How to use the Bleeping Computer Front Page
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- How to use the Front Page
- Further Reading
Introduction
First and foremost, I would like to welcome you to Bleeping Computer. Our
community is devoted to teaching you how to use your computer and to solve
computer problems in an easy to understand manner.
While many of our members originally
came to the site with a computer problem, many have decided to stay after their
problem was solved to help take part in and further develop our community.
From computer support and education, to forums games, or to just
helping others, Bleeping Computer has become a warm and welcome spot on the
Internet that I am proud to say many people call home.
If you are reading this tutorial then you are most likely new to BleepingComputer.com
and/or this type of online message forum. I have created this tutorial so that
you can quickly and easily become a participating member of our community.
Whether you are here to help others, receive help, or to just chat about everyday
life, after you read this tutorial you will easily be able to achieve your
goals.
The Front Page
Every web site has a front page of a web site. A front page is simply the
first page you see when you reach a web site. In the figure below you will
see a screen shot
of the front page for BleepingComputer.com. The different sections of the page
are marked with red numbers and are explained below the image.
Figure 1: Front Page Screen shot
The front page is broken up into 20 sections which are described
below:
- Home Tab - Clicking
on the Home tab will bring you back to this page. This tab will appear
on every page on the site and if you ever want to go back to this page,
you would click on that tab.
- Tutorials Tab - Clicking
on the Tutorials tab will bring you to our tutorial section. It is in this
section that you can find guides on how to use your computer and on learning
basic computer concepts. As a matter of fact, you are reading this tutorial
right now from the Tutorials section.
- Discussions Tab - Clicking
on the Discussions tab will bring you to the Discussion
forums. Here you can leave messages about computer problems, tips and tricks,
or to just chat with other members.
- Glossary Tab - Clicking
on the Glossary tab will bring you to our glossary of computer terms.
- Resources Tab - Clicking
on the Resources tab will bring you to a section devoted to links where
you can download software or visit other useful sites.
- Login In and Create New Account Link - This
section contains the Log In link and the Create New Account link. If
you are already a registered member, then you simply need to click on
the Log In link and you will be presented with a page where you can enter
your Username and Password. If on the other hand you do not have an account
already, then simply click on the Create New Account link and you will
be presented with a form to fill out. An account on our site is free so
there should be nothing stopping you from signing up!
- Fun & Games Link - Clicking
on this link will bring you to our online arcade with games like Pacman,
Blackjack, Yahtzee and many others. You must be a registered member to
play these games!
- Chat Link - Click
on this link to start chatting with other members in real-time. No extra
software is necessary. Just click the link and read the instructions
to start chatting on the Bleeping Computer chat channel.
- Discussion Boards Link - Another
link to our Discussion boards as described in 3 above.
- Help Link - Clicking
on the Help link will bring you to a section with commonly asked questions
on how to perform various functions on this site.
- Search Link - Clicking
on the Search link will present to you a form that you can enter in keywords
that you would like to search for in our discussion boards.
-
RSS Link - The
RSS Link will bring you to a listing of our RSS feeds that you can read
in a 3rd party piece of software. For more information on RSS you can
read this tutorial:
Introduction to RSS
- Login Form/Status Information- You
can enter your username and password directly
into this form and press the Login button to log into the site. If you
are already logged into the site it will show who you are logged in as
and whether or not you have any personal messages.
- 5 Most Recent Posts List - This
is a listing of the 5 most recent posts in our discussion forums. Clicking
on the title of a post will bring you to that actual post.
- Current Active Poll - This
is the current active poll on Bleeping Computer. You must have a registered
account and be logged in to vote.
- Search Form - You
can use this form to search our discussion boards as well as some other
popular search engines and online stores.
- 5 Most Recent Tutorials - This
is a listing of the 5 most recently created tutorials. Clicking on
the title of a tutorial will bring you to that actual tutorial.
- Welcome Text - This
contains the welcome text which provides information about the various
sections of this site.
- Beginning of Site News - After
the welcome text is the site news which consists of interesting news
stories and topics that we feel our members would enjoy hearing about.
- Site Map
- These
links are a text based site map for those people not using a graphical
web browser. It also contains links to our policies on how we run this
board.
- About Us - This
link will bring you to a page that tells you a little bit about the
site and what our mission is.
- Terms of Use - This
link will bring you to a page that covers the rules and terms that
people must abide to when using this site.
- Privacy Policy - This
page will discuss what information we collect from our members and
how we use that information.
- Contact Us - Need
to contact us about something? Then fill out the form on this page.
- Support Bleeping Computer - Bleeping
Computer does not charge for its service and therefore asks our members
to help out in any way they can. This page will cover a wide range
of methods that our members can help us stay around.
- Site Map - A
map of our entire site
- Chat - A
link to our real-time Chat page.
- Tutorials - A
link to our Tutorials section.
- Discussion Forums - A
link to our Discussion forums.
- Glossary - A
link to our Glossary section.
- Resources - A
link to our Resources section.
- Spyware/HJ Detector - If
you have Internet Explorer and click on this link we will attempt to
discover if you have any spyware installed on your machine and notify
you of it.
- RSS Feeds - A
link to our RSS Feeds.
Further Reading
Now that you know how to use the front page it is time to start read the tutorials
on how to use the various of portions of our site.
--
Lawrence Abrams
Bleeping Computer How to use Bleeping Computer Tutorial
BleepingComputer.com: Computer Support & Tutorials for
the beginning computer user.
Have a problem and would like to ask us for help? To learn how to ask your question Click Here!
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BleepingComputer.com -> Tutorials -> Using BleepingComputer.com -> How to use the Bleeping Computer Front Page
