Changes at the New PCWorld.com

We're making steady progress on fixing the problems that you have noticed.

Over the past couple of weeks, we've received a tremendous amount of feedback from readers about our new site. It has been wonderful to hear from so many people because your response shows that you care about what we're doing. The favorable comments are gratifying, but the critiques have been especially valuable, because they help focus our attention on problems that need to be addressed.

I oversee editorial production for PCWorld.com, and I feel personally responsible for the smooth functioning of the site--so I am especially motivated to address the issues that many of you have pointed out, and I want to give you an update on our progress.

Instant alerts. Now you can be notified every time PCWorld.com publishes content on a subject of interest to you. Just use the box we've placed on the lower left side of every page to store your own keywords or phrases, and we'll send you an e-mail message whenever new content is available on your topic.

Better links and faster pages. We're pleased to report that pages are loading much faster and with fewer errors than during the new site's first two weeks.

Bookmarks and links from newsletters. If you access a page via a URL from the old PCWorld.com, you should now be automatically redirected to the revamped page on the new site. The utility that makes that switch was not working reliably immediately after our launch, but we believe that it now does. If you continue to experience "page not found" errors when using the old-style URLs, we would appreciate knowing the URL you were trying to reach. This will help us track down lingering problems.

Improved search results. We designed some powerful new capabilities into our search function, but it hasn't performed reliably over the past week or so. Fortunately, the search results are improving noticeably as our programmers continue to fine-tune the search engine. With these new tools--which allow you to filter your search by site section and date, as well as to search within your results--you'll be able to find the information you need more quickly than ever before.

Printer-friendly version. It's a pleasure to report that this irritating bug has been squashed. When you click "Printer Friendly Version," you now get all the pages of a multipage story to print, not just a single page.

Small type size. The new site uses style sheets to control the appearance of text, and they override the browser's choice of type size. A number of visitors--particularly those with high-resolution monitors or poorer eyesight--have complained that the type is occasionally too small. We expect to have a fix for this problem in about a week. In the meantime, here are simple workarounds you can apply in your browser:

• In Microsoft's Internet Explorer, start from the Tools menu and select Internet Options. Under the General tab, click Accessibility and check the box labeled "Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages." Then click OK and OK again to close the dialog boxes. Thereafter, you can bump the type size up or down by choosing the View menu, and then selecting Text Size and the size you prefer.
• In Netscape Navigator, under the Edit menu, select Preferences, then Advanced. Uncheck the box labeled "Enable style sheets." That will allow you to control type size by using the View pull-down menu and the Increase Font or Decrease Font options.

Magazine current issue. A number of people have had trouble finding the link to current and past issues of PC World magazine. It hasn't gone away, but it is in a new spot, just below the magazine subscription links in the right column of every page (here's the exact address: www.pcworld.com/resource/toc/index.asp). We will move the magazine issue to a more prominent spot.

Our message boards are waiting in the wings, and when they are ready for prime time we can continue this discussion in a more immediate, interactive way. Watch this spot for more details on our Feedback feature.

Thank you again for your patience as we sort through the problems. Our aim remains to deliver the best possible version of PC World online, and we intend to do that as speedily as possible. Feel free to send bug reports and suggestions to our Webmaster, to me, or to our editorial director.

Rebecca Freed, Managing Editor, PCWorld.com