There are two ways of keeping in touch with what is new in the web site data.

The first is to use the What's New link under the Info drop-down menu. What's New lists changed data in the past X number of days - it is currently set at 14. If you go to Reports (under the Info drop-down menu), you can view a report on changes in the last 30 days to People only.

You may sometimes be puzzled as to what has changed. Even a minor change like correcting a spelling mistake or new link will mean that an item has been changed and will therefore end up in this list or the RSS feed (see below). But at least you are alerted to change!

Note that the changes notified are confined to People and Media items.

The second way of keeping in touch with changes is to use the RSS feed facilities. See an explanation of RSS/XML feeds at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation site or Wikipedia. Increasingly browsers are capable of including RSS feeds in their favourites/ bookmarks, perhaps through an add-on such as Google Reader. But if your browser won't accept RSS "feeds", as they are called, there is software, some free, that does the job also. Go to RSS Info or xml.com for a list of software programs.

RSS feeds keep you informed of changes (or news in the case of many such feeds), checking their sources at regular intervals. When a new item is discovered your RSS feed shows you that there are new items and how many. R~RFL provides an RSS feed. Go to feed://royroyes.net/genealogy/tngrss.php. If your browser cannot open this it will probably ask you to open your RSS feeder - but you will know that it won't do the job for you! If your lucky, you can mark the feed in your browser as a favourite/ bookmark, and place it in your Bookmarks Bar (or whatever your software calls it). This then allows you to be informed of changes without having to open royroyes.net and check "What's New".

There are third party RSS readers that can be linked into your browser, like Google Reader. Firefox allows for this through its Add-ons link.

One advantage of the RSS feed is that itreplicates "What's New" but is not limited to a fixed number of items per category - it will keep you informed of changes to personal and family files, histories, articles, documents and photos.

Also note that a file is listed as changed even if a minor amendment such as a spelling correction has occurred.