About this Site

[text last updated 20 June 2006 - graph updated monthly]

The UK group started developing this site during 1996/7 and we would like to thank medhelp.org for hosting the pages for us.

Webhits

The graph below shows the number of accesses (hits) per month to the contents list, general pages, and graphics on the site. 25,000 hits a month approximates to 100 people per day looking at the home page plus three other pages.

AISSG Web Site (Hits per month)

During October 2001, AIS featured in two UK TV hospital drama programmes ("Doctors" and "Holby City"); and also in a Sunday Times article (which will have brought AIS, and this web site, to the attention of some 2 million UK readers). This may account for the 54% increase in hits during that month. In April 2002, an article mentioning AIS and our website appeared in (the May edition of) a UK women's magazine. The number of hits went up by 22% in that month.

We thought that the large spike in January 2006 was possibly due, at least in part, to the fact that intensive maintenance work was being done on the live site during that month, involving frequent access to the pages. But this work didn't go on beyond the first week in February and yet the hit rate continued to rise in February, March and April, so could have been a real phenomenon.

If you would like to tell us which pages you've found particularly helpful and what improvements you would like to see, please contact the UK group.

Navigation

The hierarchy of pages is colour-coded to help in orientation:

Level 1 (top level) = cream-coloured (main pages like this page and those listed on the left)
Level 2 (middle level) = pale green (articles/discussions) or pale purple (personal stories)
Level 3 (lower level) = white (letters relating to articles/discussions). There are only a few of these.

You can retrace your steps from any page by using the 'left arrow' button in your browser's toolbar.

A Note About PDFs

Some of our web pages provide access to documents in PDF (Portable Document Format) that you can view/print and/or download to your computer. Before you can do this you'll need some PDF Reader software on your PC. Two such packages are available as a free download (you may need to specify which PC platform you are using, e.g. Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP):

Adobe's PDF Reader - (Ver. 6.0.1 is 8.7 MB) download from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Foxit's PDF Reader - (Ver. 2.1 is less than 1 MB) download from http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Once you have a PDF Reader installed, you are ready to access PDF files via web pages, as follows:

Click on the web page link that provides access to the PDF file.
Follow the online instructions ("Open PDF while it is on the remote server" or "Download a copy to your PC first").
If prompted, choose a directory (folder) on your computer to store the file/s.
If you downloaded the PDF file to your computer at Steps 2 and 3, open it using your PDF Reader.
If you paid a fee to access the PDF (most allow free access) enter the password you were given.
Once the PDF document displays you can print it if necessary, as follows:
Click anywhere in the browser window that displays the PDF document (to make sure that your cursor is in that window) and from the appropriate menu option at the top of your browser, choose Print or Print Frame (the exact wording of the command will depend on the browser you are using). To make sure it prints properly onto your size of paper, you may need to choose the Shrink to Print option just before you print the file.

Note: Not all browsers behave the same way; the document will most likely be displayed in the right-hand frame (where this text currently appears). With some browsers you can force the document to be displayed in another copy of the browser and it will display better. If you are reading it online, don't forget that you can resize the frames (click and drag) to make the document display better. However, since you are most likely going to print the document and not read it on-line, it may not be important how nicely it displays on the screen.