Virtual Tour Navigation Tips and Help

This Virtual Tour provides a visual overview of Melliodora using current photography supported by brief  "Locality & Site Info" and "Captions". For complete information about Melliodora and it's development view the eBook

The Virtual Tour begins with an aerial photo of Melliodora, the "VT Map". The map is divided into "Zones" which reflect land type and "Perennial Planting Zones" documented in the e-Book

Icons on the Zone maps link to Photos and Panoramas which open in new pop-up windows.

The "Zones" menu allows you to jump to other zone maps directly.

The Virtual Tour is designed for a screen resolution of 1024x768 (typically 17 inch). At this resolution horizontal scrolling for panoramas is necessary. Similarly the limited number of "portrait" photos will require vertical scrolling. On larger screens, higher resolutions will decrease scrolling or increased view of other windows (eg Melliodora eBook).

Most browsers allow their tool and address bars to be hidden to maximise the viewable area. eg in Internet Explorer go the View menu and select "Collapse Toolbars".

Problems & Known Issues

The Virtual Tour has been tested with various combinations on the following platforms and programs: IE, Netscape, Mozilla: Firefox, Safari and Opera on Windows XP, ME, 2000, Mac OS9 & X and Linux. There are some know issues that arise in specific combinations of the platform and program. Some of which are listed bellow. Different browsers and preference settings may affect the display and performance of the Virtual Tour. eg poor scrolling of panoramas in Safari or excess white space in IE. Firefox and IE appear to have the least issues although this may vary if users have altered settings/preferences.

Computer performance will affect Virtual Tour load time and scrolling. If the computer is slow, try closing other programs.

The most universal fix is to try a different browser or update the one you are using.

•The VT Map must fully loaded before selecting a Zone. Loading may take 30 seconds or more on older machines. If one of the zones is linked to before the page has fully loaded, the page may remain in that semi-loaded state, even if refreshed.

•Netscape on Windows 2000: Photo in Barn Roof Pan in House & Garden Zone does not display.

•Captions will be displayed optimally with browser text size set to 16 with a font that has a similar size characteristics as the font "TIMES" family. Different settings may cause text to "overflow" the intended text fields. Most text that "overflows" is not visible. In some cases "clicking" on the caption that has "overflowed" can fix the problem.