During Orientation:

The Orientation required reading sections are shown in GREEN text. As you start on this wiki, use the green 'next' buttons to advance the wiki. If you find yourself down the rabbit hole of additional links, use the browser back button to get back on track.

The easy way:

In the upper right hand side of the wiki interface, next to the help  icon, you'll see a dark blue field (circled in red, below). It's hard to make out but there is a little black lookup icon in the field. This is where you can search the wiki for key words. Be aware, the text is black so it's nearly impossible to read unless you highlight it. But it's there, and it is a robust search function. A more detailed explanation can be found here.

Finding your way around:

On the NPL Home page, there are 2 main options for finding information in the wiki. First is the topic table. Working at NPL, Projects, Tasks and Other are very broad categories by which the protocols and procedures are organized.

Working at NPL: Here you'll find explanations of how we do things in the 3 main parts of the lab- the prep lab, computer lab and the collections.

Projects: All the various projects at NPL have a written protocol. If you forget how to do something on your project, have a question or are just 'shopping' for a new project this is a good place to go.

Common Tasks: A good number of activities are done on an 'as needed' basis. Checking in a loan, photographing incoming material and printing out labels fall into this category. Other entries are foundational skills, like making foam liners and running queries in the database.

On the right hand side of the page is the 'How do I...' section. Each question is a hotlink to an answer. This is also where you'll find contact information for NPL Staff, and important general UT phone numbers.

Left/Central panel:

The area on the left and center of the screen is the body of the page. This is where the bulk of the text, images and flowcharts will be. At the bottom of long pages, this is where you'll find Navigation tools to guide you to the next page, or back to the home page.

Right side panel:

Navigation

The area on the right side of the page has navigation links. NPL Home and, Chapter Home will always be there, a link for 'Next' is included for Orientation required reading. These navigation options are repeated at the bottom of longer pages.

Things To Know

Pages that build on other tasks or require additional knowledge will have links gathered under the 'Things to Know' header. Computer tasks, safety information as well as reminders are often found linked here.

Sections Navigator

Some chapters are divided into sections. In these cases, each section has a navigation tool labeled "Sections in this Chapter". The linked titles change depending on what page you are on. 

This example below was taken from the NPL Temp Label: Missing page. Navigation links lead to the NPL Main page, NPL Home and the chapter page, the Labels main page. 'Next' shows you the next label listed in the Secondary Specimen Labels column.

The topics for the 'Things to Know' are helpful if you are going to create Missing labels.

When a chapter has sections, a navigation tool called a Section Navigator will appear on the right side of the page. This is in addition to the usual Navigation tools.

The sections in the navigator change depending on which page you are viewing it from.