If you are new to computers, the Internet, or the Web (a.k.a. www or dotcom), this page is for you.

It must be made clear at the outset that it will be impossible to describe every detail about the Web in one short page. We are assuming--since you are viewing this page--that you know the basics, for example, turning on the computer, using the mouse, connecting to the Internet, and starting the browser. Or perhaps someone who knows more about computers and the Web is helping you right now. Either way, this page will be of some help to you for browsing this site. And once you start browsing, more you browse the more you will learn.

So, here are a few basic tips for you.

Which Browser to Use?

For best results, you should view this site using Netscape 4.x version browsers. You can use other browsers as well. However, the displayed screen including text color, formatting, and so on, may be slightly different. If you do not have Netscape installed on your PC, click here for a free download.

Note that the tips and the examples below assume that you are using Netscape 4.x.

Home Page

The Home Page is the first screen displayed when you open a Web site. The Home Page tells you which are the other major pages of a Web site and briefly describes each of those pages, just as the Table of Contents of a book lists the chapters, topics and sub-topics in the book. You opened this page or "jumped" to this page from the Home Page of this site.

How to Open this Web Site

You opened this site by typing http://www.vedanta-newyork.org--exactly as shown here--no spaces, or commas--in the Location box above.

Note that there is a colon and two forward slashes after "http", a period between "www" and "vedanta", a hyphen between "vedanta" and "newyork", and another period between "newyork" and "org". Note also that "newyork" is one word without a space.

Remember that when you open a Web site, you open its Home Page.

URL

http://www.vedanta-newyork.org is a URL, which is the "address" of this Web site. A URL is similar to a telephone number. When you dial a phone number, you always reach the same phone. Similarly, by entering a URL in the Location box above you always open the same Web site.

What's a Link?

Links are underlined words or phrases, or pictures that you click once with the left mouse-button to move or "jump" from:

• Topic to topic, or from one location to another within the same page
• Page to page within a site
• One site to another site.

Once you have moved from one location to another--whether within the same page, or within the same site, or from one site to another site, you can click the Back button of the browser (located at top left above), to come back to the previous location. Try the following three examples--you must click the Back button above after every move to come back to this spot again.

Example 1: Moving Within a Page--The underlined word Top is a link. Clicking on it will move you to the top of this page. Try it, and don't forget to click the Back button above.

Example 2: Moving Within a Site--This underlined phrase The Ramakrishna Order is also a link. Clicking on it will move you to the page on this site which lists the Ramakrishna Order centers worldwide, their addresses, phone numbers, and so forth. Try it and when you are there, click the Back button which will bring you back here.

Did you notice that when you move the "arrow" cursor on the links in the above examples, the cursor changes from the "arrow" to a hand-shaped cursor? By and large, this is how you can find out which are the links on a page.

How to Browse this Web Site

From the Home Page you can open (i.e., "jump" to) most other pages of this site. Each page of this site includes nine (9) links (What is Vedanta?, About Us, Glossary etc.) at the top and bottom of the page. Clicking these links will open those page. Beginners may sometimes get lost in the maze of so many pages of this site.

If you are lost, the easiest step will be to click on at the top or bottom of the page. This will open the Home page and you can go from there where ever you want to go.

The Glossary page explains most non-English terms, such as Vedanta, yoga, Atman, and so forth. While reading a page, you can click on such a word for its meaning in English. As an exercise, click on these three words and see how it works. And, don't forget to click the Back button to come back to this page.

Finally, this site provides links to other Web sites including Web sites of Ramakrishna Order branches around the world. While browsing, you may have "jumped", for example, to the site of the Vedanta Center at Hollywood, Chennai, San Francisco, Singapore, or Boston, and may not even realize it. If you are surfing the Web for the first time, you may frequently encounter this problem. Check the label at the top left corner of the browser. It should say:Vedanta Society of New York--if it does not, you are somewhere else in the Cyber Space! In a situation such as this, the easiest way to come back to this site will be to enter the URL http://www.vedanta-newyork.org in the Location box and start again.

Happy 'surfing' and thanks for visiting our site!