Today the Staples World is opening a new "Window on the World," the World Wide Web, that is.

Our news website at www.staplesworld.com went live this morning, April 2, at 7 a.m. Now you can read the news and see the photos we work to produce for you in our print edition on your computers in our online edition.

Our online edition will have the same sections organized in ways that are already familiar to you: News, Crow Wing Currents, Life Currents, Current Happenings, Opinion, Public Notices, Sports and Classifieds.

In addition, you can place a classified ad online using your credit card and our secure server. Just click on "Classified Orders" on the left side of the screen under "Services."

Also using your credit card and our secure server, you'll be able to subscribe online to our print edition or our online edition. After the first month certain online sections will be available by subscription only.

For the time being all ads pubished in our print issue will also be posted online.

One feature of our website that I'm really excited about is our Event Calendar.

This will really be a community calendar, your calendar. I expect the Staples Rotary Club will use it when planning dates for their annual art show. I expect the Staples Motley Area Arts Council will post their schedule of concerts. I hope other entities, the Staples Motley Area Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Clubs, the Jaycees, the health system, the city, the local choruses, the school, any club, organization or business that schedules events that the public can attend, will use this calendar.

If your events are posted on the calendar, others can see that they don't schedule a conflicting event. I understand that some events have different audiences and we will always have conflicts. But I hope this event calendar can help minimize those conflicts.

The calendar will be monitored. Event listings can be submitted via email to Dawn Timbs at dtimbs@ staplesworld.com or they can be mailed, faxed or dropped off at the Staples World office. Please include your contact information.

This website, like the printed paper each week, is a work in progress. I expect we'll be tweaking, adding, changing, refining features for some time. But at least we've got a start, a foundation to build upon.

We've been your community newspaper since 1890. Getting accurate and useful information to the public, to our readers, has always been and will continue to be our first priority. We hope this addition will allow more people to easily access that information in a way that's best for them.