"A-Z" INDEX &   SEARCH Navigation... an Explanatory Document Dealing with this Website

In a website with as many pages as this one... Problems occur in navigation, smaller sites can get away with a menu or index down the left hand side of the page, but there would be three thousand or more entries in such a list, for this website, and the list grows daily.

After many experimental navigation systems, each of which had it's merits, I have come up with the system that is resident at the top of this page, it seems reasonable and consistent. Apart from there being "A-Z" indices applicable to each individual main subject.

The 'Home' button will take you to the home page of the 'Beekeeping and Bee Breeding' part of the website. Or if you are within a different subject you will be returned to the homepage of that subject by a button that has text or graphics that are obvious.

The 'Previous Menu' (sometimes abbreviated to 'Prev. Menu') button will take you back up one level in the directory or page hierarchy.

The 'Back' button works the same as the back button on some web browsers and will take you back to wherever you came from. In some cases there is a yellow faced button that will have the legend 'Return', but it still performs the same function as the Browser 'Back' button.

button in the top right hand corner of some old pages that have not been upgraded. It will take you to the alphabetic index that is applicable to that subject. There is also a search engine on this alphabetic index that allows searching of the entire website. In order to indicate this I have added '& SEARCH' to the button, the function of the button itself is not changed.

Should you wish to use the other "A-Z" indices they are available on the 'Find' buttons that are on the various subject home pages.

The 'Find' page also has a search engine that is dedicated to this site and there is a link to a page that has hundreds of search engines.

There are context sensitive menus on most pages, situated at top left under the 'Previous Menu' button. Each entry in these lists is separated by a thin red horizontal rule. If a menu item shows in small text it has not yet got a link to it. In addition to the menu listed links, other links are provided within text... These are colour highlighted and the text is slightly larger than the body text. (I am trying to work my way through these links that don't work. Please be patient and I apologise for any annoyance. Roger Patterson.)

The new navigation system was instigated in May 2001, but there are still many hundreds of pages that have not yet been upgraded to this navigation method and so there are many pages that appear different.

There are many pages that are incomplete, some of these have been prematurely uploaded for navigation purposes and some are awaiting further information or as often as not I have misplaced my notes. They will be completed at some time in the future, but I can make no promises as to when. Spell checking is in progress, but will take until 2008 to complete.

Untidy or not I hope you will find the pages informative. If an item is controversial... I will say so (I have no desire to mislead anybody).

There are a few early pages that have multi coloured graphical buttons... These are gradually being replaced, but probably not until year 2007 or later. 

"A-Z" INDEX	Pages that have buttons grouped as shown left have not yet been upgraded (I manage to do about two per day, but it will still take many more months). With these pages the "A-Z" and Home buttons work the same as detailed above, but the back button works more like the 'Previous Menu' button. Also menu items may have grey horizontal rules that are two pixels wide.

New function

			"A-Z" INDEX &   SEARCH

There are some groups of pages that have the 'Step Forward' function this is effectively an endless loop that incorporates all the items on the 'Previous Menu'. It is intended to add a 'pre-load next page' Javascript function to this stepping action to enable faster navigation. In conjunction with this I have abbreviated the Nav buttons in the bottom strap (the colours reflect the originals) as shown below this block of text. This feature was suggested by Allen Dick, to whom I am endebted.

It is envisaged that there will be conflicts between various menus that use the same files... This will be overcome by 'Step forward' buttons with different background colours so that a page that is part of two or more loops will have two or more sets of StepNav buttons of different colours. In which case you will need to follow the colour of the particular loop that you are following.

Written... Date Revision... Dates

Finally may I say that I hope you enjoy working your way around this site, as I have had much enjoyment in producing it.

The most recent navigation changes only concern the appearance of the buttons and include a roll-over action.

As of mid 2006 better support for Mozilla based browsers and additional 'pop up' descriptions have been incorporated.