Netscape 7.1

The Navigator browser window initially displays a home page, the page you see each time you start Communicator. Communicator is preset to display the Netscape home page, but you can change this to any page you want. See "Setting a home page" to learn how to do this.

Use the component bar to switch between Communicator's different components.

What's a URL?

Near the top of the Navigator browser window, the Location field contains the address of the page being viewed. This address is called a URL (Universal Resource Locator). Each page on the web has its own unique URL that identifies its location. Like an address, the URL tells Navigator where to find the page. Here are some sample URLs:

http://netcenter.com/

ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/guide.html

gopher://mysystem.com/new/report.htm

Note

Sometimes the word Netsite appears in place of the Location field. This indicates that the current page is located on a computer that uses Netscape server software. See "Viewing other pages" for more information about servers.

A URL has the format protocol://computer/directory/filename. The protocol tells Navigator which transfer method to use to get the page. Some commonly used protocols are HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), news (the protocol used by Usenet news groups), and gopher (an alternative transfer protocol). The second part of the URL (after the //) tells Navigator the name of the computer, the directory where the page can be found, and the page's filename. Pages typically have filenames that end with an .htm or .html extension. The extension means that the file is a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) file that can be displayed in a web browser such as Navigator.

Note:

Some pathnames use special characters. When typing a URL into the Location field, you'll need to enter the characters exactly as specified in the URL. For example, some URLs contain the tilde character (~), which designates a particular home directory on a server.

Tip

If you don't know the URL for a page, you may be able to find the page by typing a word or phrase in the Location field. See "Finding information using Internet keywords," later in this chapter.

Arranging your toolbars

You can change the order in which the Navigation, Location, and Personal (Windows and Unix only) toolbars appear at the top of the Navigator window, and minimize, shrink, or eliminate them if you want to see more of your favorite web pages.

Rearranging a toolbar

• Drag a toolbar up or down by its left edge to reposition it at the top of the Navigator browser window.

Minimizing and expanding a toolbar

• Click the vertical tab on the left edge of the toolbar to minimize it.

  
  
  

• Click the horizontal tab on the left edge of a minimized toolbar to restore it.

Hiding and showing a toolbar

You can hide a toolbar if you won't be using it often, or if you want to maximize the amount of space used for displaying web pages; otherwise you're probably better off minimizing it.

To hide a toolbar:

• From the View menu, choose the name of the toolbar you want to hide.

To restore a hidden toolbar:

• From the View menu, choose the name of the toolbar you want to show.

Switching to Communicator's other components

The component bar, in the bottom right corner of the Navigator browser window, lets you easily open or switch between your Navigator browser, Messenger inbox, newsgroups, address book, or Composer editor.

• Click one of the buttons in the component bar to open or switch to a different Communicator component.

• Alternatively, you can choose the name of a component from the Communicator menu.

Viewing page information

To display a web page, Navigator transfers a copy of the page from the computer where the page is stored to your computer. Navigator loads the page into the browser window and remembers the location of the original page. This way, if the page's contents change, you can update the page in the browser window by clicking the Reload button in the Navigation toolbar.

Navigator provides several ways for you to see page information:

Viewing other pages

Most of the information on the World Wide Web is organized in pages that are linked to each other. Pages are located on different computers that are connected to the Internet. When you tell Navigator that you want to look at a particular page, it sends a request for that page to the other computers on the Internet. The network of computers passes the request to the computer storing the page that you want to see. That computer receives your request, finds the page, and responds by sending you a copy of the page over the Internet. When the page arrives at your computer, Navigator displays it in the browser window.

The computer that sends you a copy of the page is usually a larger, more powerful computer called a server. When Navigator receives the page and displays it, it is acting as a client, sending requests for pages and displaying them on your behalf.

Some pages are divided into rectangular areas called frames. Each frame contains a separate page.

To look at another page, you can:

• Click a link on a page (also called a hyperlink)

• Type a URL in the Location field

Clicking links

A link contains the address (URL) of the page you want to see. When you click the link, Navigator gets a copy of the page and displays it on your computer.
 
 

By default, a blue link represents a page you haven't viewed yet, and a purple link represents one that you have.

To tell whether something is a link, place your mouse pointer over it. If the pointer changes into a hand, you've found a link.
 
 

Typing a URL

Most of the time, you won't need to know a page's URL because it's included as part of the link. But increasingly, you see URLs on business cards, in magazine and newspaper articles and in advertisements. You might have to type the specific URL of a page you want to view if you can't get to the page by clicking a link.

To go to a page by entering its URL:

1. Click in the Location (sometimes called "Netsite") field.

2. Type the page's URL.

3. (Windows) Press Enter.

Tip

If the URL begins with http://, you can leave off this part of the URL and Navigator will automatically add it. For example, to go to the URL

http://netcenter.com/, you can just type netcenter.com in the Location field.

Tip

If you don't know the URL for a page, you may be able to find the page by typing a word or phrase in the Location field. See "Finding information using Internet keywords," later in this chapter.

Tip

(Windows and Unix only) To choose from a list of URLs that you've previously typed, pull down the history menu for the Location field. (Windows only) To clear the entries in the Location bar menu, from the Edit menu, choose Preferences. Choose Navigator in the Category list, then click Clear Location Bar.

See "What's a URL?" earlier in this chapter for more information on URLs.

Seeing where you've been

Navigator lets you quickly return to pages you've already seen during the current session.

You can also add bookmarks so that you can easily go to pages you visit often. See "Creating a bookmark" later in this chapter for more information.

Tip

You can always return to Netscape Netcenter's home page by clicking the Netscape logo in the upper right corner of the Navigator browser window.

Returning to a specific page

To see the list of pages you've previously visited (called a history list):

1. From the Communicator menu, choose Tools, and then choose History.

   Alternatively, type Ctrl+H (Windows) or Command+H (Mac OS).

   (Windows and Unix) The History window displays information about pages you've visited during the current and previous sessions. You can specify the number of days that page visit information is stored by choosing the Preferences command on the Edit menu and clicking the Navigator category.

   (Mac OS) The History window displays page information only for the current session (until you quit Communicator).

2. To return to a specific page, double-click its entry in the History window.

Keeping track of URLs you've typed

Communicator keeps track of URLs you've typed in the Location field's history list. To return to a specific page, choose it from the list.

To clear the entries in the Location field's history list:

 

1. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.

2. Click Navigator in the Category list.

3. Click Clear Location Bar.

4. Click OK.

 

1. Click the Back button to return to the previous page in the history list.

2. Click the Forward button to display the next page in the history list.

Tip

Hold down the Back or Forward button to see a menu of the pages that you can go back to or forward to.

Returning to your home page

• Click the Home button.

You choose the URL of your home page using your preferences. See "Setting a home page" for more information.

Working with bookmarks

Bookmarks provide a permanent way for you to mark pages you often visit. Unlike the history list, which gets discarded when you quit Communicator, bookmarks stay in the bookmark list until you remove them.

Creating a bookmark

1. Go to the page you want to mark.

2. (Windows and Unix only) Hold down the Bookmarks button to display the Bookmarks menu.

3. From the Bookmarks menu, choose Add Bookmark to add a bookmark for the current page to the bottom of the Bookmarks menu.

You can organize bookmarks by putting them into folders. See "Adding a bookmark to a folder (Windows and Unix)" and "Organizing your bookmarks," later in this chapter, for more information.

Viewing the bookmark list

• (Windows and Unix) Hold down the Bookmarks button to see the list of bookmarks.

Returning to a page using a bookmark

• From the list of bookmarks, choose the bookmark of the page you want to see.

Adding a bookmark to a folder (Windows and Unix)

1. Go to the page you want to create a bookmark for.

2. Drag the page proxy icon (located to the left of the Location field) over the Bookmark button, so that the list of bookmarks appears.

3. Move the mouse over the folder into which you want to put the bookmark.

Adding a bookmark to a folder (Mac OS)

1. Go to the page you want to create the bookmark for.

2. Choose Edit Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu to open the Bookmarks window.

3. Drag the page proxy icon (located to the left of the Location field) over the Bookmarks window.

4. Move the mouse over the folder into which you want to put the bookmark.

Organizing your bookmarks

Because bookmarks are such a powerful and convenient feature, Navigator provides a Bookmarks window so you can organize your bookmarks. When you change the arrangement of bookmarks in the Bookmarks window, Navigator updates the Bookmarks menu.

To display the Bookmarks window:

• (Windows and Unix) From the Communicator menu, choose Bookmarks, and then choose Edit Bookmarks.

The Bookmarks window displays bookmarks and bookmark folders in a list, arranged like files and folders on your hard disk. The bookmark names are the same ones that appear in the Bookmarks menu, except that the Bookmarks window provides many more commands for organizing your bookmarks.

Creating a new folder for bookmarks

1. Open the bookmarks window.

2. From the File menu in the Bookmarks window, choose New Folder.

3. Type a name for the folder and click OK.

4. Drag bookmarks from the Bookmarks window into the new folder.

For more information about working with bookmarks in the Bookmarks window, see Navigator's online Help.

Setting a homepage

You can choose any page to be your home page (the page you see each time you start Communicator). Typically, the preset home page is Netscape Netcenter's home page and has this URL:

http://netcenter.com/

To choose a new home page:

1. Go to the page that you want to use as your home page.

2. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.

3. Click Navigator in the Category list.

4. Click Use Current Page or type the page's URL.

5. Click OK.

Creating your own personal start page

You can create your own personalized start page using the free My Netscape service from Netscape Netcenter. Your personal start page is private, fast and easy to set up, customizable, and is accessible from anywhere.

With My Netscape you can customize the information that you see on the web. For example, you can select the type of news (business, science, sports) that you want to see, and My Netscape automatically updates the news throughout the day. You can also track your favorite stocks, get your daily horoscope, keep track of appointments with a handy web calendar, or use a web calculator for quick calculations.
 

Tip

Netscape Netcenter also offers other free services such as Netscape AOL Instant Messenger, automatic software upgrades, and your own personal home page. For more information, go to http://netcenter.com/.

Setting up your personal page

If you're a new user, follow these steps:

1. The first time you start Communicator, you'll be asked to register with Netscape Netcenter.

   If you prefer to create your personal page at a later time, you can click the My Netscape button in the Navigator browser whenever you're ready to create your personal page.

2. At the completion of the registration process, follow the instructions to create your start page.

If you're an existing user who hasn't yet registered with Netscape Netcenter:

1. Click the My Netscape button to display a default personal page.

2. To customize your page, click Personalize.

Making your My Netscape page your default home page

To make your My Netscape page your default home page:

1. Click My Netscape to go to your personal page.

2. Click the link "Make This Your Home Page" on left side of your personal page.

Accessing your personal page from anywhere

To get to your personal page from any computer that has web access:

1. Make sure the computer is connected to the Internet.

2. Start your web browser.

3. Go to http://my.netscape.com.

   Alternatively, if you are running Netscape Communicator version 4.5 or later, click the My Netscape button in the Navigator browser.

4. When the My Netscape Welcome page appears, click Sign In on the right side of the page to access your personal My Netscape page.

Searching for information on the web

To look for information on a specific subject, or for a specific page, you can use a search engine (sometimes called a search utility).

1. Click the Search button in the Navigator browser window to see a page that contains links to popular Internet search engines.

2. Click Search Tips on the Search page to read a description of how the search engine performs its search, and to get instructions and advice on how to perform an effective search.

Tip

If you don't find what you're looking for using one search engine, try using another one.

Finding information using Internet keywords

Internet keywords let you find information by typing simple words or phrases into the Navigator browser's Location field, instead of having to remember or type web addresses (URLs).

The Navigator browser lets you type any words or phrases directly into the browser's Location field in order to point you directly to the information you're looking for. If you are looking for a particular product, service, company, or organization, using Internet keywords is often the fastest way to find the information you want. Using Internet keywords is also convenient, since you can get to the web site you're looking for without having to remember the web site's URL.

For example, entering the keywords "United Nations" will automatically take you to the United Nations web site located at http://www.un.org/. Entering the keywords "quote AOL" displays the latest AOL stock price. Entering the keywords "San Francisco weather" displays a search results page with a link to the local weather forecast for San Francisco.

To use Internet keywords:

1. In the Navigator browser, type the name of a product, service, company, or other keyword into the Location field. Table 3.1 lists some typical keywords you can use.

2. Table 3.1 Using Internet Keywords

Tip

For a complete list of keywords you can use to help narrow your search, from Communicator's Help menu, choose Internet Keywords.

1. The browser takes you to the web site that best matches what you typed.

How Navigator searches for matching web sites

When you enter Internet keywords into the Navigator browser, Navigator first searches a Netscape Internet keyword database for a page that contains the keywords you entered, and displays that page. If the Internet keyword database doesn't contain a match, Navigator displays a search results page with links to related sites. If Navigator can't find related sites, it searches the web using the words you entered in the Location field, and displays a search results page.

Finding information using What's Related

Netscape Navigator lets you display a menu of web sites and services similar to the page you are currently viewing, so you can easily find related information.

To see a list of web sites and services related to the current page:

1. Click What's Related in the Navigator browser

   
    

2. Choose an item in the list to go to that page.

Tip

For the fastest access to What's Related information, set the Navigator browser to autoload the What's Related list for every page. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences, click the + next to Navigator to expand the items underneath, and select Smart Browsing. Under What's Related, click Always.

Searching for text within a page

To find a word or phrase within a page:

1. From the Edit menu, choose Find in Page.

   If the page you are viewing contains frames, this command may instead appear as Find in Frame. You may have to click the part of the page you want to search to activate the Find in Frame command.

2. Type the word or phrase you're looking for.

3. Choose the search options you want.

4. (Windows) Click Find Next to start or continue searching.

   (Mac OS) Click Find to find the next occurrence.

   (Unix) Click Find to start or continue searching.

5. (Windows and Unix) Click the close box when you are done searching.

6. From the Edit menu, choose Find Again to find the next occurrence.

Saving pages and images

You can save copies of pages or images as files on your hard disk so that you can view them or work with them without a network connection.

Saving a page

1. Go to the page that you want to save.

2. From the File menu, choose Save As.

3. (optional) Type a new file name.

4. Choose the format you want to use to save the page.

   A file saved in HTML (source) format retains the formatting of the original page and can be viewed in the Navigator browser. A file saved in Plain Text (Text on Unix) format contains unformatted text without the HTML codes. Choose Plain Text (Text on Unix) if you want to open the file in a word processing program.

5. (Windows and Mac OS) Click Save.

What's an HTML file?

An HTML file contains special formatting codes, called HTML codes, that Communicator understands and knows how to display as a web page in the Navigator browser. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the programming language that provides the formatting codes to mark up text so that the text appears formatted when viewed in a web browser. You don't need to understand HTML in order to use Communicator, but it's important to know that Communicator's features are based on HTML.

Saving an image

1. Position the mouse pointer over the image you want to save.

2. (Windows and Unix) Click the right mouse button.

   (Mac OS) Hold down the mouse button.

3. (Windows) Choose Save Image As.

   (Mac OS and Unix) Choose Save this Image as.

4. Choose the location on your hard disk where you want to save the image.

5. (Windows and Mac OS) Click Save.

Opening a page that you've saved (Windows and Unix)

1. From the File menu, choose Open Page.

2. Click Choose File.

3. Locate the file you want to open.

4. (Windows) Click Open in the Open dialog box.

   (Unix) Click OK in the Open dialog box.

5. Click Open in the Open Page dialog box.

Opening a page that you've saved (Mac OS)

1. From the File menu, choose Open, and then choose Page in Navigator.

2. Locate the file you want to open.

3. Click Open.

Sending a page

You can automatically attach a page to a mail message.

1. Go to the page you want to send.

2. From the File menu, choose Send Page.

3. Type the email address of the person you want to send the page to.

4. Edit the Subject field if necessary.

5. Click Send.

Printing a page

1. Go to the page you want to print.

2. From the File menu, choose Print or click the Print button in the Navigation toolbar.

3. Choose the printing options you want.

4. (Windows) Click OK.

Note:

Some pages are divided into frames, which are rectangular areas that display their own pages. When printing a page containing frames, the Print Frame command replaces the Print command. To select the frame you want to print, click anywhere inside the frame. From the File menu, choose Print Frame to print the page of the currently selected frame.

What are plug-ins?

Plug-ins are extra software programs that you add to the Netscape plugins folder to enhance Communicator's capabilities. Some popular plug-ins are automatically installed with your Communicator software. Others are available from plug-in providers by copying them from the provider's web site and by following the provider's installation instructions.

To find out which plug-ins are installed:

• From the Help menu, choose About Plug-ins.

Ensuring privacy

The Internet consists of millions of computers linked together to form a public network. As data travels between your computer and its final destination, the data almost always has to travel through several other connections. This is called routing. During routing, many computers have access to your data. If you are asked to provide information such as passwords, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, or other confidential information, you should be concerned about the privacy and security of that information.

Communicator provides security features that allow you to send and receive private information when browsing with Netscape Navigator and when using Netscape Messenger.
 

Submitting confidential information

Navigator provides security features to make it more difficult for others to access your confidential information. For example, if you type your bank account number into a form on a web page, and then submit that information to a server that is operating with security features, Navigator automatically encrypts (scrambles) the information you send and decrypts (unscrambles) any information you receive from that server. For encryption to be in effect, you must be interacting with a server that offers encryption.

Important

If you submit confidential information in a form and Navigator displays a warning message that the submission you are about to make is not secure, you might want to cancel the submission and contact the company or organization that sponsors the site to find out about other ways you can submit your confidential information.

Checking to see if encryption is in effect

Check the following indicators to make sure that Navigator's encryption features are in effect:

• Check the padlock: A closed padlock (located in the bottom left corner of Navigator's window and in the Navigation toolbar) indicates that you're viewing an encrypted document; an open padlock indicates an unencrypted document. Click the padlock or the Security button in the Navigation toolbar to display the document's security status.

• Examine the URL in the Location field: If the URL begins with https:// instead of http://, then the web page being displayed comes from a server that supports encryption.

• Watch for security messages: Navigator displays a message alerting you to changes in security status as you view other web pages.