The most common way to use SuperDisc (any version) is to double click the Master Subject Index, wait till it fully loads (time is dependent on your computer's processing power and memory), then scroll down to the subject you are interested in and click on the post number. This action will take you to the chosen post. When through reading this post and any related attachments or links, hit your browser's back button and you will return to the index. If you wait for a moment, you will return to the same spot in the index you started from. Now you can scroll down or up to the next post you are interested in. To keep SuperDisc simple & easy to use, it is not a full blown database. It's all done in Microsoft Excel and FrontPage so that anyone with a computer and web browser can use easily without the learning curve of databases. As such, you may find information in the index listed in a number of alphabetically listed places. A quick scroll through the 19,000 + posts will give you an idea as to how posts are described. Many are Commander model specific, and you will see many, many posts concerning specific models. Engine models also have many posts per model. Most of the mentioned model specific posts are described by a number such as 38 Commander or 327, etc. By virtue of alphabetical listing, these are concentrated in the first part of the Master Subject Index. After the numerical headed posts come the more specific subject posts such as batteries, refinishing, teak treatments, oils, etc, etc.
To get an idea of the sheer magnitude on information in SuperDisc, I suggest a fast downward scroll through the whole 19,000+ posts. I just tried this using a mouse scroll wheel and it took about 13 minutes to scroll through every post. Of course you are going pretty fast, but this does give you an overview of total content. The Master Subject Index is clearly the most utilized method to find the information you want to view in SuperDisc.
Now, let's consider the Master Author Index. If you have a favorite poster (Dahlen, DiSesa, Miller, Gajcak, Quentin, etc, etc) and you would like to see what a particular post author has to say on a given subject, the Master Author Index is the place to start. Again, it's arranged alphabetically by the authors name, then in the order in which the author posted, with the earliest ones first.
The Master Post Index is as described, listed by post number, starting with #1 by Rob Cutchins way back in 2000, all the way to #53009 by jeremy Goldstein at the end of 2018.
OK, now for a fun way of passing some spare time (Who has spare time) :-) ---- You may have noticed that each year has its own folder. Open one of these folders and again you'll see the three Indexes, only these are not Master Indexes. They cover just the given year in the folder name. These 'year' folders also contain a folder called 'attachments'. These are the attachments that came with some of the posts for that year. They are mostly JPG pictures, along with some PDF files. Remember the old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words"? Well we're going to look at some pictures and then find out what was posted about them. Let's double click on the 2013 file to open it. Now double click on the attachments file to open it. Most modern browsers will let you enlarge the photo icons you now see in this folder. In Chrome, I select 'Extra Large Icons" and now I can see detail pretty good on each attachment icon. Now I'm just going to scroll down till I see one that piques my curiosity. The first one that catches my eye in 2013 Attachments is #46180A. The 'A' merely indicates there is more than 1 attachment with post # 46180. If I double click on this icon, my picture viewer launches the full size picture and I see it's about something electrical. I'm now going to close my full size picture and I now return to the icon view. I'm going to jot down the post number on a scratch pad and continue looking for interesting icons. I quickly find the following attachments that interest me and I copy down the following post numbers: 46180, 46458, 46469, 46511, & 46516. Now we hit the browsers back button & return to the opened 2013 folder where we see all the indexes. We double click on the Post Index, which now opens. Scroll down to our first number, 46180 and double click on the post number. Voila! Almost immediately we go to that post and see that it was a radio equipment question posted by Brian Barton and answered by Scott Anderson. After reading the post and seeing all 3 attachments to this message we hit the browser back button and we are back at the Post Index where we now scroll down to our next post of interest, 46459. double click and see the post which is about docking lights. Again we hit the back button and scroll down to our next post of interest, 46469, which turns out to be a PDF file of a Spring Fitting Out Safety Checklist.
Well, by now you should see the endless possibilities of surfing through the attachment folders in the individual year folders! Happy surfing, and don't blame me if you get hooked on this method of exploring the plethora of Commander Info in SuperDisc !
