Hints for Viewing the FHA Website

Your experience can be trouble free

Using this website, and the success you have finding what you need, may depend on your knowing a few tricks.  Especially if you are using a small device, you can run into difficulties.  However, if you are aware of the following hints, your experience can be trouble free.

Too Small?  Too Large  Too Many Words?

Sometimes you may find that the text and images on a web page are too small (hard to read or see clearly) or too large (hard to read a complete line or see a complete image).  On a touch-screen device you are probably familiar with changing the legibility of a page by using your fingers to enlarge or shrink it.  On a device with a keyboard there’s a way to change the size of the page.  To make the type and images smaller, type [Ctrl]-[-].  I.e., hold the Control key and type the minus sign.  Hold the Control key and type the plus sign to make things larger.  Type [Ctrl]-[0] (number “0“) to return to the standard size.

Too Many Words on a Line

Sometimes you find that reading a document is difficult because lines in a paragraph are too long; there are too many words on a line to take in easily when reading quickly.  It’s usually not hard to fix this.

The problem arises when you are using a device with a fairly wide screen.  On such devices there is usually a way to change the size of the window in which the document is displayed.  Be sure the window is not maximized (i.e., set to the full size of the screen).  You can reduce the width of the window by dragging one edge closer to the center.  Usually the number of words on a line will be reduced without changing the size of the text.  (With a PDF file this will not be true; the number of characters on a line will be fixed, and the text will become smaller.)

Which Way Up?

Pages are usually easier to read on a full-size device such as a laptop or desktop computer.  On a small device such as a tablet or a smart phone, you may find it helps to turn the device sideways (so-called Landscape Orientation).  This is, of course, the normal shape of the screen on a full-size device.  You should make sure your device is not locked in Portrait Orientation.

Tables Too Wide for the Screen

Some pages may contain tables that are too wide to be seen completely on a very small screen (see, for example, the monthly Calendar in The Belted Gazette).  If the page is displayed in Portrait Orientation, you may be able to solve the problem by viewing the page in Landscape Orientation.

Menus, and Hamburgers

On a full-size device there are two menu bars, one along the top of the screen and one on the left side.  On a small device, the menus may compressed using a so-called “hamburger menu” on the top right.  This is an icon with three horizontal lines (looks like a hamburger).  Tap on this and you will see a list of all the items on both menus.  A plus sign indicates that there is a subsidiary menu for this item.

Log In or Change Profile

If you need to log in the the website, or access the Profile commands, you will find that the relevant menu items are at the very end of the hamburger menu.  You will need to scroll all the way down.

Links to Items on a Page

Many documents contain links to other locations.  In some cases the link takes you to the top of a different page.  In other cases it takes you to location that is part way down a page.  In some cases the browser takes you a little further down the page than it is supposed to, and this can be confusing.  If this happens to you, simply scroll up just a small amount.

Back to the Top?  Or Just Back?

Reading a long document, you will notice a faint upward-pointing arrow in the lower right corner of the page.  Clicking on this arrow will take you back to the top of the page.  If the arrow does not appear, try scrolling the page slightly up or down.

Another way to go back to something you were looking at previously is to use the left pointing arrow in the top left of your browser window, or bottom left on a small device. This arrow is supposed to take you back one page.  However, the definition of a “page” can vary. Usually it takes you back to a previous document you were viewing.  Sometimes it takes you back to an earlier place in the current document.

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Better than you might have expected

We hope you find the FHA website useful and informative.  Even if you are a new user of the  website, by keeping in mind the pointers given here, your experience can be better than you might have expected.