Stamp Column Archives

The Glassine Surfer Column Archive

This column originally appeared in the American Philatelic Society's monthly magazine, "The American Philatelist." Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

January 2002

Submit to Mozilla

Stamp site Webmasters shouldn't overlook the Open Directory Project, a directory of selected web sites arranged in ever-specific categories. To submit a stamp site, go to the ODP, find the page where your site belongs and click "submit".

The Open Directory
http://www.dmoz.org

It's a real ".org," and "dmoz" means "directory of Mozilla," naturally.

Favorite Bookmarks

Whether you use Netscape or Microsoft, your browser's built-in bookmark list is probably a mess of misfiled links, 404 sites, and URL's you no longer want, but cleaning up any bookmarking menu is a daunting task.  

I've always suspected that browser builders skimped on the bookmarking menu, and haven't used mine in ages. I've bounced from one bookmarking utility and solution to another, and have settled in with Colmbine Bookmark Merge.

CBM is a free utility that can merge, edit, sort, convert, and publish Netscape's bookmarks, Microsoft's IE favorites, as well as Opera's Hot Lists.

Columbine is straightforward and easy to use. First, select your primary browser from a list of icons. Go to File and click Open. Then load your bookmarks or favorites from your browser into Columbine.

To go to a site in your Columbine list, just click it from the list and then click the toolbar in the small Columbine window, or set up the program to go on a double-click.

Columbine has just enough configurable parameters to satisfy your urge to tinker without forcing you to roll up and your sleeves and master a new program.

Columbine Bookmark Merge
http://home.earthlink.net/~garycramblitt/

If you want a program to manage your bookmarks that offers more than better access and presentation than the browser list, Cogitum Co-Citer is a solution.

Co-citer will store the URL and the Web page's name, but also has a box so that you annotate each listing with descriptive text from the site. Highlight some text on the Web page, right-click and select "Grab Selected Text."

Confirm the choice in the pop-up window, and Co-citer captures the text, the page's title and its URL. Plus, you can then add your own notes.

Each saved site is stored in a simple database that lets you group them into "collections." Then after you have finished saving Web pages, you can edit your collection to suit your needs.

You can also import and export collections of links, publish them as Web pages, send them  via e-mail, and print them. Co-Citer only runs under Windows 95/98/2000/NT with IE 5+ and is freeware.

Cogitum Co-Citer
http://www.cogitum.com/co-tracker-text/

Large Type Web

Let's face it. Every year the text on Web site's gets smaller and smaller. It's a little bit ocular ageing and in large part Web design.

First impressions are extremely important to Web site visitors, and designers are packing as many hot, marketable words at the top of that opening page as possible. And since desktop monitors aren't getting bigger, text is getting smaller, which can be a problem for some users.

Michel Houde, an APS member, alerted me to a solution in the form of screen magnifiers. There are several such programs that essentially enlarge the monitor's individual pixels within a browser window.

Generally, there are two groups. One is magnifiers designed for high-end graphics work, and the other is meant to aid eyesight, which falls under the rubric of web accessibility.

If you'd like to learn more, then I suggest you visit a site like Magnifiers.org to read and learn more. If you need more, go to Google and enter "screen magnifiers."

Magnifiers.org
http://www.magnifiers.org/