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

2010-03-23 Links File Update Released

The 2010-03-23 Links file update has been released. Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list, providing information such as what group or congregation you’re with, who referred you to this site, etc.

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 Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, or Internet Explorer. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

One significant change is the addition at the top of the file of Launchpads, which act as big buttons that take one directly to certain key headings in the Index.

New and updated resources are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** Index headings.

The *** NEW *** resources this time around are:

• How Do You Say That in Chinese?
  
  • “Dear friends, This blog was born when a great story just had to be told. It need not end there. You may also have heard of one (make sure it’s verifiable). Well, here is where we use new technologies to get the message out. Invite friends so there can be an ‘interchange of encouragement’ (Ro 1:12) - and above all, bring praise not to any one person, but to Jehovah.”
    


• Mandarin Course from Long Island
  
  • These are the course materials for the Long Island Chinese Language Course in theo. Mandarin held in 2010.
    


• Mandarin Memorial Songsheets—2010
  
  • These files can be used to print out extra copies of the songs to be sung at the 2010 Memorial. The types of information they contain (hanzi, pinyin, etc.) are listed in the filenames. The files can help to enable all in attendance at Mandarin Memorials to sing in Mandarin together, thus emphasizing our unity and resulting in more harmonious praise being offered at these special meetings.
    
  • Of note is the inclusion in these files of jianpu, or numbered musical notation. Many Chinese people are familiar with this type of musical notation, and find it easier to follow than the “standard” musical notation that uses a five-line staff.
    


• PDF Link Navigation
  
  • It appears that more and more, the 3-line and pinyin PDF files will be used on mobile devices such as the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad rather than printed out on paper. So, bookmarks and links have been added to some of these PDF files in order to take advantage of the computing power of mobile devices, and to reduce the amount of scrolling around needed while using the PDFs on them.
    
  • This page contains information and instructions (including a video screen recording) regarding the PDF files named with “LinkNav” (“Link Navigation”), which have been enriched and fortified with PDF bookmarks and links.
    


• Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + JP/Yale Cant. Rom. + English)
  
  • This material consists of relatively extensive lists of theo. expressions as they have been found to be rendered in the Chinese publications. This page links to the Cantonese romanisation versions, which are intended to replace the Cantonese Basic Theo. Expressions files, which were last updated way back in Feb. 2004 and contain expressions that are now out of date. Files are available with the expressions sorted by English or by Jyutping/Yale romanisation. Thanks to the one who made these files available.
    


• Worldwide Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses (www.jw.org)
  
  • The official download site of the organization, from which some official Chinese audio files and PDF files are now available for download.
    

The *** UPDATED *** resources this time around are:

• 3-Line Material on the iPhone and the iPod touch
  


• 3lines.org
  


• Chinese Links File
  


• Creator Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English)
  


• “God’s Love” Book (Chinese + Cantonese Rom. + English)
  


• “God’s Love” Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English)
  


• Links News
  


• Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video
  


• Oriental Language Studies
  


• Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Pinyin + English)
  


• Songbook—Romanised Material
  


• tiandi.info
  

The following resources are no longer listed in the Links file:

• Basic Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Yale Cant. Rom. + English)
  
  • This has been replaced by the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + JP/Yale Cant. Rom. + English) page mentioned above.
    


• CaenChina
  
  • This resource no longer exists.
    


• PandaGator
  
  • This resource no longer exists.
    

In addition to the above-mentioned items, several other changes, updates, and refinements were also made compared to the previous version of the Links file, dated 2009-11-28. So don’t hesitate to avail yourself of the current version, dated 2010-03-23.

Minor 2009-10-27 Links File Update Posted

A minor update to the Links file, dated 2009-10-27, has been posted to the Chinese Links File page. Access information in recent Links emails is still valid. If you would like to receive a Links email with information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you’re with, who referred you to this site, etc.

The following minor tweaks have been made in response to email input:

• This note has been added to the portion of the Links section describing the New Fields New Challenge resource:

  The blue and white graphics on the main page are links to other pages on the site. The gold graphics on those pages are download links.

  
  
• Links to the Books and the Brochures index headings have been added to the Featured / Commonly Requested Tags (Index Headings) section near the top of the Links file.
  

2009-10-23 Links File Update Released

The 2009-10-23 Links file update has been released. Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list, providing information such as what group or congregation you’re with, who referred you to this site, etc.

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 Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

New and updated resources are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings.

The *** NEW *** resources this time around are:

• Basic Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Yale Cant. Rom. + English)
  
  • This material consists of lists of theo. expressions as they have been found to be rendered in the Chinese publications.
    
  • The files available here were previously available from the Publications (Cantonese) page, but have now been given their own dedicated web page.
    


• Byki Theo. Chinese Data Files
  
  • Byki uses flashcards, audio, and computer tracking of one’s progress to help one quickly build one’s vocabulary. For more information concerning Byki, click here.
    


• Helpful Files (Mandarin)
  
  • Generally useful files for those learning Chinese for the Mandarin field, e.g. flashcards, files about measure words, numbers, how to write Chinese characters, etc.
    
  • Many of the files here were moved from the Other Publications (Mandarin) page, which this page replaces, while other files are new.
    


• Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Pinyin + English)
  
  • This material consists of lists of theo. expressions as they have been found to be rendered in the Chinese publications.
    
  • So far, only a Mandarin pinyin version is available. This version, dated Oct. 21, 2009, is intended to replace the Basic Theo. Expressions files, which were last updated way back in Jan. 2002 and which contain expressions that are now out of date.
    


• Songbook—Romanised Material
  
  • This material complements the Chinese songbook by adding romanisation.
    
  • Mandarin pinyin, Cantonese Sidney Lau, and Cantonese Yale versions of the current Sing Praises songbook are available. These files were previously available from the Publications (Mandarin) and the Publications (Cantonese) pages.
    
  • Regarding the new songbook that will be used starting at the beginning of 2010, if you are in the Mandarin field and need a pinyin new songbook, be sure to order the official pinyin new songbook. For those who have not received their pinyin new songboks yet, or who are learning Cantonese, romanised material for songs listed in Watchtower magazines and kms for meetings in 2010 will be posted on this page as it becomes available.
    

The *** UPDATED *** resources this time around are:

• 3lines.org
  


• Chinese Links File
  


• “God’s Love” Book (Chinese + Cantonese Rom. + English)
  


• “God’s Love” Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English)
  


• Links News
  


• Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video
  


• McBeaths in Trinidad
  


• Oriental Language Studies
  


• Publications (Cantonese)
  
  • This has been moved and redesigned.


• Publications (Mandarin)
  
  • This has been moved and redesigned.


• tiandi.info
  

The following resources are no longer listed in the Links file:

• CWPS Home Page
  
  • CWPS has been withdrawn by its creator and replaced with the commercial program ChinaScribe. He explains why here.
    


• Other Publications (Mandarin)
  
  • This has been replaced by the Helpful Files (Mandarin) page mentioned above.
    

In addition to the above-mentioned items, several other more minor changes, updates, and refinements were also made compared to the previous version of the Links file, dated 2009-07-05. So don’t hesitate to avail yourself of the current version, dated 2009-10-23.

Basic Theo. Expressions, Pinyin Songbook Still Available

Some of you may have noticed that the Basic Theo. Expressions and the current pinyin songbook are no longer available for download from the Publications (Mandarin) page. There will soon be a new version of this page, which will be listed in an upcoming update to the Links file. Meanwhile, anyone who wishes to obtain the Basic Theo. Expressions or the current pinyin songbook may email me for them, providing information such as what group or congregation you’re with, who referred you to this site, etc.

2009-02-19 Links File Update Released

Following not long after release of the new version of the 3-lines site and coming just before the God’s Love book starts to be studied at the Book Study, the 2009-02-19 Links file update has been released. Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list.

I recommend that the included directions.html file be read first. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the Links file, this file also discusses its redistribution.

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 Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

New and updated resources are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings.

New resources this time around include:

• Cantonese 3-line material (Jyutping, Sidney Lau, and Yale romanisations) for the God’s Love book
  


• The New Fields New Challenge web site, with instructional material used by language-learners in Aberdeen, Scotland
  


• The Spanish version of tiandi.info

Among the sites that were updated:

• The 3-lines site has been moved to 3lines.org, and it has received a design refresh. Also, as noted in previous posts, God’s Love book audio files and Spanish 3-line files are now available from there.
  


• The “door to activity” site has been moved.
  


• The pinyin God’s Love book 3-line material download page has seen regular updates, which are expected to continue.
  


• WM-Dict version 2.0 recently became available.

Minor 2008-11-09 Links File Update Posted

A minor update to the Links file, dated 2008-11-09, has been posted to the Chinese Links File page. Access information in Links emails of the last several months is still valid. If you would like to receive a Links email with information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Featured are updates to the section describing WM-Dict, which has a new web site, and which is now available for Linux as well as Windows, Mac OS X, and Windows Mobile. Also, version 1.3 is now available, which features major updates to the Chinese dictionaries.

Minor 2008-11-06 Links File Update Posted

A minor update to the Links file, dated 2008-11-06, has been posted to the Chinese Links File page. If you would like to receive an email with information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Mainly, this update features a beefed-up Featured / Commonly Requested Tags (Index Headings) section, which now includes quick links to the God’s Love Book, Blogs (including tiandi.info), and other Index headings.

2008-09-03 Links File Update Released

To help get your new service year off to a good start, the 2008-09-03 Links file update has been released. Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list.

The Links file recently underwent a major redesign, which debuted with the 2008-02-18 version. This redesign is intended to help make it easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Besides helping you to find what you are looking for, the system may even help you to discover resources that are available, but that you had not thought of looking for.

Hopefully it will not be too difficult to figure out how to use the redesigned file. However, I recommend that the included directions.html file be read first. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the new design, this file also discusses redistribution of the Links file.

Based on recent feedback, a few tweaks to the new design appear in this update.

• Since some seemed to be confused by the term “Tags”, this term has been replaced with “Tags (Index Headings)”. Hopefully this will make it clear that clicking on a tag takes one to the corresponding heading in the index.
  


• Some were not intuiting that the titles in the Links section were the links (although it has been that way since the Links information was first published years ago), so the URLs (web addresses or email links) will also be listed as live links below the link titles.
  


• There is now a Document Structure section at the beginning, which shows the overall structure of the Links file. From this section, one may note that:
  
  
  • Right near the beginning, in addition to the complete list of tags, there is now a Featured / Commonly Requested Tags (Index Headings) section, which hopefully is self-explanatory.
    
  
  
  • The Index and the Links sections have traded places. Now, the Links section is closer to the beginning, making it easier to find for those who just want the straight list of links. Also, the structure of the file is now more like that of a book, with something resembling a table of contents at the beginning, the body in the middle, and the index at the end.


• The ‘Go to...’ quick navigation links have been beefed up a bit, and they now appear at the beginning of each major section, and at the end of the file.

One of the results of the redesign is that the file may not work right when it is attached to an email. The HTML code of the file itself is standards-compliant, but I found in my testing that some email systems would not run it properly. So, the Links files are not attached to the Links emails anymore. Instead, the Links file should now be 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 Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

New and updated resources are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings.

New resources this time around include:

• 3-line material (pinyin, Sidney Lau, and Yale) for the Creation book
  


• 3-line material for the new God’s Love book

One major update of note is that the J’s Day book 3-line material is now listed as being available at the 3-Line Translations - Theo. Study Aids... and “A large door to activity has been opened” web sites.

2008-06-20 Links File Update Released

The 2008-06-20 Links file update has been released. Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list.

The Links file recently underwent a major redesign, which debuted with the 2008-02-18 version. This redesign is intended to help make it easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Besides helping you to find what you are looking for, the system may even help you to discover resources that are available, but that you had not thought of looking for.

Hopefully it will not be too difficult to figure out how to use the redesigned file. However, I recommend that the included directions be read first. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the new design, the directions also discuss redistribution of the file.

One of the results of the redesign is that the file may not work right when it is attached to an email. The HTML code of the file itself is standards-compliant, but I found in my testing that some email systems would not run it properly. So, the Links files are not attached to the Links emails anymore. Instead, the Links file should now be 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 Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

New and updated resources are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings.

New resources this time around include:

• CaenChina, a French blog


• Spanish 3-line material for What We Learn... w magazine articles, which were designed to be used for studying with interested ones


• Spanish 3-line material for the Require brochure


• 3-line material for certain NWT scriptures


• Revelation book audio files


• tiandi.info, a new blog with information and commentary on various subjects that may be of interest to those in the Chinese field

Reminder: Links Files No Longer Attached to Links Emails

For those who have not yet noted this: The Links files are not attached to the Links emails anymore. Instead, the Links file should now be used by downloading its zip file from the web page linked to in the Links email, extracting it with the supplied password, saving it to a drive, and opening it in a modern web browser like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera.

Didn’t Receive the Recent Links Emails?

It seems that some of the ones that are on the mailing list for the Links update emails are not receiving them. (Recent Links update emails were sent out on 2008-02-18 and on 2008-03-16.) Perhaps their mail providers’ spam filters are a bit overzealous about filtering out emails with multiple recipients. If you believe you have been affected by this, please email me and I will send you the Links email separately. I will also put your email address on a separate mailing list for those in this situation.

Internet Explorer and Selecting Passwords

I just discovered that Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista will not let you “select the complete password, NOT including the quotation marks” from the Links update email when it is displaying it when logged on to Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail—it insists on automatically selecting the quotation marks as well. I would not be surprised if it behaved this way on Windows XP as well, or if other versions of Internet Explorer did the same thing on whatever version of Windows they are running on, although I have not yet tested this.

This feature was surely meant to be helpful, but in this case it causes a problem instead. Here are a couple of ways to get around this:

• Select the password along with the quotation marks, then paste it into another program, like Notepad. Then, in that program, proceed to “select the complete password, NOT including the quotation marks”, etc. (Note that MS Word will behave the same way as Internet Explorer 7 unless you dig into the options and set it to not do that.)


• Use a different web browser, such as Firefox, Safari, or Opera. They are all free downloads, and they work well as web browsers. [Update 2009-04-08: Another good browser that’s now available is Google Chrome. I have not had a chance to test Internet Explorer 8 in this regard. If any of you have done so, let me know.]

Interestingly, Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista will let you exclude the quotation marks when selecting passwords from the Links file itself. The Links email is in plain text to accommodate email systems that do not support HTML mail, while the Links file itself is made up of HTML code, one of the main types of program code used for web pages.

2008-02-18 Links Update Released

The next Links file update has finally been released! Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list.

Those of you who have used previous versions of the Links file will notice that it has undergone a major redesign. This redesign is intended to help make it easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Besides helping you to find what you are looking for, the system may even help you to discover resources that are available, but that you had not thought of looking for.

Hopefully it will not be too difficult to figure out how to use the redesigned file. However, I recommend that the included directions be read first. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the new design, the directions also discuss redistribution of the file.

One of the results of the redesign is that the file may not work right when it is attached to an email. The HTML code of the file itself is standards-compliant, but I found in my testing that some email systems would not run it properly. So, the file should now be used by saving it to a drive and opening it in a modern web browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

In addition to the new design, there are also a significant number of new and updated resources on the list. These are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings. Resources that are new to the list include

• blogs,


• Spanish resources,


• iPod-compatible video files,


• and 3-line Worship book material.

Hopefully, you will find this update to be worth the long wait. And now that the re-architecting has been done, future updates should follow in much less time than this one took. Enjoy!

Links Update Almost Ready

Work on the next Links update is nearing completion. It should only be a few more days now...

The Next Links Email Update Is In the Works

A few have asked about the current Links email. For now, the “current” version is still the 2006-09-01 one. I realize that much time has passed since it came out, and I apologize for this long period without a Links email update. Several factors have contributed to this, including my being quite busy for a time working on my local cong.’s territory data system.

However, I would like to assure everyone that I am indeed working on the next Links email update. In addition to the reason mentioned above, it is also taking longer than usual to produce because I have redesigned the format with the goal of making it much easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Speaking of which, there will be a good number of new resources, and of updates to existing ones. I am confident that the next Links email update will be worth the wait.

Songbook alternative files Link

The Songbook alternative files link listed in recent Links emails is no longer working. For access to these files, please email D. Herrmann. I am still working on the next Links email update, which will include this change along with others.

Passwords and This Blog

For those of you who received emails from me regarding the Mem. files mentioned in the previous two entries of this blog, please note that the emails contain an explanation regarding where passwords can be found. Please be sure to read the emails if you are wondering about that. Thanks!

Audio Files for 2007 Mem. Invitation

The Cantonese and Mandarin audio files for the presentation from the Feb. 2007 km for the 2007 Mem. invitation have been posted to the km Magazine Presentation Audio Files page.

UPDATE: Since there are now files for presentations that are for publications besides the magazines, and since there may be more in the future, the title of the km Magazine Presentation Audio Files page (as it is called in recent Links emails) has been changed to km Presentations Audio Files. The links in recent Links emails with the old title will continue to work, since the Internet address has not changed.

The Look for the Rest

I decided to go ahead and update the look of the rest of my Links web pages while the technique was fresh in my mind. Besides hopefully being nicer-looking, they should be easier to read and better to use now too - form is often function, especially when it comes to the presentation of information.

Interestingly, since the Links web pages attached to recent Links emails get their style information from a central CSS file on the web like my other web pages do, they will generally get an updated look too when the computers they are on are connected to the Internet. So, if that Links email you received months ago suddenly looks different, don't panic. :-)

Since I am now boning up on modern web design for a current project, other design tweaks may also filter through to my web pages in the days ahead as I climb this particular learning curve.