Help

The ecoACTION web site has been designed to provide you with different avenues to find information.

Finding Information

You can find information on the ecoACTION site by using the Government of Canada Search page, which allows you to look for information by keyword. For help with using this function, read the Help on Search tips.

Contact Us

As more details become available on ecoACTION initiatives, they will be added to this web site. You also can visit the Contact Us section to request more information.

Accessibility

In order to make this site more accessible, the ecoACTION Initiative has employed templates which:

• are XHTML 1.0 Strict conformant, to improve compatibility with adaptive technologies, handheld devices, browsers and search engines;
• have been successfully tested on a wide range of adaptive technologies and browser/platform combinations to ensure that Canadians can access Web pages regardless of the technology used;
• include major components, such as the common menu bar, side menu, and content area that are properly marked up with headings to simplify navigation with a screen reader;
• employ table-less layout and design to simplify screen reader navigation by reducing the structural complexity of Web pages;
• improve accessibility by allowing visitors to configure visual elements to meet their accessibility needs;
• use scaleable fonts and text-based navigational elements to improve accessibility and simplify navigation using adaptive technologies;
• provide printer-friendly functionality in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to render pages more compatible with printers and to prevent printing unnecessary page elements; and
• separate visual presentation from the document structure.

Alternative Formats and Plug-ins

Information on this site is in HTML as the primary format. In some cases, other software formats are provided as alternatives. To open these alternate formats, you may need to download and install one or more of the following on your computer:

Word Processing Software

• PDF - They may also be available as Portable Document Format. To view these files you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If the Adobe download site is not accessible to you, you can download Acrobat Reader from an accessible page. You can also visit the Adobe site for online conversion tools for PDF documents.
• DOC - Some files are available in Microsoft Word or Rich Text formats. To view these files you will need Microsoft Word Reader.

Media Players (for viewing interactive content)

• Flash
• Quicktime
• RealPlayer
• Windows Media Player

RSS Feeds

What is RSS?

Rich Site Summary (RSS), or Real Simple Syndication, is an XML–based format for content distribution in real time.

Choose Your News

This web site offers you numerous RSS news feeds. Each news item includes the headline or title, a summary of the news article and a link to the full text document found on the site.

Instructions on adding a news feed to your News Reader or aggregator

• Using your mouse right click on the XML orange graphic.
• In the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, select "Copy Shortcut." In Netscape and Firefox browsers, click on "Copy Link Location" from the pop-up menu that appears.
• Launch your news aggregator or news reader application and paste the news feed URL into an "add new feed" window. (Detailed instructions on how to add news feeds are included in the news reader application that you choose.)
• When news items are published by Natural Resources Canada, your news reader/aggregator will let you know through a small pop-up window or other alert device. If you close your news reader/aggregator, you will not be advised of updates until the next time you open it.
• If after reading a summary you want to view the full text, simply link to the full text document found on the Web site.
• Unlike e-mail subscriptions, you are not required to provide personal information or an e-mail address to benefit from receiving news from this site.

Why use RSS?

There are a number of benefits to using RSS, including:

• You select what news you want. RSS allows you to select the type of news and information you receive from Web sites.
• You determine when you get your news. Once you download your news reader, you can customize it to retrieve the news every five minutes, or every hour, depending on how you want it.
• Decrease spam. Because RSS requires you to download a news reader, you aren't subscribing to e-mail lists, which can increase your risk of getting unsolicited (spam) e-mail.

News aggregators / News readers

There are various RSS news aggregators / news readers available for free download or for purchase on the Internet, including the following:

• RSS Readers for Windows
• RSS Readers for Macintosh
• RSS Readers for Linux
• RSS Readers for Handhelds
• Browser Based RSS Newsreaders

More on RSS

For more details on RSS, try this useful FAQ or the RSS specification.