Adding
Photos
On the search page, select "Edit my Listing" then "Edit Photo Album."
To upload a photo, click on "Browse" and navigate to the photo. Finally
Upload it. You may change the order in which photos appear by clicking
the arrows below the thumbnail image. Photos may be deleted
using the delete button. When you have completed uploading, just select
another part of the site from the menu to the left -- images and changes
are saved immediately unlike the text editing system that requires
you to save changes to the database after previewing them.
If you are unable
to upload a photo, attach the image to an email to us at us@homelink-usa.org
AOL users should be sure to attach the image as a file rather than
use AOL's proprietary system. Create an email address to the recipient,
then look for a box that says "Attach File" or similar. Click on that
box and select your image from the resulting dialog box. Preferred
format is JPEG; however, we can read most formats. If you are getting
an error message when uploading photos it's probably because the photo
is too large. If you reduce it so it's the width of your monitor at
1:1, it will probably be about right. Ig you can not do this, email
the photos to us and we will upload them for you.
IMPORTANT: the Email has a challenge system to establish that the
sender is a human being, not a spam machine. If you enter your member
number in the subject line, I will be sure to identify it as legitimate
email and you need not complete the challenge. If you include a relevant
subject line I will also be able to easily identify "suspect"
mail as legitimate.
Photos may also be mailed to HomeLink, 2937 NW 9th Terr, Fort Lauderdale,
FL 33311.
Townhouse
Designation
The term "townhouse" is unknown in Europe. Our system is hard-coded
with general descriptions that are universally understood. A home
is either a single family home standing on its own piece of property
or it is contained within a building shared by similar homes standing
on shared property. If a single family home stands on its own land
and has 1 floor, it is "A". If it has more than one floor it is "B".
We also do not make a distinction between types of ownership -- freehold,
leasehold, condominium, rental etc. Otherwise it is C.
Editing
Your Listing
To edit your on-line listing, click on "Edit my Listing." under the
"Member Options" menu. Be sure that you have logged in BEFORE
using this function.
Emailing
members
Within the listing, you will see a link "Contact this member."
After this initial contact, you may email each other directly by providing each other with your email addresses. Email
addresses are not visible for security reasons related to SPAM.
Emailing
to many recipients
We are working on a system that will allow you to send an email to
multiple recipients using their Member Numbers which may be found
in the directory.
Finding
a Member by name or ID Number
To find a HomeLink member, click on "Find a Listing" below
the "Global Searches" heading.
Insurance
The discussion Forum has a lot of useful information on insurace.
Insurance practices vary from company to company & state to state.
My personal policies always covered incidental drivers. If your company
flatly states that you are not covered and you do not wish to assume
a risk, all I can suggest is renting a car for the other exchange
party. Car rentals in the US are far more inexpensive than in Europe
which makes this a more attractive option than forgoing the car exchange
and renting a car in Europe for yourself. Some European offices offer
home exchange insurance to members. This option is not available in
the US.
Key
Word Search
This function offers expanded ways to find members or listings. You
may enter data in as many or few fields as you wish. Generally, do
enter a parameter unless it is absolutely vital to your exchange.
Password
Does Not Work
Three likely possibilities:
1. Operator error. Be sure you are entering the ID Number & Password
*SET* exactly as shown. Pasting in a password or ID Number will often
add a space which will make the password unacceptable. The first two
characters are letters, the last five are digits.
2. You are using MS Internet Explorer and have checked the "Remember
Password" box. It is possible that you entered an incorrect ID Number
or Password when you originally did this. MSIE also has a bug with
the "Remember Password" feature which corrupts the form when sent
to the server. Un-check the box, enter the ID Number & Password with
care which will cure this problem.
3.Browser problem. Some relatively early versions of MS Explorer 5.0
(includes the AOL version) have a known bug with password encryption.
If you are certain that you are entering the password set exactly
as shown, download a new version of Explorer or AOL or use Netscape.
Download
new browser version here:
Netscape
MS
Explorer
Firefox
Safari
Opera
Knoqueror
Password
not Received
In an effort to combat spam, many ISP's, particularly the free ones
such as "hotmail" falsely identify emails as spam. In reality, they
may as well not bother as the spammers are generally two steps ahead
of them. Hotmail & others: Check your email reader settings. It may
be automatically deleting messages it identifies as spam which erroneously
includes email from the homelink.org server. Look for a directory
where deleted or trash mail is kept. The cure is to specifically enable
the homelink.org domain. AOL users: be sure that you are not blocking
email from the Internet. The absolute cure is to enable mail from
the domain "homelink.org."
Viewing
your listing as it will appear in the printed directory
Our office records are available to check on the Web-site. To view
your listing as it will appear in the directory, click on "Edit Book
Listing." This is the version of your listing that will appear in
the books and may be very different from the on-line version. Note
that there is a constraint of 180 characters in the description field
for the directories. The information in this database is the HomeLink
USA office records -- editing your contact information here will also
inform us of your new address, etc.
Renewing
your Membership
If you wish, you may renew your membership on line just click on "Renew
on Line" below the "US Functions" menu. You will find
information and instructions on the page. All data, including credit
card numbers, are encrypted before being sent across the Internet.
If you prefer to renew by phone, I'm in the office from 10AM until
1PM EASTERN TIME Monday through Thursday.
Supplements
to the main directory
Our standard procedure is to automatically mail books up through the
book a listing appears in. Later books are available free-of-charge,
on-request, to members who need them. The reason for this policy is
cost. If we mailed all books to all members, it would double the cost
of membership to you. This system holds down the membership cost while
making all listings available to those who need them. When you have
received Book 1, you may request Book 2 and so on.
Formatting
the text in your listing
Browsers ignore linefeeds and carriage returns, etc. so you have to
enter formatting instructions in html. Here are a few examples to get
you started:
To start a new paragraph, insert <p> where you want the paragraph
to begin.
****
The line above would appear as follows:
"To start a new paragraph, insert
where you want the paragraph to begin."
****
To start a new line, type <br>
To make text bold, type <b> to stop the bold text, type </b>
To make red text, type <font color="red"> to turn off the red,
type </font>
It's important that you "turn off" these text formats as any change
will be continued until you you tell it to stop.
Please resist the temptation to make your entire listing in bold,
red, underlined text.
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