Bogota Web Site User User Tips

bogota web site user tips
Welcome to the Bogota Online's User Tip Home Page. On our site we have provided information about the Town of Bogota, its operations, and services. The following are tips to make your experience while visiting our pages more valuable and enjoyable.

Navigation

Site-Wide Navigation: Use the navigational icons or text at the bottom of the pages on the Bogota Online web site to return to the Bogota Online Home Page or to other pages in the web site hierarchy. There is also a Site Index which includes a complete listing of documents on the site.

Back Button: In some cases, you will need to use the browser's "Back" button to return to a page you previously visited.

External Sites: In all cases when a hyperlink takes you off the Bogota Online's web site, you will see a message informing you of this.

Tools

Keyword Search: BogotaOnline.org has an easy-to-use search function. To use this function simply input keywords or phrases into the search box and press the ‘Search’ button to the right of the box. The website will return a list of results containing links that match your keywords or phrases as closely as possible. Click here to use our Search Tool.

Search Tips: Are you having trouble searching the site or finding the information you need? Use the tips below to improve your search results and get access to the Bogota Online information for which you are looking.

Tip # 1 - Narrowing Down your Search
If you put quotation marks around your search terms, for example: "Construction Codes", you'll get results that contain only that exact phrasing. If you leave off the quotation marks, you'll get results that contain any of the words that you typed.
Tip # 2 - Be Specific
When you're looking for something specific, try to be as exact as possible with your search terms. For example, if you're looking for information on how to become an Bogota Police Officer, type in "Police Employment" instead of "employment" or "Police."
Tip # 3 - Search using wildcards
You can use wildcards, such as * and ?, to obtain special results. For example, you can find documents that contain words that have similar spellings but are not stemmed variants. For example, air* finds documents that contain air, airline, and airplane. Entering, ma? finds documents that contain man and/or mat.

File Formats

PDF Files (Acrobat): Some documents on the Bogota Online web site are in Portable Document Format (PDF). These cross-platform documents ensure that users will be able to obtain publications in their original format regardless of what platform, software, or configurations they use to access the Internet. In order to view PDF documents, however, users must first download the free Acrobat Reader software, which lets you view, navigate through, and print PDF documents. Detailed instructions for downloading and installing the Acrobat Reader are available at http://www.adobe.com/acrobat/readstep.html. If you are not able to complete the indicated procedure, a Troubleshooting guide is available. For best results, make sure you have installed version 4.0 or later of the Acrobat Reader.

Visitors using screen reading devices generally cannot directly read documents in PDF format. However, Adobe Systems provides a free translation service through their Access server that will translate PDF files to web pages (HTML documents). This can be used in one of three ways:

The user's browser can be configured to use this service as a helper application, so that every time they click on a link to a PDF document, this document is automatically sent to the Access server and returned as a web page.
The user can go to the Access server and fill out a form. When this form is submitted, the server will go get the PDF document, translate it, and return it to the user.
The user can send an email message to the Access server, giving the address of the document to be translated. The server will then get this document and translate it to either a web page or a text (ASCII) document. Note that this is the only one of the three options that also gives the ability to produce a text document from the PDF file.

Real Video/Audio Files: These files, which have the extension "ram," require installation and use of the RealPlayer software, which is available for free from RealNetworks. This file format enables "streaming" of audio and video files to users, which means that you begin hearing and seeing the files without having to wait for the entire file to download. (Note that to hear audio on your computer, your system must also have a sound card and speakers or earphones.)

Modem Connections

The Bogota Online's web pages are designed to download as quickly as possible by users on modem connections to the Internet. To help our web pages render, our current standard is to include accurate "HEIGHT" and "WIDTH" for all our images and to optimize our graphics for the smallest possible file size without compromising visual quality. Our pages are designed to be 480 pixels wide to work within the minimum computer screen size.