Help
Guidance
on how to use the Scottish Parliament's website
This page explains how the Scottish parliament's Internet site
is structured, and provides guidance on how to find your way around.
Most sections on the site have feedback forms allowing you to contact
staff in the Parliament with suggestions or for help. If you want
help in navigating your way through the site or have some comments
you would like to make about the website in general please contact
our webmaster.
The Parliament's Information Centre (SPICe) has produced this printable user guide (1.6MB pdf) with further information about what's on the website and where, which highlights some of the special features of the website, and provides advice on how to search for specific information.
These are the most common navigational features found on the Scottish
Parliament's Website:
The information below explains how to use these features to find
your way around the site to get to the information you want.
The Parliamentary logo on the top left hand side of each
page is always a link back to the home page of the site.
The Top Navigation Bar (Channels)
Most site content is organised in five main sections - known as
channels. These are the "tabs" that you see on the horizontal
bar near the top of each page. These links change colour when you
roll over them with your mouse, and take you to the sections (channels)
when you click on them. Each channel has its own colour to help you
recognise which section of the site you are in. You
can also enter channels by using the access keys, which are
keyboard shortcuts that can be used instead of a mouse. More
about the access keys on our website.
The five channels of the website are:
Parliamentary business
In this section you can find information about what is happening
in the Parliament broken down by type of business (Chamber, Committee or Bills), documents relating to the business (Official
Report, Research
briefings), the Motions
and WPQ databases (helping you find motions
and amendments, or written parliamentary questions and answers),
and documents relating to Parliamentary
Procedure.
top
Visit, Learn, Interact
As the title of this channel suggests, this section helps you understand
and participate in the Parliament. There is practical
information on how you can visit
us and what facilities are available
when you get here. The Education
section is also in this channel,
containing educational resources for teachers and pupils, as well
as interactive games. There is access to information in other
languages,
guidance in how you can participate and make
your voice heard, and
access to all current consultations. The Holyrood
section charts
the progress of the building
project and houses a number of images
of the Parliament taking shape.
MSPs
You can access information about all 129 MSPs in
this channel. As
well as biographical information, you can find out about how to contact
or visit your MSP in your constituency or region. There are also
short videos on each Members' page. In this channel you
can also find election
results, and information
about cross party groups.
News, Media and Events
All press releases issued by the Parliament can be found in this
section as well as details of previous and forthcoming events. There
is an image gallery with photographs of the parliamentary buildings,
amongst other things. You can also access Holyrood.tv, our web casting
service, which includes live streaming as well as extensive archives.
About the Parliament
In this channel you can find out about the parliament as an organisation,
the role of the Presiding
Officer, the Scottish
Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) and the staff
organisation.
You can also access information
about the history of the
Scottish Parliament and learn about its legislative
powers. There is a section on recruitment,
where you can find out how to apply
for positions, and also procurement
pages, explaining our procurement policy and how our contracts
are awarded.
top
The Left Navigation Panel
 Once
you are in a channel the way to find items, unless they appear on
the front page or as a related link (see below), is by using the
navigation panel to the left of most pages. Displayed here are the
content options for each channel highlighted in the top
level navigation bar. Some sections of the Internet site
have more than one level of navigation. If there is an arrow
to the left of a heading this indicates that there is another
level of navigation. The colour changes as you drill down to
enable you to see which level of the site you are in.
The left navigation items are not ordered alphabetically but according
to what users have suggested are their most frequently visited pages.
The content of each left hand side navigation panel varies
from one channel to the next. The number of levels of content also
varies according to where you are and how much information is available
in a particular section. We have tried to break down the information
in this way to help you find your way to key sections without having
to do too much scrolling. Again, if you have any comments or suggestions
about these breakdowns please contact our webmaster by using our feedback
form.
Some pages do not have the left navigation panel as they contain
a lot of text or large images. In this case you can still use the menu
trail to navigate.
top
Searching
On the front page of the website the search button appears on the
left hand side of the screen underneath the option to access information
in other languages, in line with the Parliament's language policy.
On all other pages this search option appears at the top of the page
in the top banner. This is a basic free text search which will look
across the entire site for what you are trying to find. The sitemap
and quick navigation options are other good ways to quickly information
without knowing which channel it belongs in.
On the header links at the top of each page is an advanced search
option.
This offers more sophisticated search options. You can search for
exact phrases or opt to only look for certain words and exclude others.
You can also filter your search and limit by information type or
sections. The committees options enable you to search for content
within the pages of a specific committee, and by report, meeting
papers, Official reports etc.
top
Related Links or Links
These are links to other pages which are related to the page you
are viewing and may be of interest to you. This is to help you find
related or similar information that may be housed in a different
channel or area of the website.
Links that are within the website will open in this window and
links that are to external Internet sites will open in a new window.
On some pages there is also a box with other language options. These
links will take you that content in the specified language.
top
The Menu Trail (or "breadcrumb trail")
This is the trail of links at the top of each page (underneath the
channel tabs) which show your location within the website. Almost
every time you click from one menu page into a new page you will
gain a new item in the trail. You can therefore find your way back
to where you came from using this feature, skipping pages so you
can directly access the information you want. Home is always the
first item on this trail making it easy at any time to go to the
home page. This trail can also be a useful way for remembering where
pages are.
For example:
Home > Parliamentary
Business > Committees > Procedures > Committee
Reports > ..back
This trail tells you that you have gone into the Parliamentary Business
channel and then to the Committees home page. From there you chose
the Procedures Committee and then clicked on their reports section
using the left hand side navigation panel. The next trail option
would take you back one step, namely to the Procedures Committee
home page. Alternatively, if you wanted to go to a different committee
you could skip that and click straight back to the Committees homepage,
or any other page you had arrived at at any stage of your search.
top
Quick navigation
The quick navigation menu appears on the front page on the top banner
just above the Scottish Parliament header and on the sitemap
page.
By clicking on this, a drop down menu will appear offering you direct
links to the top level of content for each channel. This is a particularly
useful tool if you are looking for something specific but are not
sure which channel it is in.
top
Header links
At the very top of the screen you will see a number of links which
provide further help in using the site. The Accessibility link
takes you to a page which explains how the look of the site can be
altered for different pcs or for users with visual impairments. Next
to this is the Access Keys option which
takes you to a page explaining how you can navigate the site without
using a mouse. Each channel can be accessed using a specific letter
on the keyboard (using control and alt at the same time, or other
derivations explained on this page). Access keys are the underlined
letters on the channel headings themselves.
The sitemap lists all the content of the
top two levels of navigation by channel, the colour scheme reinforcing
that used on the site itself. There is direct access to each channel
list at the top of the page along with another quick navigation drop
down menu. The map can be easily scrolled if you do not know which
channel the information you are looking for is held in.
Next to the help option which takes you to this document is the
Advanced Search option. This
is covered above. To the right of this is an online
glossary. This is an encyclopaedia of parliamentary
terms, focussing mainly (but not exclusively) on terms used in the
Scottish Parliament. It is useful for explaining what some of the
technical terms used throughout the site actually mean.
The Online Updates link takes you to a page
onto which you can register your details to receive regular updates
on what's happening in the parliament. You can also specify certain
areas of interest so you only receive updates (via e-mail) when there
is news in these particular areas.
top
Footer links
There are also footer links at the bottom of each
page. The first allows you to bookmark and add pages to your
favourites. The second option offers you a quick print
option. The site has been formatted so that when you print a page
you only print the content itself and not the navigation at the left
or the top of pages. A back to top link sits at the bottom of every
page and below this are further links to contact forms and information
about the Scottish Parliament website.
top
|
back to top