User's Guide & Site Help

4. The Basics

4.1. Structure

A. Site Header

The site header never changes.

The links in the top right corner provide access to information about the site.

Once you are logged in, the Quick Search box will be available in the upper right area on all pages of the site. To start exploring, enter a word or phrase into the search box and click "Search" or use the options in the site navigation bar.

You can always click on the logo to return to the home page.

B. Site Navigation Bar

Once you are logged in, the site navigation bar never changes and gives you various options for discovering the site's content.

When you roll over the main navigation bars Search, Browse, Qur'anic Studies, Timelines, or Learning Resources, drop-down menus with specific options appear.

Additional tools in this bar include:

The Qur'an Verse Lookup Tool. Clicking this icon or link opens a small box that allows you to enter the numbers for any chapter and verse in the Qur'an, select a translation or side-by-side view, and go directly to that section of the text.

The Date Converter opens a window that allows you to convert calendar dates between Western and Islamic systems in either direction.

C. Tool Bar

The features displayed on the tool bar provide consistent access to tools that apply specifically to the content on your page.

When you are within an article, chapter, primary source, or other type of content, the left side of the toolbar displays print, email, and cite functions:

Print opens a new window with a printable version of the article.
Email opens a new window with a form to fill out to email a link to this page. Recipients of the email will have five (5) days' free access to the page, after which they will need a site subscription.
Cite opens a new window with citation formatting for the current entry rendered in both MLA and Chicago Manual styles. In addition, the citation can be downloaded and imported into these citation management software programs:
EndNote
ReferenceManager
ProCite
RefWorks

Depending on how you reached the content, you will see some or all of the following tools in the larger part of the toolbar:

Previous/Next Result: If you came to the article or a chapter from a search results or browse list, you can use these links to navigate through the entries on your search results or browse list.
Back to Results: Click the Back to Results button to return to your search results or browse list.
Highlight On/Off: Use this button to show or hide search term highlighting.
Look It Up: With this option you can select any word or phrase from the text with your mouse, then click Look It Up to start a new search on the site for your selected text.

4.2. Icons

Question Mark: Roll your mouse over a blue question mark for a pop-up description of the function or text preceding it.

Camera: The camera indicates an article that contains an image.

Globe: The globe indicates an article that contains a map.

File cabinet: The file cabinet indicates an article that is an archived version.

Plus sign: Click on a plus sign to expand a contracted list.

OpenURL Access: Images similar to this may appear after bibliographic listings when you access this site through a library which has implemented OpenURL. If your library's OpenURL icon or logo is visible, you can click through to search for the cited title within your library's online catalog.

4.3. Content Types

The site consists of content types from a number of different sources. These include:

Subject entries
Biographies
Primary source documents
Chaptered works
Qur'anic Studies (Qur'an translations and Concordance)
Images.

These content categories are used to organize Search and Browse results. Most can be searched on a dedicated Search Form.

General descriptions of each content type are on the What's Inside Page, or see the About page for information on specific content sources.