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Welcome to the Primary Source Media and Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive frequently asked questions page. If you are unable to find a solution to your problem, use the feedback or contact us forms.
General configuration parameters
This publication's functionality is optimised for the following:
  1. Internet Explorer 4/Netscape 3 or higher with JavaScript™ enabled.
  2. Video resolution of 800x600 or higher with a minimum of 256 colours.
  3. Internet connection via 56Kbps (v90) modem, ISDN or intranet access.
  4. A TIFF file viewer i.e. Imaging for Windows 95 by Wang or Kodak (supplied on Windows 95/98/NT installation CD). Click here for installation instructions.

Before using this guide check that your system conforms to this specification.
Log in Screen
Q I enter my user name and password and when I click on 'Login Now' the input boxes clear and nothing else happens.
A Either the user name or password entered are incorrect or the computer's IP (internet protocol) address is not registered as a valid subscriber. Re-input the user name and password and if the problem persists, contact your systems administrator or TLS subscriptions manager at ian.clark@psmedia.co.uk.
Article and Contributor Search Screens
Q I click on the 'Search' button and nothing happens.
A If you click on 'Search' and have not typed a search term in any of the field boxes, this is equivalent to requesting the entire TLS database. This is automatically suppressed to avoid fruitless searching. Please enter a search term before clicking on 'Search'.

 
Q If I enter a name of an author and select male contributor in the gender selection drop-down I do not obtain a list of named male authors as expected.
A The gender selection drop-down applies only to the contributors and not to authors. Your search generates the query; select all named authors whose books were reviewed by male contributors. It is not possible to search only named authors who are male, because author's biographies do not exist in this database (unless of course the author is also a contributor).

 
Q I only want articles on books by Virginia Woolf, but when I enter  Woolf NOT Leonard in the Author field I receive no hits, why?
A You can not enter Boolean search logic within a field because the search engine uses truncated phrase searching. To retrieve only the articles on books authored by Virginia Woolf, enter the name thus: Woolf, V (note the space between the comma and V)
Image Display
Q When I click on Print button and select 'Open this file from its current location' from the 'File Download' dialogue window, a Quicktime™ plug-in is launched with a broken image link.
A The Print button button initiates the file download of the high resolution image in TIF format (tagged image format) with Group 4 Fax compression. Unfortunately, if you have the Apple Quicktime™ plug-in installed, it is launched automatically but is unable to display the facsimile page. Apple Quicktime does not support Group 4 TIF files.

If you do not use the Quicktime™ plug-in you may uninstall it. Alternatively you may download a TIF viewer plug-in courtesy of Medical Informatics Engineering by clicking here. Click 'OK' on the 'File Download' dialogue window to save the file to a folder. Use Windows Explorer to open the folder and double click the program icon 'alternatiff-1_2_0' to install.

 
Q When I click on the print icon on my browser's toolbar I get a blank page or an image of the navigation buttons.
A The image display page consists of three 'frames':
  1. The site navigation bar down the left side of the page.
  2. The image navigation across the top of the page.
  3. The facsimile page.

When the print icon on the browser's toolbar is clicked, only the active frame (the last frame clicked on) is printed. The print process is dependant upon which browser you are using. To print the facsimile page follow these instructions:

With Netscape Navigator or Netscape Communicator:

  • Click on the facsimile image (making it the "active" frame).
  • Choose "File" from Netscape's menu, then choose "Print Frame".

With Internet Explorer:

  • Click on the facsimile image (making it the "active" frame).
  • Choose "File" from Explorer's menu, then choose "Print".
    (with IE 4.0, choose the "print selected frame" option in the "Print" pop-up window).

Please see the next Q&A as it is relevant to page printing.

 
Q Why do I get poor image quality when printing the facsimile pages?
A A common mistake is to use your browser's print icon when in the image display page. The image displayed on the screen is a ¼ resolution sample of the actual facsimile image stored on the server. To obtain high quality printable images you must use the Print button button at the top of the facsimile page.

 
Q When I use the next and previous buttons the facsimile page number jumps several pages.
A This is normally caused by multiple clicks on the navigation buttons. Each click will generate a request to open the next page before the current image is complete. To alleviate this, always allow the image display to refresh completely before clicking on a navigation button.

 
Q Why do I return to the search results page when I click on the Back buttonbutton rather than the previously visited page?
A This is intentional as it is considered more convenient to see the search results after viewing the facsimile page.