By Heidi Schuessler, User Education Producer, MSN.com

With the presidential election just around the corner, many of you have written to MSN with your thoughts about the campaigns, candidates and our political coverage during this unprecedented election season. This week I had a chance to sit down with Don Sena, MSN’s managing editor, to talk about how MSN covers the election news.

Some background: Here at MSN the pace and volume of election coverage started in 2007 as candidates first entered the race. In early summer 2007, MSN launched Your Vote ’08, a robust election guide with comprehensive political analysis, daily polls, videos and more.

News and analysis come from MSN’s primary election content partner, MSNBC, as well as Slate.com, Newsweek, The Root.com and MSN Video. MSN’s many channels also cover politics. For example, MSN Money recently published stories about where the candidates stand on pocketbook issues such as health care bills and energy costs. And MSN City Guides recently ran a story on which American cities are most red or blue.

Issues, issues, issues

The primary goal of MSN’s political coverage is to give you a broad range of accurate, fair and timely news and analysis about the election and candidates. Some people want to know about the “horse race”; others are following their local races or are only interested in specific issues. MSN covers all these topics, said Sena, but “we want to allow users to filter out the rhetoric and focus on the issues.”

Sena also said a talented team of editors has been guiding the MSN election coverage, led by Dave Herman, lead election editor.

If you’ve clicked around on Your Vote ’08, you may have seen the section called Where They Stand that compares McCain and Obama on everything from abortion and taxes to how each candidate would deal with Iran. Another popular feature is The Podium, where you can compare candidates and issues side by side using an interactive mash-up of Live Search and Silverlight.

Balance and fairness

MSN constantly works to achieve balanced coverage of the candidates and the parties. “Fairness is always top of mind and influences how we choose stories and how we place photos,” said Sena.

Many readers write in with feedback about what they view as a liberal or conservative slant to the coverage, and Sena and his election team monitor these comments. “When I see reader feedback slamming us from both sides, I know we’re probably getting it right,” said Sena. (Send your feedback about the Election Guide.)

Cool features

Did you know that MSN can help you find out where the polling places are in your town? Many voters have also taken advantage of our register to vote page.

“I find it interesting that some of our competitors have just recently added a ‘register to vote’ feature,” said Sena, who says MSN has long emphasized service tools. “We’ve had that feature live since before the primaries.”

Innovation is key to MSN’s election coverage, and the Web makes features like The Podium possible – and allows MSN the freedom to present political news in ways that you won’t see or hear on TV, radio or in newspapers. (More of this is coming on election night – see below).

For a global perspective, MSN International sites also have been programming innovative election content to capture interest abroad. (Who would those abroad elect as the new leader of the free world? Check out this interesting feature from our international teams.) MSN Latino presents a version of the MSN Election Guide, as well.

Looking forward to Nov. 4

On election night, you can expect special coverage and features that will closely follow national and state results, as well as new layouts, a new design on the homepage, and new interactive features. Most of all, said Sena, count on MSN’s election coverage on Nov. 4 to be accurate and fast.

We want to hear from you!

As always, thanks for your feedback and keep it coming. Tell us what you think about this blog by clicking the “send message” link below. Or, share your thoughts about other articles you’ve read on MSN.com by sending Letters to the Editor.

Heidi A. Schuessler, User Education Producer, MSN.com

Early in October, MSN.com debuted its new homepage. You may have noticed the revised layout, a Hotmail preview and video module on the left side of the page, customization options and more. We've gotten lots of helpful feedback from readers — as well as some questions. Here are a few of the topics you asked about most often, answered by our experts here at MSN.com.

How can I see MSN.com without scrolling from left to right?
By adjusting your computer screen resolution, you can see the entire homepage without scrolling left or right. Choosing a higher screen resolution will allow you to see more objects on the screen at once. Adjusting your screen resolution is a simple and quick process that varies according to the operating system (OS) of the computer. Click on the following links for instructions for your OS: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X Leopard or Mac OS X Tiger.

How can I increase the size of the text (or font)?
You can increase your Web browser's font size in three simple steps. The process varies according to Web browser. Here are instructions for the most  common browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox and  Safari.

How does the new MSN weather tool work?
With the latest version of MSN.com, the weather tool is featured in two areas — the upper-right and lower-left corners of the page. Customizing your weather information is a simple and quick process. Follow these instructions to start using your new MSN weather tool today. You can track up to nine cities at once with your weather tool.

How do I personalize my homepage?
MSN.com has several new features that enable you to personalize your MSN homepage in a variety of ways: Choose a homepage color and number of headlines to display. Customize content such as local news, weather, horoscopes and stock quotes, and access Hotmail from your homepage. More details can be found in the MSN homepage tour. 

We hope that you're pleased with the changes we've made; our goal is to help you connect with all the exciting features and tools available on MSN.com. So click around and see what's new. Play with the background colors and font sizes. Make MSN your own. If you have feedback on any of the things you see on MSN, please write to us and tell us what you think.

By Stephen Cvengros, Executive Producer, MSN.com

We’re pleased with the new features we are offering and hope they help you feel better connected with info and communication tools available on the new MSN homepage. (An example: Hotmail preview, which lets you manage whether your email appears from visit to visit as opened or closed on your homepage.) We also hope you’ll nose around a bit and find some new background customization (try the graphite; it’s hot), local news that is always present and a quick read on weather.

Plenty of thought and feedback went into creating this new design: We took into account your comments to us over the years; requests you’ve sent us: good, bad and ugly. We met with focus groups, and we had a beta site live for several months, gained insight and adjusted the page.

I know how change is sometimes confusing.

Several months ago, I purchased a new car. One night, I needed to use the dome light, but couldn’t figure out how to get it to come on short of opening the door. I knew that couldn’t be the solution, but I hadn’t gotten familiar with how the shiny, new thing worked. (I didn’t read the operating manual; fortunately, my wife did.)

Bottom line is that like any new model, I knew there was a basic solution, just needed to figure out how it worked.

To that end, we have included a Homepage Tour. In the future, you will find the tour and other info to help you better understand how the site works, what fantastic gems we have seemingly hidden away on the network and the introduction of new topics, features and tools in the new “MSN & You” section of the page. This particular blog (“Inside MSN”) will also keep you up to speed on what’s new.

Some other changes to the page include:

· Adding a bottom-of-the-page navigation with quick links to more special sites, tools and areas users are interested in, making access easier.

· Moving Video to a more prominent position, meeting users’ growing appetite for the feature.

· We’ve lightened up on the boxes on the page and opened it up to provide a little “breathing room” for your eyes.

What is not apparent today are some design surprises we have created to improve coverage for you when the time is right. (All right, so check in Sunday for one of the first of these items with our sparkling new NFL module.) I want to urge you to play around with the customization pulldown menu above the Hotmail preview. I’d also suggest you put in your horoscope and maybe drop in a couple of stocks you’re following (weirdly in the current market, either one seems like a mystical choice at this moment).

Have some fun with the page and drop us a line about what you think.

As with all Web pages, this Homepage is organic. It will change as our last big release did over time and you’re going to be the driving force. We hope you enjoy it.