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Getting even more from siliconchip.com.au As a SILICON CHIP reader (thanks!) you’ve almost certainly visited the SILICON CHIP website – siliconchip.com.au . . . You may have even spent some time on line, looking for information. But we know that most people use only a tiny fraction of any website – ours included. That’s usually because most people don’t that know the features they want exist. Here’s how to get more – much more – from the SILICON CHIP website. There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye! W e published an article on our newly-revised website back in April, 2013 – and as you might expect, we have made a lot of improvements since then. Some of them were issues identified over the years and now “fixed”, Some are new features you’ve asked us for and we’ve been able to include. the online magazine “look and feel” as the printed edition, for familiarity if no other reason. But many (most?) mobile devices, phones and tablets, don’t have the Adobe Flash plugin. The website automatically detects if you don’t have this and switches over to an HTML rendering engine for online issues. In short, this means that you can view any of our online (1) VIEW SILICON CHIP ONLINE ON MOST DEVICES – issues on just about any device, as long as the screen is PC, PHONE, TABLET, ETC Along with viewing all SILICON CHIP articles online on sufficiently large. Incidentally, we know that Flash support is supposed PCs exactly as they appear in the printed edition, they can be viewed on tablets/phones or on devices without Adobe to be ending within a year or so (it’s been annouced many times!) but when (if?) it does, the webFlash (eg, on macOS). By Nicholas Vinen site will cater for this. It was always our intention to have siliconchip.com.au Celebrating 30 Years November 2017  35 Viewing issues is similar, regardless of whether you have Flash or not. For example, when you click on the cover of the current edition that appears on the “home” page (which is the one currently available in newsagents) you will see a list of articles in that issue on the left side. Hover your mouse over an article name to see a short description. Click on the name to jump to the first page. To change to the next (or previous) page, click in one of the corners of the magazine: the right-hand corners takes you forward one or two pages; the left-hand corners takes you back one or two pages (depending on whether you have one page at view or two). You can normally also use the left/right or page-up/pagedown keys on your keyboard to navigate the issue. If your screen is small or low resolution and you’re having trouble reading the magazine, try clicking on the “Fullscreen” button in the lower left corner. Whether this helps depends on your screen layout; in some cases it can substantially increase the screen area available to the magazine while in other cases it makes no difference. If you’re using the Flash plugin, next to the Fullscreen button is a drop-down menu that lets you change between three different display resolutions or switch to the HTML version. Selecting a higher resolution makes the magazine clearer but also means it takes longer to load. If you have logged in to your account, your preference will be recorded for the next time you view an issue. The HTML viewer attempts to detect the size of your browser window and optimise the image quality to suit your screen. If you have a screen in portrait mode, as is common with mobile phones, it should switch to a single-page viewing mode in order to maximise the viewing area of the page. Browsing an online issue via HTML is similar to Flash – you simply click at the left or right edge of the issue to flip to the previous or next spread respectively, or you can click on the name of an article at left to jump to its first page. One extra thing we should point out is that from time to time, we publish diagrams (especially circuits) rotated by 90° so that they will fit on the page. Since you can’t necessarily rotate your display and rotating your head is quite uncomfortable, in this case, a link should appear to the left of the page to allow you to open This screen grab shows us browsing one of our online issues using the Flash plugin. The contents of the issue are shown at left, along with any shop items associated with the article on screen. Note the double-page presentation. 36 Silicon Chip a PDF showing the diagram right-way up. If you have a mouse wheel or equivalent, you can zoom in and out. When you zoom in initially, it may look fuzzy but a higher resolution version should load momentarily, sharpening it up. Zooming on devices with touchscreens is one of the areas where we plan to improve the HTML viewer in future. (2) SILICON CHIP SHORTLINKS You’ve probably noticed that URLs (website addresses) in SILICON CHIP articles are now routinely converted to “shortlinks” – a much shorter version which will take you direct to the appropriate page without laboriously rekeying the URL. These are in the form of siliconchip.com.au/Link/ABCD They’re real convenient in the printed edition – and even moreso in the online edition, because clicking on any shortlink will take you straight to the webpage referenced in the article. Hyperlinks which redirect to articles (features or projects) which have been previously published in SILICON CHIP work exactly the same way but are in a slightly different form; eg siliconchip.com.au/Article/ABCD will take you to . . . this feature! Hyperlinks within articles should work normally with the HTML viewer. (3) LINKS IN ONLINE ADVERTS SILICON CHIP advertisers are given the opportunity to make any sections of their adverts links in the online edition. If they do this, as you move your mouse over any links, the image will change to the familiar “hand” logo; click on this and you will be taken direct to the product/service being advertised. (4) ARTICLE SEARCHES NOW COVER ALL ISSUES OF SILICON CHIP Entering the contents of all issues was an exhaustive process but it is now complete, right back to to the first issue from November 1987 (thirty years ago!). So you can search all SILICON CHIP issues in one go. (See section on “searching” – point 7). Previous articles referenced are also converted to shortlinks in the form of siliconchip.com.au/Article/1234 Now we are viewing the same issue (indeed, the same pages) using the HTML version. You can’t see the difference in an image this small but it isn’t quite as clear. However, it will work on just about any device and browser. Celebrating 30 Years siliconchip.com.au Note though that searching the content of the issues themselves (“Word Search”, explained below) is currently limited to issues from May 1997 onward. That’s 20+ years of content – keep in mind that components, etc, from that long ago will now be difficult or impossible to obtain. (7) EXPANDED SEARCH PARAMETERS Search for any project or feature article ever published in SILICON CHIP, based on its title, author, PCB code or other parameters, including some or any of the words contained in that article. Click on the “Articles” menu near the top-left corner of most pages on the website (including the front page). You will then be presented with a series of checkboxes and entry fields. By default, the website will search all articles. You only need to fill in one of the entry fields below; searching within either the article title (“Name”), its synopsis (“Description”), by Author name (“Author”) or a kit or PCB code (“Kits / PCBs”). You can narrow your search to a particular type of article by deselecting some of the checkboxes along the top; to select just one type of article, click the “None” button to the right of the checkboxes to clear them all, then select the one that you want. You can also narrow your search to a particular project or feature article category by selecting that category from the dropdown below the entry fields. Here’s the trick to easily find the article you are looking for: only enter one or two key words related to that article in the relevant entry field. If you enter a word which is not found in that particular article, even if the other words are present, it will not result in a match. You’re better off putting fewer words in the search box and then manually browsing through the resulting list. For example, say you are looking for a lead-acid battery charger that we published as a constructional project. Your best bet is to deselect the “Circuit Notebook” checkbox (to avoid spurious results) and simply to put “charger” into the Name search field. If you put “battery charger” or “leadacid battery charger” you may not find it because it might have been named “sla battery charger” or “lead acid battery charger” (no hyphen). The resulting list will include the year and month of publication, the name of the article, the author(s) and information on any PCBs or kits related to that article. Each entry also includes a link to any items in the SILICON CHIP shop relevant to that project. So this is quite a good way to find items in our shop, as well as articles. Sometimes you may not know the name of an article but you may remember something specific that is referred to within the article. In this case, you can use the Word Search feature. Open up the Articles menu at the top of the screen and choose the “Word Search” option. You can enter one word, several words, or even a phrase or phrases within quotation marks. Note that the search function will, in some cases, find This shows how you can zoom in while viewing an online issue, for example, to get a clearer view of a detailed diagram. On a PC or laptop, this is quite easy — you just point the cursor and spin the mousewheel to zoom in/out. The results of searching the Name field in the magazine contents database for the term “Micromite”. This gives us a list of 25 articles with links to access them directly, as well as listing the associated shop items for each article. (5) ARTICLE PREVIEWS You can view a “preview” of any article from any issue of SILICON CHIP from May 1997 to the present, or from the now out-of-print (but still requested) “Performance Electronics for Cars” To do this, simply click on the “Issues” menu at the topleft corner of most pages of the website (including the front page) and you will see the covers of all the available online issues, along with the month and year of publication and number of pages below. Click on any of these covers to open up a preview of that issue. The first one or two pages of most articles will be visible. For more information on how to navigate through the online issue/preview, see the “Online issue navigation” section below. Viewing “Performance Electronics for Cars” is similar – just click on Books. (6) 20 YEARS OF SILICON CHIP CONTENT View the cover and contents listing of any issue of SILICON CHIP from May 1997 to the present (not available on devices with touchscreen-only interface). As above, click on the “Issues” menu to view the covers of the issue and then simply hover your mouse cursor or pen stylus just above one of the covers. After a couple of seconds, a short summary of the major articles in that issue will appear. If you’re interested in any of them, you can click on the cover to view the preview, as described in (1) above. This can be a handy way to find an article if you don’t know its name but remember the approximate date of publication. siliconchip.com.au Celebrating 30 Years November 2017  37 matches within advertisements in more recent issues. This depends on the format in which the advertisement was supplied to us – and whether the advertiser has themselves highlighted products, etc. (8) LIST ALL ARTICLES You can list every project, feature article or review ever published in SILICON CHIP Click on the “Articles by category” entry in the Articles menu to get a list of the (currently) 31 different categories into which SILICON CHIP project articles are organised. Click on one of the links and you will then be shown a list of all the matching articles, in a format identical to the contents search already described above. (9) SEARCH INDEXES FOR ELECTRONICS AUSTRALIA AND ELECTRONICS TODAY INTERNATIONAL We’ve talked about finding SILICON CHIP articles but there is also the an abbreviated listing of old Electronics Australia and Electronics Today International projects, for which SILICON CHIP owns the copyright. While we believe that the best way to find SILICON CHIP articles is via the search tools, we also keep an up to date index for each new issue that is published. Simply click on the “Indexes” menu at the top of the website, somewhere near the middle of the screen, and choose either “Silicon Chip Projects Index” or “Silicon Chip Features Index”. find that project, and then click on the resulting Shop link. However, if you’d prefer to simply view any downloads or purchases available for a given issue, open up the “Shop” menu at top and then select the very last item, “by Year/ Month”. This will give you a matrix of years and months. The number of items in the shop associated with the issue published in each year/month combination is indicated in parentheses. Note that the shop includes all article-related downloads, including those which may be available for free. We’ve done this to keep all the downloads in one place. You can purchase any or all items by adding them to your trolley as you would do for other websites. (12) VIEW ALL THE NOTES AND ERRATA FROM ANY YEAR IN ONE PLACE. We hate mistakes! But at least we tell you about them as soon as we know. When you find when the original article was published (from searching [above], if necessary), select the “Notes & Errata” item in the “Articles” menu and then click on the year your project was published and view the resulting PDF. Scroll down to the particular year and month. The Notes and Errata, not just for that year but ALL subsequently published for that project will be listed. This way, if you’re building a particular project, you can easily find any notes or errata published for it in later issues. (11) EASILY FIND ANY SILICON CHIP ONLINE SHOP ITEMS FOR ANY PROJECT The easiest way to find downloads or shop items associated with a particular project is to use the contents search to (13) CREATE A NEW NO-OBLIGATION SILICON CHIP ACCOUNT To buy anything from SILICON CHIP, to take out a subscription, etc, you need to set up an account. It won’t cost anything until you actually order something from us – and you can use Visa, Mastercard or Paypal. (We use the latest SSL technology data encryption and we don’t retain your card details, for your protection) You’re free to set up your own user name and password, and you can change that at any time. If you provide an e-mail address, we will also use this to send you a subscription renewal reminder. Incidentally, your information is safe with us: we don’t share it with any other organisation (the only exception is when we send your address to our mailing house to send your subscription, etc). While browsing the magazine covers of all our online issues, simply stop and hover your mouse cursor over one cover to display this handy list of its main contents. You don’t need a subscription or even account to do this. You can browse our online shop in various different ways. In this case, we are looking at the list of all components for sale. This includes some handy pre-built modules that you can use to build our projects, or for your own purposes. (10) READ THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (AND ANSWERS) FOR SILICON CHIP AND THE WEBSITE If there’s anything you’re confused or unsure about, especially regarding the SILICON CHIP website, please read our FAQ, which can be found under the “Help, Contact & FAQ” menu on the right-hand side of the menu bar. A lot of questions we get via email or over the telephone are already answered in the FAQ! If it doesn’t answer your question, please contact us and we may update the FAQ to help others in future. 38 Silicon Chip Celebrating 30 Years siliconchip.com.au (14) ORGANISE OR RENEW YOUR PRINT/ONLINE/COMBINED SUBSCRIPTION, OR CHECK ITS STATUS Once you have an account, subscribing to SILICON CHIP is easy. If you want to subscribe to the print edition (via either a print or combined print/online subscription), you should provide your address while signing up. Then all you have to do is click on the “Subscribe” menu at top and follow the prompts Remember, SILICON CHIP subscribers automatically qualify for a 10% discount on any item from the SILICON CHIP online shop (except, of course, subscriptions!) (18) ACCESS SUBSCRIBER-ONLY OR PAID DOWNLOADS There are many downloads accessible on the SILICON CHIP website, such as PCB patterns (PDF files), panel art, microcontroller software (source code and/or HEX file) and PC software. Pretty much all downloads are free if you are a current subscriber. You need to log in to your account to access these free downloads. Some downloads are free regardless. For the rest, if you are not a subscriber, you will need to pay a small amount to download these files and for that you will need an account – see above. (15) ORGANISE A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION Gift subscriptions are really appreciated by the recipient! We have an easy, step-by-step process for giving a gift subscription. You don’t need an account to do so, although if you have an account, you will be prompted for the necessary information so that the gift subscription purchase is added to your account. An account for the recipient will automatically be created if it doesn’t exist (required to keep track of their subscription and delivery address). Simply click on the “Gift Subscriptions” menu item in the “Subscribe” menu and then follow the steps to set up the gift subscription, with a message from you to the recipient if you want (eg, “Happy Birthday!”). Incidentally, we don’t share your data with any other organizations (obviously, we need to give your address when delivering subscriptions, etc). (19) SEND AN ONLINE ENQUIRY If you click on the “Contact Us” item under the “Help, Contact & FAQ” menu then you can see our address, phone number and e-mail addresses. At the bottom of the page, there is a link to a feedback form where you can send us feedback or a question. We will answer your query as quickly as we can; note though that we are often flat out working on the magazine so we may not get back to you straight away. (If we think other readers might be interested in your query, it could be published later in “Ask SILICON CHIP”). (16) VIEWING FROM OVERSEAS? If you’re viewing from overseas, select the “Subscription Rates” option under the “Subscribe” menu to view the cost for subscribing to the print or online versions of SILICON CHIP magazine. Combined subscription rates are also included. (17) DON’T HAVE AN ACCOUNT YET? USE A TEMPORARY ONLINE TROLLEY Even without a SILICON CHIP account/subscription, you can add items your’re browsing from the SILICON CHIP shop to a temporarily online trolley, to be purchased later (once you have an account). That way you don’t have to go through the selection process again! (21) RECOVER A FORGOTTEN PASSWORD Finally, if you’ve forgotten your password, don’t panic! Hopefully you have provided us with your email address at some point (eg, when you created your account). Go to the login page (using the “Log In” button in the upper right corner of the main page) and click on the “Forgot Password” link. Enter either your login name or your email address in the appropriate field and click the “Let Me In!” button. You will receive an automatically generated email with a link to access your account and change your password. (If the email doesn’t arrive within a few minutes, check SC your spam filter). Another way to browse the shop is via this handy year/ month matrix, which lists the number of items that are relevant to the articles in a given issue. Simply click the link to see a list of those items and possibly purchase some, We collect the Notes and Errata published for every project and put them together based on the year of the article that they refer to. You can then download and view a PDF of these for free on our website, via these links. siliconchip.com.au (20) UPDATE YOUR DETAILS (ADDRESS, PHONE, EMAIL, ETC) Moved? Changed phone numbers or email addresses? Simply log into your account, go to the “management” page and update as necessary. You can also update your user name or password. Celebrating 30 Years November 2017  39