Netscape Handbook

Handbook: Navigating Around

<< Netscape Handbook: Contents
<- Getting Aquainted
-> Surfing the Web
>> Index

  1. Understanding pages and frames
  2. Knowing that every page has a unique URL
  3. Finding, starting and stopping links
  4. Linking via buttons and menu items
  5. Using history and bookmark lists
  6. Customizing your browser
  7. Selecting a home page
  8. Viewing inline images
  9. Viewing external images
  10. Filling in forms
  11. Printing and finding
  12. Security indicators
  13. Document information
Understanding pages and frames

Now, you're probably comfortable with the idea that information on the Internet is presented on pages you see on the screen. Even the navigational concepts are pretty easy:

Plus, you can go directly to pages that interest you by choosing menu items:

Ideally, the act of finding pages becomes secondary to what you really care about: the page's content. Like pages of a magazine, you'll want to flip from one screen page to another, sometimes to continue with the same article and other times to begin a new article. But you can't hold screen pages in your hands like you can a magazine. Screen pages are rarely uniform in length and, displayed one page at a time, don't provide intuitive feedback on where the information begins and ends.

So even though Internet pages bring information to you rather gloriously, there is something distinctly uncomfortable about content that continues over numerous links to pages of varying lengths. Anyone who has witnessed a slide show of a neighbor's family vacation can identify with the queasy sensation of boundlessness.

Readers of electronic pages need tools to keep track of pages. The Netscape text fields, toolbar buttons, and menu items provide you with the ability to manage pages of information that might otherwise leave you feeling overwhelmed and unfocused. Each time you open the Netscape window (you can have multiple Netscape windows open concurrently), you begin a new session of Internet interaction.

The author of a page supplies the content you initially see. Sometimes the content is presented as a single unit taking up the entire content area of the window. Other times the content is displayed in multiple rectangular frames that, together, form a patchwork of individual pages that fills the content area. Each frame can contain scroll bars to let you view more information. Netscape allows you to resize any frame by positioning the mouse in the borders between frames (the cursor changes shape), then dragging the frame to a new size.

A frame within a page is, in essence, a smaller page within a large patchwork page. Each frame has characteristics of a page. Together, the frames form a top-level page (also called a frameset). For example, clicking on a link within a frame can bring new information within the frame or to a different frame. Likewise, a link can bring an entirely new top-level page replacing all the frames.

When viewing a page with frames, certain menu items change to reflect that actions affect only a selected frame's page and not the set of pages in the top-level page. The Mail Document, Save as, and Print menu items change to Mail Frame, Save Frame as, and Print Frame, respectively. When you select a frame by clicking within it, other functions such as keyboard shortcuts affect only the contents of the frame.

Some pages and frames have the capability to automatically update themselves. Pages that have server-push and client-pull capabilities contain instructions that allow multiple interactions with the server computers. You can always terminate these automatic actions by going to another page or otherwise exiting the page.

To open a new Netscape window, choose the File | New Web Browser menu item. The new window brings another copy of your home page to screen in a fully functional and independent Netscape window. You can have simultaneous network connections.

Knowing that every page has a unique URL

To understand how a single page is kept distinct in a world of electronic pages, you should recognize its URL, short for Uniform Resource Locator. Every page has a unique URL just like every person has a unique palm print. (Arguments persist as to which is more cryptic.)

A URL is text used for identifying and addressing an item in a computer network. In short, a URL provides location information and Netscape displays a URL in the location field. Most often you don't need to know a page's URL because the location information is included as part of a highlighted link; Netscape already knows the URL when you click on highlighted text, press an arrow button, or select a menu item. But sometimes you won't have an automatic link and instead have only the text of the URL (perhaps from a friend or a newspaper article).

Netscape gives you the opportunity to type a URL directly into the location text field (or the URL dialog box produced by the File | Open Location menu item. Using the URL, Netscape will bring you the specified page just as if you had clicked on an automatic link. Notice that the label on the location field says Location after you bring a page, or Go to as soon as you edit the field.

Here are some sample URLs:

http://www.pbinet.com/handbook.html
ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/
news:news.announce.newusers

On Windows, the location text field offers a pull-down menu to the right of the text. The menu contains up to 10 URLs of pages whose locations you've most recently typed into the field and viewed. Choosing a URL item from this menu brings the page to your screen again. The URLs are retained in the menu across your Netscape sessions.

Netscape uses the URL text to find a particular item, such as a page, among all the computers connected to the Internet. Within the URL text are components that specify the protocol, server, and pathname of an item. Notice in the URL http://www.pbi.net./dial/home.html that the protocol is followed by a colon (http:), the server is preceded by two slashes (//www.pbi.net), and each segment of the pathname (there are two here) is preceded by a single slash (/dial/home.html).

The first component, the protocol, identifies a manner for interpreting computer information. Many Internet pages use HTTP (short for HyperText Transfer Protocol). Other common protocols you might come across include file (also known as ftp, which is short for File Transfer Protocol), news (the protocol used by Usenet news groups), and gopher (an alternative transfer protocol).

The second component, the server, identifies the computer system that stores the information you seek (such as www.pbi.net). Each server on the Internet has a unique address name whose text refers to the organization maintaining the server.

The last component, the pathname, identifies the location of an item on the server. For example, a pathname usually specifies the name of the file comprising the page (such as /home.html), possibly preceded by one or more directory names (folder names) that contain the file (such as /dial/home.html).

Some pathnames use special characters. If you are typing a URL into the location field, you'll need to enter the characters that exactly match the URL. For example, some pathnames contain the tilde character (~) which designates a particular home directory on a server.

Finding, starting and stopping links

A link is a connection from one page to another. You find a link by looking for one or more words highlighted with color, underlining, or both in the content area of a page. Images and icons with colored borders also serve as links. When the mouse cursor points over a link, the URL location of the link appears in the status field. A link within a page that contains frames can be a connection that brings one or more new pages within frames, or an entirely new top-level page replacing all frames.

You can bring a linked page to your screen by clicking once on the highlighted text, image, or icon. Clicking on a link transfers page content from a server location to your location. After you click on a link, the Netscape status indicator animates to show you that the transfer of the page to your computer is in progress. You can stop a transfer in progress by pressing the Stop button or choosing the Go | Stop Loading menu item.

An unfollowed link is a connection to a page that you have not yet viewed; a followed link is one you have. By default, unfollowed links are blue and followed links are purple. (On Windows and Macintosh, you can change the colors used to denote unfollowed and followed links from the Options | General | Colors menu item. On UNIX, modify your .Xdefaults file outside of the application.) If you have a black and white monitor, unfollowed and followed links are highlighted with underlining only and are not differentiated.

You can stop a transfer in progress whenever the transfer takes longer than you like. This might happen if the content of the page is large or if the server computer is sluggish. Sometimes the page specified by a link just isn't available. You'll usually get a message if a connection was not made or a page not found. Examine the status field and progress bar to receive feedback about the progress of a transfer.

When you bring a page to your screen, you'll see the whole page or, if the content is extensive, only a portion. (Scroll bars let you see the rest.) Often the portion you see is the beginning of the page, but sometimes a link brings you content from the page's middle or end. A link can display a new page or display a different portion of the same page (in effect, automatically scrolling for you). For example, the beginning of a page might include a table of contents, like in this Handbook, that links each chapter title to its respective content further down the page.

Yet another kind of link doesn't bring a page at all. A mailto link whose URL begins with mailto:, produces the Message Composition window for sending e-mail (with the recipient's address automatically filled in).

Linking via buttons and menu items

In addition to links in the content area, you can also access links using Netscape buttons and menu items. Many of the links controlled by buttons and menu items bring pages you have viewed at least once before. Button links are particularly useful for going back and forth among recently viewed pages. Menu item links directly access a wide range of pages such as a history list of pages you have viewed or a bookmark list of pages you (or others) have personally selected as noteworthy.

The toolbar offers the following button links:

Once you have brought a page to screen, you can view (and store, if you wish) its URL. Every page is distinguished by its URL. Linking to a page via highlighted content, toolbar buttons, or menu items is a shortcut that enables you to display the page without having to explicitly request the page's URL. When no built-in link is available, you can display a page by entering the URL in the location field, then pressing the Enter (Return) key. (The label of the location field changes to Go to when you edit the field.) Alternatively, you can choose the File | Open Location menu item, enter the URL in the dialog box, then press the Open button.

Menu items offer each of the links available through toolbar buttons plus many more. The Netscape application keeps track of pages you have seen, lets you create easy-access lists of favorite pages, and points you to pages with current information about Netscape and the Internet. The page's title is displayed as the menu item.

Using history and bookmark lists

When you pull down a menu that contains history or bookmark items, you see a list of page titles. To bring a page to your screen, choose the title of the page.

History items let you quickly retrieve pages that you've recently viewed in your current session. Only a single lineage of history items is displayed.

For example, a series of pages containing maps might show you increasing detail as you click on links. If you view consecutively linked pages with titles North America, United States, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia, you'll see all four items appear in the history list with Philadelphia topmost in the list.

Furthermore, if you back up to the United States page, then view pages of California and San Francisco, California and San Francisco automatically replace Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. The new line of links replaces the old line of links.

Bookmarks items offer a more permanent means of page retrieval. Once you add a bookmark to your list, the title stays until you remove it or change lists. The permanence and accessibility of bookmarks make them invaluable for personalizing your Internet access.

Because bookmarks offer such ease of retrieval, the Netscape application offers many options for creating a bookmark list. Basic options let you add access to a page through a menu item. More advanced options let you create hierarchical menus, partial menu displays, multiple and shared bookmark files, list descriptions, and list searches. For a fuller discussion of bookmarks, see the next Handbook section, Searching for Information and Saving Pages.

The Bookmarks window, displayed by choosing the Window | Bookmarks menu item, gives you tools to manage bookmark lists. These tools might differ slightly depending on the platform you are using.

You'll find bookmarks and folders (a folder represents a hierarchical menu header) arranged like files and folders on your hard disk. You can double-click bookmarks to access pages, drag-and-drop icons to arrange your bookmarks, and use bookmark menu items to create new bookmark items and manipulate bookmark lists.

For example, to create a hierarchical menu, choose Item | Insert Folder from the Bookmarks window, give the folder (header) a name in the dialog box, close the dialog, then drag a bookmark into the resulting folder.

Don't let the advanced features dissuade you from the basic functionality of bookmarks. At its simplest, you can choose the Bookmarks | Add Bookmarks menu item to add the current page to your bookmark list, giving you direct access to your favorite pages.

Customizing your browser

You can tailor the look of the Netscape application by showing or hiding certain graphical elements on the screen. You'll find the basic alternatives listed in the Options menu.

The default settings show the toolbar, location field, and directory buttons. These graphical elements provide simplified access to links, commands, and page location information. By hiding any or all of these graphical elements, you increase the amount of screen real estate available for page content.

Other items in the Options menu affect the presentation of information. Auto Load Images lets you designate whether to display inline graphics automatically. Document Encoding allows for the display of different language character sets.

Choosing one of the preferences menu items General, Mail and News, Network, or Security produces a tabbed dialog box (or pop-up menu). Each preferences menu item provides access to specific preferences panels.

The panels contain settings that determine how the Netscape application operates. Many settings affect the look of graphical elements and content. After you are finished changing any values, click the OK button to accept the new panel settings or click the Cancel button to close the dialog box without accepting changes.

You also may select options to change general styles, fonts, and colors, by choosing the Options | General menu item. The dialog box contains tabs to different panel settings. For options affecting the styles, font, and colors of mail and news, choose the Options | Mail and News menu item.

In the General | Appearance panel, one set of radio buttons let you display the toolbar with Pictures, Text, or Pictures and Text.

You can check whether to also underline colored links. With a black and white display, you must check this box to underline links so the links are visible.

Another set of radio buttons lets you designate the number of days before the color of a followed link reverts back to the color of a unfollowed link. For example, if you specify 7 days, the color indicator for a followed link expires after 7 days and reverts to the unfollowed link color. If you choose Never, followed links never revert to the unfollowed color. Pressing the Now button causes all followed links to immediately revert to the color of unfollowed links. The default value specifies that followed links expire after 30 days.

On Windows and Macintosh, you can select colors for links, text, and background in the Colors panel. Click the Custom check boxes, then press the Choose Color buttons (on Macintosh, click the colored boxes). If the check box is unchecked, default settings display unfollowed links in blue, followed links in purple, text in black, and background in white. For background, you can also choose an image file.

On Windows and UNIX, the Images panel lets you choose how to display an image's colors to most closely match the computer's available colors.

In the Fonts panel, a set of pull-down menus lets you choose the font and font size for each of the two types of fonts that pages use to display text: Proportional and Fixed. Most text uses a proportional font. Text in editable fields and certain paragraphs preformatted by the author of a page typically use a fixed font.

Also in the Fonts panel, you can use the For the Encoding pull-down menu to choose the character set encoding that's associated with each proportional and fixed font pair. Netscape lets you choose encodings in order to accommodate the character symbols of numerous languages. You can view or modify the fonts associated with any encoding by choosing the encoding name from the menu, then choosing items from the proportional and fixed font pull-down menus. For example, for the default encoding Latin1, you can choose to display proportional font text in 12 point Times and fixed font text in 10 point Courier. Note that to apply a particular encoding to a page, choose from the Options | Document Encoding hierarchical menu.

Selecting a home page

You can designate your own home page (the page the Netscape application first brings to the screen each time you open a new window) by supplying a URL as a preferences panel item. The home page designated initially with Pacific Bell Internet software (the default) has this URL: http://www.pbi.net/dial/home.html

You can change your home page (and change back to the default) clicking the radio button Home Page Location in Options | General | Appearance, then typing the URL of the new home page you want. Alternatively, you can check the radio button Blank Page if you want the home page to be empty of content.

Each time you ask the Netscape application to open a new window, the designated home page is brought to screen. The URL can designate a page from a remote computer or one on your hard disk.

To get the URL of a page on your hard disk, choose File | Open File. Then select the page (file) on your hard disk (for example, you can choose your bookmarks file). After the page opens, you'll see its URL in the location field. You can select and copy the URL, then paste it into the Home Page Location text field in your preferences.

At first, you probably won't have any pages stored on your hard disk. But later, you might want quick and sure access to certain pages, such as one with valuable links or one you've created for yourself.

Viewing inline images

Ideally, pages on the screen should present images (or other multimedia effects) as simply and efficiently as text. However, images (and sounds and movies) are relatively larger in byte size than text and can take considerable time to transport from remote computers (servers) to your computer. The length of time needed to bring a page with images depends on several factors, most prominently the speed of the modem or direct link connecting you with a remote server. To compensate for the potential lethargy of transmitting images, Netscape software offers features that let you manipulate how images are handled.

The Netscape application loads images into pages automatically. If the author of a page has designed the page with inline images, the images are displayed when you bring the page to your screen. You have the option to turn off automatic image loading by unchecking the Options | Auto Load Images menu item. When this menu item is unchecked, the images in pages are replaced by small icons. In addition, the small replacement icon is sometimes accompanied by alternative text. Also called ALT text, alternative text is shown only as a substitution when an image is not loaded.

You can view these images at a later time. To manually load all images that are represented by icons, you can press the Images button in the toolbar or select the View | Load Images menu item. To manually load an individual image, click on the image's icon.

The advantage of unchecking Auto Load Images is that pages are brought to screen faster. The disadvantage is that you can't view the images until you specify that you want the images loaded.

The Auto Load Images item affects subsequent links and not the current contents of a page. However, if you choose the View | Reload menu item or press the Reload button on the toolbar, you bring the current page back again, this time with the Auto Load Image option active.

You also have the option of displaying an image incrementally as the image is transmitted or in a single burst after the transmission. Typically, the While Loading option provides more satisfying feedback. However, on a fast network, the After Loading option may complete the load slightly faster.

To set this option, choose the Options | General | Images menu item, then select one of the two radio buttons: While Loading or After Loading.

Like highlighted text, an inline image can be linked to another page, another position on the same page, or any type of external file such as an external image. As with all links, pointing the mouse button over a link puts the URL location of the prospective link in the status field.

Viewing external images

External images (unlike inline images) are displayed in their own windows. You can view an external image by clicking on a link to the image. The Netscape application can open external images stored in GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), and XBM (X Bit Map) file formats. Other file formats require that you have a suitable helper application available on your hard disk (and referenced in the Helpers panel).

Links to external images work like links to pages. An external image file has a unique URL just like an ordinary page. External images are not automatically loaded in their full representation even if the Auto Load Images item is checked.

You can click on highlighted text, an image icon, or an inline image to bring an external image into a separate window on the screen. Netscape or the external application opens and presents the image in a separate window. You must click back into the Netscape window to continue working with the Netscape application.

Pages that present large or detailed images often have inline snapshot images (also called thumbnail images) inserted into pages that serve as links to external images. Unlike the icon replacements, these snapshots provide an approximate view of the actual image, yet are still much smaller and faster to transport than the full image. You can expand the snapshot into the full image by clicking once on the snapshot.

Filling in forms

You can do more than read Netscape pages; you can write on them. Pages can contain forms for you to enter and send information. For example, a page might have a form with fields for you to enter a name and address next to a button that sends the information to the page's author. Forms can offer editable fields with or without default text, check boxes, radio buttons, pull-down menus, selection lists, and buttons to send or clear the information you enter. The content you enter into a form doesn't permanently alter the page (you don't modify the source page at its location), yet the form gives you the ability to conveniently transmit a response.

To send ordinary e-mail, you fill in fields to supply the content of your message, the subject summary, and the e-mail address of the intended recipient. Pages with forms let you reply to information you read in the page. To send a form, you fill in one or more fields embedded within a page, usually labeled with instructions and configured with a button that sends the form's contents to the recipient without requiring you to provide any e-mail address.

The author of a page determines the layout of a form. A page can contain multiple forms, each form capable of sending fields independently of another form on the page. Fields in a form can restrict the kind or range of text you enter (such as numbers only) to help you fill in the form as desired.

Typically, forms give you a fast and easy way to make a request or send back a response regarding the page you are reading. Forms can supply an interface to databases with fields that let you query for information and perform Internet searches. The Usenet news pages, designed for people to communicate with each other on special interests, contain forms for you to enter messages and subscribe to newsgroups. The Netscape software has built-in links to pages with forms for you to comment about the Netscape application, and request product information.

Printing and finding

Many of the File and Edit menu items in the Netscape application work as they do on other applications. To print the contents of the current page, choose File | Print or press the Print button in the toolbar. A Print dialog box lets you select printing options and begin printing. On Windows, you can choose File | Print Preview to see a screen display of a printed page.

When you view a page containing frames, you'll see the File | Print Frame menu item in place of File | Print. The command lets you print only the page of a currently selected frame. The dialog box options for printing the page are unchanged.

When printing a page, the Netscape application formats content according to the size of the printed page rather than the size of the onscreen window. The print command rearranges the page layout (text is wordwrapped and graphics are repositioned) in order to accommodate paper size.

To set up the page for printing, choose File | Page Setup. You can use this command to choose landscape printing (across the long side of paper) instead of the more common portrait orientation.

To cut, copy, and paste, choose the respective items from the Edit menu. Note that Cut and Paste items are only effective in certain editable fields. The content area is a read-only field that only enables you to select and copy text for use elsewhere.

To find a word or phrase within a page, choose Edit | Find or press the Find button in the toolbar. A Find dialog box lets you enter the string of characters you wish to find. Check the Match case radio button (Case Sensitive on the Macintosh and UNIX) to require capital letters to match.

On Windows, check the Up or Down radio button to direct the search toward the beginning or end of the document. If there is a current selection, the search begins at the selection and does not wrap around. On Macintosh and UNIX, check the Find Backwards check box to start the search from the beginning or end of the document.

To find the same word or phrase again, choose Edit | Find Again.

Security indicators

A document has one of three security states: secure, insecure, or mixed. The most prominent security indicator, located at the screen's bottom-left, is a doorkey on blue for secure documents and a broken doorkey on gray for insecure documents. The secure doorkey icon varies slightly depending on the grade of encryption: the doorkey has two teeth for high-grade and one tooth for medium-grade. The colorbar over the content area is blue for secure and gray for insecure. A mixed document, with insecure information omitted, is shown as secure.

A URL beginning with https:// shows that the document came from a secure server. To connect to an HTTP server that offers security, insert the letter "s" so that the URL begins with https://. Use http:// otherwise. Similarly, a news URL that starts with snews: (instead of news:) shows that the document comes from a secure news server (again, insert the letter "s" if your news server offers security). Use two slashes (//) after the colon (:) for news servers other than the default one. Chose the View | Document Info menu item for security details.

A secure document can only have inline information from secure sources. The insecure information on a mixed security document is replaced by a mixed security icon. Bringing a mixed security document to screen produces a notification dialog.

If a form appears on a secure page that has an insecure submit process, a notification dialog always appears. The warning states that although the document is secure, the submission you are about to make is insecure and could be compromised by a third party. If you are sending passwords, credit cards numbers, or other information you would like to keep private, it would be safer for you to cancel the submission.

If an insecure document contains secure information (either inline or as part of a form), no special action is taken. The document is considered insecure. This includes insecure forms with secure submission processes.

Several notification dialog boxes inform you about the security status of documents. You can choose whether or not to receive these dialogs by setting the panel items in Options | Security | Alerts (or by unchecking a dialog's Show this Alert Next Time box).

Notification dialog boxes

Document information

To view elements of a document's structure, composition, and security status, choose View | Document Info. The information, displayed in a separate Netscape window, helps you establish the document's authenticity and other security characteristics.

In the upper portion of the window, the document's structure is presented as a hierarchy of the component URLs (for example, the URLs of image files contained in the document). The lower portion of the window consists of several fields stating location, type, source, cache, length, modification, and character set encoding information, plus the particulars of a document's security status.

To interpret the security status of a document, you should verify that the information you see

If a document is insecure, the security information notifies you that encryption is not used and there is no server certificate. If a document is secure, the security information tells you encryption's grade, export control, key size, and algorithm type. In addition, the server certificate presents data that identifies Like documents, certificate information is protected by encryption to ensure authenticity and integrity. The data can include the following:

<< Netscape Handbook: Contents
<- Getting Aquainted
-> Surfing the Web
>> Index

info@netscape.com
Copyright © 1994-1996 Netscape Communications Corporation.