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How is necessary information obtained through the use of this Portal?
The content of the information is universal and it consists of images/photos, texts and documents related to the information given on the page or links leading to other pages of the Portal or to other information on the Internet. In the initial phase we have processed information related to tourism and during further stages of development the available fields of information will be expanded to cover all other relevant aspects of life/living. The information provided may consist of information on nature, economy and industry, society, culture and all other aspects of life. The information network of the Portal has been envisaged as a network of interconnected connections between information on a given page and categories in the Portal database. Using the directly singled out information by means of the search engine on the Portal or indirectly by tracing the links leading from page to page the user obtains information on all the topics he needs. It is even possible to envisage a situation in which the tracking or searching session may be finalised on the starting page.
The search functions on the portal were conceived to be intuitive, associative and informational:
- Intuitive – by means of the organization and appearance of the pages on the Portal, and especially the front (main) page, contains an explanation of the method of its use
- Associative – because it is possible to use a branching list of categories that leads to set search criteria and
- Informational – Because every category also carries with it, a certain visible bit of information, i.e. showing a page that corresponds to the chosen category.
And it achieves all this in an active or passive manner.
Active in two ways:
- Through Navigation – where by means of the simple selection of categories the search engine displays a list of hits for the chosen category, i.e. the carrier of a branch of information down to the last category in the tree. As one chooses or selects categories deeper down the root or tree levels, the list becomes shorter because the selected category becomes less general. But the drawbacks of this method of using the portal are that in the list of hits one obtains only those pages that are connected together or selected, or incorporating some sub-categories belonging to that branch of categories.
- Or by means of the Search Engine – which is by far the more speedier method of finding information, where by entering key words into the set criteria field and by initiating the search engine by clicking on the <Search> button, all the pages are displayed in the list of hits that correspond to the set criteria in some way. The set criteria has levels, which means that the order the key words are placed in is very important (the first key word is the main definition and the most general one and leads to the greatest number of hits, and the consecutive ones are those that limit or make the search criteria stricter thus decreasing the number of hits in the search.
The entered key words may be parts of some key words (the beginnings, endings or middle parts of words) or sequences of words that should be used ’literally’ in the way they had been entered in the criteria field by using quotation marks ("). The use of key words has been enriched also by synonyms, which enable a more systematic and speedier search and increase the flexibility of setting criteria. Also, exceptions are also used, i.e., words that are automatically excluded from the set criteria if they are recognized on the page during processing
Or Passively by using advance prepared information from the main page:
- the lists of current news whose entire listing is given in a separate section of the Portal under the heading News,
- lists of all current announcements of events of the day
- and the presented pages, which the Portal is displaying in the assigned fields
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