SITE OVERVIEW:
The North Central PA WD Initiative web site is where board members can access information and resources, share ideas, and conduct "virtual" discussions through the on-line forum and interactive live discussion room.
USING LINKS:
Links are words, or groups of words, that are underscored on a web page -- and are used to navigate within a web site and between web sites. To use a link, place your cursor over the underscored word and click on your mouse. This will tell your web browser that you wish to go to that page. For a moment, your browser window will go blank, but once the server receives your request it will begin to send the page information to your computer. To continue to navigate the web site, just continue to click on the links of interest. On each individual web page, you will also find a link that will take you back to the beginning in case you get lost. To go back to a previous page, or several pages, you may also use the back button on your browser. This is usually located at the top left-hand position on your screen.
USING USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS:
When you enter the Virtual Office, a window will come onto your screen asking you for your username and password. Please type your username and password EXACTLY as it was given to you. If your username and password is in all lower case letters, you must type it in all lower case letters. If it is all capitals, use all capitals. If it is a mixture of lower case and capitals, you must type it that way as well. Once you have entered this information correctly, you will be taken to your virtual office. Once inside your office, you may navigate within it, using the links, without entering your password again. IMPORTANT: If you are sharing your computer with other people, DO NOT leave the computer without closing your browser. Doing so may leave your office and your personal journal open to others. Whenever you finish a session, please exit your browser.
OFFICE FEATURES:
EMAIL:
Your North Central PA WD Initiative collaboration web site has a feature that will allow you to send Email to everyone else in the network. You may choose to send an Email to one specific person . . . or you may send Email to all board members at the same time. To send an Email, just click on the "Send Email" button and an Email window will open on your screen. You must have a browser that supports Email to use this feature. Once the window is open, you will find that the Email has automatically been addressed for you. You may now proceed to type in your message. Once your message has been completed, click on the send button and your Email will be delievered.
RESOURCES:
Many paper-based documents that you will receive at meetings will be available to you through your virtual office. Most documents will be in Microsoft Word format, so you must have this program on your machine to read the document. To download the document to your machine, just click on the link. Depending on how your system is configured, it may download to your hard drive or it may launch the application so you can read it immediately. If it downloads first, please remember which folder it has downloaded to, and then locate the file and double-click to open and read.
DISCUSSION FORUM:
This web site contains an on-line general forum. With the general forum, you may share your ideas and suggestions here . . . along with commenting on other member's posts. To read posts made by others, just click on the link that sounds interesting (known as a "thread") and the discussion will be presented to you on your screen. If you wish to add a comment, you will find an area for this at the bottom of the page. Just enter your name, give your comment a subject line (such as "What I Think About This") and type your comments in the box. Once completed, click on the action button and your comments will be added to the discussion. If you wish to start your own topic of discussion, you will find a link for this on the main forum page. Just click on the "add topic" link and follow the same proceedure as above. This time, instead of your comment being added to an already-existing discussion, your topic will show up on the main page and others can add their own comments to yours.
MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS
You will be able to partcipate in "virtual" conferences, meetings and presentations though the web site and your connection to the Internet. Most prerecorded presentations will be available to you in RealAudio format. If you do not already have the RealAudio player, you may obtain your own by clicking HERE. The RealAudio player is free and is the most frequently-used player and format on the Internet for delivering streaming audio. Follow the installation instructions for your particular platform (PC, Mac). Along with many of the audio presentations, you will be able to download the associated power-point presentation. Microsoft Power Point is standard on many machines and should already be installed.
TROUBLE?
Have a question on using this web site? While we cannot provide technical services for your particular computer -- we can and will answer many of your questions related to using this site. The webmaster and multimedia producer is Frank DeFreitas of The FREEdLANCE Group and you can reach him by sending an email to: fdefreitas@freedlance.com.
A SPECIAL NOTE:
Many companies and organizations require that you consult with your technical representative before downloading new applications (such as RealAudio) or making any adjustments to your computer. Please check on this before downloading any materials from this website.
Happy Surfing. :-)
