User
Tips
Welcome to the
FBI's Home Page. On our site we have provided information
about the Bureau, its operations, and services. The following
are tips to make your experience while visiting our pages
more valuable and enjoyable.
Navigation
Site-Wide
Navigation: Use the navigational icons or text at
the bottom of the pages on the FBI web site to return
to the FBI Home Page or to other pages in the web site
hierarchy. There is also a Site
Index which includes a complete listing of documents
on the site.
Back Button:
In some cases, you will need to use the browser's "Back"
button to return to a page you previously visited.
External
Sites: In all cases when a hyperlink takes you off
the FBI's web site, you will see a message informing you
of this.
Tools
Keyword Search:
The FBI has an easy-to-use search function. To
use this function simply input keywords or phrases into
the search box and press the ‘Search’ button
to the right of the box. The website will return a list
of results containing links that match your keywords or
phrases as closely as possible.
Search Tips:
Are you having trouble searching the site or finding the
information you need? Use the tips below to improve your
search results and get access to the FBI information for
which you are looking.
- Tip # 1 - Narrowing
Down your Search
If you put quotation marks around your search terms,
for example: "FBI Fugitive", you'll get
results that contain only that exact phrasing. If
you leave off the quotation marks, you'll get results
that contain any of the words that you typed.
- Tip # 2 - Be Specific
When you're looking for something specific, try to
be as exact as possible with your search terms. For
example, if you're looking for information on how
to become an FBI Special Agent, type in "Special
Agent Employment" instead of "employment"
or "Special Agent."
- Tip #3 - Don't Search
the Entire Site
Why search the FBI's entire web site when you know
what section of the site the document is contained
in? When you are on the Search page you will see an
arrow to the right of the Search in
box. Click on it and a list will drop down that contains
the major sections of the web site. For instance,
if you are searching for FBI employment information,
select the area called Employment. Then, when you
enter your search criteria in the box the search engine
will search only those documents contained in the
Employment section.
- Tip # 4 - Search
using wildcards
You can use wildcards, such as * and ?, to obtain
special results. For example, you can find documents
that contain words that have similar spellings but
are not stemmed variants. For example, air* finds
documents that contain air, airline, and airplane.
Entering, ma? finds documents that contain man and/or
mat.
File Formats
PDF Files (Acrobat): Some
documents on the FBI web site are in Portable Document
Format (PDF). These cross-platform documents ensure that
users will be able to obtain publications in their original
format regardless of what platform, software, or configurations
they use to access the Internet. In order to view PDF
documents, however, users must first download the free
Acrobat Reader software, which lets you view, navigate
through, and print PDF documents. Detailed instructions
for downloading and installing the Acrobat Reader are
available at http://www.adobe.com/acrobat/readstep.html.
If you are not able to complete the indicated procedure,
a Troubleshooting guide is available. For best
results, make sure you have installed version 4.0 or later
of the Acrobat Reader.
Visitors using
screen reading devices generally cannot directly read
documents in PDF format. However, Adobe Systems provides
a free translation service through their Access
server that will translate PDF files to web pages
(HTML documents). This can be used in one of three ways:
- The user's browser can
be configured to use this service as a helper application,
so that every time they click on a link to a PDF document,
this document is automatically sent to the Access
server and returned as a web page.
- The user can go to the
Access server and fill out a form. When this form
is submitted, the server will go get the PDF document,
translate it, and return it to the user.
- The user can send an
email message to the Access server, giving the address
of the document to be translated. The server will
then get this document and translate it to either
a web page or a text (ASCII) document. Note that this
is the only one of the three options that also gives
the ability to produce a text document from the PDF
file.
Real Video/Audio Files: These files,
which have the extension "ram," require installation
and use of the RealPlayer software, which is available
for free from RealNetworks. This file format enables "streaming"
of audio and video files to users, which means that you
begin hearing and seeing the files without having to wait
for the entire file to download. (Note that to hear audio
on your computer, your system must also have a sound card
and speakers or earphones.)
Modem Connections
The FBI's web
pages are designed to download as quickly as possible
by users on modem connections to the Internet. To help
our web pages render, our current standard is to include
accurate "HEIGHT" and "WIDTH" for
all our images and to optimize our graphics for the smallest
possible file size without compromising visual quality.
Our pages are designed to be 480 pixels wide to work within
the minimum computer screen size.
