Navigation throughout the archive is straightforward. Left clicking on images will display items in a "clean" window, without any text and in greater resolution. Your browser BACK button will need to be used to return to the parent page.

The BACK link on section indexes will take you back up the tree. There are Previous, Next, and Index links at the top and bottom of archive item pages, that navigate you through the items, or back to an index page.

A distinction should be made between the BACK link and using your browser's back button. Most of the time these two control will take you to the same page. However there are instances where they navigate to different locations. The Recent Comments page, described below, is an example.

When this option is selected, a hierarchical tree diagram of all the section of the archive is brought up, each branch being a link to that section. A user needs no more than to click on that branch to navigate to it.

Not all archive home pages will have a button for "New Branches." This button will appear in archives that get updated periodically. It is there so that members and guests of the archive can easily see what has been most recently added to the archive. When this button is pressed a page of links to branches in the archive will come up from which users can choose for viewing.

Frequent archive visitors typically go to the Recent Comments Page first. This page contains a list of the most recent comments in chronological order, with links that go to the page containing the new comment.

Each item on the Recent Comments Page has a GOTO link which take one directly to the page on which the comment was made. After viewing the GOTO item, to return to the Recent Comments page use your browser "back" button. (The "BACK" link on the item page always takes you to a parent page)

One of the more powerful features of YourArchivist archives is the Search Comments page. Simple to use, just enter the text you wish to find, and YourArchivist will return a list of links to artifacts for which a comment was added that contains the search text.

Good results can very often achieved using just one word, or even part of a distinctive word. Case sensitivity is rarely needed, if at all. Be aware that sometimes distinctive words can be misspelled, another reason to try just part of a word. Also, if using names you should be aware that the name stamp of the individual making the comment is included in the search.

Any page can be viewed in higher resolution by simply left clicking on it. You will then be viewing the actual image file. You can download that file by right clicking on it and selecting "Save As...". To return to the archive page from the image page, you will need to use your browser "Back" button.

YourArchivist does not publish giant images because computer screens aren't big enough to display them. Many image files will be larger than your screen is capable of showing in their entirety. In some cases the image file and even it's archive page will show an image greater in size than the original. It is often surprising how much more interesting and enjoyable small prints can be when enlarged.

A special feature of YourArchivist sites is comment entry. Comments, recollections, or stories can be entered on any page except the Home page. They appear at the top of pages. The text entry blocks for comments are at the very BOTTOM of pages. Comments are stamped with the date of entry and the name of the commenter.

You must be a member with write privileges and be logged in to be able to enter comments. You will know you are logged in if the Login/Register dropdown tab on the home page reads, "Hello your login name". You will know if you have write privileges if a red asterix appears after your name. Use the dropdown panel to register for membership, or to log in after you are registered.

When you register, the archive administrator will be notified by email. Within a few days you should get an email from the archive administrator acknowledging your registration and notifying you if you have write privileges. This email is separate from and different from the automatic email you get with your password, which you will receive immediately after registering.

If the archive administrator has given you write privileges, and your are logged in, you will see a white textbox at the bottom of every index and image page. You may enter text into the textbox, and then after pressing the "Submit Comment" your comment should appear at the top of the page with the date and your name.

If you think you should have write access, you are logged in, and you don't see a textbox at the bottom of the page, contact the archive administrator. The email address for the archive administrator is found in the register/login dropdown on the home page.

Also be aware that your write privileges may be revoked at any time by the archive administrator. Typically you will be notified if this is the case along with the reason for revocation.

There are 3 different kinds of emails that you will get from YourArchivist. Only registered members will receive emails

The first, and most important email will contain your password when you register. If you do not receive an email almost immediately after registering it may mean that you entered your email address incorrectly. Before assuming that, check and see if your email provider (for example, gmail) has the email in spam, or if the email might be blocked for any other reason or method.

If the email is not blocked, then contact the Archive Administrator. There is an email address in the Login/Register pulldown panel on the Home page. If you cannot get email from YourArchivist you will not be able to know if any important changes to the site or your status have been made in the future.

When you register, an email is also sent to the Archive Administrator. Usually within a few days the Administrator will have a chance to see your email and address the issue of write access to the archive for you. Registration does not guarantee that you will get write access to an archive, but it should insure that the site's address or password won't change without your knowing about it. The Archive Administrator should email you at least of acknowledgement of your registration. Once again, this is a case where you should contact the administrator if you do not hear from them.

Finally, as mentioned above, a third type of email you may get will be notifications of changes in the site or security that will affect you. These will probably occur very rarely, but that depends on your Archive Administrator.

YourArchivist will NOT use or sell your email addresses for any reason. Your Archive Administrator, which is a different entity than YourArchvist, which is a service provider, has access to your email addresses. YourArchivist cannot be responsible to what use the Archive Administrator might put the email addresses under the archive for which they are responsible.

It should be said that under the current security model, YourArchvist does act as the emailer for individual Archive Administrators. So the YourArchivist service provider (the person) acts as the email agent for the Archive Administrators and will not allow what they deem as inappropriate emails to be sent out to any archive members. The integrity of the YourArchivist name is very important to YourArchivist, so the bar for this kind of activity will be high.