Help

Information on how to best use the Governor's Office web site.

Finding Information

There are several methods of finding information on this site.

Searching

The search field is present on every page. In most browsers it will appear on the left side of the document. Simply type in the search terms separated by a space and the system will return any documents that contain those terms.

You can refine your search by using AND and OR between your search terms. For instance, to find documents that contain both the terms "film" and "music" you would enter "film AND music" in the search field.

There is also a link to the Advanced Search form on each page. This form will allow you to narrow your search to the document, title and description.

Search Results

Search results can be sorted alphabetically in ascending or decending order in most browsers. Simply click on the column header of the search results table to sort the results.

Browsing

If you aren't sure exactly what you are looking for, or you just want to see what is available, the Governor's Office web site offers a way to simply browse.

Near the top of each page you will find a menu of links to the various sections of this site. In most browsers this will take the form of a drop-down menu. Other browsers may see a list of links. Just click on what interests you.

Syndication

You may have seen this icon on the home page and wondered what it was:

That icon represents the Rich Site Summary (RSS) file, which happens to be written in eXtensible Markup Language (XML). This file summarizes the latest press and appointment releases from the Office of the Governor in a format that can be read by syndicated news readers. The actual URL for this file is:

http://www.governor.state.tx.us/rss.xml

You need to have a syndicated news reader to make use of this feature.

Accessibility

Several features have been implemented to improve accessibility of the Governor's Office web site. Please read the accessibility policy.

Standards Compliance

This web site makes use of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards including XHTML, CSS, and WCAG.

What this means is that this web site costs less to maintain, works with a wide variety of access devices, is more accessible to users with disabilities, and is forward compatible.

Browsers that have broken or non-existent support for web standards will still receive all of the text content this site has to offer, but may miss out on the full experience. The vast majority of modern browsers support standards. Make sure you are using the latest stable version of your browser to take advantage of this.

The Governor's web site is designed so that the visitor may adjust the size of the text to their preference. Nearly all modern browsers have the ability to scale text up or down from the default. Refer to the help documentation for your particular browser to learn how to take advantage of this feature.

Access Keys

Commonly used portions of the web site can be brought into focus using access keys. Access keys function differently in different browsers; check the help documentation of your browser for instructions on how to use this feature.

The keys available on this site are:

[1] Return to the home page
[2] Select menu option "Rick Perry"
[3] Select menu option "Priorities"
[4] Select menu option "Divisions"
[5] Select menu option "Contact"
[6] Jump to main content area
[7] Jump to search input field
[8] Visit this help page

Alternate Language Support

In an effort to help individuals that may need to view the site in an alternate language, please try the below Google service:

Google Language Tools

Downloading Files

In many places on this web site you will find files or documents available for download. Typically the links to these documents are followed by a note on the size and type of the document. For instance, an Adobe PDF that was three megabytes in size would be indicated by "[3MB PDF]".

Formats common to the Governor's Office web site include Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, and Rich Text Format (RTF). Adobe PDF documents require the freely available Adobe Acrobat Reader.

If you encounter a problem with viewing a file, particularly a PDF, make sure that you are using the latest version of your browser and the latest reader for that file format.

Was this page helpful to you? Is there additional information you would like to see here? Do you have suggestions for how to improve this web site? Please contact the Web Administrator.