Index
Introduction (Back to Index)
This page contains instructions on how to perform various tasks around this site. More instructions will be added to this page as the need arises.
Newest Instructions (Back to Index)
Below are the most recent instructions that have been added to this page. Currently, the most recent instructions are:
How to Subscribe to Email Notification of New Blog Posts
Definition of Terms (Back to Index)
Below is a list of terms that we will use frequently throughout this site, and what we mean when we use them.
Header Nav - This refers to the navigation menu at the top of every page. At the time of this writing, it looks like this (click the image to enlarge it):
Footer - This refers to the area at the very bottom of every page. It appears the same on every page. At the time of this writing, it looks like this (click the image to enlarge it):
Site Operation (Back to Index)
Following are instructions that will teach you how to use this site to the fullest extent.
How to download a PDF from this site (Back to Index)
Method 1:
Left click on the link. This will bring you to a new page, in the same tab, and it will load the PDF. At the bottom of the screen, there is a menu. The button on the far left of this menu is the "save" button. Click this button, and select a place on your computer to save the PDF to.
Method 2:
Right click on the link, and click on "Save as..." or "Save link as..." or "Save linked content as...," then select a place on your computer to save the PDF to.
Print Friendly (Back to Index)
In the footer, there is a green button that says "Print Friendly"; this button will print the page you are on. When you click on it, it will bring up a screen that shows you a preview of what will be printed. When on this screen, you can choose sections of text to delete from the printing, you can remove images, and you can adjust the font size. Once you have everything the way you like it, you can click on Print in the upper left. Once you have completed this step, another pop-up will appear that will say "Printing your Page". Please note: printing a page this way does NOT work correctly in Opera, SRWare Iron, or Internet Explorer (see here for more info).
You can also use Print Friendly to save the page you are on as a PDF. Once you click on the Print Friendly button, click on the PDF button in the upper left; this will generate a PDF file of the page. This will pop-up another window, and after a few seconds a button will appear that says Download your PDF.
If you don't have a PDF Viewer, you can download Adobe Reader for free here. Once you're on the page, there will be a checkbox that is checked which is offering something in addition to the download. Just uncheck this checkbox. After you uncheck the checkbox, click on the yellow button that's just a little bit further down that says "Download now". After the download is complete, just run the install, and now you will be able to view and print PDFs.
How to zoom in on a page (Back to Index)
For those of you who may be finding a page hard to read because of the size of the text, there is a very quick and easy solution. Just hold the control key (abbreviated ctrl) on your keyboard, and hit the plus key while still holding the control key. If you want to zoom out, hold the control key and hit the minus key while still holding the control key.
Browser Compatibility (Back to Index)
This site runs and displays differently depending on the browser you use. This is true of most sites, but these instructions will list the differences of this site depending on the browser you use.
We have encountered no errors on the site that appear due to use of Chrome. Print Friendly works correctly with chrome.
One of the things that we have noticed on this site while using Opera is that all text is slightly smaller. This issue seems to have only been in Opera, and you can bypass it by following these instructions. Do NOT use Print Friendly in Opera. It does not work correctly. It prints more pages than necessary, and (in our tests) fills the entire page with black ink.
We have encountered no errors on this site while using Firefox. Print Friendly works correctly. At least in one instance, the Share buttons in the lower right of every page did not appear; however, this seems to have been a local issue rather than something specifically related to Firefox.
We have encountered no errors in this site while using Iron. Print Friendly, however, does not work correctly. It gives a preview of what will be printed fine, but once you print the page, many words seem to have simply vanished from the page; Print Friendly seems to just not print them.
While there doesn't seem to be any errors with this site while using IE, the site does seem to run slower than it does when using most other browsers. Other than that, everything seems to work fine. Print Friendly works correctly, but it prints the text significantly smaller than other browsers. If you increase the font size to 15pt before printing, it increases the font size, but it is still about half of what other browsers print it as.
This website runs fine in Safari with no known errors. Print Friendly works correctly.
This site runs quite well in Maxthon with no known errors. Print Friendly works correctly.
While there is not very much of a noticeable difference of this site's speed depending on the browser you use, there is some. Maxthon and Chrome are recommended alternatives to anyone experiencing noticeable amounts of lag. Please note: if you are using Dial-Up, you are going to experience slow connectivity; it is highly recommended that you at least get DSL, if at all possible.
If you encounter a problem with the site that you feel is related to the browser you are using, feel free to send us a support question here, if the problem is actually browser related, we will add it here.
Bible Options Instructions (Back to Index)
Thanks to a 3rd party service known as Logos RefTagger, whenever you hover over a bible verse in this site, such as Romans 8:28, a popup will appear which shows the whole verse. This also works for a span of verses, such as 1Cor 13:1-13. If the bible verses are too long to be displayed in the popup, you can click on it, and you will be taken to a new tab where you can view the full verse.
In the footer of a page, you will see a box titled "Bible Options". It looks like this:
Here's what each option does:
1. This dropdown is where you select your preferred translation for each bible verse that you hover over.
2. If you have Logos Bible Software installed, checking this box will insert an icon next to each bible verse that will allow you to view that bible verse in the software. If you don't have the software, there is no need for this to be checked.
3. Once you have your settings the way you like them, click the Save button, and your settings will be saved.
Please note that this feature only works in English at the moment, but more translations are planned to be added in the future.
Advanced Search Instructions (Back to Index)
Performing a quick search using the default Search method is fine, but sometimes you may have the need to perform a more Advanced Search. There are a number of ways to refine your searches using the Advanced Search method.
-
+
A leading plus sign indicates that this word must be present in each result that is returned.
Example: '+apple +juice'
Will find results that contain both "apple" and "juice".
-
-
A leading minus sign indicates that this word must not be present in each result that is returned.
Example: '+apple -juice'
Will find results that contain "apple" and that do NOT contain "juice".
-
(no operator)
By default (when neither + nor - is specified), the word is optional, but the results that contain it are rated higher.
Example: 'apple banana'
Find results that contain "apple" OR "banana".
-
> <
These two operators are used to change a word's contribution to the relevance value that is assigned to a result. The > operator increases the contribution and the < operator decreases it. See the following example
Example: '+apple +(>turnover
Find results that contain the words "apple" and "turnover", or "apple" and "strudel" (in any order), but rank "apple turnover" higher than "apple strudel".
-
~
A leading tilde acts as a negation operator, causing the word's contribution to the result's relevance to be negative. This is useful for marking "noise" words. A result containing such a word is rated lower than others, but is not excluded altogether, as it would be with the - operator.
Example: '+apple ~macintosh'
Find results that contain the word "apple", but if the result also contains the word "macintosh", rate it lower than if the result does not. This is "softer" than a search for '+apple -macintosh', for which the presence of "macintosh" causes the result not to be returned at all.
-
*
The asterisk serves as the truncation (or wildcard) operator. Unlike the other operators, it is appended to the word to be affected. Words match if they begin with the word preceding the * operator.
Example: 'apple*'
Find results that contain words such as "apple", "apples", "applesauce", or "applet".
-
" "
A phrase that is enclosed within double quote (" ") characters matches only results that contain the phrase literally, as it was typed. Nonword characters need not be matched exactly: Phrase searching requires only that matches contain exactly the same words as the phrase and in the same order. For example, "test phrase" matches "test, phrase".
Example: ' "some words" '
Find results that contain the exact phrase "some words" (for example, results that contain "some words of wisdom" but not "some noise words"). Note that the " " characters that enclose the phrase are operator characters that delimit the phrase. They are not the quotation marks that enclose the search string itself.
None of these operators are required to operate the advanced search, but you can choose to use them at any time to refine your search. Overall, just play around with it. Try using the operators in searches and see what results you get.
Below the search box, there is a dropdown where you can select how you want to sort the results. Here are the different type of sorting options:
- In their sitemap order - This sorts pages according to the order we have them placed in the site map.
- With the most recent first - This sorts pages with the most recent one first, and continuing on chronologically.
- With the earliest first - This sorts pages with the oldest one first, and continuing on chronologically.
- In alphabetical order - This is straight-forward.
- In reverse alphabetical order - The reverse of the above.
- By keyword relevence - This sorts pages according to the relevence relating to your keywords that you entered in your search query.
- By reverse keyword relevence - The reverse of the above.
- In random order - This is straight-forward.
Below the sorting options, there are multiple checkboxes which you can check or uncheck to search only certain Blog Categories. Below that, you can check any additional tags you want the results to contain.
How to Subscribe to Email Notification of New Blog Posts (Back to Index)
To subscribe to receive an email whenever a new blog is posted, follow the instructions on this blog post. More details instructions will be posted in the future.