that you should get familiar with first.
I am sharing the following instructions for new participants who may have doubts about how to use the family portal.
Keep in mind that our portal is an ongoing experiment and that its appearance and functionality—and therefore also how it is used—may change over time. I will be updating this page as needed.
Download the PDF version of these instructions here.
If you have any doubts, comments, reservations or suggestions about our portal, write to me using the CONTACT link in the footer of any page.
This version of instructions created:
30 August 2023 (Edition 15.0)
When you visit our portal for the first time or after prolonged absence, and/or after deleting "cookies", you will see the following prompt window:
If you are familiar with the Internet-specific concept of "cookies", you can decide whether to immediately click the SAVE & CLOSE button, which will give me permission to use only the essential cookies I need to run our portal. Or, you can select those optional cookies that you want to be used in addition to the essential ones – and then click the SAVE & CLOSE button.
However, if you do not know what it’s all about, click the PRIVACY POLICY link, which will lead you to the page, where the cookies are explained in detail. This will make it easier for you to make an important informed decision. I highly recommend reading the explanations on the PRIVACY POLICY.
After closing the above window, you will be ready to dive in through the PORTAL.
By the way, you can also get to the PRIVACY POLICY and PRIVACY & SECURITY NEWS pages at any time – from the top navigation menu.
There is a very good reason why PRIVACY pages are placed prominently in the main navigation menu of every page. Even though our rules of privacy may annoy some of you, they are here to protect you and me from hackers, data miners and unwanted visitors. I don’t want to get into details right here, because you can read all about that on the PRIVACY POLICY page.
BTW, while we are looking at the main navigational menu bar, here’s what we are seeing, from the left:
On the PRIVACY POLICY page, in the COOKIE MANAGEMENT chapter, you will see a table showing cookies used by our dlutek.com Family Portal. You will notice that some cookies are placed on the green background. Those can not be deleted, because they are essential to the functionality of this website. All others can be deleted.
Once they are deleted, you will again see the prompt shown in Image #1.
If, at first, you decide to allow only essential cookies to be used, you will find some pages that include red notices regarding hidden optional content, like in the Image #4. That content can only be viewed if you click the green button associated with each notice, giving me your consent to use specific optional cookies.
Once you click a green consent button, the page will reload with an optional content replacing the red notice.
Most internet users have no clue and I can not stress strongly enough how important it is for you to maintain vigilance against a myriad of threats waiting for you on internet (in both web browsing and email usage). Don't become a victim of ransomware, and all other kinds of malware. Educate yourself and keep up-to-date in order to modify your behavior to stay as safe and private as you can be.
For that purpose, I created this news page where you can read about all the latest threats. Remember: only you can make your "life on internet" a relatively reliable and pleasant experience.
By the way, this page loads much slower than other pages, so be patient, please.
The PORTAL section of dlutek.com website consists of 6 pages that you can access without log in. Any viewer can see them, because they are not holding any documents or personal data related to the family or to family members. However, they hold useful general information about this website.
These pages are accessible from the footer placed on the bottom of all those 6 pages belonging to the “No Login” PORTAL section.
By the way, at the very bottom of the footer (dark grey bar) there is information on copyrights, link for contacting me and date when the particular page has been last updated.
As you look at the main navigation bar, you’ll see some other items. Hover your cursor over the LOGIN field in the bar:
To be able to enter the FAMILY section, meant for people with an account, you must log-in first. If you try to use your "bookmarks" or direct addresses of pages inside the FAMILY section before logging in, you will be automatically directed to the LOGIN page.
In addition, please note that the DOCUMENTS, GENOGRAPHY and parts of FAMILY ALBUM subsections are only available to family members. Family friends and others do not have access to those pages even if they are logged in.
Hover over the main navigation bar and select LOGIN item, as shown in Image #6. A new window will open where you need to enter your login information:
If you want your name (or email) and password to be remembered, check the box next to the question "Remember me?". In this case, at subsequent sessions, Username and Password will be filled in automatically for you and you will only need to fill in the third field (letter-code). This saves a few seconds of your life, but also creates the possibility that unwanted people can log into your account without your knowledge or consent, if they have access to your computer. Therefore, I do not recommend using this feature.
In case you have problems with logging in, or have forgotten your Username or Password, click the link with the word “Forgotten?" situated next to the LOGIN button. After the window gets automatically refreshed, fill in your User Name and the letter-code and click “Forgotten?" again (this is important!).
After the page refreshes again, you will see confirmation saying that your new password has been sent to your registered email address. That address will be shown in the Username field at the top of the form.
After few moments, check your email, where you should find a message with the new password ready for use. Before you go ahead and use this new password, you must click the activation link in the message. Only then, you can login with the new password. If you wish, after logging in, go to the ACCOUNT UPDATE page and change the password to something you prefer (stronger version of a password is highly recommended). In any case, try not to forget what your password is. Better yet, use a password manager app, like 1 Password or similar.
After a successful logging-in, you will be automatically directed to the WHAT'S NEW? page, where you will find information about the latest changes in the portal. That is your starting point inside the FAMILY section.
Hover over the LOGIN area of the main navigational menu and select the LOGOUT item.
This will open the new page with the LOGOUT prompt:
At this point, you can decide to either immediately logout by clicking the link, or press the black button to continue your session. If you log out, the new window will open with the confirmation of your action:
Again, if you just logged out but now have a second thought, you can press the button to go back to the LOGIN page.
Usually, you can skip manual logging out, because this is done automatically when you close your browser, or after a prolonged inaction on a page. But, if you want to get logged out immediately, there is no harm in doing so manually.
Hover over the LOGIN menu area and select the ACCOUNT UPDATE menu item.
A window will open, where you can change the password of your account that will be used to log in to the FAMILY section. You can also change the subscription status of emails coming from the Family Portal. These emails inform about changes taking place on our website. Usually, there is no more than 12 emails a year, sometimes just a handful of them.
Select the ACCOUNT DELETE menu item from the main navigation bar.
A window will open, where you have a second chance to decide whether to delete, or go back and continue using your account.
Your name, username, email address and password will be immediately and permanently deleted after clicking the DELETE ACCOUNT button. At that time, a new window will open, saying that the account has been removed from our system and a final email confirming the deletion of the account will be sent to the address associated with your account.
As I mentioned before, after a successful LOGIN, you will be automatically directed to the WHAT’S NEW? blog page, where there are posts about “goings on” on the Family Portal. Formally, this page is a part of the PORTAL section, because you don’t need to be logged in to have access to it. This page serves as a “bridge” between the PORTAL and the FAMILY sections because it is also the first page including the inner navigation used inside the FAMILY section.
As you can see, blog posts in this subsection are only available in Polish language (as of now and possibly forever).
After logging in, you can use your "bookmarks" or internal navigation intended only for logged-in persons, to which you have access on each page in the FAMILY section. This is an additional navigation bar located directly below the main navigation bar at the top of the page, as shown in the above image.
You’ve already seen the main navigation menu bar and the inner navigation menu bar dedicated solely to the FAMILY section. But there are other navigational elements as well.
Let’s start with the most obvious ones.
Instead of scrolling a page, click the down-pointing arrow at the bottom of the window to send you directly to a portion of content that is hidden below the bottom edge of your browser (below-the-fold).
A general note on scrolling major and minor windows with a lot of content: in major windows, you can jump directly to the top when you click (or tap) the "Last update" part of a footer (shown in Image #5). In minor windows (chapters), you can use an up-arrow placed at the bottom of content.
In any case, this method of quick scrolling is most useful on tablets and especially on phones, where pages become much longer than on desktop monitors.
The image above shows navigation bars/buttons placed at the bottom of subsection chapters. These bars help you switch chapters quickly, without need for going back to the main page of a subsection.
When you click the inner navigation bar shown in Image #17, an inner menu window will open, where you can select any page belonging to the FAMILY section.
If you decide against leaving your most recent page, you can click the “X” in the upper right corner (or click ‘esc’ key on your keyboard) to close the menu window and stay where you were.
In subsections ALBUM, SNAPSHOTS and ABSTRACTIONS there are local auxiliary navigational elements for switching between galleries of photos and/or videos.
After clicking that auxiliary local navigation bar, a new window will open, where by hovering over individual thumbnail images, you will see the gallery’s number and name. If you click any of them, you will be transported to that gallery.
There is a special page in the FAMILY section where you can share your photos, short videos, documents and such with the rest of us. Simply drag your zipped files onto the target area of the window in your browser.
Please, note, that all of your files for upload must be zipped (compressed) and their names can only include legal (unaccented) characters. There are no spaces allowed in the names. If you need, you can replace any spaces with hyphens “-“. If these conditions are not met, your upload will fail.
Uploaded materials will be visible only to persons who are logged in to their accounts.
Another special page you may be automatically directed to in case some kind of error occurs, is the COMMUNIQUE page where you will see what the problem is.
One more special page in the FAMILY section is the ARCHIVE. This page is dedicated to a person(s) who will graciously agree to continue working on our Family Portal when I will no longer be able to. I think that future generations of our “clan” will appreciate that a lot.
In the ARCHIVE, I place all materials needed to replicate, develop and edit the existing website.
To be able to access that page, you will need to contact me and offer your service as a future custodian/developer of our Family Portal.