3 September 2000

Dear Diary:

Had an absolutely horrible time trying to read the online version of my psychology textbook. Kept jumping from the main text to the footnotes and endnotes, from the references to other websites, etc...felt like a kangaroo! All that jazz about active reading is really overrated...nothing beats a straightforward approach. That's not to say that I'm a lazy reader, of course - but the writer should at least make it easy to get back to where you came from. In the case of the online textbook, instead of opening a new window, all the links used the original (so I had to keep clicking on the Back button; especially frustrating when the link was totally useless), and I kept returning to the textbook's main menu. Then I had to get back to the article, which in itself was a hassle! I'll be glad when they shoot the web editor...