The screen is divided into four areas, and each has a special job:

• Title bar - tells you what your're looking at.
• Menus - use them to control the website
• Sidebar - stores bookmarks to your favourite things.
• Content - where information is displayed

Let's look at each in a bit more detail.

Areyoulocal.co.uk lets you explore local places, groups and businesses. The title bar tells you what you're exploring. Look here first to work out where you are!

So, if you're exploring a place - such as your street - the title bar will display the street's name. If you're exploring a group, the title bar will display the group's name. And if you're checking out a local business, the title bar will display the business's name.

Use the menus at the top of the screen to explore the place, group or business displayed in the title bar.

The following menus are always available:

• Articles
• Forums
• Events

That's because every place, group, and business has articles and newsletters, a forum, and an events calendar.

Some menus only appear when exploring places. The same goes for groups and businesses.

When exploring a group or business, think of it as exploring a website dedicated to that group or business.

You can leave that dedicated website either by clicking on one of your favourite places in the sidebar, or by clicking the special menu heading, which takes you back to the last place you explored.

Each menu has a heading and a set of menu options, but only one menu's options are visible by default. This is the current menu.

There are two ways: the first is slightly easier, but the second is slightly quicker!

First, select the menu you want by clicking on its heading, then click on one of the options that appear below.

First try this: move your mouse pointer over any menu heading, but don't click... See how the options for that menu appear? If you move the pointer elsewhere, then the current menu's options reappear.

So, to choose an item from any menu, simply move the mouse pointer over a menu heading, then click on one of the options that appears. Easy!

The sidebar has three uses. It:

• shows who's logged in
• contains the help button
• stores clickable bookmarks to your favourite things on Areyoulocal.co.uk

Just about everything that you're interested in locally, including:

• your favourite local places (e.g. your street and nearest neighbourhoods)
• the local groups you joined or are interested in
• local events you're organising or thinking of attending
• market items you're selling or interested in buying
• your favourite weblogs (online diaries) written by people near you

There are many other things that can be bookmarked. Click here to find out more, and to learn how to manage your bookmarks.

The centre of the screen displays the information you requested with the menus.

E.g. a newsletter, an article, a page from a discussion forum, or perhaps the details of a CD on sale in the market.