Troubleshooting Tips

If you're having trouble using this website, the explanations and hints on this page may help.

What's the Problem? (Click the appropriate answer for a response.)

I'm trying to display summary text or a larger map, but either...

I don't know what you mean by "HTML" or "PDF"

I have a different problem. How do I get help?

Where's My Window?

Many plans and maps on the site (and all the plain-language summaries of legal language) appear in smaller windows that sit on top of your main browser screen. Two different kinds of problems can occur that prevent you from seeing one of these windows when you click to open it.

The "Blocked Content" Syndrome

Instead of the window you expected, you get a scary message from Microsoft Windows across the top of your screen...

If you've installed recent security updates to Microsoft Windows, you may see this message displayed at the top of one of our pages:

To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this file from showing active content that could access your computer. Click here for options.

If you click "What's the Risk?," you'll read that "scripts," running on a web page, can do terrible things. So they can, if used maliciously — a characteristic they share with many common kitchen utensils. But like those utensils, they can also do innocent, useful, and necessary things.

The only scripts that run on these pages are the ones that open popup windows to display summary text or large maps. They are tiny programs, written in the JavaScript language, that determine where a window appears, what size it is, what's inside it, whether you can resize it, and so on.

That's all that the scripts on this site can do. They're incapable of installing spyware, adware, malware, worms, viruses, cockroaches, or fleas. We recommend that you tell the browser to "Allow Blocked Content" (one of the options you have when you follow the "click here" instruction) whenever you see this message — that is, whenever you see it on this site. It wouldn't be a good idea to put that much trust in the entire Internet, but unless you let the scripts here do their job, you won't be able to read the summaries or see the large versions of the maps.

Now You See It, Now You Don't

The first time you click a summary button or a small map, a window pops right up, but the second or third time you try the same thing, nothing happens ...

The popup window is probably still open behind your main browser window. It works like this:

If you close one popup window with some summary text or a large map in it, and later click another another summary button or small map image, a new window pops up with the new text or the larger image, and all is well.

But if you don't close a popup window, it disappears from sight the moment you click something else (for example, the scroll bar or the next picture you want to enlarge).

Although you can't see it, however, the popup window hasn't closed. That last click was on a different window (which is how the computer regards your main browser screen), so that window has been moved to the top. If you minimize the browser screen, you'll see the popup window right where it was before the bigger screen covered it.

If you've clicked another summary button or map in the meantime (or more than one of either), the newest summary text or the enlarged version of the latest map is what you'll see in the uncovered window.

For best results, you should always close a popup window before you try to open another. That's much more convenient than constantly minimizing the browser screen.

Author's Note: Why the Website Is Set Up This Way

Blame it on the Web editing program. The Javascript routine it uses to open windows limits the properties I can control. It won't let me keep a window on top when the screen beneath it is clicked. It won't let me make a window fit itself automatically to the size and shape of the contents. It won't let me show scrollbars only when they're needed — scrollbars must be either on or off. All of these things could be done by an experienced programmer, but I can do only what the editing program allows.

(However, it did all the basic stuff pretty well, and it was cheap.)

What's This Stuff About HTML and PDF?

Four official documents on this site are offered in both HTML and PDF format. If you've never had to worry about what these are before, here's a brief explanation:

HTML is the language most Web pages are written in, including the page you're reading now. The HTML versions of the documents look like this page — same colors, type size, and so on.

PDF is a format invented by the Adobe Corporation that makes it possible to display a document on any computer exactly as it appears in the original. In order for this to work, the receiving computer needs a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader, which the maker distributes for free. (Adobe is not noted for its generosity, but by making the reader free they cleverly caused the PDF format to be adopted as a standard, and they've made plenty selling the program that writes those PDF files.)

You can print HTML pages, but sometimes it's hard to get all the information onto a page; your browser, which does the printing, doesn't wrap the text automatically, and it isn't unusual to find that some of the contents have been lost beyond the right-hand margin. Acrobat Reader prints pages quickly, neatly, and easily, adjusting them automatically to the margins of an 8.5"x11" piece of paper.

If you don't already have Acrobat Reader on your computer, click the icon below to download it free from Adobe's website. (When the download is complete, use your browser's Back button to return.)

Who's in Charge Here?

I (Charlie Bowen) put this website together with some help from my friends. All summaries, comments, and author's notes are mine, as are the site mechanics (such as they are).

If you run into a problem using the site, please get in touch with me. You can phone (I'm in the book) or click here to send me an e-mail message. If your problem or question is less about how to use the site than about the contents (for instance, if it's not like "How can I display this map" but something more like "Are you sure the Deed Restriction Document really says this?" I may not know the answer right off, but I'll try to help you find it. Also, please contact me if you find anything amiss, such as a link that doesn't work properly.

We the Bowens (Dorothea and I) are currently housing this site on our Web space (which adds nothing to our monthly cost). We thank Toby Sackton for providing the site with its first home, and when we're ready to hand this responsibility on, we'll advertise for a volunteer. In addition to Toby, I owe thanks to everyone else who helped, including the 2005 Pleasant Brook trustees as well as Eric Kula (formerly of 23 Mason St) and Alice Oliff.

This page last modified 5/4/2012