many computers from new and is also cross platform to run on either macs or pc's. Although much of the site is being created on Apple Mac many visitors will be using Windows. If you are unsure if your computer can handle Flash, Quicktime and Acrobat files below are small tests for your computer to check if your browser has the necessary software plug-in and if not links to where you can download it from.

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What do we use to make the site

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We use Adobe Golive for page construction. The content imagery is mainly created in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Acrobat files can be made using Adobe Applications or Acrobat 7 pro.

The Quicktime panoramic 'QTVR' movies are made with Kaidan's VR toolbox and Apples own QTVR Studio. The movie clips come from DV using Apple iMovie or Final Cut Express.

For Flash we use Adobe Livemotion

The pages are being designed primarily for HTML 4 supporting browsers. This means some programming will be unable to run on older browsers or operating systems. We are however trying to develop pages for those browsers which shuld ensure those on older browsers are still able to get to some of the site contents.

We use Cascading Style Sheets setting a non serif fonts designed specifically for web browsers, such as 'Verdana', to improve page readability. This should ensure each page follows identical rules for appearance and can be tweaked and tuned to suit different platforms and browsers without rewriting whole pages.

New page styles

The top menu bar is the main means of navigation and there are a number of styles in use. There is a simplified version without the java rollovers on the basic pages. Orange Italic text is a hyperlink within an article which will either move around the page or onto other pages. None of these links should lead a viewer off the site. A link that generates an e-mail will be Olive Italic

'Club News' is more of interest to what may be going on in the club, and possibly a shop one day to sell club kit or even online membership... who knows??. Next there is 'Trail Zone' which will offer both information on the places you can ride, giving you an idea of the terrain as well as route guides that can be downloaded and printed for your next run. 'Racing Zone' is the place to get details of our events, and entry forms. With links to results, and perhaps we may even go down the WAP route oneday and give you course information via your mobile phone as you are driving to the venue...! 'Site Help' is of course where you are now and 'Links'.. well they are just that.. everysite has them, we welcome any suggestions to make these more helpful

How to find your way around the pages

The right hand side of the page includes supplementary info with supporting notes about the contents of articles in the centre of the page, and also providing links to other relevant pages both on and off the site.
Blue underlined text indicates a link to an external site
Italic text in purple is a link internal to this site.

The left hand side of the page focuses on the contentsof the page in view with a list at the top which provide a hyperlink for 'click navigation' to the relevant article

Tests for popular plug-ins used on the site

Each of the following links will take you to separate new page which will have a file embedded that requires a separate plug-in for your web browser to view. If it is installed you will see a image or a file appear which will confirm you have the plug-in installed. If you don't have it, you will be able to find a link to download the file for free from its originator

Adobe Acrobat

These are self contained documents, usually created from existing files and put into a format which is increasingly universal and requires only one free reader application to use. They can contain text images and multi-media. The benefits over jpeg or gif is that they do not turn vector or text objects into raster ( bitmap) images, meaning not only can you create a smaller file but will usually retain the quality of the original when printed

Try the PDF test

These icons are usually placed where one of these files is to be found on a page

Cutting the technical stuff, .mov files are usually moving images, like traditional movies they have frames and motion is seamless. QTVR's are in effect a collection of still images taken in a 360^o circle, stitched together the viewer is able to navigate around the scene in a full circle. Although Quicktime 5 has a separate flash channel, they are principally bitmap images and are relatively large sized files. These are multi-media files and can be saved for re-use but do not print very well if at all.

Apple Quicktime

Test for Quicktime Plug-in

This image usually indicates a Quicktime Movie file will be embedded in the page

Macromedia Flash

These files (.swf) are very much the standard for the internet today... why? Apart from some of the neat tricks you can do, they are able to retain a picture as vectors which means small files that give sharp precise reproduction on screen. One of the best features is the plug-ins print option (control click or hold down button on Mac or right hand mouse button click on windows) which means it is very handy to produce drawings and maps which download fast run in any browser and are scalable to any screen and can be printed for future use. This lends itself to considerable use for the production of route maps, for both print and for using on PDA's and WAP phones... wow way to go!

test for Flash plug-in

These files are also usually embedded into a page

	We welcome your feedback about the site please email us