A trail is a (partially) sequenced collection of digital objects, such as webpages. A trail can be a straight sequence of pages or contain branches and other interesting features that allow you to construct more complex patterns and stories, such as organizing a tutorial into two branches for "beginner" and "advanced" material.

Trails created on trailmeme.com are called overlay trails, since they are hosted on trailmeme.com but overlay other sites (either through a browser frame or through a browser toolbar). Trails created on plugins are called organic trails, since they are part of the site they are on. Organic trails can be uploaded to trailmeme.com and function as overlay trails as well. This feature is currently being tested and is not open to all users of plugins.

The site works best in Firefox and Chrome. Safari and Opera should also work reasonably well. Internet Explorer users will see a different Flash-based map viewer and editor, and there are known issues with how IE displays the walk page.

If you are using one of the browsers known to work with the technology and are still having issues, caching may be the issue. Try logging off, shutting down the browser and logging in again and try whatever you were trying again. If it still doesn’t work, post a message in the Forum with as much detail as you have (including browser and version number, and cut and paste of any error messages you see).

Trails can be walked on trailmeme.com by clicking "walk" in any index listing of trails. You walk a trail by using a framed reading interface that provides you with signs similar to highway driving signs, as well as a Trail Map interface that gives you a map-like view of the entire trail (you can get there by clicking on the View Map button, wherever you see it). You can switch back and forth and keep track of where you are.

Certain sites use "frame-breaking" technology, and if trail owners add such pages to their trails, you will see this effect when you visit that page. We are figuring out good ways to handle this. This does not affect toolbar users. Major sites that do this include the New York Times, Twitter and Flickr.

Work-around: If you are trying to blaze a trail through such pages, we suggest reblogging a summary of the page using a simple service such as Posterous and blazing that page instead of the original page.

1. Download and install the toolbar from the toolbar page
2. Log in
3. Your trails and your tracked trails should appear in the drop-down marked 'Trails'
4. Select any of them. Left and right arrow walking controls will appear on the toolbar.
5. You can use the View Map button to toggle a sidebar map open and closed

All browsers EXCEPT Internet Explorer

1. You can double-click to view any item, or just hover to view the meta-data in a bubble.
2. You can right-click to walk a page in a different tab/window.
3. You can use the zoom-in, zoom-out and fit-to-screen buttons to adjust the view.
4. You can grab the canvas and drag it around to pan, OR you can use the pan buttons near the edges.
5. You can right click anywhere in the canvas to export the trail as an image.

(Firefox toolbar users: your sidebar map works in exactly the same way as above, except that it is smaller).

Internet Explorer Users

1. You can double-click to view any item.
2. Single clicking an item displays its meta-data in the boxes below for viewing/editing (we'll improve this shortly so you can see metadata by hovering above a node).
3. You can use the zoom and fit-to-screen buttons (which look like +/- magnifying glasses and a box with a cross in it respectively) to adjust the view.
4. You can hold down the letter H to turn the cursor into a hand so you can drag the canvas around. Alternately, you can click the hand tool button.
5. You can use the scroll bars to pan.

Shaded pages on the map are pages you have visited in the current browser session. The darkest page is the one most recently visited (usually. If you visit a page multiple times in the same session, the system will remember only the first visit). This data is not associated with your user account, meaning that when you close the browser or log out, the shading will disappear, to begin again the next time you walk a trail. Trailmeme stores the data forever but cannot associate it with a specific user except during the same browser session. The green marker is the marker you are on.

There are two methods.

Quick Create: while logged in, simply enter a trail name in the little box on the home page, hit go, add some URLs and names in the form that appears, and hit Publish. You're done! We'll be improving this feature so simple trails can be created even more quickly.

Advanced Create:

1. First collect some markers. We strongly recommend using the bookmarklet (any browser) or toolbar (Firefox)
2. AND/OR: You can also add markers manually via a button on the Advanced Create & Edit Page.
3. Now, on the Advanced Create & Edit page under "Blaze," enter a new trail name and hit submit.
4. Use the controls to move markers from the left column to the right.
5. Go to the trail map using the button in step 3.
6. Your markers will appear in the upper right corner (except on IE).
7. Drag and arrange them as you like. Use the arrow drawing controls to draw arrows.
8. Right-click the markers to add metadata.
9. Hit 'Publish' when you are done, if you'd like to share with others.

Create Your Trail

1. Either select an existing trail or start a new trail by clicking the appropriate radio button. If you selected an existing trail, click Submit to get started. If you selected a new trail, enter the name and then click Submit to get started.
2. Select the web pages you want to add to your trail from the list, using the checkboxes on the left side of the list. Then click the Add button.
3. When you've finished, click the Edit Trail button at the bottom right of the page.
4. Arrange your markers in the Trail Map in a meaningful way. You can add relationship arrows to connect them.
5. Click the Save Changes button to retain your desired trail structure.
6. Add meta-data such as "Tagline," "Description" and "Tags" to enhance the trail experience.
7. Click the Save Changes button after adding data for each node.
8. Check to make sure your desired bookmarks were added to your list.
9. Click the make public link for that trail when you’re ready to go live. Your trail will only be visible to you until you click this link.

You can add more markers simply by collecting them as usual, and going to the Advanced Create & Edit page and adding them to a trail (or you can directly add them via the bookmarklet to a specific trail). You can then go to the trail and position and connect the new markers to existing parts of your trail.

You can also rearrange and add/delete relationship arrows at any time.

There are two ways to delete a trail. A word of caution before you do, though: There is no way to get a trail back after it has been deleted, so be absolutely sure you want it gone. If you're sure, the two ways are:

• Click the "delete" link under the more menu on the edit map page. (You can get to the edit map by clicking the trail title in any list. "My Trails" is a list of all your trails). Click "okay" on the confirmation dialog that comes up after you click the link.
• Click the "delete" link that shows next to your user name in any trail listing of one of your trails. Click "okay" on the confirmation dialog that comes up after you click the link.

(In case you are wondering, no one but you can see the delete links).

Currently print is not supported on trailmeme.com. We are working on it. On blogs that use the Trailmeme for Wordpress plugin you can print trails by clicking the print icon, which shows up on the trails index, every trail map, and on the sidebar navigation widget. This will pop up a PDF in a new tab or browser window, depending on your browser.

Use the Share/Save button on every Map and Walk page to share or save to your favorite services.