You are looking at HIPR --- The Hypermedia Image Processing Reference, a new source of on-line assistance for users of image processing everywhere. If you are a new user then this section is intended to help you explore the facilities of HIPR and so enable you to start using it effectively as quickly as possible.
The HIPR package is a hypermedia resource consisting of a collection of HTML files (HyperText Markup Language) and associated GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) image files, that can be displayed using a graphical browser such as Netscape. Note that a copy of Netscape is not supplied with HIPR - it is necessary to obtain and install this or a similar viewer separately.
If you are viewing the hypermedia version of HIPR, then what you are seeing now is the Welcome Page of HIPR. You are viewing it with the aid of a piece of software called a hypermedia browser, probably one called Netscape although others can be used just as easily. The central portion of the screen contains this text and around its edges are various other buttons and menus that will be explained later. In fact you will probably not be able to see the whole Welcome Page since it is quite large. To see more of the page, look to the left or right of the text for a scroll-bar. Clicking in this with the left mouse button at different points along its length will cause different parts of the Welcome Page to be displayed. Try clicking in the different parts of the bar with different mouse buttons to see what effect they have. When you are happy with this method of moving around within a page, return to this point again.
You may also be able to move around a page by pressing keyboard keys, which you might prefer. If you are using Netscape then <Space> will scroll the page forward one screenfull, and <BackSpace> or <Delete> will scroll backwards.
The Welcome Page is just one of many pages that make up HIPR. These pages are linked together using hyperlinks. A hyperlink usually appears as a highlighted word or phrase that refers to another part of HIPR, often to a place where an explanation of that word or phrase may be found. The magic of hyperlinks is that simply clicking on this highlighted text with the mouse takes you to the bit of HIPR that is being referred to. This is one of the most powerful features of HIPR, since it allows rapid cross-references and explanations to be checked with the minimum of effort. In Netscape, hyperlinks appear underlined by default.
You can try this out right now. For instance, this link merely takes you to the top of the Welcome Page. You can return here after trying out the link using the scrollbar. You could have got there in the first place simply by using the scroll-bar, but sometimes a hyperlink is more convenient even for just moving around within a page. On the other hand this link (don't follow it until you've read the rest of this paragraph!) takes you to the Top-Level Page of HIPR, which is where you will usually enter HIPR when you start using it for real. Near the top of that page is a hyperlink titled `Welcome to HIPR!' which will bring you back here. Try it.
Hyperlinks don't have to be words or phrases --- they can also be images. For instance if you go to the bottom of this page you will see a small icon with a picture of a house in it. Clicking on this will take you to the Top-Level Page again. Incidentally, this button, which appears at the bottom of almost every page in HIPR, is a good way of reorienting yourself if you get `lost in hyperspace'.
Hyperlinks don't always just take you to another chunk of text. Sometimes they cause other sorts of information to be displayed such as pictures, or even movies. They can also cause sound clips to be played.
For instance, clicking on
causes a full-sized image of a park bench to appear!
Once you have mastered moving around within a page using the scroll-bar or short-cut keys, and moving around between pages using hyperlinks, you know all that you need to start exploring HIPR by yourself without getting lost.
HIPR includes a complete user guide that contains much more information than this Welcome Page, and you should familiarize yourself with the most important parts of this next. This material is found in the sections titled `What is HIPR?', `Guide to Contents' and `How to Use HIPR'.
©2003 R. Fisher, S. Perkins,
A. Walker and E. Wolfart.
