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 is purple). 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.

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.

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