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For an easy and comfortable surfing on this Web site, you should come to know the way the links of surfing work out and the means you enjoy for searching an information.

Please do also know the difficult and Pali words "speak".

At last, if you wish to print out a page, you should learn how comes into effect the style model page designed for printing.

Interrogation mark

help


Accessibility

For all problems related to accessibility, keyboard shortcuts, characters display, or the choice of styles, go on the "accessibility" page.

Surfing

Disposition of pages

For an easy surfing, all pages of the Web site are presented in the same manner, except those that present a special character, such as the map of the Web site or the search engine.

The elements of the heading and the bottom are to be clicked on.

The heading

The logo leads us to the home page of the Web site, the name of the Web site at the beginning of the text, and the icons of aid and accessibility towards the aid, the search engine, the sending of messages, etc.

The body

The paging is being displayed in 3 columns...

  • Left column:
    • Rolling menu, which proposes the essential aspects of the sections of the Web site.
    • Summary of the page (or of the heading).
  • Central column:
    • Localisation of the page according to the arborescence (Ariane's clew), along with some elements to be clicked on (home page > heading > section > section > page).tion > section > page ).
    • Text of the page, divided between chapters.
  • Right column:
    • Choice of the style, information about the page.
    • Various links.

Remark: In case of absence of page model, the contents of the left column if found at the top of the page, the one of the central column next, and the one of the right column at the bottom of the page. The "foot" of the page is in fact disposed at the bottom of the central column ; in all cases it will therefore remain at the bottom of this column.

The foot

The icons of conformity lead us to their corresponding page (validity, etc.) and the icons of surfing towards the page that they indicate.

Surfing icons

At the top on the right, at the bottom on the left and on all the length of the pages, between the chapters and in the middle of long chapters, some square icons are displayed, useful for easing the surf throughout the Web site.

  • the question mark forwards to aid (here itself)
  • the magnifier forwards to the search engine
  • the dhammadāna logo forwards to the home page of the Web site
  • the small house forwards to the home page of the column
  • the arrow pointed to the bottom forwards to the bottom of the page
  • the arrow pointed to the top forwards to the bottom of the page
  • the arrow pointed to the left forwards to the preceding page
  • the arrow pointed to the right forwards to the next page

The pages that are at disposal in other languages do display little flags forwarding to corresponding pages.

Each column gets its own home page.

The search for information

Search an information is a very easy thing to do on dhammadana.org, please find here the various way to proceed...

The links

Hypertexts or hyperimages, numerous are the links appearing in the Web site. Methodically divided up, they forward to a large panoply of pages of elements being useful to the consultation of the Web site, or else, to a deeper insight into the subject dealt with on the visited page.

At the bottom of the right column of most of pages is found a list of links leading to articles composed about a similar subject.

As we previously noticed in a preceding chapter, some surfing icons enable us to proceed throughout the Web site as easily as we would do on a Swiss highway.

Most of links are accompanied with a little text of precision. To get it displayed, it is sufficient to merely point the cursor over the link.

The contents

Each page has its own contents list (below the rolling menu), drawing a list of all chapters of the corresponding page.

The summaries

If you are not sure that the displayed page may be of any interest to you, please think of reading the little summary (at the bottom of the left column).

The site map

Naturally, the map of the Web site remains a good means to search for an information, as it displays to us the whole of the Web site as fast as the wink of an eye.

The search engine

If you still cannot find what you are looking for, use the search engine, to be found as much in the Web site itself as on the whole of the Net.

For an effective research leading to conclusive results, think about catching up accurate words.

Difficult terms

If a term is likely to generate some confusion or a misunderstanding, it is underlined with a dotted line. A pointing of the cursor over this word enables to display a short explanation of it.

Here are the main reasons for which a term may need such a complement:

  • an acronym
  • an abbreviation
  • a rare term
  • a term likely to have several meanings
  • a term having a particular definition in specific contexts
  • a foreign term

Pali terms

Displaying of Pali characters

The transcription of the Pali requires the use of numerous signs that come in larger quantity than with the Roman script ; in other parlance, characters that our script doesn't have. An ordinary font cannot display them. That's why a special font is required.

The "Dhamma" font

To be downloaded from this Web site, the "Dhamma" font fully fulfils this requirement. Moreover, apart from the fact that it possesses all characters of English and French language, it utilises – as far as possible – characters closely related to it. Thus, the persons who won't have installed this font will only be a little at disadvantage.

Here is the mode of display of the 10 Pali characters being absent from English script when the "Dhamma" font is not installed.

  • ā: the right "a" accent
  • ī: the right "i" accent
  • ū: the right "u" accent
  • ḍ: the dotted "d"
  • ḷ: the dotted "l"
  • ṃ: the dotted "m"
  • ṇ: the dotted "n"
  • ṅ: the above dotted "n"
  • ñ: the tilde "n"
  • ṭ: the dotted "t"

The other advantage given by this font lies in a better chance of results obtained in the search engines. In fact, "ā", "ī" and "ū" are considered as "a", "i" and "u" (and this does equally apply to French characters comprising accents) and are among the most common Pali bearing accents. That's a pity however regarding the dotted "m", which is the most often used accent bearing consonant.

The behaviour of Pali words

This Web site comprises numerous Pali terms. We have considered that it was not indispensable to make them appear in a different mode of display as compared with other terms. However, those who have the chance to get a coloured screen at disposal – and a perception of colours – will see them appearing as "onion grey" (except in other titles).

In the same way as difficult terms, a few Pali words are displayed along with a short definition corresponding with the context, and appearing during the flying over of the cursor. The same word will be therefore defined otherwise in another sentence. The terms being defined in this manner are to be recognised owing to their underlining by dotted lines.

The Pali English glossary

If you wish to have a more complete definition of a Pali term, you are requested to consult the Pali English glossary. To be directly led to the definition of a term, it is sufficient to enter the name of the page in the bar of addresses, followed by "#" and the fully entered corresponding Pali word (without the accents), then press "Enter". Example:

http://en.dhammadana.org/glossary/n.htm#nibbana

For more details regarding this way to search for a word, read the paragraph "For proceeding faster".

Apart from long sentences, all Pali terms of the Web site are explained in the glossary.

Printing

Free books

Please notice that a large portion of the texts of dhammadana.org are books subjects. Quite obviously free of charges (selling that which deals with dhamma is totally inconceivable), these books are – by definition – designed a printout ; therefore suitable for this use.

A style for the printing

If you wish to print out a page of dhammadana.org, please do know that there does exist a model page specially designed for a printout. This style should be automaticaly taken into account by the printer, as it has been established by default for a printout. If this navigator handles the change of page models ("Display", "Page model", "Print"), you have the possibility to have a brief outline of it on the screen.

Beware: Don't forget to beforehand download the the "Dhamma" font. Apart from the fact that it is indispensable to the proper display of numerous Pali words of the Web site, it is offered on a paper that is made sobre and pleasant to read, even though it is about a font without serif.

This page model forbids the display on paper of useless or invading elements, such as back colours and images, menus, etc. This presentation perfectly appears in black and white. Pali words are typed in italics.

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Author: Monk Dhamma Sāmi

Translator: Thierry Lambrou

Update: 2005, Oct. the 27th

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