This is a brief description of how to use coalportal®.com services. Additional help specific to the area of coalportal®.com that you are using is available by pressing the help button present on most pages.
Entering your username and password.
Throughout coalportal®.com, you will either see a full data set if you have a subscription and have logged in (entered your username and password) or otherwise a subset of sample data. To get a subscription, click on subscribe. To login, enter your username and password above the blue login button near the top left hand side of the screen. Then press login.
The coalportal®.com Home Page
When you first reach coalportal®.com, you will see the coalportal®.com home page. On the home page, you will see the latest Coal News and a chart of key indices published by Energy Publishing.
The Top Menu
At the top right hand section of the screen is a menu with options for About Us (information about Coalportal), Subscribe (to buy subscriptions), Shop (to buy other Coalportal and Energy Publishing products), Contact Us, and Help. Above these menu options is a search box. Entering search terms in this box will open the site wide search, which will find information related to the search term throughout coalportal®.com.
The Left Menu
The majority of options for coalportal®.com are in the Left Menu, which contains: What is Coalportal, Daily News, Newsletters, and Prices and Indices. This menu if located below the username and password boxes on the left hand side of the screen.
Daily News
Daily News contains a list of articles beginning with current news articles and going back several years. The list is searchable by keyword.
Newsletters
coalportal®.com provides newsletters including Energy Publishing's Australian Coal Report, Coalfax, China Coal Report, Indonesian Coal and Power, the South African Coal Report, From the Coal Face, The Salva Report and more.
Newsletter access is via subscription. From this menu, all users can see what publications and reports are available and a description of each, while subscribers can actually read issues of the publications and reports and search for keywords in them.
System Requirements For the best results viewing coalportal®.com, we recommend one of the web browsers we have tested with: On Windows PCs, either Internet Explorer 6 and above or Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and above. On Linux, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and above, and on Apple Macintosh computers, use OS X 10.3 and above and the built-in Safari web browser.
Macromedia Flash needs to be installed for some graphs to display, and can be downloaded from this link if you do not already have it. Also, some graphs of Coal Indices require that popup windows be enabled for Coalportal.com. This should be done in your web browser, and also in your firewall software if needed. If you need further help on this issue, please contact us.
Prices and Indices
This area of coalportal®.com provides information about Contract Prices, Prices and Indices.
To view this information, first click the Prices and Indices option on the left-side-of-screen menu. The menu will expand to have items for all of the above information. Click on any item to see a page with the relevant data. Each page also has its separate help, accessible through a green help button.
Tools and Links
The tools and links section includes a link to the Australian Coal Association, Coal calculator, foreign exchange rates (via a third party web site), and a Glossary.
Also, there is a directory of Coal Industry conferences and events. This is a are useful tool for staying in touch with your industry.
Viewing Coalportal Graphs
For the best results viewing coalportal®.com, we recommend one of the web browsers we have tested with: On Windows PCs, either Internet Explorer 7 and above or Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and above. On Linux, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and above, and on Apple Macintosh computers, use OS X 10.3 and above and the built-in Safari web browser.
Macromedia Flash needs to be installed for some graphs to display, and can be downloaded from this link if you do not already have it. Also, some graphs of Coal Indices require that popup windows be enabled for Coalportal.com. This should be done in your web browser, and also in your firewall software if needed. If you need further help on this issue, please contact us.
Printing from Coalportal
Quite a few pages with wide tables look better if printed in landscape mode. Another alternative, if you have a suitable printer, is to print these wide pages on A3 sized paper.
Also, Internet Explorer 6 or earlier versions are not recommended if you need to print from Coalportal.
Logins and Sessions
For consistency in some areas of coalportal®.com, users may see a snapshot of information as it was when they logged into the web site. To see the latest information, it may be worth logging out (press Logout on the left menu), and logging back in again (enter your username and password and press Login).
Caching Issues
Some companies and Internet providers, and some web browsers with certain settings will make copies of web sites as they are viewed and show you their local copy to save of data transfer charges. This may present issues with getting the latest information on Coalportal. If you have this problem, you may need to do a "hard refresh", either by pressing CTRL-F5 on Internet Explorer on a Windows computer, or by closing and reopening your web browser.
You may also try going to the browser and clicking Tools/Internet Options/Delete Files and then click "Delete" to delete all files in the temporary Internet folder. If you are still seeing out of date data after that, you will need to contact your Internet Provider to ask them to put an "exclusion in their proxy server" for www.coalportal.com
Frequently asked questions about services on coalportal.
1. How do we authenticate subscribers and allow access to our online services?
Each subscriber receives an initial temporary username and password, which is then changed upon first login. Once the user has changed his/her password according to the minimum requirement, the password is encrypted.
2. Is the user required to fill in a registration form?
Once the subscriber has contacted us or bought the service we send the customer a Subscriber Detail Form to fill in as well as terms and conditions.
3. How many subscribers can access the publication for the subscription price?
Each subscription to an individual product comes with five logins or users within the one company. If more than five users require access a second subscription must be purchased. Premium Newsletter subscribers are allowed up to 20 within the one company or a multi-site licence for global operations. A check list of current company subscribers is sent with all renewal notices.
4. Are there different rates for different parts of the world?
No. We advertise in AUD (Australian Dollars) because we are an Australian company. We are happy to accept payment in other currencies at the exchange rate of the day. If people use our website to make secure payment, clearance will be in AUD.
5. How do we renew our subscription?
One month before the subscription is due for renewal we send the subscriber an invoice, which s/he can pay on www.coalportal.com through "Pay Existing Invoice" on the top left of Shop our Store or transfer the funds to our bank account, which will be on the invoice.
5. How does a subscriber know when something has been updated?
Energy Publishing sensd an email with a link to the appropriate web page to all subscribers whenever we upload a new issue of a newsletter. The database of Industry data is being updated continuously.
6. Is it possible to search past issue of newsletters as well as Daily News?
Yes, all past issues of newsletters and Daily News are archived and made available.
7. Are there any software requirements?
Yes. We recommend a recent, mainstream web browser (latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox on Windows computers, Mozilla Firefox on Linux, and Safari on Macintosh OS X). Some features also require Macromedia Flash plugin. Printing from Microsoft Internet Explorer requires Version 7 or later.
99% of computers will already meet these requirements, and for those that do not, required software can be downloaded easily, for free, from the Internet. contact us if you need any help on this topic.
8. How can I purchase?
Go to the Coalportal Shop or click here. If you need help using the shop, press the green help button there, or ask us for help.
You will be able to pay online with your credit card using our secure e-commerce server connected directly to ANZ E-Gate in Australia. Alternatively, you can e-mail a completed order form to Energy Publishing and proceed with payment off the Internet by other means.
More Help
If you are still unsure of what to do, please feel free to contact us by clicking here. Otherwise, we can be reached by phone on (your international code) + 61 - 7 - 3020 4000 or inside Australia on (07) 3020 4000.