Overview screens enable you to select the type of article you wish to read on your chosen subject. They also give you immediate access to some feature articles and a surprise movie clip.
Overview screens appear whenever you select a subject category from the Industries menu (i.e. Broadcast, Computer, Software, Cable, Satellite, and Telephone) or the Applications menu (i.e. Business, Education, Entertainment, Medical, and Personal). The subject category appears in the top left corner of the overview screen. There is a different overview screen for each subject but they all work in the same way.
In each of the overview screens, there is a graphical "hot spot" that lets you play a QuickTime movie. You can't tell where the hidden hot spot is just by looking at the screen. Use your mouse to move the pointer across the various images on the screen until you find the hot spot. The hot spot will be highlighted in yellow when the pointer passes over it. Select this image to run the movie clip.
Like newspaper headlines, the pennants on the left highlight some of the interesting topics that you can learn about in the category you are exploring. If you select one of these pennants, an article about the featured topic appears. An image or movie clip accompanies each article.
You can look up other articles by selecting one of the buttons in the lower right corner of the screen. This will take you to an article viewing screen that initially displays an index of articles about the technologies, trends, industry pioneers or all of the articles in your chosen subject category.
The following objects and buttons will take you to an article viewing screen:
Pennants - for information about the topic written on the pennant.
Articles - brings up a complete list of articles about your chosen subject.
Pioneers - for an index of leading innovators in a particular industry. The Pioneers button is not active on the Personal and Medical Application overview screens.
Technology - for an index of articles about the key technologies in your chosen category.
Trends - for an index of articles about current and future trends in each industry or application.
The other objects on the screen are there to help you find your way around the information in the encyclopedia. The three buttons in the lower left corner of the screen help you to locate other articles that you might be interested in reading:
Go Back - returns to the previous article. You can go back to the last 50 Encyclopedia articles you've viewed. This feature is useful for retracing your path as you follow links and indices.
See Also - brings up a list of related articles in other sections of the encyclopedia.
Index - brings up the complete index of all encyclopedia articles grouped by category.
The objects along the top of the screen activate some other useful features:
Path - enables you to jump to any screen in the encyclopedia. The Path button is the round object in the upper right corner of the screen.
Exit - closes the encyclopedia and exits the program.
Options - brings up some useful options: Dictionary loads the Jones Interactive Dictionary with definitions for over 3,000 technical words; Find will search all the articles of the encyclopedia for any word or phrase you enter; Print will print an article if one is currently displayed; Sound Level allows you to adjust the sound level. Select Close to close the Options toolbox.
Question Mark - activates this on-line help system.
Landmarks - the icons to the left of the question mark are called landmarks. As you travel through the Jones Telecommunications and Multimedia Encyclopedia, landmark objects appear at the top of the screen to indicate the branch you have traveled. Selecting these icons allows you to return to a previous level. The landmark on the right (three triangles) returns you to the main program menu. The landmark in the center (hexagonal or pentagonal) takes you back to the Industries or Applications menu, whichever you last visited. The landmark on the left (one triangle) takes you back to the overview screen for this section of the encyclopedia. Note that each article has a specific "home" and the landmarks will change to reflect this as you follow links.