For optimum performance, if you are using Firefox, customize the software.

• In Firefox's address bar, type "about:config" (without quotation marks).
  
• From the list at the left, find browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers.
  
• Double click on that.
  
• In the dialog box that appears, change the value from "-1" to "2".
  
  

WHY? Firefox keeps a copy of the last couple of web pages you view in a cache in order to quickly display them when you use the browser's Back button. Because it takes a lot of data to display an image from our web server, keeping 6-8 pages saved means a lot of memory will be used on your computer. These changes should remedy this.

The viewer runs on a 16 bit color, 1024x768 pixel screen (less will not work well), and uses a lot of your computer's resources to display the maps. This means that if your computer is slow, the map viewer will be slow.

To change settings, right click on the desktop and select "Properties". Select the settings tab. Update the settings.

Using the map viewer is easy:

The map window is in the middle of the viewer window. On the left side of the viewer, at the top, is a Yahoo map of the area shown in the map window. Under the Yahoo map are four buttons (tools): "Pan tool", "Zoom tool", "Window tool", and "Identify tool". Beneath the tools is a checkbox for selecting whether or not you want an aerial photography overlay. Under that is a transparency setting. Below that is a "Theme description" which describes what appears in the map window when themes are selected.

On the right side of the viewer is the "Theme Selector" with some themes you can display in the map window. Use the transparency setting with the Theme Selector.

TOOLS:

You can pan (move the map), zoom, or window in (select an area) on the map.

To pan, or move, the map window:

• Click the "Pan Tool" button.
  
• Move the cursor into the map window. The cursor will turn into a crosshair.
  
• Next, either click on a point in the map window to make that point the center of the map window, or, hold down the left mouse button and drag the map window up, down, diagonally, to whatever point you wish to view on the map.
  
• Release the mouse button to reset the window.
  
  

To zoom the map window:

• Click on the "Zoom Tool" button.
  
• Move the cursor into the map window. The cursor changes to a resize cursor (double headed arrow).
  
• Hold the left mouse button down at the top of the map window and drag the cursor towards the bottom of the map window. (Move the mouse slowly during dynamic zoom until you are comfortable with how it works.) The map will zoom in as you move the cursor.
  
• Release the left mouse button to repaint the map window.
  

To zoom out, reverse the process:

• Hold the left mouse button at the bottom of the map window and drag it to the top to zoom out. Then release the mouse button.
  
  

This is a resource intensive process, so if your computer usually runs slow, this process may seem unresponsive. If this is the case, you can try using the Window Tool.

To use the window tool:

• Click on the "Window Tool" button .
  
• Move the cursor into the map window. The cursor changes to a 4-way cursor.
  
• Hold the left mouse button down on the upper left corner of an area you want to see closer, then drag the mouse to the lower right of the area. A red rectangle shows the area to be displayed when you release the left mouse button. The area within the box will zoom in.
  
  

To use the Identify Tool:

The Identify Tool enables information to be displayed on the map.

• Click on the "Identify Tool". When you move the mouse over a parcel, a tool tip window is displayed showing:
  the latitude/longitude and stateplane coordinates of the pointer location, or,
  the parcel number, or
  any theme-related information.
  
  

If you click on a parcel, details of that parcel from our website are displayed in another window. The map window is also re-centered on the parcel, and the transparency color on the parcel blinks slowly.

Aerial Photography:

• Check or uncheck the box to the right of "Aerial Photography" to add or remove aerial photography to the map window. (More sets of aerial photography will be added in the future.)
  
  

If the map viewer seems slow, turning the aerial photography off should make things go faster.

Themes:

Themes are specific sets of data and are displayed on the right side of the viewer window. (The "Default" theme doesn't display anything.) A short description of a selected theme is shown on the left side of the viewer.

To display a theme:

• Click on the theme name. The theme layers will show beneath the name when the theme is active.
  
  For instance, click on the theme "Latest Sale". A brief color coded list is displayed and parcels on the map are filled in with the color corresponding to the data list.
  
  

To turn a theme off, click the theme name again.

Transparency

When displaying Themes or just the map linework, you can control the theme's transparency by putting different values in the text box next to "Transparency".

• A value of 0 means invisible, a value of 1 means opaque. You can use any fractional number between 0 and 1. The default is 0.5. If you are not displaying aerial photography, it doesn't use the transparency value at all.
  
  

If you have questions, please call our office at 727-464-3207.