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The Nelson Mail on the web – follow up

Posted August 21st, 2007 by peter

I posted this article last night, and thought I could offer a few comments after reading tonights edition online. This was forced on me, cause our paper was not delivered tonight in our mail box as normal (and my partner rang up the mail before 5.30 to tell them – but alas it still has not arrived). I must admit that fortunately non delivery does not happen very often, and generally when it is not received, that after a phone call to them, a copy arrives by 7pm. Being the oldie I am, and more tuned to reading a physical piece of paper than a screen (even after nearly 20 years of using a PC), I really was quite pleasantly surprised. On loading the page, I could see the whole page layout on my screen ok, could read the headlines, but even with my glasses on, the standard text was too small to read the story. I found that by selecting the story I wanted to read, and clicking on the page, the page magnified, and then by left clicking the mouse and holding it, I could follow the story just fine. Takes a little getting used to, but no problems. You can select to see all thumbnails, and jump from page to page reasonably quickly (xtra’s speed is a little quicker tonight) Clicking on the – zoom control at the bottom of the page made the text readable too, but my 1280×800 laptop screen was too small to see the whole width and dept of the page, but bottom and side scrole bars appeared, and using these made it easier to follow a story. A couple of features from the menu bar at the bottom are the ability to send off a page as an email. When the receiver gets the email they see a small image of the page, which on clicking on goes to the Fairfax site. The receive may have to have an account to actually read the page, I have not checked it that far yet. The other is the ability to print the page, but I did not test this feature. My impressions overall: 4 out of 5 stars – certainly worth trying, and I will be using it especially when out of town.