What's a "browser"?
Why BOTH Internet Explorer and Netscape? Isn't one browser enough?
The Screens
To Navigate the Web
To Move Through a Document
To Save a Document to a Disk
To Save Images in a Document to a Disk
To View a File Stored on a Disk
To Print from the Campus Network Computers
To Change the Font Size
Non-Roman Fonts and Character Sets
Bookmarks, Favorites

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What's a "browser"?

The term is short for Web browser, a software application that resides on a computer and is used to locate and display Web pages. Browsers allow you to click on hypertext links to retrieve information via the Web, and offer additional features for navigating and managing the Web.

Netscape's Navigator, often referred to simply as "Netscape," and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, often called simply "IE" are the most popular Web browsers.

Both are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text, and can be used to view and interact with many multimedia formats, including sound, video, and other programs. Often a "plug-in" is required for these formats.
 

Why both IE and Netscape?
Isn't one browser enough?
For most people's purposes, one browser is sufficient. IE and Netscape are both excellent browsers but offer slightly different features -- each has its devotees. The entire Web is accessible through both browsers.

The Screens

Both IE and Netscape look somewhat similar. Both normally contain the same sections offering fairly equivalent functions. From top to bottom:

• The page title (top row) to the right of the browser logo
• - SQUARE X symbols in the upper right corner, allow you to:

        -: collapse the screen (leaving a logo at the bottom of the screen)
        SQUARE: shrink the browser screen to half size
        X: Close the browser

• The menu bar (second row, starting with File in both IE and Netscape) - many of these functions are disabled on Networks

Explore the most useful:
FILE: NEW ~ OPEN PAGE ~ SAVE AS ~ SEND PAGE ~ EDIT PAGE
            PRINT PREVIEW ~ PRINT ~ CLOSE ~ EXIT
EDIT: CUT ~ COPY ~ PASTE ~ SELECT ALL ~ FIND ~ SEARCH ~ PREFS
VIEW: SHOW (TOOL BARS) ~ INCREASE/DECREASE FONT ~ RELOAD ~
            STOP LOAD ~ PAGE SOURCE (HTML CODE) ~ PAGE INFO ~
            CHARACTER SET
GO: BACK ~ FORWARD ~ HOME ~ LIST OF RECENT URLs VISITED
COMMUNICATOR: NETSCAPE SERVICES ~ BOOKMARKS/FAVOURITES ~
            ADDRESS BOOK (E-MAIL) ~ TOOLS (ADJUST SETTINGS)
            WINDOW (OTHER PAGES OPEN ON DESKTOP)
HELP: CONTENTS/INDEX ~ PRODUCT INFO ~ UPDATES ~ ETC.
 

• The toolbar buttons (usually second row, starting with Back , and Forward , in both IE and Netscape)
• The location or address field, a white box which displays the URL of the current document and in which you can type the URL of a document you want to retrieve
• The directory buttons give quick access to browser feature pages
• The document window (the large content area in the centre)
• Hypertexted Links (underlined in different colour) to other documents or to other places in the same document i.e. bottom)
• The scroll bars on the right and bottom, for moving through the document (appear whenever a document is too tall or wide for the screen)
• The progress or status bar (at the bottom) where information about the progress of a document you've chosen appears, and where the URL of a link displays before you click on it.

To Navigate the Web using IE or Netscape

Click on links or buttons within a document in the document window. Links are the highlighted areas of hypertext in the document itself. They will retrieve other documents. To click on a link, move the mouse over the highlighted area and click once.

Back (the first toolbar button) returns to the previous document. Use the Forward toolbar button only after you've already backed up to a previous document. It will return you to the document you were viewing before you chose to go back.

Go in Netscape and History in IE show you a list of sites you have recently visited. Using them may be faster than clicking BACK several times.

Home (a little house toolbar button on the in both IE and Netscape) returns to the Netscape page or whatever you have designated as the first page to load on your system when you sign on to the Net.

If you have the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a specific document you want to see, type the URL into the white Location or Address box, and press the Enter key. (You will need to highlight and delete the text in that box before you can type in a new URL.) A URL is the Internet address of a specific document.

To Move Through A Document using IE or Netscape

Click the mouse in the arrows at the ends of the scrollbars on the right (or bottom) side of the document to move through the document. Click inside this scroll bar beneath the pad and you will progress down a page at a time. You may hold the right mouse button down on the pad in the scroll bars and drag it to move the document as well. The space bar key will also take you down through the document, and the backspace key will bring you back up. PageUp and PageDown keys or the arrow keys also let you move.

To Save or Download a Document to a Disk

From the File menu in IE or Netscape, select Save As. A dialog box will appear. Follow instructions in the table below for each browser:

 
To Save Images in a Document to a Disk

IE and Netscape handle images very differently when you save a document.

Return to Outline

To View a File Stored on your drive ... in your folder

To verify if you have successfully saved something to a drive:

To Print from the Campus Network Computers

Follow the procedures posted by the printers in the lab

To Change the Font Size

You can change the size of the type in the display in the campus network computers, but not the font face, colors, or other appearance factors. Instructions below for changing the font face and document appearance should work on your own computer.

Return to Outline

Non-Roman Fonts and Character Sets

You may view Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic, Greek, and other non-Roman character sets in the Library's public computers. IE works better than Netscape for some fonts.

Bookmarks & Favorites

• Bookmarks in Netscape and Favorites in IE allow you to add a collection of favourite sites you have visited. This feature is disabled on many networks. Use the Mac network feature.