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Street Atlas USA


To use Street Atlas USA:

Click on the Street Atlas USA alias on your desktop and wait. Street Atlas USA takes a minute or two to come up -- there's a lot of detailed information the computer is reading so try to be patient! (See note at bottom of page if you don't have the Street Atlas USA alias on your desktop.)

To search for a street:

Street Atlas USA always starts you off at the full view of the US. You can't do a street search at this point because there would be millions of Main Streets! So, to find a street, you must first narrow your search by using one of three methods:

    PHONE - This is the first icon in your control panel. Click on it and type in the area code and the first three digits of a phone number - ex. 919-829. Then click on SEARCH. Once it's found the correct exchange, click on LOCATE and it will bring you to the place where that exchange is based.

    ZIP - This is the second icon in your control panel. Click on it and type in the zip code. Then click on SEARCH. Choose the correct zip code in the window and then click on LOCATE. It will not show you where that zip code is exactly but will show you the city.

    PLACE - This is the third icon in your control panel. Click on it, then type in the name of the city you want, and then click on SEARCH. For example, if you type in Raleigh, you must choose whether you want the Raleigh in Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, or North Carolina. Once you choose the correct city by clicking on it, click on LOCATE.

At this point, you can either zoom in by using the IN arrow in your control panel (the yellow arrow pointing to the earth) or you can search for a particular street. To search by street, click on the STREET icon (directly underneath the Phone icon). When the window comes up, type in the street name (without the Drive, Avenue, Court, or Street identifier) and click on search. Choose the correct street and click on LOCATE. The map will be redrawn with the street highlighted. You may then zoom in or zoom out to get a better view.

You may also narrow your search by block. If you know the address is 215 S. McDowell St., you can click on block in the street search window and type in the address number you want it to find. The map will highlight only that block of the street.

If you're searching for many streets during one session, all the streets you locate will stay highlighted. If you want to make highlighted streets go away, click on the ERASE button in the control panel.

To browse around on a map:

To move around on the map you can do one of two things:

    You can click on any place on the map and the spot where you clicked will be redrawn in the center of the screen.
    You can click on any of the nine squares that make up the compass on the control panel and the map will be shifted and redrawn.

To print a map:

Zoom in or out to get the map to the magnification you want, then click on the PRINT button in the control panel.

To quit:

Click on the word File in the upper left corner of your screen then click on Quit. Then drag the Street Atlas USA server icon to the trashcan. (The Street Atlast USA server icon looks like a tray with files on it and is labeled streetusa.)

Notes:

If you can't access Street Atlas USA, it may be that the computer it's running on has locked up. Come back to News Research (or call) and check to see if the public Mac is locked up. The public Mac is one closest to the CD rack. Don't reboot if it's just taking a long time - you may throw someone else off. But if it's really locked up, reboot that Mac and everything should work fine.

Street Atlas USA can be a very useful tool for locating a street and neighboring streets. We have found some minor problems with it, but overall it suits our needs. It can be an extremely useful resource, but should not be used to the exclusion of the printed maps, atlases, and other resources available to you in News Research.

If you need more help with learning to use all the capabilities of Street Atlas USA, please contact anyone in the News Research Department.

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If you do not have the Street Atlas USA alias on your desktop, follow these instructions:

1. Double-click on the QPS icon.

2. Scroll down to the ~News Research folder and double-click on it.

3. The second item is the Street Atlas USA alias - DO NOT double-click on it. Click on it once and drag it to your desktop.


Prepared by the News Research Department of The News & Observer 2/96