HOW TO USE THE ARCHIVES: There are two ways to access the Archives: SEARCH or BROWSE (NOTICE: The URLs for the search engines are "case sensitive", that is, you must follow instructions given below, and type in the List's name as shown. For "Searches", the List name must be in ALL CAPS; for "Browsing", the List name must be in all "non caps".) 1) SEARCH the Archives for specific messages by searching for names, words, phrases, etc. Use this URL and substitute the name of the List for XXXXX: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=XXXXX (In other words, you would replace XXXXX with SMITH to search the SMITH Mailing List for something. In this SEARCH you MUST type the name in ALL CAPS. Another example would be to replace XXXXX with EUDORA-MAIL, VIRUS-DISCUSSION, or WINDOWS- FOR DUMMIES, etc.) Once at the appropriate page, you would type in the word or words, and select the year to search. Some Lists have been in existence since 1996, while others are relatively new, starting in 2000 or 2001. (See the end of this message for tips on how to type in the proper format for searches of more than on word.) 2) BROWSE the Archives to go from message to message, month by month, year by year: Use this URL and substitute the name of the List for xxxxx: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/xxxxx (Replace xxxxx with the appropriate surname, e.g. smith. In this search, you MUST type the name in non-caps. Again, for non- surname Lists, examples would be eudora-mail, virus-discussion, or windows-for-dummies, etc.) On the first page, you will see a list of Months and Years, starting with the first Month/Year the List became active, up to the present Month/Year. You will also see the total number of List messages for each Month/Year. Let's say that you want to look at all the posts for April 2001. Scroll down the list until you find that Month/Year. Click on it and you will be taken to a new page which shows all the posts for April 2001, initially arranged by "Thread". That means that, starting at the top, you will see the earliest posts, arranged chronologically for "original" posts. If someone has "replied" to any "original" post, the "replies" will be under the "original", which will make some email dates out of chronological order. You can click the "Display in" box and choose "Chronological" instead of "Threaded", which will put ALL posts in date order and NOT arranged by "Thread". I would suggest you put check marks in "With Names" and "With Dates" so that you can see who sent the emails and on what dates they were sent. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT !!!!! If you do a BROWSE, you cannot search for a word or words; what you will see will be all the emails for a specific month/year, either arranged by date, or by "thread". Initially, senders' names and dates of posting will not be shown. You need to put check marks in the two boxes and click "Redisplay" to see the names and dates. This is why it is VERY, VERY IMPORTANT that when you post an email to a List, or reply to an email, you MAKE SURE your subject line is descriptive of what you are sending. These BROWSE pages give lists of emails by SUBJECT LINES !!!!! Thus, if you are subscribed to the -D (Digest mode) List, and you reply to an email contained within the Digest, and DON'T change the subject line, it will look something like this: Re: GERMANNA_COLONIES-D Digest V01 #104 So, your reply gets Archived with THAT subject line. What does that tell searchers when they are using the BROWSE utility? Absolutely NOTHING!!!!! In short, if you're a -D (Digest mode) subscriber, CHANGE THE SUBJECT LINE to match that of the email within the Digest before replying. Please!!!!! A word about using the SEARCH feature. You will have to experiment to find out how to best word your queries. It seems that Rootsweb has improved the search engine so that you can do a search for phrases, BUT you have to know how to do so. Example: If you search for "john broyles", you will get all the pages that have BOTH of those words in emails, but not necessarily both together. If you search for "john and broyles", the "finds" or "hits" will be the same as above for "john broyles". If you search for "john+broyles", you will get only emails that have "John Broyles" in them. About phrases: Let's say you are looking for the phrase "only evidence was a misreading" in an email. Typing it exactly that way won't work. You have to put a "+" between each word in order to search for that phrase, e.g., "only+evidence+was+a+misreading" THAT works! But, with experimentation, that is about as long a phrase I have been able to use and have the search engine find it. Anything longer seems to mess up the mind of the engine. Regards, SgtGeorge George W. Durman Knoxville, TN Listowner