Tips for Browsing the TerraWeb Website

Overview Tips for Modem Users Viewing Images via a Clickable Image Map Miscellaneous Tips Helpful Links

This website was created to present results from remotely sensed data, give access to the MIPS image processing software, and offer general information about remote sensing and image processing for the benefit of the public. Our main web audience is composed of, but not limited to, remote sensing scientists, geologists, image processing specialists, systems administrators, researchers, and others in the scientific community.

The World Wide Web was chosen as a presentation method because it is highly accessible, and allows us to present results, which are mainly in the forms of essays and images, in a graphical environment. Our goal is to serve as a resource for not only the scientific community, but also for educators, students, and the general public.

The TerraWeb web pages are created using the following basic design standards, assumptions, and rules:

• Monitor Size: Pages are designed to fit wherever possible onto a 640 x 480 resolution screen. One exception is full sized images. Full sized images do not exceed 850 x 850 pixels. On these pages, the full sized images are accessed from small thumbnails, which do not exceed 250 x 250 pixels. Thumbnails are designed to be coherent representations serving as illustrations to the accompanying text.

• Access Type: The site is designed to serve those on high speed networks, but those who are connected with 14.4+ modems should not find download time unreasonable.

• Browsers and Plaforms: The pages are tested on PC, Mac, and UNIX platforms running Netscape 1.1 through the most recent version, on PC running MS Internet Explorer (MSIE), connected via highspeed line on a network. They are also tested on a PC connected through an Internet Service Provider through 28.8 modem, running both MSIE and the most recent versions of 32-bit Netscape.

• HTML Standards: The pages are designed to be viewable with browsers that support HTML 2.0+, including tables, forms, and backgrounds. Higher level tags, such as colored text, table background colors, and forced font faces, are used, but should not affect the general layout of pages, nor adversely affect one's use of our site.

• Please feel free to send comments, suggestions, observations, and questions concerning these web pages or browser configuration and use by giving us feedback or drop an e-mail to: webman@TerraWeb.wr.usgs.gov Questions concerning browsers should include information about the type of computer, brand and version of browser, browser settings, monitor size, and any other information that might be important.

Turn 'Auto Load Images' off in the browser's preferences or options menu. This speeds download time of text. Images will have a comment tag displayed instead of the actual image. To view an image, some browsers on many systems support left clicking on its icon to load it onto the page. Right clicking (or holding down the mouse button on a Macintosh) on the image icon accesses a menu giving the choice of loading, viewing, or saving the image. "Loading" the image will load it into the current page, while "Viewing" it will bring it up in a window by itself.

To aid offline viewing of some of the large full resolution sets of images for an area (viewable using nph-zoom.pl, discussed in the next section), access to directory listings of full resolution data and compressed files that contain the entire collection of a particular image set are available on both the pages displaying the clickable compressed view of the set, and the pages displaying full resolution sections of the set. The full resolution data is only available as the several individual pieces as viewed on the web pages.

Look for captions somewhere below images that read "Click here to directly access the directory where these images are kept." In addition to being able to download the images directly to hard disk, a zip compressed file of all the images may be available for download. Instructions and comments will be found at the top of the directory listing.

Other image data is browsed online using an interface (webvista.cgi, discussed in the next section) which allows the user to set the image size. Set the image size to 300 x 300 or 480 x 480 (or smaller if desired) to speed download time. Full data sets for webvista.cgi are not available in the zip compressed archive format.

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There are two image browsing programs on this server, nph-zoom.cgi and USGS Web Vista. Web Vista has it's own help page accessed through the yellow question mark on Web Vista pages. Tips for using nph-zoom.cgi follow:

Full sized images accessed through these pages are never more than 850 x 850, and rarely smaller than 500 x 500. For best viewing results, maximize the browser window. On small screens, the entire image will not fit into the screen and will require scrolling using the side and bottom scroll bars of the browser. To make more room, collapse the browser's Location Window, Directory Buttons, and Toolbar, or turn them off in the options/preferences menu.

Full resolution images are accessed using a clickable image map with a grid layed over it. Click inside a grid to zoom in on that section of the image. The full resolution section of the image is viewed using a special file whose URL looks like:

• Lower Left: Image title

• Lower Right: Navigation Help Menu. Click on the button to expand the menu and access further instructions. There are also two links here, one to access the image directory as mentioned earlier, and another to save the currently displayed image on your harddisk.

• Directly Below the Image: Some data sets have links here. The links will be to the same area of a different image, perhaps from a different year, created using a different processing technique, or from a different kind of data gathering technique. There also may be links available that lead to further zoom-ins of an area of the image.

Stereo views of images require using red-blue or red-green 3-D glasses (red on the left). Many companies offer these for sale on the web. Search for "3-D glasses" using your favorite seach engine, such as Infoseek, Web Crawler, or Magellan. Also, some novelty shops carry inexpensive 3-D glasses.

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Fonts: The font being displayed by the browser is important to readability. Sans Serif fonts (no pretty 'feet' on the letters), such as Arial, Helvetica, or Century Gothic, may be more readable on a computer screen because the feet on Serif fonts tend to touch neighboring letters, especially if the font has a particularly narrow body or close character spacing. Browsers allow the user to set the desired display font in the preferences menu. Avoid decorative fonts, small font sizes, or delicate fonts that have very narrow lines.

Browsers: If your browser does not support tables, font colors, forms, or backgrounds, you may want to upgrade to a browser that supports current HTML standards. Netscape Navigator and MSIE are both free and available for download on the web. If you are using computer in the workplace, you may want to check with your computer administration personnel for information about upgrading your Web browsing software.

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Links to WWW Keyword Search Utilities
Netscape's Download Area
Microsoft's IE Download Area
USGS: General WWW Help -- hosted by USGS Water Resources Division
USGS Internet Resources: Directories, Scientific Research, WWW Search Engines

Back to the USGS TerraWeb Home Page

U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey | Jobs Home | Search | Disclaimers & Privacy Web Rings Send comments to webman@TerraWeb.wr.usgs.gov URL: Last Modified: Thu Oct 31 15:08:17 MST 2002