Getting Connected:
People who get connected to the net from their home may use services provided by one of the Internet Service Providers (ISP). ISPs give a software to their customers to install onto their computers. This software provides a PPP/SLIP connection which will make your computer act like a networked computer. Once you get connected, you could run a telnet program to get connected to host computer (where your email messages are stored) to read your e-mail or do something else, or run your web browser to navigate on the web.

Some providers, however, operate differently. For example, America Online (AOL) distributes a software which gives access to only its own browser. In other words, when running AOL software, you are not getting a PPP/SLIP connection, instead you are dialing in directly to AOL's system which gives you access to the web and certain other resources on the Internet.

World Wide Web Basics (Netscape Navigator):
Netscape Navigator (commonly referred to as Netscape) is a "browser." Browsers are software programs that serve as your window into the World Wide Web (WWW or Web), as they interpret and display information located on the Web in a particular way. There are numerous different browsers, but Netscape, is the most popular, and currently the most capable. Netscape allows you to view graphics and animation, play movies and sounds, run software programs that are imbedded in Web pages, access different parts of the Internet, and with the right "helper" applications, view 3-D and more. Netscape is continually developing, so the possible uses of the browser are always expanding.

The Netscape Interface:
There are several distinct areas of the Netscape interface. The top quarter (approximately) of the screen contains most of the navigational aids, tools, and text fields that you will use while running Netscape. The bottom three-quarters of the screen is the "content area" where Web pages are displayed. The Netscape Interface can be broken down into seven distinct parts. (This section is written with Netscape 3.0 in mind).

1. Title Bar: The title bar contains the title of the Web page that is currently on display in the content area.

2. Menu Items: The nine menu items (File, Edit, View, Go, Bookmarks, Options, Directory, Window, and Help) allow you to perform tasks such as printing from the File menu selecting a page to visit from the Bookmarks menu, etc.

3. Toolbar: The toolbar consists of nine items. The first three (Back, Forward, Home) are frequently used while navigating Web pages. The next five buttons (Reload, Images, Open, Print, Find) allow you to perform various tasks. The last button (Stop) lets you interrupt the ongoing transfer of information.

   Back:	The Back button is an invaluable navigational aid. It allows you to go back to the page where you previously viewed at. Netscape keeps track of the sites you visit. You can use the "Back" button multiple times and it will always bring you back to the previous page in the "history list".
   Forward:	The Forward button works just like the Back button but in reverse.
   Home:	The Home button brings you to the Web site that has been designated as the "home page" (Startup page) in "preferences" (in the Options menu).
   Reload:	The Reload button redisplays the current Web page loaded in your browser.
   Images:	The Images button loads images into the current Web page displayed in your browser. This button is used when you have specified in the Options Menu to turn of the "Auto Load Images" but you want to view the images on a particular page. If you are on a slow Internet connection or the network just seems stuck in mud, you can search the Web with the images turned off. This speeds up the loading of documents considerably, especially for machines that are not quite state-of-the-art. To do this pull down the "Options" menu and de-select "Auto Load Images." You will know that you are successful when there is no checkmark before łAuto Load Images˛ in the Options menu.
   Open:	The Open button displays a window into which you can type a URL (a Web address) to open.
   Print:	The Print button prints the current page to a specified printer.
   Find:	The Find button allows you to find a word or phase located on the current Web page loaded in your browser.
   Stop:	The Stop button allows you to halt any ongoing transfer of information. This button is useful if you find yourself waiting for an excessive amount of time for a page to load. If you select a link, the Status Bar indicates "looking up Host," and you find yourself waiting for more than about 15 seconds, stop the transfer (use the Stop button) and reload the page (with the Reload button). The link you select will occasionally get caught in traffic or somehow otherwise lost, so if you are waiting too long, reload the page. You can also use the Stop button to stop the data transfer if what you need is already on the screen. Sometimes displaying images may take a long time so if you don't need to see all the images displayed on the screen Stop the loading. You can always reload the page if you change your mind.

4. Location Window: The Location Window displays the URL of the site that is currently loaded into your browser. You can also type a new URL into this window and hit ENTER to load a new Web page.

5. Directory Buttons: There are five directory buttons (What's New, What's Cool, Handbook, Net Search, Net Directory, and Software) below the Location Window which may or may not be visible on your screen (like most of the elements of the Netscape Interface, you can choose to have buttons hidden from view in an attempt to conserve screen real estate.). Each of these buttons will bring you to a page on the Netscape Communications Home Page (the company that makes the browser) that lists various "new" or "cool" sites, various search engines, directories, a handbook on the use of Netscape, and a "Software" page that lists the latest Netscape version available for download.

6. Content Area: This is the window through which you view the Web. The Content Area displays the current Web page that is loaded in your browser. Vertical and Horizontal scroll bars are sometimes present if the page you are viewing is larger than the screen area. You might also encounter something called "Frames" which dissects the Content Area into a number of smaller areas.

7. Status Bar/Progress Indicator: The Status at the bottom of the Netscape Interface shows the URL of the hyperlink you are pointing at, indicates the stage of the transmission process when you select a link (Looking Up Host, Contacting Host, Host Contacted, Transferring Information), indicates the percentage of a document received (74% of 10k for example) and tells you when a document is done loading (Document Done). A new and sometimes annoying use of the Status Bar is to parade a message across the bar in "ticker tape" fashion. This is accomplished with something known as JAVA, a new programming language optimized for the Web. The Progress Indicator (an expanding red bar) visually instructs you as to how much of the document you selected has been received. If you want to have an idea of where a link will take you select the link, interrogate it. You can do this simply by placing the pointer over the link so that it becomes a pointing hand, and then looking in the Status Bar for the URL of the link.

Navigating the World Wide Web: Finding your way around Web documents takes some getting used to, but once you orient yourself to the conventions of the Web, you will quickly get the hangs of things.

Hyperlinks: The central navigation tool you need to become familiar with is the hyperlink. Hyperlinks are the navigational backbone of the Web. They are ubiquitous and as easy to use as point and click. Hyperlinks are indicated by their color (usually blue or purple, although they can be any color) and are sometimes (depending on the browser settings) underlined. When you place the arrow pointer over a hyperlink, the arrow turns into a pointing hand, and the URL for the link appears in the Status Bar at the bottom of the Netscape window. Clicking on the hyperlink will load the document that is represented by, or behind, the link.

ImageMaps: Occasionally, entire regions of the screen (or entire/part of an image/picture/graphic) are "clickable." These sections of the screen are called "imagemaps" and you will notice coordinates in the Status Bar. Imagemaps are generally straightforward as to where to click for information.

Navigation Menus: Many pages make use of Navigation Menus. These menus are usually located at the top, bottom, and sometimes on the left side of a page. Navigation Menus are usually made up of text or pictures, and they usually refer to pages located within the site you are at.

Bookmarks: Bookmarks are very useful tool to employ while you are searching the Web. Bookmarks allow you to create a list of sites that you want to remember for a later re-visit. When you are at a site you want to bookmark, just open the "Bookmarks" menu at the top of the Netscape Interface and choose "Add Bookmark." The title of the site will then appear in your bookmark list. You can organize your bookmarks by putting them into folders and under different headers if you want. To do that, just choose "Go to Bookmarks" (or it may be called "Bookmarks" depending on the version you use) either from the Bookmarks menu or Window menu.

Opening URLs - Moving Around:

• When you first open your web browser the first page that will be displayed on your screen is the startup page. In other words you have a starting point ("home page" can be set in preferences in the "Options" menu). Opening a web page or going from one to another can be done in different ways:
• You can go to the Location Window and type in a URL of a page you want to visit. (Once you delete the current URL in the Location Window, it will turn into "Go To:")
• You can also delete only a portion of the current URL to go one step up.
• You can type in a new URL by clicking the OPEN button on the Toolbar, or selecting "Open Location" on the "File" menu.
• Another way of going from one site to another is clicking on the hypertext links.
  How does one know which text is hypertext (hot button)?:
  • When you point on a hyperlink, you mouse pointer turns into a hand
  • URL of the location pointed appears at the bottom of the screen (Status Bar)
  • A hypertext link might be underlined or might be displayed with a different color (These settings can be changed in "Options - General Preferences")
• Using "Back/Forward" on the Toolbar to go to the pages previously visited is another way to move around.
• Going "Back/Forward" by pressing and holding the mouse can also be used to go back and forth among the pages previously visited.
• You can also switch from one page to another between the pages you have visited through "Go" menu as well. To do that go to "Go" on the menu bar and select the page you want to go to. This way of going from one page to another might be helpful when you have a long list of visited pages. Using the "Back" button many times may take a long time to go from the last page to the first page you visited.
• You can use "Control+Arrow Left/Right" (On the Macintosh: "Command+Arrow Left/Right") to go Back/Forward among the pages you have already seen.
• You can also click the "Home" button to go to the "starting page" instead of going back to the first page among the many pages you might have already seen.
• Finally, you can go to a page by selecting it from your "Bookmark" list. To do that simply go to "Bookmarks" menu and select a page from the list.

Getting Connected to the Web Through America Online (AOL):

America Online has a graphical interface. This means you click on graphics to do certain things. When login into AOL the first screen will be the "Welcome to AOL" window. Click the "Internet" icon (button) to get into the ":Welcome to the Internet" window. From this window, one can go to either "The Web", "Newsgroups", "Gopher", or "FTP" by clicking on the icon/name. You can use many services on AOL like e-mail, downloading/uploading files, chat etc. Since the focus of this document is the Web, however, only how to get connected to the Web through AOL will be explained.

While the main window with a menu bar and with a number of graphical shortcuts stays open in the background all the time, you can open many new windows, using different services such as the Web, email, Chatline, etc. without having to close others. No matter where you are (web, chat, email etc.). you always have the same menu bar and same graphical shortcuts in the background in addition to the buttons and shortcuts in the windows for the different services (web, e-mail, chat, etc.) that you have opened.

1. If you want to get connected to the Web, just click on "The Web" icon. This will open AOL's web browser and take you to the Start Page which is by default the AOL web page.

   You can change the Start Page (home page) to any page you want to. While viewing AOL's web page on the screen, you can click on the icon which says "Prefs." in the Start Page window. This will take you into a dialog box where you can change 6 different settings. Click on "Navigation" and type in the URL of the page you want to be your Start Page in the "Address" section.

2. You can click on the "globe" icon at the top of the screen in the main background window. This will also open AOL's web browser and display the "Home Page".

3. You can also get connected to the Web by typing the URL of a page in the first screen where it says "http://" right above "Go To Web" button. Once you type a URL, you can either press "ENTER" or click on "Go To Web" button. This will open AOL's web browser and display the page you wanted to go.

Opening URLs:
You can open a URL in the very first screen where it says "http://" right above the "Go To Web" button. You can type the URL and either press the "ENTER" or "RETURN" key or click on the "Go TO Web" button.

Once you are in the web browser, you can also type in a URL in where the URL for the currently open page is displayed. To do that, you delete or highlight the current URL, and type in a new one, and then press "ENTER".

You can switch among the URLs by using the "Back" and "Forward" buttons or making your selection from the pull-down menu right under the toolbar.

You can open a URL from the "Favorite Places" (Bookmarks) list. To do this, you need to go to "GoTo" in the menu bar at the top of the screen and select "Favorite Place" and then select the page you would like to visit.

Creating a List - Favorite Places (Bookmarks):
If you like a page and want to bookmark, you can put its URL into the list of "Favorite Places." You can add a URL to the list by clicking on the red hearth-shape icon on the top right corner of the screen while a page is displayed. It will ask you if you would like to make it a favorite place. Say yes, and it will be transferred to your "Favorite Places." (This process will automatically add the Title and the URL of that page.)

You can also add a page to the list manually. You can do that by selecting "Favorite Places" from the "GoTo" in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Once the List is opened, you can click on the "Add" button and enter the necessary information.

Last Updated: June 1, 1997