Netscape Help

The top row of Icons

• Back - This icon lets you "step" back to where you last were, this icon lets you step back many times. This keeps you from getting lost too easily.
  
  
• Forward - This icon lets you step forward to a page you've already been to, this is the reverse of back. Ex. If you are on the middle page of a three page document, and you've been to the third page and went "back" to the middle page, you can go "fo rward" to the last page.
  
  
• Home - This icon brings you to Netscape's preset homepage. This can be set to be Oswego's Homepage, your own page, or some other site.
  
  
• Reload - This icon refreshes, or loads again, the current document. This is useful when you find the page has broken pictures (pictures that didn't load correctly) or pages with slow load times.
  
  
• Images: This icon suppresses images, not allowing them to load. This makes load time much quicker, but you miss out on all the graphics. This is very useful on slow connections.
  
  
• Open - This icon allows you to type in the address of a place you'd like to go to. This is the same thing as typing in the location bar.
  
  
• Print - This icon print's the current file you are on, note that is prints out the whole document not just screen you are seeing.
  
  
• Find - This icon searches for certain text in a document. This is useful when you know what you are looking for. This function doesn't search the whole net, just the current document.
  
  
• Stop - This icon stops the current load. You use this button when you find a page that is taking far too long to load, or when you discover mid-load that this was not the page you wanted.
  
  
• The Location Bar - This is a text field in which you may choose to type a location. All World Wide Web (WWW) sites start with http:// , the rest is the address of that specific site. Ex. Yahoo's address is http://www.yahoo.com , this is an index an d search engine of web pages.
  
  

There is a lower set of icons, starting with "What's New" these all link to Netscape's home page and are not very useful.

Moving about in Netscape: To actually surf the net, you need to know some basics in navigation. Besides back, forward, and typing in a location, you can also move about by clicking on links. Links are indicated one of three ways.

• link A word colored differently then the rest of the text on the page.
  
  
• An image (or button) with a colored border.
  
  
• An image with text on it and a colored border.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Some times you will come across a link that is a picture without a border or one that has been suppressed. If your mouse arrow becomes a hand when you cross it over an image (or anything else), that image is a link. A link takes you to another page. T his can be a continuation of a current document or one outside of the current page.

ex.





Note: once you have traveled a link, if you go back to the previous page you will note that the link has changed color, this indicates a link that has been used.

Alternatives to typing in an address in the Location Bar.

You want to type as little as possible when using Netscape, complex, confusing and hard to remeber addresses are the norm on the WWW. There are a couple of different ways to get around typing in an address in the Location Bar.

Cutting and Pasting

To minimize error when typing in and address found on another web site use the "cut and paste" features under the "Edit" menu. I will step you through the process... To use this feature take your mouse and move it over the text (the address) you want to take.

EX. https://www.tripod.com/~Caboodle/didit.html

Highlight it by holding down the mouse button and running along the length of the text. When you've got all the relevant text highlighted let go of the mouse button. Go up to the "Edit" menu and select copy. Go to the Location Bar and delete the text the re. Then go back to the "Edit" menu and select paste. The address will appear in the Location Bar . (Make sure your cursor is in the Location bar, the text will appear where ever your cursor is) The text in the Location Bar should look like this:

https://www.tripod.com/~Caboodle/didit.html

Press return and it will take you to the location.

It is also useful to open a SimpleText document while you are working on Netscape specifically for the purpose of cutting and pasting addresses and other useful information. This works just like how you cut and paste an address, but you can do it wit h any text.

Making a Bookmark

Sometimes you will come across a web site that you really like or find really useful. Instead of typing in a the address every time you want to go there, or going through a long sequence of links to get there, you can make a bookmark. A Bo okmark is a way to quickly link to a page. To make a bookmark when you are on the page you want to add simply go up to the "Bookmark" menu at the very top of the screen and select "Add Bookmark". Try it, then go back up to the "Bookmark" menu, you should see a listing for "nethelp.html". That is a bookmark back to this page.

How to download files using Netscape.

How to download an image you can see on a page. The easiest way is to take your mouse and hold down the mouse button over a picture, a menu will appear, select "save this image as", and it will save it for you. Note: make sure you know where the image is being saved to so you can find it later! The best palce to save it to is the desktop, or a disk of your own. You can save a file in a similar manner. If you go up to file in the menu bar you will see an option labeled "Save as.." . If you select this option you can save the file as either a text document or as "source". "Source" m eans you are saving it as an HTML document, and you will be able to open it in Netscape at a webpage.This is useful if you want to see the code for how someone achived a certain HTML effect.

How to ftp an image, or file.
Downloading a file via ftp on Netscape is very easy to do. To ftp something you need only two things, the address of the ftp site and the file name. To get to the ftp address go up to the location bar and type in the address. The only difference between an ftp address and a WWW address is that the ftp address starts with ftp:// instead of http://. There should be a listing of the files that you can download or directories of files. Find the file you are looking for, (this is where the "Find" button comes in handy) and click on it. Then chose save as in the file menu to save it to a disk or the desktop.
You can also us Netscape to ftp a document into your own account. First go up to the location bar and type in the ftp address to your account.This will be first ftp:// then your email address. In my case I would type in:

ftp://kdooley@oswego.edu

A window will come up and prompt you for your password. Type it in. Then a list of your files will come up. if you want to save whatever you are uploading into a particular directory (which will be indicated by little folders) then click on that particula r directory. Once you are at the place where you wish to upload the file, go up to the file menu. There will be an option called "Upload file" select it. A menu box will appear. Find the file you wish to upload and select open. The file will then be uploa ded into your account.