| November |
| | | | | | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Morn. Twilight: 6:50 A.M.
Sunrise: 7:20 A.M.
Sunset: 4:59 P.M.
Duration: 9h, 39m
Eve. Twilight: 5:29 A.M.
Visible Light: 10h, 38m
Help
The historicflorence.org pages are pretty simple to navigate. There are some tips that are handy to know though.
We use the most common size of text (same as 90% of all web sites). Older people like text sizes larger; younger people want text smaller. The web site is not made for either extreme; we choose the average. You can always change the text size to suit your preferences. If you think any text is too small or too large, most browsers allow you to change the size of the displayed text. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, most modern browsers will allow you to change text sizes if you hold the Ctrl key down when rolling the mouse wheel. If you do not see an instant change it could mean your system is slower or is maxed out on memory. Continued rolling back and forth without waiting for the change to take effect will max out slower systems and could cause them to hang! Faster systems will see instant feedback.
- The title at the top of the page will return you to your last location on the web. This has the same effect as clicking the back arrow on your browser window. The same thing happens for most photographs or images when you view the enlarged version. Simply click the image again to go back to the same location that you were before.
- Many "Back" buttons (or links labeled as "Back") that you see on web sites are actually "forward" links that go to the page they "think" you came from. Our Back buttons are actually a true back button, in that they work exactly like the Back button on the browser window. This is especially helpful when viewing images as the enlarged image also works as a back button. In most cases, you will click on a small image to see the enlarged view; after viewing the enlarged image, click on it to return. Even if you accessed the enlarged image from the Site Map, when you click on the enlarged view, you would be returned back to the Site Map, exactly where you came from. There is a "Back" link at the bottom of each page. Regardless of how much browsing you have done, if you want to "back" out of something, you can use the back links without worry that the browser's history will be accumulating.
- Links that you have not visited yet are Blue. They will turn to Red and be in bold when the mouse pointer is moved over the link (if it has not been visited yet). Once the link has been visited, the link turns to Maroon or a deep-pink. To implement some special features, some links don't follow the standard guidelines. For example, some links start out in Red; the month in events displayed on the home page are links to the Calendar for that month.
Normally, while a link is being used (not supported by all browsers), the color will be a bold gray. Some browsers will display the links with an underline, others will not. Some links do not change color at all; the logic being that links normally being a different color can be a distraction from the message of the text. Therefore, these links are only visible by moving the mouse pointer over the text. Do not worry, as these are not important links (mostly for things such as the definition of a word or a description of something); they are only there in case someone were to move the mouse over the link. When that happens a small hover tip will show up to give you additional information.
A link may be for a different page, or a section of a different page or even a section of the same page you are already on. In the case where the link is on the same page, the link will already be Maroon. If a link takes you to a page and the link does not take you to the top, you might consider scrolling to the top of the page after you read the information that the link took you to. That way, you will know if there is something else you want to read on the same page (as its link will now be Maroon and you may think you have already visited the entire page). Visit the Site Map to see if there are any pages you missed. Keep in mind that links sometimes fail to change in color even after visiting. Links change color as a feature of the browser. Older browsers do worst than newer browsers. Even the latest browsers may fail to change the color. The amount of memory available at the time can affect things as well. Regardless of how much memory you have, the memory may already be allocated for some other purpose so browsers do not always change the color as expected.
- If you notice a link is in italics, it is to an external web site. This web site is not responsible for the content on other web sites.
- Browser Differences It is our wish that the web site looks the same regardless of which web browser you use. We have attempted to implement technology that will ensure that happening, however, making it look exactly the same (regardless of browser) is next to impossible due to some differences being extreme.
Some web sites (as we did) attempted to compensate to ensure that all viewers saw text sizes the same. This was accomplished by taking advantage of features of the HTML standard that some browsers supported but others did not. These "tricks" work only because the browsers supported different features, but these "workarounds" cannot be guaranteed to work in the future.
Due to the complexities of attempting to keep up with every variant of browser, we had rather concentrate on the web content instead. We will assume that if you prefer to use a particular browser, then you accept the fact that there may be differences.
- Can't see what you expect to be present?: Your web browser should display what your browser cache has in it, then check to see if a later version of the page is on the server. If so, then it should display the latest version of the page. All this takes place nearly instantly under ideal conditions, however, if the Internet traffic is high or your computer is low on resources, the process can be different.
Browsers cache webpage content to be faster. Also, Internet Service Providers cache content to be faster; this was especially true during the days of dial-up Internet access. This is how browsers and the Internet are designed to work. Depending on how old your cache is you might need to do a refresh to see the latest version of a page.
The browser first displays the latest cached version (either local, ISP, or anywhere along the way that it first finds a copy) while (at the same time) checking to see if something newer is available at the server end. If it finds a newer copy, then it redraws the display. People are often impatient so sometimes they click on another link before the page is redrawn. Now the cache may be part-old, part-new content and can even get clobbered to the point it is not useable. Depending on web traffic, the new page may not get displayed no matter how long you wait because the browser gives up trying after a while due to congestion and since it already has "something" displayed. The idea is something is better than nothing. To force the browser to try again, you need to reload the page ("refresh") but very often, due to congestion or the computer resources currently available, you will get the same thing again. Most times users don't know if the page has changed or not. When I make web updates I know the content has just changed but very often I still get the old content repeatedly. You can force the browser to go check the web server exclusively (method depends on browser and version). Even when I know I have made a change, it sometimes takes me 4 or 5 attempts to get the browser to reload the new page. Even after all this, the browser cache may need to be cleaned out totally (gets clobbered). The Internet and browsers are designed this way intentionally. Otherwise, it would all be way too slow.
- Ed Note: The English language is a constantly changing thing and as such, opinions differ on many parts of it. One area is compound words, and technology words get affected much faster than others. As words change from two words to hyphenated words to compound words, there are overlapping opinions, even with the same person, and especially the grammar/spellchecking programs. Grammar and spell-checking programs are not necessarily familiar with all the technical terms in use; instead, they tend to go on general rules they use for suggestions. As the webteam leader, I have flip-flopped on whether it should be website or web site, webpage or web page, searchengine or search engine, and so has several other tech-writers, depending on what else they may be influenced by. This website (or web site) is an example of contradictions in some cases. When reading, please overlook the ones you don't like; next update, we might be agreeing with you.
- You should read the About page for additional information.
Extra
- Easter Egg Tip: The home page and many others have a random image at the top, next to the logo. If you click on the image, you will find that different images lead you to different pages.
