To browse through the Jewish Encyclopedia, click on a letter (or the # sign for numbers) in the blue bar, underneath the word BROWSE at the top of the page. Doing so causes the directory listing for that letter to be displayed. Underneath the blue bar at the top of the page will be the words "Directory Listing for" followed by the chosen letter. Directly beneath this line is a list of the partitions (the first subdivision) of the letter's directory, displayed five partitions at a time. The row beneath the partitions lists the pages in the partition (the second, and final, subdivision).

All articles that begin with the chosen letter are arranged alphabetically in the directory, and fall under one of the partitions. Finding an article in a partition is as simple as comparing the title of the article with the partitions in the directory listing, selecting the partition containing the article, and scrolling through the pages in the partition to the page displaying the article heading.

Clicking on an article's heading (in the directory, or as a search result) brings up the page for that article. The heading of the article is displayed directly below the blue menu bar atop the page. Beneath the heading are two links, the first linking to an image of the article as it originally appeared in the physical Jewish Encyclopedia; the second linking to a modified view of the article as it appears online, with extraneous links and menu features removed (designed to make print outs of the article easier to read).

At the end of each article, there is a section where the article may be rated, along with links to viewing the most popular articles in the encyclopedia (being those most often visited), the most recently visited articles, and the highest rated articles (among articles with five or more unique ratings).

At the right of each article is a menu listing four sections related to the article. Each article has its own Discussion Forum, where messages may be posted and replied to in relation to the article. There is a link to view all the related discussion topics, as well as a link for adding a new topic to the forum. Below the Discussion Forum is the Images section; this section contains links to view images associated with the article, including thumbnails (small versions) of up to three such images, if any exist. Below the Images section is the Related Links section. Here users can add links to other sites on the Internet that relate to the article subject. Up to three such links are displayed, as well as a link to add to the list, and a link to view the entire list of related links. The last section is the Related Articles section. Here one finds links to any articles in the encyclopedia cross-referenced by the current article.

JewishEncyclopedia.com allows for several methods of searching. Most searches can be done using the SEARCH text entry box and its associated parameters, found in the blue bar atop most pages. Here, searches on article contents, titles, and image captions can be performed.

In order to find all instances of a given search parameter, simply type the search criteria in the SEARCH entry box and click GO!. All articles with an associated title, content, image caption, or author will be returned, in order of their relevance to the search. Narrowing your search parameters is done through use of the radio buttons found underneath the SEARCH entry box. Here, one can choose to search only in article titles, image captions, or authors, by clicking the appropriate button before clicking GO!.

By default, a search on multiple words will find all articles where any of the words are present, giving highest precedence to those articles containing all or most of the search criteria. ....

For greater control over the parameters of a search, a Power Search may be performed. The Power Search link is found to the right of the SEARCH text entry box. A Power Search consists of three main areas of specification: the search terms, the limits, and the ranking factors.

With a Power Search, the search terms can be divided into two groups of keywords. Each group may be restricted to its own set of fields, unlike a regular search where all terms are uniformly restricted (to article titles, image captions, or authors) by use of the radio buttons. In addition, the two groups of keywords may be joined using one of three operators: AND, OR, and ANDNOT. An AND join produces results containing both groups of keywords, whereas an OR join retrieves articles that meet the criteria of either of the search terms, and an ANDNOT join returns only the results that contain the first search terms without the second.

Limits may also be imposed upon a Power Search, in terms of both the type and amount of results produced. Checkboxes are available for limiting the results to articles that include images, music, or a family tree. The number of articles returned may also be limited to between ten (10) and one hundred (100), in intervals of ten. The size of each results page may likewise be set in increments of ten.

Three main factors are used in determining the priority given to an article in the search results; Word Ordering, Word Proximity, and Frequency. Each of these factors can be given a weighting from Off (not important) to Max (most important). Emphasising Word Ordering places importance on the order of the words as they appear in the article (or caption, etc.). Articles with words appearing in the order that they were listed in the search terms will place higher in the results. Giving Word Proximity a greater importance will cause articles with the keywords placed near each other to rank higher in the search results. Increasing the importance of the Frequency will cause articles that have the keywords often repeated to be more highly rated.

Each time an article is accessed by a visitor to JewishEncyclopedia.com, a number rating the article's popularity is incremented and used to rank the article in the Most Popular list. A link to the list of the 100 Most Popular articles, and links to the top three articles in the list, can be found on the right hand side of the JewishEncyclopedia.com Home Page, as well as any page in the directory (see Browsing the Directory), and in the Most Popular, Recently Visited, and Highest Rated list pages themselves. Each article also has smaller links to the Most Popular, Recently Visited, and Highest Rated articles lists at the end of the article (below the form for rating the article).

Each time an article is accessed by a visitor to JewishEncyclopedia.com, that article is placed at the top of the Recently Visited articles list. A link to the list of the 100 Most Recently Visited articles, and links to the top three articles in the list, can be found on the right hand side of the JewishEncyclopedia.com Home Page, as well as any page in the directory (see Browsing the Directory), and in the Most Popular, Recently Visited, and Highest Rated list pages themselves. Each article also has smaller links to the Most Popular, Recently Visited, and Highest Rated articles lists at the end of the article (below the form for rating the article).

Each time an article receives a rating (see Viewing Articles), its overall rating is calculated and used to determine its position (if any) among the Highest Rated articles. A link to the list of the 100 Highest Rated articles, and links to the top three articles in the list, can be found on the right hand side of the JewishEncyclopedia.com Home Page, as well as any page in the directory (see Browsing the Directory), and in the Most Popular, Recently Visited, and Highest Rated list pages themselves. Each article also has smaller links to the Most Popular, Recently Visited, and Highest Rated articles lists at the end of the article (below the form for rating the article).

When viewing an article, the Discussion Forum for that particluar article is accessible from the menu on the right side of the page. This menu section includes a statement showing the number of current discussion topics in the forum, as well as a link to add a new topic to the forum. If any posts to this article's forum already exist, a link to view the discussion board is also available.

Before any topics have been posted to an article's discussion forum, the Discussion Forum page for that article is not available. Adding the first topic to an article's forum is done via the article's page itself (by clicking on the 'add' link under 'Discussion Forum'). After the initial discussion topic has been created, adding a topic to the forum may be done from either the article's page itself (as above), or from the pages of the Forum, by clicking on the "new topic" button.

Once the first topic has been posted to an article's discussion forum, the Discussion Forum page becomes available. This page is found by clicking on the 'click to view more' link in the menu on the right of the article page. In the Discussion Forum, all of the topics relating to the article are listed in order of their posting. Clicking on the name of a Topic displays that topic's initial post and all replies to that topic. From this page (the View Post page), other posts under the topic may be viewed by clicking on the name of the reply. Replies to a post and searches in the Discussion Forum (see Searching in Discussion Forums) may also be made here.

Searches within a particular discussion forum are made differently from general searches in the encyclopedia. To search for a word or words among the posts in a discussion forum, click the 'search' button from either the Discussion Forum page, or one of the View Post pages in the forum (see Using the Discussion Forums).

In the Discussion Forum Search page there are two main criteria for searching. The first is the text being used to search, and the second is the date range of posts to be included in the search. The search text may be composed of multiple words; in this case, the options found below the text entry box are useful. Here one may choose to search for posts containing all of the search words, any one of the search words, or the entire phrase exactly as entered in the text box. Below these options, a date range for posts to be included in the search may be selected. By default, posts made anytime will be included in the search; other options include limiting the search to those posts made this month, last month, this week, or last week. Or the user may input a specific date range by clicking the radio button on the bottom and filling in the From and To dates.

Many of the articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia have images associated with them. In order to view these images, two methods may be used. Using the encyclopedia's main Search feature (see Searching the Encyclopedia), one may type in key words relating to the image. Those words which are contained in the image's associated caption are the most likely to return the desired image among the results. The other method of viewing an image is to first view the article with which the image is associated. This method may be the most reliable if the image's exact caption is not know. When viewing an article, all of the associated images (if any exist) can be found by clicking on the 'more()' link under the heading 'Images' on the right of the page. This leads to a page with thumbnails (smaller versions) of each of the associated articles. Clicking on a thumbnail will display the full-sized image.

As visitors to JewishEncyclopedia.com view the articles, they may wish to add a related link (leading to another site on the Internet) to an article. Any related links that visitors to JewishEncyclopedia.com have added to an article can be found by clicking the 'more()' link in the article's page, under the heading 'Related Links' to the right of the article. To add a relevant link to an article, click the 'add' link under the same heading. This leads to the Add Related Links page for the given article. Here, visitors may input a title for the link (e.g. the name of the site which is being linked to), the URL for the site (e.g. www.jewishencyclopedia.com), and a brief description of the site. Submitting a link adds it to the Related Links page for that article only.

When attempting to follow a link from the Related Links page, it is possible that the link is 'broken' (no longer links to the correct page, or returns an error). Visitors are encouraged to report any such broken links by checking the box next to the broken link and clicking the 'REPORT DEAD LINK(S)' button.

Certain articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia contain cross-referrences (in fact, several contain only cross-references). Up to three cross-referrences are found in the article's page, listed to the right of the article itself, under the heading 'Related Articles'. A complete list may be found by clicking on the 'more()' link under the 'Related Articles' heading.