2014-03-20 Beta Links File Update Released

As mentioned below, I am now focusing on using the tiandi.info/links-based short links, this Links News blog, and the @TiandiLinksNews Twitter account for directing people to Chinese field resources from our fellow workers.

For those who would like to also use the Links file, though, the 2014-03-20 Beta Links file update has been released. As of this writing, I am in the process of sending to those on the Links file updates mailing list an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. It’s taking a while, because the mailing list has grown over the years to contain thousands of email addresses, and I’m running up against measures meant to slow down spammers. (Email spammers—a definite example of why we can’t have nice things in this old system, and of why we need the new system!) If you are on the Links file updates mailing list but have not received this email yet, please give it a bit more time. Or, if you already know where the download page is and what the password is (they are unchanged from before), then you don’t have to wait for the email to get this Links file update.

If you haven’t already done so, I recommend that you read the included directions.html file before proceeding to use the Links file. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the Links file, the directions.html file also discusses the redistribution of the Links file.

The Links file is used by downloading its ZIP file from the web page linked to in the email, extracting it with the supplied password, saving it to a drive, and opening it in a modern web browser like Safari, Chrome, Opera, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

To aid navigation, the Launchpads near the top of the Links file act as big buttons that take you directly to certain key headings in the Index. Also, the Navpads (navigation pads) that stay on the right of the Links file can be used to jump to major sections of the file.

Please note the following introductory comments that are included in this version of the Links file:

PLEASE NOTE:

Please delete any old Links files that you have and replace them with this one.

This is a beta (prototype) version of an update to the Links file. It has more information than previous versions, and it no longer has any links pointing to the chinesetools . net site, which unfortunately has been redirected to an apostate site by the former fellow worker who owns it. However, this version of the Links file is still unfinished, by the standard I held previous versions to, and it is not fully up-to-date.

Also, note that while some of the resources that used to be hosted on the chinesetools . net site have been recreated elsewhere, not all of them have been.

The Links file was meant to be an indexed, relatively comprehensive listing of the Chinese field resources made available by our fellow workers. It was conceived of at a time when it was inadvisable to post such a resource on the open web, so it came to be implemented as a file that would be downloaded in a password-protected ZIP file and then opened from one’s own computer, rather than visited on the web. It seems to have helped many people over the years, and for that I am glad. However, over time, the situation has changed, with the acceptance of the 3lines.org site and with the ever-expanding nature of the Chinese field and the resources available for it. In view of such developments, it seems that trying to maintain the Links file according to its original purpose and in its recent form (which has gotten quite large, complex, and monolithic) is no longer the best way for me to use my limited time and energy to help those in the Chinese field.

Going forward, I will be focusing on the following resources for directing people to Chinese field resources from our fellow workers:

• tiandi.info/links - The base link for Chinese field resources short links that are easy for users to remember, type out, and use, and that are easier for me to maintain compared to this Links file
• tiandi.info/pubs - Publications links
• tiandi.info/bi - NWT Bible links
• tiandi.info/books - Books links
• tiandi.info/bh - Bible Teach Book links
• tiandi.info/cl - Close to Jehovah Book links
• tiandi.info/lv - “God’s Love” Book links
• etc.
• tiandi.info/brochures - Brochures links
• tiandi.info/fg - Good News Brochure links
• tiandi.info/jl - Jehovah’s Will Brochure links
• etc.
• tiandi.info/vocab - Vocabulary Lists links
• tiandi.info/courses - Courses links
• etc.
• Links News (news feed) - A blog for news regarding Chinese field resources
• @TiandiLinksNews - tiandi.info, Links News on Twitter

New Printing Selected Pages From a PDF Information Page Posted

A new information page has been posted:

• Printing Selected Pages From a PDF
• (Short link: tiandi.info/pdf)

Here is the Introduction of this page:

This information page contains links to instructions for printing out selected pages from a PDF using a couple of the most common PC/Mac PDF-viewing apps.

As of this writing, early in 2014, more than half of the visits to the 3lines.org website are being made with tablets like the iPad and smaller mobile devices like the iPhone, and all signs indicate that this percentage will continue to grow rapidly. Suitably formatted Chinese language-assistive material (3-line, etc.) can just be viewed on such mobile devices without having to be printed out onto paper. This makes it much easier for users to have at their fingertips all the material they need, when they need it. It also saves users from the ongoing costs of the paper, ink/toner, and time and attention needed to print that material out onto paper.

Of course, for various reasons many still need or want to print out onto paper. However, they may not always need or want to print out an entire file at a time. This is especially the case with files that contain an entire publication rather than just a chapter of one. (Examples of files that contain an entire publication include the official Pīnyīn and Sidney Lau PDF files, and the existing unofficial Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn/Sidney Lau-English web pages and PDFs.) Even with a file that contains “only” a chapter’s worth of material, often users will only want to print out a few selected pages of it, rather than the whole thing.

Something that may understandably confuse some users is that with some PDFs, the page numbers shown in the content do not match with the page numbers that must be used for printing purposes. Also, some PDFs do not even have page numbers indicated in the content at all. For example, the official PDF files (English, Chinese, Pīnyīn, etc.) for the Jehovah’s Will brochure do not have visible page numbers, probably since the big Lesson numbers already provide strong indications of where one is in the publication. Another example is that the PDF files produced for more convenient printing of web pages like the Jehovah’s Will Brochure (Pīnyīn-English, Web, Scriptures) page omit visible page numbers in the content because:

1. The Lesson numbers already provide strong indications of where one is in the publication.
2. Commonly-used PDF-viewing apps clearly display the page numbers used for selecting pages to print, regardless of whether page numbers in the content match these, or even appear.
3. With the best overall way that could be found to produce the PDFs, the only way to add visible page numbers would have produced visually unattractive results.
4. With the best overall way that could be found to produce the PDFs, the only way to add visible page numbers would have added significantly to the number of pages that would have needed to be printed out, raising paper, ink/toner, and printing time costs for users.

The below information can help users to print out only selected pages from PDFs without unreasonable difficulty, even in cases such as those mentioned above.