Web Surf Tricks (Using Netscape 3.01 on a Mac)
A Learnlet by Caleb John Clark 06/97, at: http://www.cts.com/browse/jbordage/learnlets

 

Surfs up!
No fear!
Surfing tricks
Await you here.

HELLO, I'M CALEB. This Learnlet will show the beginning Web surfer a few tricks. I'll be using Netscape 3.01 on a Mac, but most of this material holds true for other browsers, even if the details are slightly different.

THIS IS BY no means a complete manual; more like a friend showing you some useful tricks they've learned about Web surfing.
This Learnlet works even better if you print a copy and use it while you follow along on your computer. If you're hooked up to a printer, just go up to "File" and choose "Print".
Since you're using a browser to view this Learnlet, it's also very easy to try these tricks as you go along.
I'm assuming you have a basic level of Mac and Web knowledge. If you can write, print and save a letter, and you've surfed on the Web a few times, we're good to go!

OK, here's what we're going to do:

THIS LEARNLET IS divided up into sections that are listed below. You can skip around at will by clicking on the section names, or just stroll down and start with the first one. No fear dudes and dudettes, surfs up!

Sections

The Low Down: What are these things we call browsers?
Buttons: What the buttons in the top row do.
Bookmarks: Go back to sites you liked.
Scroll Bar: Useful tips on fast scrolling.
Go Go Dancin': Retracing your steps, like string in a cave...
Options: Control which buttons are displayed.
Location Line: You can type directly into the location line to save time.
Status Bar: Watch it and you'll always know what's going on.
Preferences: Set your own home page.
Click and Hold: Point and click to bookmark and go back in a frame.
Surfing Super Fast: Turn images off.
Save: Save text on sites to your very own hard drive.

The Low Down

BY UNDERSTANDING BASIC concepts behind how a browser like Netscape works, you'll be able to figure out tons of stuff and surf like a pro.
All browsers are basically tools that people use to view what's on the Web. In order to view Web pages browsers have to act like translators. When you come to a Web site the browser simply takes a jumble of unreadable code (HTML, Java, etc..) like this:

And translates it into something you can read, like this:

Like a true translator, browsers have no content themselves, only the ability to translate stuff that is given to them. So, if you hear someone say, "is that on Netscape?" you can now gently point out that nothing is "on" Netscape. Netscape simply lets us see and read what's out there on the Web.

Cool Tip: If you'd like to get an idea of what's being translated, simply go to any site and drop the "View" menu to "Document Source". A new window will pop up and show you the source code Netscape is decoding for you. This is a great way to learn how to make Web pages as well!

Section list | Next section

Buttons

LETS EXPLORE THESE important buttons one by one. Most are simple, but some have surprises (Incidentally, all these functions can be done with drop menus and key strokes.)

From left to right:

Back: Takes you back to the last page you were on.
Forward: Pushes you forward to any site were at.
Home: Takes you to the home page that is set in preferences.
Reload: Checks to see if you're on the most current version of a the page.
Images: Loads images if you have them turned off.
Open: Type in a Web pages address.
Print: You guessed it.
Find: Finds text on the page you're at.
Stop: Stops any page that's loading, or any action that is currently in progress.

Section list | Next section

Bookmarks

A NETSCAPE BOOKMARK is just like a bookmark for books. When you're on a Web page and you think you might like to come back to it, simply drop down "Bookmarks",

to "Add Bookmark". Then you can drop the "Bookmarks" menu down again and you'll see your new bookmark has been added to the end of the menu. When you want to revisit you bookmarked site, simply select the bookmark for it.

This is pretty basic, but what some people don't know is that you can edit your bookmarks.
As you may already have found out, it's easy to bookmark oodles of pages and end up with a very long bookmark menu. But by dropping down the "Window" menu to "Bookmarks" you can get a new window to come up that looks like this:

Now you can create folders, add separators and such by dropping down the "Item" menu. Once you make folders, you can then drag and drop bookmarks into them.
Any changes you make in the bookmark window will automatically change the bookmark drop menu. You'll see that folders you add in the window will appear in the bookmark menu and you'll be able to access all the bookmarks in them.

Section list | Next section

Scroll Bar

HERE'S A FEW tricks that make using the scroll bar much faster. (Scroll bars are so common that the people who make software all use the same design. The tricks below can be applied to any window that has a scroll bar, in all types of software, on a PC or Mac, that has a scroll bar.)
OK, let's belly up to the bar and see what's happening:

You probably know that the arrow
will move you up or down one line at a time.

But if you click within the bar
you can go up or down one entire page at a time.

But wait, there's more! click and drag the square
to go anywhere in the window you want.

Tip: You can also use the space bar to go down one page at a time.

Now moving around a page is as easy as a scroll in the park!

Section list | Next section

Go Go Dancin'

PEOPLE WHO EXPLORE caves sometimes let out a string behind them as they go. When they want to get out of the cave, they simply follow the string back. Wouldn't it be nice to have some virtual string to let out while surfing the Web? Then you could go go dance around at will. Well, you do.
You'll notice a "Go" menu item to the left of "Bookmarks".

As you surf around the Web you'll see that every site you've been to is listed in order under the Go menu. But unlike bookmarks, you can't edit the Go menu, it's only intended to keep track of where you've been on a particular surf.
When you quit Netscape the listings in the Go menu are all deleted.

An example of go go dancin' using the go menu: After doing a search at a site like "Yahoo", you'll notice that there will be a listing under the Go menu titled "Yahoo search results". This real handy because you can return to the results of your search anytime you want, instead of having to run a new search every time.

Section list | Next section

Options

YEAH KNOW THOSE buttons and stuff at the top of Netscape? They don't have to be there. Like most software, Netscape has many different ways of doing the same thing.
By getting rid of buttons you don't need you can make more room for Web sites to be displayed. Drop down the "Options" menu and you'll see "Show Toolbar", "Show Location" "Show Directory Buttons"

 

This is the Toolbar:

The Toolbar is actually useful, although every command in it can be accessed by dropping down menus, or using key strokes which are listed opposite the the drop menu commands. For example, "Back" can be achieved on a Mac by hitting "Command" and "[".

 

This the Location line:

This is useful because you can type directly into it, and it shows you the site you're currently at. But seeing the location line is by no means necessary for a good surf, because you can use the "File" menu and drop to "Open Location" to achieve the same thing. More on controlling the way these buttons look in Location Line.

 

These are the Directory Buttons:

These are all sites that Netscape Incorporated has organized for you. Some surfers don't display these button because they have most of the same sites bookmarked, or they don't want Netscape Inc. suggesting to them "what's cool".
I usually surf with the buttons looking like this:

Section list | Next section

Location Line

THE LOCATION LINE at the top of Netscape is more then place to see what address you're at. You can type a domain name directly into it and Netscape will kindly fill in all the "http://www..." blather for you.
So, if you want to get to "http://www.nytimes.com" all you have to type in is "nytimes", like this:

As you type, you'll notice the word "Location:"

changes to "Go To:", a big clue!

After entering the domain you want to go to, hit "Return", Netscape will kindly send you to the site and fill in all the blather like this:

Section list | Next section

Status Bar

SOMETIMES YOU'LL BE surfing along, hit a link, and nothing will seem to happen for a few seconds.
Au contraire I say! If you ever want to know just what Netscape is up to, look down at the very bottom of the browser window at the Status Bar:

On the left, a line of text will tell you what is happening:

And on the right a handy little bar shows you how much of the site you're on has been downloaded (this is showing about 98%):

Section list | Next section

General Preferences

EVER WONDER WHY Netscape's site always comes up first when you start a surf? Here's why.
Under "Options" you'll see "General Preferences". Selecting this will bring up a window like this:

There's a lot that can be done here, but we'll just cover the basics.
In the upper left you'll see a section where you can control the look of those buttons at the top of the screen.
I suggest "text" because it makes the buttons, if you choose to display them, much smaller. See Options for suggestions on which buttons are really needed.
On the bottom you'll see a section called "Browser starts with".

This little gem is the reason Netscape Inc.'s Web site is one of the most visited on the Web! When you load any version of Netscape their home page is loaded as the starting page. This means that every time you start up Netscape you end up at their site, a good marketing move to be sure, but you can enter any URL address in here, like you're favorite search engine as in the above example, or "Blank Page" (my favorite) which will have a blank browser window come up when you start up Netscape.
On the top row you'll see other preference choices. This Learnlet is too small to explain all of them, but they're pretty easy to figure out and hard to make mistakes with, so don't hesitate to play around with them. No fear!

A woefully incomplete note on plug-ins:
As you surf the Net you'll probably run into sites that say you need a particular plug-in. In brief, plug-ins are little pieces of software that allow Netscape to translate things it can't do by itself, like video or sound. Once you download a plug-in to your computer, you then put it into the "plug-in" folder in the "Netscape" folder. Then you use the "Helpers" preference area to tell Netscape that you have the plug-in and to use it when it can. Confused? Good, that means you're normal. Maybe I'll make a Learnlet about plug-ins sometime...

Section list |Next section

Click and Hold

HERE'S A GOOD trick. Try clicking and holding the mouse button down (that's holding down instead of just clicking) on different parts of a Web site.
On links you'll see that you can bookmark a link without actually going there. On graphics you'll see that you can save a graphic onto your hard drive by picking, "Save as...".
And when you're in a frame, you'll see that you can go "back in frame", as well as open a new window with just that frame in it.
Check it out, it's a pretty cool hidden little feature!

Section list | Next section

Surfing Super Fast

THE IMAGES ON a page can take a long time to download. This can be a real hassle, especially on a slow connection, or when you're doing lots of text based research. Fortunately there's a way to scream around on the Web without having to download any images.

Simply drop down the "Options" menu and de-select "Auto Load Images". Now when you come to a site you'll get all the text, but the images will look like little broken squares, like this one to the right:

This is cool! When you want to see the images on a particular page, all you have to do is hit the "Images" button () and the images on that page will load!
Buckle up, it's a fast ride surfing blind. You must learn to feel the pictures grasshoppa', see them in your mind...

Section list | Next section

Save

LAST BUT NOT least, saving. It's easy to get the impression from the Web that all the stuff you see is somehow locked in place on the Web site you're looking at, but this is not so, no, no.
When you're on a Web page you can drop the "File" menu down to "Save as" and save the text of the page on your computer!

This is the save window. You'll notice that you have the choice under "Format" of saving the page as "Text" or "Source". "Text" will give you just that, a text document you can open up with software like Word. "Source" will save the page in HTML format. This is often better for keeping the layout more readable, but it also makes the document viewable only with a browser like Netscape.
To open a document saved as "Source" simply start Netscape, or some other browser, and then choose "File" and drop to "Open File", and find your document.

Section list | End

That's it!

DIVE IN AND try some of this out on your next surf. And don't be afraid to explore and experiment for yourself. Software is really hard to break and Netscape is still free to reload even if you do! No fear dude, surf's up!

I hope you found this Learnlet useful. Please email me with any questions or feedback.

Humanize,

Caleb.

Back to the Learnlets (http://www.cts.com/browse/jbordage/learnlets)

 

Copyright © 1997
Caleb John Clark

* * *