About this site

Tips for using this site and seeing it at its best.

Accessibility

I am trying to make this site as accessible as I can, by following most of the web content accessibility guidelines.

These access keys work on all pages ( use Alt + access key on Windows; Control + access key on a Mac):

• Access key 1 — Home
• Access key 3 — Site map
• Access key 4 — Search
• Access key 9 — Contact details

These access keys work on some pages:

• Access key n — Next page
• Access key p — Previous page

Subscribe

You can subscribe to receive occasional news by email of new material on this site. See the note about privacy below.

Disclaimer

I have written and published this web site to impart information of general interest. I disclaim any responsibility for its applicability to particular cases. If you want specific advice about conserving a significant place, perhaps you need my professional services.

Copyright

Unless credited to someone else, copyright in all the text, images and designs on this site belongs to me, Peter Marquis-Kyle.

• You may freely
• view everything you can find on this site
• print copies for your personal use
• link to any page on this site from other websites (please let me know if you do, just for my own interest)

• But you may not without my permission
• store any of this content on a disk or file server (except for files cached by your browser)
• publish or reproduce anything here, electronically or on paper (except for fair dealing in accordance with Australian copyright law)

Privacy

My clients disclose private and sensitive information to me in the course of my work. I keep this information private, and don't pass it on to other people without the consent of my clients.

Through my community work on advisory committees and community organisations I am sometimes privy to sensitive information. I protect the privacy of this information in accordance with the protocols of the committee or organisation.

If you subscribe to receive update news by email, I collect your name and email address. I use these only to send you short messages about new content on this web site. I won't send more than one message each month, and I won't give your address to anyone else. You can remove yourself at any time

If you leave comments on Marking time or Special places you have the option of leaving your email address. Your email address will not be displayed on this site, but it is sent to me automatically and I might reply to you. If you choose to leave your URL with your comment, it will be displayed on this site as a link to your site.

Fonts

These pages are designed to be displayed using Georgia and Verdana. If you don't have those fonts installed on your computer, your browser will use others instead (probably Times and Helvetica, which I have specified as substitutes).

Georgia and Verdana are digital typefaces designed for easy reading on computer screens. They were both designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft. You can download them for free. It's one offer from Bill Gates I recommend you accept. Update, August 2002: Microsoft cuts the line to web core fonts.

Monitor adjustment

If your monitor is out of adjustment, it won't display subtle tone differences in photo images, and you will miss out. I have made a test image (below) so you can check your monitor settings.

This grid of grey tones goes from 0% white to 100% white in 5% steps. In a well adjusted monitor you should be able to see clear steps between all 21 tones. Pay attention to the light and dark ends of the range, and adjust brightness and contrast for the best result. It's hard to get this right (and hard to see screen images at their best) in a brightly lit room.

New browser windows

I make outbound links open a new browser window. Jakob Nielsen says it subverts the conventions of the web and is rude. But I say it makes it easier for you to keep your place in my site.

These links open a (singular) new window. Even if you follow a lot of outbound links, I won't litter your screen with lots of new windows.

This is especially good for browsing lists of links — for example, my heritage registers page. Arrange my page and the target page together on your screen, and scan through the list of links. Like this:

 

Link colours

Most link text should show these colours:

  Fresh (unvisited) links are Bright blue.

  Recently visited links are Dark blue.

  Links within this site turn Red when the mouse pointer hovers over them.

  Links to other sites display a Green background when the mouse pointer hovers over them. If you click one of these, a new window will open (see new browser windows, above).

You will see these colours only if your browser complies with the CSS2 standard (see cascading style sheets, below).

Are you red/green colour-blind? If you are, even with the right browser, the red and green will look the same to you. That's why I made the outbound links show the coloured background when the mouse pointer hovers over them.

Cascading style sheets

I have converted all the pages of this site to use the CSS2 standard. In theory, this gives better control of typography and layout than ordinary HTML. In practice, I hope it makes for easier reading.

Not all browsers handle stylesheets properly. It is a good idea to use a good browser.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the providers of these free services: