Browser Basics 

When using your web browser, clicking on any underlined text
displayed in a contrasting color (the default is blue) or on any
graphic image outlined in a contrasting color (again, the default
color is blue) will take you directly to another location on the Web.
Furthermore, any link you have already visited will be displayed in
a different color (the default for this course is pink). World Wide Web navigation is a simple matter of pointing and clicking your mouse button. 

All browsers offer on-screen Help for the new user. Reading the
Help files will be most useful as you develop your understanding
of the features of the specific browser that you are using. As you
upgrade to newer versions of the browser software down the road,
this is where you will want to look first to figure out how to use
the new features that are being continually added to each new
release. 

No matter where you wander on your journeys through the World
Wide Web, clicking on the Home button will always return you to
the webpage you have selected as your home location. Most web
browsers come pre-configured with the home location set either to
Netscape, Microsoft, AOL, or the homepage of your Internet
Service Provider. You may want to change the default home page
of your web browser to the course website for the duration of the
course to save yourself the trouble of typing in the URL (internet
address) of the course webpages each time you log on. Consult
the Help files for instructions specific to your web browser. 

The Stop button is used to stop the download of a new webpage if
you suddenly change your mind or if the page is taking forever to
download. Sometimes the Stop icon is displayed as an X inside a
circle . 

Clicking on the Print button or icon will initialize your printer and
print a copy of the webpage currently on your screen. 

The Reload or Refresh button (sometimes displayed as a circular
arrow) initiates another request to the webserver asking it to
download the current page again. You will also want to use the
Reload button when accessing websites that are frequently
updated. The browser will, by default, reload any pages that you
have visited recently from the disk cache, a location on your hard
drive where the browser temporarily stores the pages you have
visited. If the browser sees that the webpage you have selected is
in the disk cache, it will load the older version rather than a fresh,
new one. 

The Back and Forward buttons also use the disk cache we
mentioned a minute ago. After you have moved away from your
homepage and followed several links in your current excursion on
the Web, you can click these buttons to almost instantly navigate
to previously visited pages. You will notice that these buttons are
inoperable when you first open the web browser for a new session.
You can't go back if you haven't been there and you can only go
forward if you've already been there and then gone back… makes
sense doesn't it? 

Many web browsers have a great little mouse shortcut that saves
you the trouble of moving the cursor back up to the button bar. If
you hold down the right mouse button on a PC (Mac users just
need to hold down their one-and-only mouse button), a little menu
will pop up on the screen giving you the option of going Back or
Forward. Microsoft Internet Explorer has a similar feature using the
Control key and the left and right arrow keys. 

All web browsers have another common feature that allows you to
easily get back to interesting websites that you find on your
exploration of the World Wide Web. Netscape calls this feature
Bookmarks , Microsoft Internet Explorer and America Online both
call it the Favorites list. 

To add a Netscape bookmark, you will first navigate to the
webpage you want to add to your list. When the page has finished
loading, move the mouse up to the Bookmarks menu at the tope
of the window. In the pop-down menu that appears, select Add
Bookmark. Wait a bit while the new bookmark is written to the
hard disk bookmark file. Select the Bookmarks popdown menu
again and you should see that the title of the page has been
added to your bookmark list. Selecting the item will now
automatically take you back to this page. 

Internet Explorer works much the same way. Navigate to the
webpage you want to add to your Favorites list. Click on the
Favorites icon and select Add. A dialog box will appear
reconfirming that you want to add a shortcut to this webpage to
your favorites list. Click OK and the shortcut will be written to the
hard disk. 

America Online's web browser makes adding favorite webpages to
your Favorites file a simple matter of clicking, dragging and
dropping. Navigate to the desired webpage. Click on the little
Heart icon on upper right hand side above the displayed webpage.
A dialog box will appear asking if you want to add the webpage to
your Favorites List. Or, you can hold the mouse button while you
drag the heart icon up to the Favorites List (an open folder with a
heart in it next to the question mark). Release the mouse button
and the page is added to your list of favorites. 

Copyright © 1997 by Bob Jost. Used by permission of the author. 

Proceed to Advanced Browser Techniques