Friday, March 29, 2024

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Nine tips for navigating The Lansing Journal website

Things you might not know

by Melanie Jongsma

1. Blue text indicates a link.

Within an article, if you see a few words in blue instead of black, clicking on those words will link you to another page that has more information. The link might be to another story we’ve posted on the same subject, or to source material we’ve used, or to the website of the school or business the article is about. You don’t have to click on the links, but it’s a convenient way to get more information about the subject.

2. We set up the links to open in the same window.

This makes it easier for people who read The Lansing Journal on their phones—you can click on a link to check the additional material, and then you can use your browser’s back arrow to return to the article you were reading.

3. Sometimes photos are links too.

Not often, but sometimes, we will set up a photo to link to related material. You can tell if something is a link when you hover over it with your cursor. Usually a link will change your cursor to a pointing hand. In the sample image below, the image links to the story we took that screenshot from:

navigating

In fact, your cursor will also change when you hover over text that is a link:
navigating

4. Blue text can also indicate an email link.

If an article says something like, “Email your ideas to The Lansing Journal,” and the text is blue, that means clicking on that text will open up your email program. The email will already be addressed, and sometimes the subject line will already be populated. We do this to make it convenient for readers to respond.

5. The Search field is useful for finding stories about a certain topic.

Type in anything you can think of—the author name, a word from the headline, the name of a place mentioned. The Search function will bring up all the articles that contain your search terms. (The headlines of those articles will be blue, which means you can click on them to open up the full article.)

6. Categories are another useful way to find information

In the News Categories list in the right sidebar, you can see the types of stories we’ve posted. The number in parentheses is the number of published articles in that category. Some articles are in more than one category.

7. More navigation information appears at the bottom of every article.

navigating
A few social media icons appear here, so you can easily share each story. (Thank you!) The text below those icons helps you navigate from one story to the next. (Even though this text is not blue, it is all clickable.)

8. You can read all the stories by your favorite contributors.

That tiny text under the story headline? That’s a link. When you click on the author’s name, it will compile all the stories we’ve published by that author.

navigating
Bonus tip: The date is also a link; clicking it will compile all the stories posted on that date.

9. Don’t forget to explore the menu bar!

There’s lots of good information there, including games, information about advertising with us, the story of how this newspaper got started, and more.

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If you have any questions about the instructions above—or about something we neglected to cover—please email The Lansing Journal to let us know!

Bonus tip: When you SUBSCRIBE to The Lansing Journal online, you’ll receive an email every morning with links to fresh Lansing news. Don’t miss out!

 

Melanie Jongsma
Melanie Jongsma
Melanie Jongsma grew up in Lansing, Illinois, and believes The Lansing Journal has an important role to play in building community through trustworthy information.