The nuances of www.letoursutton.com

The last sentence of the editorial entitled “Turning the page” in the last issue worried a number ofreaders. “We must hope that the paper will evolve with continued resilience [...] ”, referred to the imminent publication of the paper on Internet and did not indicate a disturbance of the printed Le Tour...

The Internet version constitutes an archive of articles published in previous issues (currently, the six most recent ones). Since the original articles are usually published in one language only, the content in either language is different on the site. For example, there is no article under the heading Health while there are eleven under Santé. So, the bilingual reader is invited to browse through both volumes.

Navigation is performed through the use of subject menus and simple HTML pages open quickly. This makes finding articles about different subjects far easier on-line but more difficult to locate a particular article of the printed version especially if one doesn’t remember the title, the issue or the author.

Since space isn’t a restriction, many more photos are shown and most are now in colour. E-mail and web site addresses used as references in articles become active hyperlinks that allow the reader to immediately obtain in-depth information about the subject. Since the media is flexible, rectifications and updates are made as needed. Eventually, video-clips will accompany certain articles and local products and specialties will be suggested for purchase.

The site suggests two weather sites whose forecasts are more accurate for the region. It also offers two calendars. The weekly calendar presents activities in detail and includes hyperlinks for additional information. The annual calendar on Yahoo covers a larger area and is more voluminous than the quarterly

calendar of the printed version. It also has a search engine that facilitates finding specific activities throughout the year. Readers will find it very useful to plan outings or to plan a more interesting future visit, if they live outside the area.

The site remains under construction and fine-tuning will be on-going. Add it to your Favourites andconsult it regularly. Finally, don’t hesitate to send in your comments - they will help to improve the site.

The www.letoursutton.com becomes a supplement to the printed Le Tour since it comprises updates, news briefs, events, special offers, dynamism and much more.

Happy reading and browsing!