Common menu bar links
Help
Navigational Help
There are two ways to learn how to take full advantage of the features available on the Seniors Canada On-line Web site: an audio visual presentation and Text Help.
The audio visual presentation uses computer animation to show the most useful aspects of our site.
If you prefer to simply read about how to use Seniors Canada On-line, click on a help topic(s) from the list below. When you are finished reading about a help topic, click the Back button to return to the list of help topics.
You can click on the topic that interests you and go quickly to that page.
If you need help locating specific information and features available on our website, click on the Site Map button at the bottom of this page.
Description of Navigational Buttons
Government of Canada Navigation Bar (black, top of page)
Seniors Canada On-line Navigation Bar (blue, left-hand side of page)
Links at Bottom of Page
Finding Information
Search by Subject
My Province or Territory
Life Events
Search
Tips for More Exact Searches
Description of Navigational Buttons
Government of Canada Navigational Button Bar (black, top of page)
The black navigation bar at the top of the page (Government of Canada Navigational Button Bar) has been developed to give you a familiar starting point at all Government of Canada Web sites.
- Français
- You can switch between the two official languages at any time, anywhere on the site. You should be aware, however, that some information from external sites will be available only in the language in which it was provided.
- Contact Us
- Contact us if you have questions about navigation or programs and services, want to suggest a link or want to let us know what you think about our Web site.
- Help
- The Search page allows you to search all of our site.
- Search
- The Search page allows you to search all of our site.
- Canada Site
- This button will link you to Canada's primary Internet site where you will find information about other Government of Canada programs and services.
Seniors Canada Online Navigational Button Bar (blue, left-hand side of page)
- Increase Text Size / Decrease Text Siz
- Makes it possible to adjust the size of the display for easier reading.
- E Forms and Services
- List of forms you can download and print from your computer instead of having to pick up what you need at a government office. The list also includes any government services that may available electronically.
- Government Contacts
- Use the links on this page to find telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and in-person service centres.
- My Province or Territory
- Choose your province or territory from the map or from the list below it and your pages and searches will show your choice first.
- Life Events
- Life Events is designed to greatly reduce the time you would spend searching and assist you in retrieving the type of information you need.
- Search By Subject:
- All the links at Seniors Canada On-line have been categorized by subject. Select a subject to see the links in that category.
- Stay in Touch
- Our Stay in Touch feature will allow us to let you know that there has been a change in any of the categories that interest you. For example, if you select Housing as a category of interest and you give us your email address, we will let you know when we add new content to that category.
- How Do I
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This page provides information on how to:
- obtain a SIN card
- obtain a passport
- research my family history
- get special birthday or anniversary greetings from the Queen, the Prime Minister, a member of Parliament
- etc
Finding Information
We offer you more than one way to find information. Click on the desired link to any of the following sections:
We welcome any comments or suggestions regarding the search feature.
- Search by Subject
- A to Z Index
- My Province or Territory
- Life Events
- Search
- Tips for More Exact Searches
Search by Subject
From the left menu bar, click on the category of interest. Next will be a list of the categories available under that subject. Click on the category name for a list of the links we have under that category.
The "path" (also called breadcrumbs) through the subjects and categories you have selected remains at the top of the page. Clicking on one of them will return you to that page.
A to Z Index
All the links on our site have been categorized by subject(s). If you do not see the Subject of interest in the left menu bar you can use our A to Z Index feature to see the additional subjects.
Click on the letter that corresponds to the first letter of the subject you are searching. A new page is shown that lists the subjects available. Click on the one you want.
Using "My Province or Territory"
You can use the "My Province or Territory" feature to help sort your search results.
By selecting a Province or Territory, the search results will be displayed with your province/territory first, then the links for Canada and then the links for the other Provinces/Territories. This selection can be done either at the start of your search or after the search results have been displayed.
If you do not select a Province/Territory, the same links will be displayed but sorted in alphabetical order.
Life Events
Life Events is designed to greatly reduce the time you would spend searching and assist you in retrieving the type of information you need.
Select a Life Event. You will be asked to choose a Province or Territory if you have not already done this.
The first two questions determine your area of interest. Your answers to the other questions tells us the specific topics you want information on. When finished, click the Search Button.
The search results will be displayed with the province/territory you choose first, followed by the federal links. If the results are more than 25 links, click on the Previous or Next button to show more results. The system displays the results in group of 25 links at a time.
If you do not get any results, it may be because the system does not recognize the combination of search that you have selected. Go back to the Questions page and choose another combination.
Search
From the top menu bar, click on the word Search to get the Search Screen.
Enter the word or phrase to be searched in the "Search words or phrase" text box.
At the "Matching Items Should Have" drop down list you can widen or narrow your search by selecting one of the options--click on the arrow at the side of the box to see your choices.
At the "Matching items should be" drop down list you can select whether you want your search in one or both official languages--click on the arrow at the side of the box to see your choices.
At the "Geographic Locations" drop down list you can select one province or territory to target your search geographically. When finished, Click the Search Button.
If the search yields more than 25 items, they are grouped in multiples of 25. Click on the Previous or Next button to show more results.
Tips for More Exact Searches
- Lowercase and Uppercase--The Search feature is not case-sensitive. For example, a search for minister will yield Minister, MINISTER and MinIsTeR.
- Expand your Search--It is also possible to expand your search by typing just part of the word. The search then yields all words starting with the typed letters, regardless of how they end.
- Special Characters and Accents--If you search for a word without indicating accents, you will obtain all related words with or without accents. This can be very useful when looking for French words.
- What is a Word--When searching, think of a word as a combination of letters and numbers. The search service needs to know how to separate words and numbers to find exactly what you want on the Internet. You can separate words using spacing and tabs.
- What is a Phrase--You can link words and numbers together into phrases if you want specific words or numbers to appear together in your result pages. If you want to find an exact phrase, use "double quotation marks" around the phrase when you enter words in the search box.
Accessibility Help
Increasing Text Size
To increase the text size on our Web pages, you can change the settings in your Web browser. Just follow the instructions below based on the browser you are using or see your browser's help for details.
Internet Explorer
- Select "View" in the menu bar.
- Select "Text Size".
- Select "Larger" or "Largest".
Mozilla Firefox
- Select "View" in the menu bar.
- Select "Text Size".
- Select "Increase".
- To increase the text size further, continue selecting "Increase".
Opera
- Select "View" in the menu bar.
- Select "Zoom".
- From the menu, select the size with which you would like to view the Web site.
- To increase the text size further, increase the percentage.
Netscape
- Select "View" in the menu bar.
- Select "Text Size".
- From the menu, select the size with which you would like to view the Web site.
Client-side CSS for enhancing accessibility
The design of the Web pages on this Web site are flexible enough to allow you to configure the visual presentation to meet your accessibility needs by using a client-side Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file.
Most browsers provide the ability to specify a client-side CSS file, which would be applied to every Web page on this Web site that you visit. To take advantage of this feature, perform the following steps:
- How to create a client-side CSS file, and
- How to configure your browser to use the client-side CSS file
Alternative Formats and Plug-ins
Information throughout the Seniors Web site is provided in HTML as the primary format. In some cases, other software formats are provided as alternatives. To open these alternate formats, you may need to download and install one or more of the following on your computer:
Word Processing Software
- PDF - They may also be available as Portable Document Format. To view these files you will need a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. If the Adobe download site is not accessible to you, you can download Acrobat Reader from an accessible page. You can also visit the Adobe site for online conversion tools for PDF documents. Other options for free of charge PDF readers are Foxit Reader, Xpdf and eXPert PDF Reader.
- DOC - Some files are available in Microsoft Word or Rich Text formats. To view these files you will need Microsoft Word Reader.
- XLS - To read a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel format, you will need the Microsoft Excel Viewer.
- PPT - Presentations are available in Microsoft PowerPoint format. To view these files you will need PowerPoint Presentation Viewer.
Media Players (for viewing interactive content)
ZIP files
ZIP - Zip files compress data and therefore save time and space, and make downloading software faster. To open a Zip file , double click it in your browser and choose "Unzip or install from an existing Zip file" in the WinZip Wizard. If you do not have Zip software on your computer, you can download many free versions.
