Hello Arthur,
I hope Esther doesn't mind me pasting in her excellent explanation
from a little while ago on how to use the archives.
Cheers,
Anne
Esther's explanation:
These are hotkeys that work for the Mail Archive website as viewed
with the Safari browser/Mac keyboard. I found them by reading their
FAQ one time when I wanted to give instructions about how to search
the archives for our list. Here are the shortcut sequences they list
and their actions:
Control-n (Next) Later message by thread
Control-p (Previous) Earlier message by thread
Control-f (Forward) Later message by date
Control-b (Back) Earlier message by date
Control-i (Index) Chronological index
Control-c (Contents) Thread index
You can read this list as it is archived at the Mail Archive site, as
well as use that site to search for old content. I bookmark the
location of our list at the archived site:
http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40macvisionaries.com/
If I want to search the archives, I'll press tab to go to the text
field for search terms and start typing. If I want to read our list
at this web page I'll VO-right arrow to the link for the first post
and VO-space to press the link.
1. Reading the list on the web by thread (most recent first).
The default organization is by thread, most recent ones shown first.
You'll see the first post in the thread. Control-p displays the
first post in the next earlier thread. I read the list on the web if
I'm traveling or away from my machine or, in the case of the recent
MobileMe transition, if I can't get to my email. Going through the
thread topics with Control-p is a quick way to look through lots of
new topics if you haven't been keeping up, and it starts you at the
top level of each thread. Read through the thread posts with Control-
n (for the next post by content).
2. Reading the list by item (individuals posts, most recent first).
The other way to read the archive posts is by item order,
chronologically (most recent posts first). Use Control-i to change
the organization to item order (Control-c changes the page back to
threaded content order). Then VO-right arrow to the link for the
first item shows you the latest post. Control-b (for back) takes you
down the list to the next latest post. Control -f (for forward) takes
you up the list and forward to the next post in time.
3. You can switch navigation modes from content/threaded based
(control-n, control-p) to chronological/item based (control-f, conrol-
b) at any time. It can get confusing, but the flexibility is nice.
If I have been keeping up with my mail, I use the web page to get
around those confusing delays in receiving some posts -- the Mail
Archive for our list always seems to get the posts right away.
Sometimes I get someone's reply to a post an hour or two before I
receive the post with the original question in my mailbox! Going to
the Mail Archive page, using Control-i to view the list in time-
ordered mode lets me check whether this was already answered.
4. Group mode navigation works well here -- you can skip over repeated
replies when you read later down a thread, since you navigate in blocks.
I realize that reading this list on the web isn't for everyone but
there are some advantages to it. And it keeps me up to date with some
posts to the list that otherwise come in an hour or two later in my
mailbox.
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
