Site-Wide Navigation Use the navigational icons at the bottom of the pages on the White House web site to return to the White House home page or to other pages in the web site hierarchy. All the White House navigation icons have a similar design, like the one at right for the Home Page. Intra-Site Navigation Most sites within the White House web have internal navigation elements that help you return to the home page for that site. Typically, the navigation icons or text are located at the bottom of the page. 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 nearly all cases, when a hyperlink takes you off the White House web site, you will see a message informing you of this.

Search The White House "Virtual Library" provides access to two search resources: You can search through the web pages on the site, or You can search or browse through the extensive archive of documents on our Publication Server. This archive includes all of the official releases, speech transcripts, briefings, and executive orders issued by the White House, all carefully categorized by subject, type, and date to assist in your search. Subscriptions The White House Publication Server also has a tool that lets you subscribe to White House news releases and other documents. After you subscribe, documents will be sent to you by email on a regular basis, as they are released by the White House. Feedback Nearly every page on the White House site has a link to allow you to provide feedback to the Web Development Team. In addition, the home page for the Executive Office of the President has links that let you send email to them as well as to the First Lady and Mrs. Gore.

PDF Files (Acrobat) Some documents on the White House 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 3.0 or later of the Acrobat Reader. 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 allows us to "stream" 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.) Vivo Video Files These files, which have the extension "viv", require installation and use of the Vivo software, which is available for free from Vivo Active. This file format, similar to the Real Media, allows us to "stream" 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.) Other Audio Files Some audio files on the White House web site are in "au" format. These sound files can be played using a standard soundplayer bundled with your computer's operating system--for example, Microsoft Media Player for Windows, SoundMachine for the Macintosh, and XPlayGizmo for Unix. (Note that to hear audio on your computer, your system must also have a sound card and speakers or earphones.)

Text-Only Pages The White House web site pages are designed to be accessible to users with text-only browsers and screen readers. Our current standards require the use of clear "ALT" attributes for all images on a web page, which allows text-only readers to "see" a description of the image. In addition, we avoid using tables to line paragraphs or other wrapped text into columns, because the text-based browsers and tools for users with visual disabilities cannot parse tables accurately at this time. We also strive to avoid designing lists of lnks without non-link, printable characters (surrounded by spaces) between them, and we try to ensure that link phrases make sense when read out of context. For the pages on our site that do not meet these standards, we provide a "text-only" version to ensure accessibility for text-only browsers and screen readers. Modem Connections The White House web pages are designed to download as quickly as possible by users on modem connections to the Internet. To help our web pages render more quickly, 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 comprising visual quality. In addition, we avoid using tables that are more than about 2 computer screens (or roughly 800 pixels) long, because browsers cannot render information in a table until the entire table has been parsed and laid out. Restricting the size of tables on our pages speeds their display for users. PDF Files 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. For systems which are not connected to the Internet, Adobe has a free downloadable accessibility plug-in, called Acrobat Access, for use with the latest versions of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Windows NT. This plug-in helps to overcome some of the problems of reading PDF documents with screen readers, but for systems with Internet access, Adobe recommends using the on-line Access translation service instead.

To comment on this service,
send feedback to the Web Development Team.