![[logo] US EPA](../gif/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Site Guide
This Web guide has been developed to assist you in your research efforts by defining formats and standards used within the EMAP exhibit. The guide also points out innovative features, makes web browser selection and configuration suggestions and proposes screen resolution settings for best operation and performance while "surfing" this site.
We have made every effort to keep image and other file sizes to a minimum to ensure faster transmission over the Internet. However, if you want to further speed Web page download times, you may choose to disable image loading from your Web browser.
Data are formated in two EPA standards; ASCII text files and ARC/INFO 
export files. Several software packages are available to help the public use EPA data. (See also the EMAP Information Management Policies page for an overview of guidelines and standards used in the program.)
The U.S.EPA document standard is currently Corel Corporation's WordPerfect . Other document formats used to enhance document quality and usability are HTML, ASCII text, and PDF (Portable Document Format). PDF is the de facto standard for electronic distribution of documents. Software for viewing PDF files (Acrobat Reader) is freely available from Adobe Systems Inc. .
To assist in navigating this site, we have included a graphical Site Map available as a link at the bottom of every page. We've also implemented some Java, Javascript, and DHTML (Dynamic HTML) fuctionality to aid accessibility to EMAP information and products. Examples of these enhancements are automated drop down lists, a scrolling message window on EMAP's main page, a glossary term lookup application, and floating "Top of Page" buttons that move as a page is scrolled.
This site was created for best viewing with Netscape 4+ and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4+ web browsers; however, it should still be reasonably functional and readable with other browsers and earlier versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer. For information on the most recent versions of either Netscape or Internet Explorer, click on one of the icons below.
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This site is best viewed with a monitor resolution setting of 800x600 pixels (except where otherwise indicated). To check the current setting of your monitor or change your monitor resolution to this setting follow the instructions below.
- For Windows 95/NT users: Click on the Start menu in the lower left corner. From the pop-up menu, select "Settings." From the next pop-up menu, select "Control Panel" and double-click on the "Display" icon. From the folder tabs at the top, select the one marked "Settings". Then, in the box marked "Desktop Area," move the bar to the second line from the left - 800x600 pixels.
- For Windows 3.1 users: You may not be able to change this setting.
- For Mac OS users: Click on the apple in the upper left corner of your screen (on the toolbar at the top). From the drop-down menu, choose "Control Panel." From the next menu choose "Monitors and Sound." From the resulting pop-up window, find the box that says "Resolution," and select the number that most closely approximates 800x600 pixels.
Use the following steps to disable the automatic image loading feature of your browser. Most if not all functionality of this Web site will still remain even with images disabled.
- For Internet Explorer version 4 users: Select "View" from the toolbar at the top of the browser. Then select "Internet Options..." from the pull-down menu. Select the folder tab marked "Advanced." Scroll down the list to the Multimedia section. Click on the box to the left of the words "Show Pictures." The check mark in the box should disappear. Then click on the button at the bottom of that window, marked "OK." Now your browser is set to show just the text on each page. You may need to reload the current page to switch it from pictures to no-pictures.
- For Netscape version 4 users: From the Edit menu, choose "Preferences..." Select the "Advanced" category. Deselect the "Automatically Load Images" item preference checkbox. When this checkbox is unselected, the images in pages are replaced by small icons.
To turn the image function back on, use the same process described above for your browser, and reload the page. For some versions of Netscape, a new icon will appear in the toolbar after turning the "Automatically Load Images" feature off, that will let you load images for just the page that you are on.
Troubleshooting
If you have persistent problems viewing or using this site, and are following the recommended viewing guidelines, please send us a comment describing the problem, and give the URL of the page(s) not working correctly.