Problems using the Berkshire Scouts WebSite?

Help is an email away

We hope you do not have any problems with the website as it has been designed to provide accessibility to all types of browsers. Please bear in mind that many problems related to non-loading pages etc are often really problems with the real working speed of your connection and with the settings in your computer. However, if your question is not answered on this page please contact webmaster@berkshirescouts.org.uk

PDF files

The County Web Site makes extensive use of "pdf" or Portable Document Format files. If you download a file and it contains just gobbly gook then you are probably trying to view a pdf file using MS Word or similar. The link for pdf files have the extension ".pdf". These files require a special viewer Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download this software, free of charge, from the Adobe website www.adobe.com. It is often provided on the CD ROM which Internet Service Provides distribute. Click here to download the Acrobat Reader. You can now download version Acrobat Version 8 and you may find earlier versions, particularly 3.0 or earlier generate errors when handling more recently generated pdf files. If this happens, download the most recent version of Acrobat Reader.  

Movie formats

From time to time it is possible to download digital movies from the Berkshire Scouts Websites. You will probably find these display automatically in your browser. If this does not happen it may because of the settings you have selected or because you do not have the appropriate movie player software loaded in your computer or that the movie player is an older version.

The movie players are available  free and the following links are for the main three types of movie players

QuickTime    Windows Movie Player   Real Player

The process of checking what is available in your browser depends on the browser you use.

For Internet Explorer 6

Click on Tools and select internet options - click on the Programs Tab and then on the Manage Add-ons button

Select Add-ons current loaded ...

QuickTime movie player appears as Quick Time object

Real Player movie player appears as Real.com

You can enable individual items but clicking on trhem in the list and then using the enable buttons below

For FireFox

Click on Tools and select options

Click on downloads on the left hand side of the pop-up window

You will see what players are associated with which file types

The action can be changed by selected the item in the window and then using the buttons below

A complete list of available players ia available by clicking on plug-ins. If the required player is not enabled, click on the the dot in the right hand column and a tick should appear. Click on OK to finish.

E-mail Links

Many of the pages contain email links which when clicked should open up your email system so that you can send messages directly to the appropriate person or team. Problems here are almost always concerned with your system set up. You can always enter the email address in manually or by cut & paste from the web page. All Berkshire Scouts email address take the form xxxx@berkshirescouts.org.uk where xxx is "webmaster", "scouts", or similar. Use the links on the home page, "webmaster" or "webeditor", to send in your comments, suggestions or contributions. 

Email readers and HTML format News Messages

If you have problems viewing the HTML format News emails you might find the following helpful.

AOL provides guidance on email at http://webmaster.info.aol.com/htmlemail.html

 AOL5 No HTML parses email as Rich Text (RTF) word wraps hyperlinks are honored does not honor inheritance of font attributes. AOL5 for Mac only sees attribute colors defined in hexidecimal. Most remaining AOL customers using AOL5 are Mac users.

AOL6 and AOL7 HTML unless overidden by user if overidden by user, displays enriched/text parses embedded style, relative positioning now works consistently image maps now work consistently (as of release of AOL9) background images are not supported, relying on a repeating background will shatter the design requires specific definitions in the embedded style (p.myclass, span.myclass) mailreader window is 470 pixels wide browser and mailreader use the Netscape Gecko engine no scripting including javascript mailreader supports IFRAMES and linked style (sample page: http://www224.pair.com/gryphon/cyberlaw when sent as a full HTML email displays properly with the exception of the javascript)

AOL8 HTML with images displayed by default if overidden by user, displays enriched/text user can set their default view to not allow images, but show the HTML handles style same as 6 and 7, allows for larger default window display image maps now work consistently (as of release of AOL9) some background images are supported, but strict testing of location and use necessary mailreader window is 530 pixels wide (broadband can be up to 570 pixels wide) browser and mailreader use the Netscape Gecko engine no scripting including javascript mailreader supports IFRAMES and linked style (sample page: http://www224.pair.com/gryphon/cyberlaw when sent as a full HTML email displays properly with the exception of the javascript)

AOL9 Supports a great deal of CSS. AOL9 forces the installation of IE6 for a browser and the mail reader appears to be capable of most of what IE6 is (along with all the bugs). Positioning IS supported, but unless you know that your users all have version 9, do not use any absolute positioning. This behaves very differently in lower versions since it sets the 0,0 position at the top of the mail window rather than the top of the html body. In lower versions, that position has all of the email header information listed. Relative positioning will work in all versions above AOL5. mailreader window is 570 pixels wide. default settings have images turned OFF for email. The user must actively accept each email images and does not have the option of setting global images on (as they did with previous versions). no scripting including javascript image maps work consistently mailreader supports IFRAMES and linked style (sample page: http://www224.pair.com/gryphon/cyberlaw when sent as a full HTML email displays properly with the exception of the javascript)

AOL Webmail ( this web mailreader stays fairly current with the newest AOL browser and its behavior is expected to shift about 6 months after the release of each major AOL version to match the newer mailreader behavior ) defaults to HTML email truncates all headers honors inline style no positioning mailreader window is 530 pixels wide Hotmail/Yahoo/MSN Webmail allows HTML according to user preferences if HTML is not allowed, defaults to text/plain MIME type truncates all headers honors inline style no positioning Opera M2 HTML mail is rendered using Opera's presto rendering engine, except resources linked to external URLS are suppressed by default and No scripting is supported at all. Inline style supported. User has option to show text or HTML parts of multipart messages. No capability to compose HTML email.

Outlook98 HTML -- user must set preference, normally overidden to text in corporate settings can default to either text/enriched OR text/plain depending on settings

Outlook 2K/XP/2003 HTML -- user must set preference, normally overidden to text in corporate settings mailreader defaults to the IE version installed on the user's system can default to either text/enriched OR text/plain depending on settings will display inline, embedded, linked styles, iframes, positioning. CSS support is the same as the parent browser with all of the same bugs. mailreader supports IFRAMES if the browser does (sample page: http://www224.pair.com/gryphon/cyberlaw when sent as a full HTML email displays properly on a Win2K system running IE5.5 and Outlook2K -- with the exception of the javascript tabs not shifting style color)

Squirrel Mail text/plain MIME type is the default, allows user to set to HTML no linked style sheets no positioning

Mozilla Mail/Thunderbird HTML user can choose from text/plain, simple HMTL, or original HTML on a per-message basis honors inline style should have all the display capabilities of the Gecko rendering engine embedded in the application

Mail.app 1.3(v606) [included in Apple Mac OS 10.3] HTML should have all the display capabilities of the Safari (WebKit?) rendering engine embedded in the application

A fuller list of email readers and their compatibility with HTML is available here.

Help page last updated 1 January 2008