WEB SITE HELP/FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Thank you for visiting the web site of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA). If you are here, you probably have a question about the site and how you are "seeing" it.  Hopefully, this section will answer your questions.  If not, please feel free to send us a comment or question using the FEEDBACK page.

• What's here?
• Which browser is best to use?
• What are the best viewing suggestions?
• Messy looking text
• What are plug-ins?
• Where Can I find a Non-English Translation of this web site?
• What kind of readers and viewers will I need to use this site?
• What is an Adobe PDF file?

What's here?

The TEMA Web Site is updated routinely on a weekly basis, and during disaster or emergency operations, the site is updated constantly around the clock.  The site is broken down into several different major sections, each with its own main (or default) home page.  These sections appear as the navigation buttons at the top and on the left of your viewing screen when you load the home page into your browser.

Which browser is best to use?

The TEMA web site is best viewed using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher at a minimum of 800 X 600 resolution, although any recent browser should be able to view the site adequately.  JAVA must also be enabled for some functions.  In some cases, portions of this site may not look "right" or may appear to be discombobulated.  This is due to differences between browsers.

What are the best viewing suggestions?

The site itself is designed to be best viewed using 800x600 pixel width, with a 256 color resolution.  You can view the site using lower screen widths, but the text in some cases may be "squished" up in some places.  The site also makes some use of the JAVA programming language, so browsers or systems with JAVA disabled may not be able to navigate effectively within the system.  A text-based navigation structure is under development.  You browser should also be able to display tables correctly.

Messy-Looking Text

If you are using an older version of a browser (or one other than Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer), our layout may not look right to you.  This is probably because your browser does not support tables.  This HTML extension allows us to format the page with multiple columns, align text neatly, etc.  If you are not sure whether your browser supports tables, here's a test:

This is a cell in a table

This is another cell in the table

If you see the last two sentences side-by-side, your browser supports tables.

What are Plug-Ins?

Plug-ins are software programs that extend the capabilities of web browsers in a specific way, allowing you, for example, the ability to view Adobe Acrobat files from within a browser.

Where can I find a Non-English Translation for this web site?

Go to http://babelfish.altavista.com/

What kind of Readers and Viewers Will I Need to View Files and Documents downloaded from or found at this site?

TEMA makes extensive use of the Microsoft Office XP suite of products for producing documents internally.  Many of the documents on this site can be downloaded in a Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint format.  Similarly, a majority of the documents produced for distribution to the general public are provide in the Adobe Acrobat format (designated by the icon).  Users are encouraged to download the latest version of these readers below - all of them are freeware.

Reader/Viewer	Can be found at this link:
Adobe Acrobat Reader	Adobe Acrobat Reader Site
Microsoft Word Viewer	Download from TEMA
Microsoft Excel Viewer	Download from TEMA
Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer	Download from TEMA

To view streaming media or to watch or listen to audio files from this site, the user may need one or more of the following viewers.

Viewer/Plug-In	Can be found at this link:
Windows Media Player	Windows Media Website
Apple Quicktime	http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

What is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file?

PDF is an acronym for "Portable Document Format." PDF is a file format created by Adobe that lets you view and print a file exactly as the author designed it, without needing to have the same application or fonts used to create the file. Since its introduction in 1993, PDF has become an Internet standard for electronic distribution that faithfully preserves the look and feel of the original document complete with fonts, colors, images, and layout.  Most of the downloadable document files on this site are in the PDF format.