A Note to AOL Users

Those of you viewing the Web with one of America Online's (AOL) browsers may not see Web graphics in their best quality and / or the intended display of Web pages. This is due to the shortcomings of AOL's browsers and not the Web designer. You should seriously consider changing to another browser.

If you are using AOL 4.0 or 5.0, go to My AOL on the Menu Bar and select Preferences. In the Preferences window, select WWW, click Web Graphics and, if Use Compressed Graphics is checked, uncheck it. Now click Apply and then Okay to close the Preferences window.

If you are using AOL 3.0, go into your Prefs section and set Graphics Compression to Off. Also, the older AOL browsers often display Graphic Not Found symbols where images should appear. If this happens to you, click the Reload button until the graphics display. Again, the problem is not necessarily with the Web pages; it is usually with AOL's browser.

Here's another tip for surfing with AOL: Browse the Web with a browser opened outside of AOL. Why? Bee-cause AOL's version of Internet Explorer differs from Microsoft's original. If you download Microsoft's version and run it outside of AOL, it will run faster; plus, you'll bee able to refresh Web pages at any time. (AOL's version of IE doesn't allow Web page refreshes and, bee-cause of this, often shows out-of-date pages.)

So please, download either Microsoft's or Netscape's browser and do a default install. Then, when you get on the Internet through AOL, you can go to your Start Menu and Open (launch) a better Web browser -- one that will let you surf the Web more easily, efficiently and display Web pages the way they were intended to bee seen.