Kim here. Assuming everything's okay, I use Jaws to go to visited links, so I hit Browse, press Enter, select most recent books, and check out that which has been added to the collection during the previous day, hit Go, press enter when I know how many books have been added, and read synopses. Voila, I get to know what's there (which satisfies my 'satiable curiosity, according to the Elephant's Child. That's one thing I definitely like about the new site. On the old site, there was no selection in a combo box for checking out what was added the previous day. So here is my routine (such as it is): 1. wait until midnight 2. go to the Bookshare web site, 3. select "Browse books", 4. select "new books", 5. select "in the last day" 6. hit go, making sure I have 100 results per page, 7. make sure I read about books in List view, 8. hit Enter when it says: "skip to 1 of 96", and 9. read to my heart's content. After looking at what's on Bookshare, I have to check out the Project Gutenberg web site to find out what books have been posted, so I press the RSS feed link, and read what's been going on there. I never imagined I'd have a computer routine involving Internet Explorer, but so it goes (sigh). To think I could be doing something impractical like actually reading a book or playing my guitar. But what do I do instead? Right, check out email messages and do the routine I've mentioned. On Fridays, I have to know what's been added to the NLSBARD web sites. I didn't know when I got this computer of mine that I'd be hit with download fever. Now if only I'd sit down and read the stuff I've downloaded! Regards, Kim aka Ellinder. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 6:33 AM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: petition to put the new books back on the front page Wow, what a geeky response Ann. Sorry but it is. Actually, you make my case in your first paragraphs. Let's keep the bookshare site as it was until a week ago. Now, on with my rant. I consider myself kind of a geek too, but I'm a lazy geek. I want to bring up the bookshare site, hit "v" for my visited link and go to the new books page. No problem, done, voila. Sure I know there are ways to get to it: store in my favorites, use the links list, even store on my desktop, but (1, you should see my favorites I have sites in there going back to 1998; 2. you should see my desktop I have over a hundred shortcuts on my desktop going back to 1998 .bc.e. (sighted folks shriek in horror when they see my desktop). Jesus, this is a geeky sentence! All I want to do is get another book! I rest my convoluted case. Bob (whimpering "nooooo!" Roses are red, Violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, And I am too. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Parsons" <akp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 7:39 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: petition to put the new books back on the front page > Hi all, > > Um, may I put forth some reasons for keeping the web site as it is? > I'm sort of playing devil's advocate, but hear me out. > > First, Bookshare is one of those web sites that is navigated by many, > many people, most of whom are blind or visually impaired. Many of > these folks are new to computers, are young children, are folks with > physical disabilities and so on. It is absolutely paramount that we > consider the common denominator when considering web design for a page/site like this. > The most important thing to consider here is the simplicity of the web > site. In the old design, the New Books link was way, way, down the > page, buried in a plethora of links about everything from press > releases to News Papers and so on and on, the links continued and > continued and continued until you were drowning in links, drowning in the plethora of information. > Folks, for somebody who knows little or nothing about web sites, a > page with more than twenty links on it is a nightmare to navigate. > People like this do not know how to use a Links List. they do not > know how to use the placemarker feature of Jaws and Wind ow-Eyes, > something you guys have forgotten too, I guess. All they know is that > if they press their tab key, they will go from link to link. Have > more than twenty links on a page, and people will become frustrated > real fast, folks, real fast! Granted, the Skip Navigation Link *does* > work, but *only* if you understand how to use it. > > You guys ever heard of Guide? Well, it's a new simplified interface > for working with your computer. It's web navigation is *that* simple. > It doesn't even *have* the Links List or anything. > > If you look at this new page, guys, putting the Newest Books under > Browse makes perfect sense. You wanna browse the collection, so you > go to browse. Where would you put the newest link, guys? Then > somebody's gonna want the Authors link and the Best Sellers link and > on and on. No, keep it simple. Keep it streamlined. You want to browse, then browse, > new old authors, titles, categories, whatever. Those of you who are > canny computer folks, use your Links List, use your placemarker, use > your favorites, or put the dingdong link on your desktop. Be > proactive. Be independent. Make the web site work for you, don't > make it more complicated than it needs to be. > > Sorry for my rant, but really, there are several ways to make the > Newest Books accessible to you, folks, you've just not explored all > the possibilities. My motto is "Why aggravate yourself?" > > I have the homepage of both the Bookshare and the BARD site on my desktop. > It'd be the easiest thing in the world to put a link to the newest > books on your desktop. Here's how. > > 1. Go to the Newest Books page. > > 2. If in IE, press f6. > > 3. Do a ctrl-c. > > 4. Go to your desktop, and make sure that no item is selected. > > 5. Press the context Menu Key, or Applications Key, whatever you call it. > > 6. Arrow down to New. If new isn't there, press escape, go back to > the desktop and press ctrl-space to unselect the items. > > 7. Go back to the context Menu and arrow down to new. > > 8. Press 'enter'. > > 9. Arrow down to shortcut. > > 10. Press 'enter'. > > 11. You'll be placed in a wizard at an edit box. Press ctrl-v. > > 12. tab to next and press the spacebar. > > 13. You will find yourself at another edit box. Add a name for your > shortcut. > > 14. Tab to finish and press the spacebar. Voila! > > > Ann P. > > -- > AAnn K. Parsons > Portal Tutoring > Email: akp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Web Site: http://www.portaltutoring.info > blog: http://www.samobile.net/users/akp > Skype: Putertutor > > "All that is gold does not glitter, > Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a > list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. 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