You CAN Have It YOUR Way!

Over the years, ANN has listened long and hard to those of you who have so generously taken the time to suggest upgrades and modifications to our site. ANN has designed several options that you can utilize to configure our homepage to your personal preference, as well as your computer's abilities. Let's examine a few of the many options we have engineered to allow ANN readers to get more out of the Aero-News experience.

One of the most important of our many options is the system we designed to allow ANN readers to customize the story layout and visuals associated with the reading of our TopNews page -- you can select thumbnailed pictures, full-size pictures, no pictures, story summaries (that we call "teasers"), full stories... you name it.

To customize the way your page is presented, first find the image display toolbar at the very bottom of the Aero-News TopNews homepage. There; you'll see several options.

Our website defaults to the "Normal" settings (unlike our staff -- we're still looking for ours and let's face it, there's NOTHING about our Editor-In-Chief, Jim Campbell, that merits the word "normal") the first time it is viewed on your computer. This means that the day's top story will be displayed in full at the -- wait for it -- top of the page, with thumbnail graphics that the user can then click on to see the larger pictures in a seperate "pop-up" window.

The headlines for the rest of the day's stories will be displayed below the top article, as well as articles from the preceding days. Clicking on any of these will bring that article to the top, with the remaining articles displayed below.

Notice that you DO NOT have to use your browser's "BACK" buttons to go back to an article you've just seen -- you only have to scroll down and click on that article's headline!

Do you want to see a brief description (teaser) of all those articles? Then you only have to click on the "Headlines & Teasers" button under the "Article Display" heading to the left of the toolbar...

...And you'll see the first several lines of each article displayed. If you want to read the full article, you only need to click on the "Read This Story" link provided with each item.

(Now would also be a good time to mention that our new Associate Editor was chosen for his... well, we're not sure what, exactly, but it's safe to say it wasn't for his drawing abilities.)

You can also configure the site to display ALL stories and items in full. Can you guess how to do this?

We're not kidding, though... it's probably not a good idea to select this option if your computer is older than Hognose's glasses, with anything less than a high-speed Internet connection. Dial-up? Fuggedaboudit. Our site is worth the wait, sure... but you'll get to the news you want MUCH quicker if you select one of the other options.

Next, let's look at the Image Display options. These are listed along the same lines as the text options, with choices of either thumbnail-sized graphics (that you can click on to make larger,) fullsize graphics, or even NO graphics at all -- but what fun is it to read something without the pretty pictures (hey, just ask Hugh Hefner...)?

Think you can handle ALL the articles, with FULLSIZED graphics? Select both "All" options, text AND graphics... and then stand back as your PC explodes. No, not really... but now would be a good time to remind you, ANN is not responsible for damage to yourself or your computer (grin... it's all about the bandwidth, baby.)

Want to save your personal viewing choices for the next time you visit our site? Simply click the "Remember these Settings" button, and as long as your computer accepts cookies you'll see our site in the same format next time, every time (unless you deselect that option)!

FMI: www.aero-news.net