User guide, helps, tips and info
(reading through this brief user guide may save a lot of time...)

HOME PAGE
Below is the Startup page that will be displayed when you reach us by visiting www.hornetrecords.com, www.hornet.hr/HRec.htm or when you arrive through a search engine. Some elements are briefly described below and if you want to go back to home page at any time just click on "Classical Records" at the top left corner. This will also reshuffle the showcase items and show a different category.
Click to open full size image The image on the left shows the Startup page (click to see full size). At the top you will find  the control area with buttons and links, while the lower part of the page will always display items, results of your search, lists etc. There are a few elements worth mentioning in more detail :

<SELECTION BOXES> The small icon hides 4 combo boxes with additional categories you can use to narrow your search. This will be explained further with the search process below.

<SEARCH STRING> The light colored square field to type in your search string. It can be anything related, such as part of name, label, release...

<SEARCH BUTTON> is what you click to search for the string you entered in the above field. If you don't enter anything in  the search field all results for selected criterias in the combo box will be displayed.

<SHOWCASE ITEMS RIBBON> Each time you reach our pages the system randomly selects one category and displays 9 cover pictures. The active category is emphasized while others are slightly faded. You can click on any icon to display showcase items for the underlying category.

HOW TO SEARCH
There are couple of ways you can find items of interest. One simple way is for example to click on the "Alphabetic" link which will display the alphabet and composers under each starting letter. This is of course nice and handy in some occasions but not ideal if you want to search by performer or when there are a few hundred titles for one composer. Also this will find a composer only if the full release is by one composer only or when the composer you search for is featured first on a specific release. A much more flexibile search option is to use the search field, where you can enter any string you like and the software will find items for you. This is explained further in the following section:
Click to open full size image The image on the left shows an example of one search and it's results. Of the 4 selection boxes the search has been limited to Melodiya releases only and the search string entered was "sha". This displayed all items that have this string as part of the related fields. Displayed are items by performer Shafran, Shakovskaya, conductor Barshai, composer Marshall..
Since results were not limited to any category the results are displayed in groups, each with a large header bar describing it. When items are displayed like that each category can be contracted or expanded by using the small arrows pointing up and down placed at the beginning of each category bar. With the results shown on the left Bach Sonatas, Partitas and Suites were contracted with use of this option. This is fully a client browser feature and does not "cost" any bandwidth or internet traffic. The search results page features two clickable options for each line. One is the item's full details page - click on the yellow text at the beginning of each line to go to the details page for the selected item. The link is usually the composer's or performer's name. The other clickable option is on the right of each line and allows adding specific items to your shopping cart. Items added to your shopping cart are kept there for you as long as you don't leave the pages.
HOW TO COMPLETE YOUR ORDER
Click to open full size image

Once you have placed all the items into your shopping cart and you have decided to check out, open your cart by clicking the yellow link "Cart", it will look something like on the picture to the left.

Double check if all items are listed and if not continue using the routines to find items and add missing titles. If there are items on the list that you decide you do not want, simply click on button "X" to the right of each line to remove it.

When everything you wish to order is on the list, click on "Order", marked with a red arrow. This will bring you to the final check-out screen displayed on the picture down left.

While you are at the check out screen, please fill in all required fields:

1. Your name and address details. Please complete it here, as it makes life easier to us when we have printed orders that include the shipping address.

2. Select the shipping region. This is to calculate S&H cost to your destination and to display the total amount for the order.

3. Click on "Complete Order Now". This will prepare your full order in the form of an email order, of which one will be sent to you and one to us. At that time no payment is processed, this is just a nicely structured order form which helps us to easily find items from the list. At that point you have done your part. It's up to us to continue from there, as described below.

ORDER CONFIRMATION, PAYMENT AND SHIPPING

When we receive your order we will first check if all the ordered items are available (99% of cases) and double check condition. We will then revert with an email message to you (usually the same day) and inform you regarding the status of your order and provide you with any extra info, remarks etc. At that point we will inform you about payment, which for this store is solely by PayPal. We can issue a PayPal request for payment, making it easier for you to process it, or simply confirm the amount to be paid to our PayPal account (for experienced PayPal users). We ship all our parcels from within the EU, this way making life easier for all our EU customers. We ship by airmail only, surface options proved very questionable since some parcels took 5-6 weeks, which is unacceptable. Depending on your location and the way parcels are handled at your customs office, it usually takes 3-5 days for parcels to arrive. Please note that we ship just once or twice per week. When your order is completed we will let you know about the timing of the next batch so you will know the date when your order gets mailed.

Hornet Records, September 2009