“I’m glad you’re here!”

Welcome to chipur. I’m really really pleased you stopped by. And, yes, the light’s always on here.

If this is your first visit – even your third or fourth – I’d like to help you with a couple of things.

First and foremost, I’d like you to visit the about chipur page. Go ahead, you can click right here. It provides some excellent background information, and gives you a true sense of what I’m trying to accomplish here – for all of us.

I don’t want to assume someone visiting chipur is comfortable with its navigation. Soooo – let’s go down the home page together. And then we’ll take a peak at an article page, in case you’d like to email, print, share, or comment.

Oh – I’m known to do some tweaking on occasion. That could mean moving something or changing a color (or three). Nonetheless, I think what you’ll read here will serve as a very nice ongoing reference for you.

Here’s the header, which allows you to access pages. Clicking on any of the links will take you where you’d like to go. Clicking on the logo and tagline will always take you to the home page.

I want to point-out the 5th link from the left, Sitemap. It’s a great place to visit because it lists chipur’s pages and articles.

Moving downward, from left to right, you’ll see chipur gotta’ reads. This is called a slider, and by clicking on the numbers or arrows you can check-out some of my favorite articles. Find one you like? Click on the title or image and you’re there.

Moving to the right you’ll see Search chipur. Pretty self-explanatory – type in a keyword, or words – maybe depression, panic attack, or mania - and hit enter. You’ll be taken to a page(s) that lists the articles pertaining to your selected subject matter.

All the way to the right you’ll see something that says follow. Want to follow chipur on Facebook, feed reader, or twitter? Click on the appropriate icon.

Back to the left, below the slider, you’ll find what’s called a teaser - a summary of an article. If you’d like to read it all you have to do is either click on the headline or the image. You’ll notice as we move down the page I use features, in lieu of teasers – it allows me to get more articles on the home page.

Moving to the right you’ll see a comforting and welcoming cabin with the lights on. This image means so much to me, as it represents so well the saying, “I’ll leave the light on for you.” There you’ll find a few words of inspiration each and every day.

Let’s hit a few more highlights. I think most of what’s left is self-explanatory.

Want to read chipur in another language? Well, all you have to do is click on the flag of the appropriate country and you’re all set.

Would you like to be notified of new chipur articles as soon as they’re published? Just enter your email and you’re on your way. Just below it is The Latest Chat – the most recent chipur comments.

So you found a teaser or feature that looked good, clicked on it, read the article – and now you’re at the bottom of the article page. The first thing you’ll see is a Facebook “Like” button. Did you like the article? Wanna’ say so on Facebook? Just click on the button.

Next you see an area from which you can email, print, and share the article. All you have to do is click on the appropriate icon – which includes a variety of social media sites. And if you click on the large image a really cool menu will pop-up that will allow you to do all sorts of sharing things.

And then you’ll see Other Posts You May Enjoy. These are chipur articles that are similar in subject matter. Click on any of them and you’re there.

Well, you felt so strongly about the article that you want to contribute to our sharing and learning by making a comment. Easy! Scroll on down to the comment area at the very bottom of the article page and comment your heart out. You’ll notice I use a commenting system called DISQUS (pronounced discuss). Makes for a nice presentation. And you can login to comment using your Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo account – and others. When you finish typing your comment, click Post as…

You’ll be taken to this box where you can wrap things up and Post comment. Yes, I ask for your email address and at least your first name. Security and spam are such that I have to. But I assure I do nothing with your email address.

Well, folks, that’s about it. Hopefully, you found this little intro and tutorial helpful. Still, don’t ever hesitate to drop me a line with questions.

Again, thank you for visiting chipur. And please come back…

Bill

bill@chipur.com

image courtesy alborzshawn creative commons attribution 2.0 generic