More About The Internet And The World-Wide Web

Help, Help And More Help

If you're here, you probably have a question about the site, a problem with a sound or video file, or you wonder why the pages look funny. Well, we hope this page will answer most, if not all, of your questions.

What's Here?

AllPolitics is updated 24 hours a day, seven days a week so you'll always have the latest political news at your fingertips. Our Web pages are organized into several major sections, each with its own main subject page.

These sections include: News, for breaking news and stories from TIME, CNN, Congressional Quarterly and The Associated Press; Analysis, for cartoons and opinion pieces from the premier pundits of TIME, CNN, CQ and the Washington talk show circuit; In-Depth, for interactive features, sights and sounds, and resources like biographies and transcripts. Use our Contents page as a site map or check in with What's New for pointers to the latest on AllPolitics. You can navigate these sections using the grey and red navigation bar along the top of your screen. This site not only offers breaking stories and features, but also many months worth of archived news stories (accessible via our Search Tool).

Which browser is best to use?

The AllPolitics Web pages are best viewed using Netscape 3.0 or above or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or above. You can get a copy of the browser from Netscape or Microsoft.

However, we have done everything we can to accomodate viewing with other browsers. You may find that some pages don't look quite "right". This is due to differences between browsers. This is especially true of Web browsers which are still in beta development.

We recommend the following browser settings:

• Helvetica font, 12-point text size
• Allow the page to set the link and page colors
• Set the browser window width to show all three columns (approx. 600 pixels)

Bookmark Your Favorite Places

The browsers mentioned above allow you to save a list of Web pages you may want to visit again. This is a convenient way of visiting your favorite pages without having to remember the URLs. If you are using a Netscape browser, choose Add Bookmark under the Bookmark menu item at the top of the screen. In the Internet Explorer browser, select Add Page To Favorites under the Favorites menu item at the top of the screen.

Messy looking Text

What are Frames?

Frames are much like tables, but have more versatility. Frames break up a page into several mini-pages all on one screen, which are independent from one another. Each frame can have its own URL address, so you can click a link in one frame and view the corresponding information in another frame. Frames are often used for navigation by putting the navigational bar in one frame and corresponding pages in another. You must have Netscape 2.0 or above or Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0 or above (for Mac) and 3.0 or above (for windows) to see frames.

What are Plug-ins?

Plug-ins are software programs that extend the capabilities of Netscape Navigator in a specific way - giving you, for example, the ability to play audio samples or view video movies from within Navigator. AllPolitics currently makes material available for the following plug-ins:

Shockwave Director, Shockwave Freehand and Shockwave Audio
Play interactive animations and streaming audio files available on several pages throughout this site.

Vivo
This plug-in lets you play streaming videos.

QuickTime VR
Enables your browser to play Apple QuickTime movie or VR files.

For more information about Plug-ins, we suggest that you visit the following sites: Netscape plug-ins or Browserwatch.

Help with Movies

Our "movies" are in the QuickTime format, created by Apple Computer. Many web browsers can't play movies on their own - they need a "helper application." Netscape Navigator 3.01 (and above) has a "QuickTime Plug-in" installed, but needs the QuickTime application installed on your computer to work properly. Help in finding and using QuickTime on Mac, Windows and Unix platforms are listed below.

To view QuickTime movies Macintosh you need to be running system 7.1 (or greater) and have the "QuickTime" v 2.0 (or greater) extension in your system folder. In addition Power Mac users should have a "QuickTime PowerPlug" extension. If you do not have these extensions, first check your "Extensions (Disabled)" folder in your system folder to see if they have been turned off. If you still can't find the extensions you can re-install QuickTime by locating your system disks/CD and doing a "Custom Install" or DOWNLOAD it from Apple.
Contents of the downloaded file include:

• QuickTime(TM)
• QuickTime(TM) Musical Instruments
• QuickTime(TM) PowerPlug

For best performance, we recommend that you install the latest version of QuickTime for Windows. The newest version, 2.1.2, fixes several problems and improves performance. You can download the latest version of QuickTime for Windows from Apple Computer.

This is especially true if you are using a 32-bit version of Netscape's Navigator running under Windows 95 or Windows NT.

QuickTime is shipped with the SGI operating system and is not distributed independently by Apple. Please contact your SGI representative if you cannot locate it.

Xanim is a limited QuickTime player that runs on Unix under Xwindows. This player also plays AVI, FLI, and many other animation and video formats.

Streaming video

Instead of having to download an entire video file BEFORE you can watch it, streaming video downloads AS you watch it. The streaming video AllPolitics currently uses is in VivoActive format, created by Vivo Software. To be able to play VivoActive streaming movies you must first download their plug-in. For more information, read their help page.

Sound & Images

As in the case of QuickTime movies, some web browsers cannot display some graphic formats, and cannot play certain sound formats "on their own". All of the pictures on our pages are in JPEG or GIF format and are viewable by most browsers.

Our audio files are in .WAV format.

Below are some platform specific "helper applications" for viewing JPEGS and playing .WAV files. If you have the latest versions of the Netscape browser, the .WAV files should play through the LiveAudio plug-in.

JPEG Viewer:
JPEGView

Audio:
SoundMachine for Macintosh

For further helper apps, try the Netscape Mac apps page.

Audio:
WHAM 1.33 audio player

For further helper apps, try the Netscape Windows apps page.

Unix:

• X Consortium FTP Server
• NCSA Anonymous FTP Server
• ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu
• ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu

For further helper apps, try the Netscape Unix apps page.

The Internet and World Wide Web is a big place, and it's growing at an incredible rate. It's not surprising that a newcomer ("newbie") might not know where to start, so we've compiled a list of a few sites to look at. It's also not a bad idea for more experienced folks to look at them, too -- you might learn something new!

Zen and the Art of the Internet

EFF's (Extended) Guide to the Internet

A Beginner's Guide to HTML

WWW Developer Resources