FEATURES ON THE ARIZONA PLANTS CD

     Launching the program brings up the CONTENTS PAGE.  From here you can choose any of the options on the left side of your screen to start learning all about the plants of Arizona.  Running your mouse over buttons in many areas of the software will bring up tips to help you.  There are ten ways you can examine the plants of Arizona on the CD.  You can find and research them by:

     • Their common name
     • Their scientific name
     • Their family
     • The color of their flowers
     • Their general kind
     • Their word description
     • Using thumbnails of their images
     • Viewing their images as a slideShow
     • Doing a string search of their common name with as few as two letters
     • Doing a string search of their scientific name with as few as two letters

     Whenever you are viewing a full-screen image of a plant of Arizona, you have the option to set that image as your Windows Desktop Wallpaper.  If you do not know how to do this, there is a tutorial available to help you by clicking the TUTORIAL VIDEOS button.  The tutorial videos do have audio, so if you have your speakers, you should turn them on when previewing the videos.  The tutorial videos are not high resolution, so as to make them fit on this CD with the program, so when they are viewed at full screen, do not be surprised that they do not look totally clear.  If you are watching any of the tutorial videos at full screen, and you wish to return without watching the whole tutorial, simply right click, then click on ‘full screen’ and it will return to normal.

     The notes included for information are NOT intended to stand as a fully authoritative and dependable source for determining whether these plants are actually edible by all people or good for medicinal purposes.  The notes do attempt to summarize common folklore uses of the plants of Arizona.  However, please check with your physician before using any plant as a food or medicine.  It is also important to know if any plant you may consider consuming has been contaminated in any way with sprays or chemicals that may be harmful.

     Now let’s go through each of the other buttons available to you!

COMMON NAMES BUTTON

     Most people are more familiar with the common names of plants.  Clicking on this button from the CONTENTS page brings up a list of the 514 plants on our CD listed alphabetically by their commonly used name.  You can quickly move trough the alphabetical list by pushing the first letter in the name you want; for instance, push “H” and “HAIRY BOWLESIA” appears as the first “H” common name available.  Or, you can navigate down the list by using the scroll bar and highlight any plant in which you are interested.  You will immediately get an image of the plant in the lower left portion of your screen.  From that image you can click on “FULL SCREEN” to see an enlargement of the photo.

     The right side of the COMMON NAMES page gives you detailed information about the plant you have chosen, including its common name; its scientific name; its family name; the color of its flower; when it matures; its general, specific and GPS locations; and some unusual details about it.  For those interested in even more detailed information, click on the button at the bottom right that says “READ MORE INFORMATION”.  This will provide you with additional information about the plant, possibly including other names, how its flowers are arranged, when it blooms, what its leaves are like, what size the plant can attain, if it is considered edible, at what elevation and habitation it is likely to be found, how common or rare it is, and more!  Clicking on the button that says “VIEW FOUR DETAIL PICTURES” will bring you to the “DETAIL VIEWS” page where you may see four various photos of the plant. You can click on any of the images in the “DETAIL VIEWS” to view them as full-screen images.  You may also choose to click on the “NEXT PLANT” button to proceed directly to the next plants four pictures.  Use the “COMMON PAGE” button to return to the COMMON NAMES list.  The bottom button that says “READ REFERENCES” brings up a list of some of the reference materials used in research.

SCIENTIFIC NAMES BUTTON

     This button works just like the “COMMON NAMES” button except that it is arranged by the scientific names of the plants rather than their common names.

SPECIAL SEARCHES BUTTON

     This is a very informative screen that you will find extremely helpful when you want to find a particular plant.  There are search buttons that allow you to find all the plants on the CD in a particular family, that are a particular color, or that are the same plant type (such as agave, bush-like, cactus, grass, having no flowers, soft stem, thistle or tree).

     Perhaps you remember only part of the common or scientific name of a plant and you want to find it in the plants of Arizona database.  Put as much as you can remember into the box at the lower right of the page and click to search for a matching string as either a common or scientific name! You can search by a single letter if you choose, but of course the more letters you provide, the more likely you are to narrow your search to the plant(s) you want.  We recommend using two consecutive letters as a minimum.

THUMBNAILS BUTTON

     This button is awesome!  It contains 11 pages, the first ten displays a grid of 49 thumbnail images of the plants of Arizona on the CD and the 11th contains just a few.  They are in alphabetical order from the top row, left to right, by their common name.  A mouse-over of any thumbnail brings up its common name.  If you click on any thumbnail, you get a full-screen image of the plant selected.  From this page you can choose to get detailed information, click on “DETAIL VIEW” for viewing 4 pictures of the plant, and you can set the image as Windows Desktop Wallpaper.  Click on the “CLEAR INFORMATION” button to return to the full-screen image and then on the “RETURN” button to return to the thumbnails.  The thumbnail you just accessed now has a frame around it to help you keep track of where you have been. You may also go straight to the Details Views page by double-clicking on any of the thumbnails.  Use the numbers 1 through 11 at the top to navigate quickly to a different page in the database. Use the “CONTENTS PAGE” button to return to the main selection page. 

SLIDE SHOW BUTTON

     Ready for some fun and gorgeous scenery right from your chair? Clicking on this button shows all the plants of Arizona in slide show format.  We maximized your view of the plant by eliminating as much from the display as possible.  To regain control, just move your mouse and your choices of options to pause, slow down or speed up, change direction of the slides, or return to the CONTENTS PAGE return to the screen.  

REFERENCES BUTTON

     Clicking this button brings up a bibliography of many of the various reference materials used to do research for the Arizona Plants CD.

RECOGNITIONS BUTTON

     Although this CD has been my labor of love for several years now, there are some acknowledgments that I wish to make. See and read about others who contributed to my project by clicking on this button.

TUTORIAL VIDEOS BUTTON

     We’ve tried to make this program as self-explanatory and easy to use as possible, but just in case you prefer to SEE instructions than to read them, we’ve included video clips that show you how to use the COMMON NAMES, SCIENTIFIC NAMES, SPECIAL SEARCHES, THUMBNAILS AND SLIDE SHOW buttons.
									
     Many people are not aware that as they use their computer, little pieces of files (or “fragments”) get scattered around in various locations on their hard drive as space is available.  When your software has to access information that has been fragmented, it gets slower because it takes longer to “gather” the pieces together.  The remedy for this slowdown in operation is to “defragment” your hard drive(s) periodically as part of the regular maintenance of your computer.  We made this easy for you to do by placing a button on this page which gives you easy access to your computers 'Disk Defragmenter'. You can run it directly from the Tutorial Videos page.