Tips and tricks to navigate better

[hotairballoonist]

When you first come on the site you find it a little overwhelming! 

We have tried real hard to structure the navigation to make it as easy as we can.  That Said, there is just so much stuff on this site however, there are ways of cleaning up the clutter.  First did you know you can open and close each category!  Each Category is represented bya Brown Category Bar.  This bar goes across the page.  Over on the right hand side of that bar is a small up and down arrow.  Click on that Arrow to open or fold up that entire category!  See this photo.

 

 

Next is the Follow This feature.  ON almost every Topic, Post, Reply, Photo Gallery & Calendar Event there is a "Follow This" button.  When you select the Follow option you will get an email anytime someone posts a topic or makes a reply in that forum or that item.  There is also a small number next to the Follow button that shows you the number of other members that are also following that item.

 

 

A fantastic use for this would be if you were looking at a balloon for sale and the price was too high you could select follow this item and when something is changed you are notified or if someone else asks a question about that piece of equipment you hear about it too!  This is a very handy feature to our site. 

 

All new members are automatically signed up to follow the HAB Walkie Talkie.  This forum works exactly how it sounds.  Someone posts a topic and everyone gets an email.  Like everyone being on the same radio frequency at the same time! 

 

Bread Crumb Trails.  Just like the storybook fable our site has bread crumb trails.  At the top of the page just under the main navigation bar are links of where you have been.  You can click on any of those links and jump back to a previous page you were on.  Handy when searching many different topics in one or more categories or sub-categories.

 

Search Bar.

Our search system is real good.  It allows you to search separate areas of the site or the whole site.  Search for whole strings of words or separate words.  Up at the top of every page you will find the search bar.  Give it a try when you are looking for something specific.

 

So as you can see we have tried to create a site where you can find just about anything you could want to know about and still keep it relatively easy to navigate.  Keep in mind that when you have this much information in one spot it can still be a challenge even with the best of organization.