Parts of this help page discuss some technical aspects related to accessing PUMAS. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to give technical advice on an individual basis, but here are suggestions for dealing with a few of the more frequently encountered problems. If you need further help, please contact your local systems expert.
1. Navigating the PUMAS Web Site
The PUMAS Web Site is organized to serve three kinds of Participants:
There are two subsidiary functions, the "Examples Wanted" bulletin board, where teachers looking for examples not in the PUMAS Collection can post their requests, and this Help file.
All five paths can be reached from the
PUMAS Home Page, and from the
"footer" that appears at the bottom of every page in the PUMAS Web Site.
The footer also provides access to the Home Page, the PUMAS Copyright
statement, and the e-mail boxes of the PUMAS Editor and Web Curator.
[Please direct comments on the content or organization of the pages to the
Editor, whereas comments on the operation of the Site go to the Curator.]
Other Things You Can Do At the PUMAS Web Site:
If You've Used PUMAS Before, You Might:
Also Available at this Web Site:
2. Accessing the PUMAS Web Site
If you're just starting out on the information superhighway, and want to know more about the Web and HTML, the Yahoo Web Site is a good place to start.
You need to have "web browser" software installed and running on your computer to access PUMAS. The PUMAS Web Site is designed to be viewed with any web browser that supports HTML tables, including the Netscape, NCSA Mosaic, or Internet Explorer browsers.
If you do not have a browser, or if you have another browser and are unhappy with the results (for example, if some images don't come out, the response is slow compared to that of your friends' browsers, or things just get hung up as you navigate the PUMAS Site), you may wish to contact Netscape Communications, NCSA, or Internet Explorer. For educational purposes, all are available free-of-charge over the net.
To access the PUMAS Web Site, find the menu item or button in your browser software with words such as "Open," "Location," "Open Location," "Load URL," or "Address," and type:
Once you have reached PUMAS and your browser is working properly, certain words will appear underlined and in a different color, and some images will have colored borders. These indicate hyperlinks. Click on the word or image, and you will find related material, such as definitions of terms, follow-on activities, or larger versions of images.
Also, your browser probably has a button labeled "Back" or " <-- ". This is often the easiest way to return from a hyperlink. Some PUMAS pages also have "Return To:" options at the bottom of the page for convenience, and all pages have "footers" with hyperlinks to the main sections of the PUMAS Web Site.
You might want to save the PUMAS Web Site address, so you don't need to remember it the next time you access. You can do this by selecting the "Add Bookmark" menu item in the Netscape browser, the "Add this item" in the "Hotlist" menu in the NCSA Mosaic browser, or by selecting the "Favorites" menu item in Internet Explorer, while you are viewing the PUMAS Home Page. Next time you want to connect to PUMAS, just select the PUMAS entry in your Bookmark, Hotlist menu, or Favorites.
By the way, if a page becomes garbled, or if an "image missing" icon appears where an image should be, pressing the "Reload" button in Netscape, menu item, or the "Refresh" button in Internet Explorer might correct the problem.
Most browsers have many other useful features. Explore and enjoy...
The PUMAS examples themselves are stored in a format called PDF. We do
this so that the exact text, graphics, and equations for each example can
be viewed on a wide variety of computers. To view PDF files, you need a
software tool such as Adobe Acrobat Reader installed and running on your
computer.
If you do not have a copy of Acrobat Reader, you may download it
free of charge from the
Adobe Web Site.
Once you select your computer type and press "OK"
at the Adobe Site, you may be given several options. The choices have
to do with the way the software is compressed -- the more compressed,
the smaller the file that has to be sent to you over the net. Make
your choice, and one or more files will be placed on your computer's disk. These are "self-extracting" files -- click on them, and they will
automatically uncompress and install the Reader, so you can run it on
your computer. It is best to restart your computer once the Reader
is installed, and you should be set to go.
Most browsers and operating systems provide "caches" to store recently
viewed files. If these caches are active on your system, you will be able
to download an HTML file once, and return to it repeatedly during the
session without reloading. (Note: This doesn't work if you quit the browser
and restart it.) If your browser is reloading a section each time you view
it, look into the cache options of your browser and system. (For Netscape,
the cache location and size are set in one of the Preferences panels in the
Options menu.) (For Internet Explorer, go to View, then Internet Options, then select the General tab and click Settings. To create more space to store pages temporarily, move the slider to the right. To prevent Internet Explorer from updating pages in the Temporary Internet Files folder, click Never.)
If you seem to be waiting a long time for the documents to transfer, it's
probably due to one of the following: (1) your machine is slow; (2) the
network your machine is connected to is slow; (3) there are a lot
of people also using the PUMAS Web Site; (4) you have old browser
software; or (5) you are transferring a lot of material.
There's not much you can do about (1) or (2), short of getting a faster
machine and/or an Ethernet connection. If you are accessing PUMAS through a
modem, your modem OR your internet provider's network could be the source
of the bottleneck. If (3) is the case, you might decide to wait for a less
busy time. And if you suspect (4), contact Netscape, Mosaic, or Internet Explorer through their
Web pages (see Section 2 of this help page).
You may be able to deal with (5) by shutting off the "auto image loading"
feature on your browser. The transfer speed will increase noticeably, and
you can still load figures if you decide you need them.
To find the "auto image loading" control, look in the Options menu of your
Web browser. (If there is no Options menu, look under the menus you do have
or look for the Preferences.) There should be a button called "Auto Load
Images," or words to that effect. Turn this feature off. If you want to
load an image later, you can click and hold the mouse button (right button
in X windows) over an "unloaded image" icon, or click on the "Images"
button found on most web browsers to load all available images at once.
[Warning: The "footer" at the bottom of each page, which is used to move to
other pages, is an image. If you turn off "Auto Load Images," you may need
to load the footer in order to move around the Web Site.]
We thank the Cassini Project, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California
Institute of Technology, for providing the inspiration for the "Accessing PUMAS" and "Speed" sections of this Help
page.
4. Viewing PUMAS Examples
Good luck!
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Back to PUMAS Home PageLast update: Friday April 5, 2002 PUMAS Editor: Ralph Kahn WebCurator: Cecelia Lawshe URL: http://pumas.jpl.nasa.gov/ help/help.html Copyright: © 1996, California Institute of Technology Privacy Statement ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Based on U.S. Government sponsored research |