Computer Basics, The Internet, and Tutorials

Words that are underlined can usually be clicked. (Clicking means to position the pointer over the underlined word and clicking on the right button of your mouse.) This will usually link to (meaning go to) a new section or a new page. On this page a word that is underlined will take you to another section of this document that explains the meaning or usage of the underlined word or to a tutorial that explains how to use the function or program.

You can use the Back/Arrow Button at the top of your browser to return to the page you were previously viewing.

Computer Basics: What should I do if my Mouse doesn't seem to work properly?

Does your cursor not go where you want as you move your mouse, does it wiggle and move in jerks or starts? It could be lint or other dirt is clogging the rollers inside your mouse. This section will show you how to clean your mouse in just a few easy steps. Even if your mouse is working correctly, cleaning your mouse once in a while is still a good idea. *Note: close all open programs, like e-mail applications, before you start cleaning your mouse.

Turn the mouse over and look at the cover that holds a rubber ball in place. You should see arrows that show the direction that you can twist or slide the cover to remove it (usually it will be a twist counter-clockwise to open, and a clockwise twist to close it). The easiest way to do this is to slide or twist using using two fingers while holding the mouse firmly in the palm of your hand. Don't worry a mouse is not very fragile. Keep your hand in place over the cover and turn the mouse until the ball and cover fall into your hand (see picture below.

Wipe or blow away any specs of lint or dust that fall out and then inspect the cover and ball. Make sure both are clean and then set them down. Use the cover as a stand so the ball can't roll away (see image below). Very important, don't lose or damage the rubber ball! Now look inside of the mouse and notice that there are three rollers spaced equally apart inside (although some may have two rollers and a wheel inside, proceed in the same way).

Use your fingernail to remove the lint build-up on the center of each roller. You can see some bumpy detritus in the picture to the left-hand corner. When this builds up, it prevents the rollers from turning smoothly and the mouse from working correctly. Scrape in a side-to-side motion across the build-up while slowly turning the roller until all lint is removed. Repeat for all rollers (or the single wheel). Two of the rollers are held in place solidly while the third pushes back on a spring. This will be the hardest one to scrape, but it will come clean with persistence. * Note- use care, don't use a letter opener or other foreign object to clean the rollers or you may damage them.

Now all you need to do is put the mouse back together. Shake out or gently blow inside the opening to get rid of any loose lint clumps that may have fallen inside. Wipe off any lint from the ball and put it back in place. Then just return the plastic cover and twist or slide it in the opposite direction to close it again. The last thing to do is make sure to clean up the area of all of the dust and debris that has fallen out, especially on your mouse pad or it will wind up back in your mouse. You should give your mouse pad a good shake away from your desk to make sure it is clean and dust-free as well. Now your nice, clean mouse should point and click where you want it to! If you still have problems with your mouse and the cursor moving where it's supposed to you may need a new one. They are a fairly cheap item and can be picked up at any office or computer supply store. If you use a mouse often for work or play it may be worthwhile to pick up a more expensive, but ergonomic mouse that helps relieve issues such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

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What should I do if my computer is slow and freezes up on me?
Computers need to be cleaned up sometimes, just like many people do a spring cleaning of their homes, a computer needs periodic "sweeping up" as well. There are several ways to delete unused files and organize your file space. This will often free up system resources and allow your computer to run faster and more efficiently. The following are examples of ways that you can clean your computer as well as things that you should do as regular maintenance for your computer. It's a good idea to do at least some of these items at least once every three months as a minimum.

Empty Your Recycle Bin Regularly One important thing to remember is to empty your recycle bin/garbage can. Whenever you delete a file isn't actually deleted. It's stored in your recycle bin and saved in short term memory, using up RAM that your programs may need to run efficiently. To empty your recycle bin right click (second mouse button) over the icon of the garbage can and choose Empty Recycle Bin. (See picture to the right.) You can skip this step if you are going to use the Disk Cleanup Accessory in the following step.

Clean Unneeded Files Using the Windows Disk Cleanup Accessory Use the accessory that comes with most Windows operating systems called "Disk Cleanup". Go to the Start Button menu, choose Programs (or All Programs), Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. See figure below. This program (shown to the right) will delete Temporary Internet Files, Downloaded Programs (which may have been installed, but the original downloaded file that is no longer needed is still taking up space), the Recycle Bin (garbage can), and Temporary files (files the computer saves automatically during some task, but which are not needed anymore). As you highlight each one, it will give you a quick explanation. This image shows what it says for Temporary Internet Files. Under the "More Options" tab there is the option to remove some of the Windows Operating System extras. These may include games, online services, address books not used by your e-mail program, etc. Deleting some of these extras can also help you reclaim space on your hard drive. The setting tab offers you a box to check if you want Disk Cleanup to start automatically if your drive runs low on space. This is always a good option to have checked. Check For Operating System Critical Updates Verify manually that your operating system doesn't have any critical updates that need to be applied. Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and check for updates. Do this even if you think you have set your computer to apply updates automatically. This is a checkup, remember? You are doing it to make sure that nothing is wrong and one thing that could go wrong is your setting for automatic updates. This site automatically looks at your computer and then suggests high priority and optional updates specific to your operating system and your computer. Check Your Antivirus Software Check your antivirus software. Usually you can do that by clicking, double clicking, or right clicking on the little icon in the task tray. Check the date of the last virus definition file. If it has a red exclamation mark next to it is definitely out of date. Also if it isn't recent (within the last week) you probably don't have automatic updates turned on and should turn this feature on. (Automatic updates will update your virus definitions every time you connect to the Internet. Virus definitions are the files used by your antivirus software to prevent viruses.) Don't have antivirus software? Well then get some! Invest in some sort of Antivirus program like Norton Antivirus or McAfee VirusScan and update it regularly to prevent future problems and worries. A free and quick virusscan tool put out by McAfee is Stinger (http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/) . It will help with certain most common viurus types and is free. However they still recommend getting a full virusscan program. Clean Up Your Mailbox There are two main reasons for organizing your mailbox. One is organizational, it will help when you try to find things in the future if they are each stored in a folder with a clear explanatory title. The other is that if you have a ton of messages in your inbox it can slow down all other functions of your computer when you have your e-mail open. If you are using something like Outlook or Outlook Express and leave it open so you can see when you have a new message, then all of those messages in your inbox will effect your temporary memory. This means that if you are working on a large document in another program and it needs lots of memory to do something like save or insert a giant picture/graph your computer may freeze/crash and you may lose whatever you were working on. Organizing your mailbox and deleting old messages or moving them to folders on a regular basis is worth it. (Note: You must remember to delete messages in your deleted folder or have the option to delete them when you close your e-mail turned on. Otherwise they are still around and taking up space. Also keep in mind many programs save your sent e-mails as well. That's a great place to start if you need to free up some space. So don't wait until you have 50,000 messages to start deleting or organizing your inbox!) Backup Your Hard Drive I can't emphasize enough how important doing regular backups is. Hard drives fail...all the time. Average life span of a hard drive is about 1 1/2 to 2 years. So how old is yours? If the data on your hard drive isn't too important to you what about your contacts? Or the info from your Palm or Pocket PC. Could you recreate all the important dates, phone numbers, etc. in your life? If the answer is no, back it up. Today most computers come with CD burners. Burn your files and folders to CD or buy a USB Flash Memory Key for your really crucial stuff. A great program from Symantec is Norton Ghost or True Image by Acronis. These program take a “picture” of your hard drive or partition exactly the way you have it now. Another thing offered by many newer computers running Windows XP is Systems Restore. Start Menu>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore. Get your system exactly the way you want it and then set a Restore Point. Note: All changes to your computer will be deleted so every time you add a program or save a significant file or set of files, set another restore point otherwise it will not be on your system any more if you do a restore! Run Defrag Regularly- especially after deleting lots of files. Defrag is a command that reorganizes your files. It is has the same effect as reorganizing your closet to use the space more efficiently after getting rid of a bunch of old things. Files are saved by the computer by breaking them down into little pieces (bytes) and saving these in lots of locations on your hard drive. When you delete files it leaves lots of little holes that aren't always used again. By running defrag you are pushing all the data together to fill in these holes, leaving more big empty spaces to fill later. This helps your computer run more efficiently as well, because these big empty spaces are utilized whenever a task takes more memory than you have in RAM (short term storage). Before you begin Defrag, close all open programs, including e-mail, files, etc. and turn off your screensaver (click once on your desktop anywhere there are no icons, choose Properties, click on the Screen Saver tab, and click on the drop down arrow and choose None). To Defrag your computer click on the Start Menu button and choose Programs (or All Programs), Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. (It is right below the Disk Cleanup command.) Then click the OK button. * Note: if you have never run defrag before it may take a very long time to finish. If you need to do something on your computer, hit the Pause button and then the same button to Resume when you finish your task. Each time you do something on your computer without pausing you will cause the program to restart from scratch because the contents of your computer will have changed.

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1. Some computer some where gets infected.
2. The infection gathers all the e-mail addresses on that computer (from the address book, inbox, sent file, etc.).
3. The infection sends an e-mail message to every address that it finds AND USES A RANDOMLY SELECTED ADDRESS AS THE "FROM" ADDRESS.

A. Removes the infection
B. Sends a notice to the person who the virus was directed to
C. Sends a notice to the person who (it appears) the message was sent from.

Computer Basics: Aids for Computer Use for Individuals with Disabilities.
The computer can provide a means of participating in activities that would otherwise not be available for individuals with disabilities. For example, special software has been written to allow individuals who are blind to use the computer to read, individuals with cognitive impairments to use the computer to supplement or enhance their memory, and individuals who have hearing deficits to use the computer to communicate over telephones. In addition, there are special devices which enable individuals with disabilities to use a computer and the Internet. These can include: access aids, such as switches and head pointers; input devices such as modified or alternative keyboards; and output devices such as voice or Braille.

For more examples and information about aids for computer use please see the following Web sites:

Apple Computer's site for People with Special Needs
This site has information on computer access solutions for individuals with disabilities.
http://www.apple.com/disability/

TASH Inc.
This site features a company that sells a variety of access devices. http://www.tashinc.com

Virtual Assistive Technology Center
This site provides information about free and inexpensive software that helps individuals with disabilities use computers and the Internet. http://vatc.freeservers.com/

Synapse Adaptive
Speech Recognition & adaptive technologies for individuals with disabilities. http://www.synapseadaptive.com

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The Internet is a vast network of computers made up of thousands of networks worldwide. We don't know exactly how many computers are currently connected to the Internet, but it certainly numbers in the millions and is increasing at a phenomenal rate. A Web page is nothing but a a single document that resides on a computer/server and that you view with a browser.

There is no governing body in control of the Internet. There are organizations which develop technical aspects of this network and try to set standards for creating applications for it, but there is no one entity or person in charge of it. The Internet originated when several Universities decided to form a network to exchange information and ideas. From there it took on a life of it's own and became what it is today, a global marketplace, a workplace, a repository of information from the divine to the absurd, and a community that can include any country or place with the ability to connect to it. However, most Internet traffic does flow over networks that are owned by private companies and universities.

All computers on the Internet communicate with each other using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on the Internet use a client/server architecture. This means that the remote server machine provides files and services to the user's local client machine (i.e. your computer). Software can be installed on a client computer to take advantage of the latest access technology, these are usually referred to as plugins. (These can include programs such as viewers and readers like Flash, Real Player, Adobe Acrobat Reader, etc.)

As a user of the Internet you have access to a wide variety of services such as: electronic mail (e-mail), file transfer, vast information resources (see section on Search Engines), special interest groups, bulletin boards, chat groups, interactive collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting (webcasts), shopping, breaking news, and much more.

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Internet Basics: The Terms
Internet/World Wide Web-- The Internet, the World Wide Web, or the Web are all names used to describe the vast network of information in cyberspace, available to anyone who has access to a computer, a browser (software), and a connection to an Internet service provider through a modem (or other connection such as DSL, ISDN, LAN etc.). Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web (a.k.a. the Web) interchangeably, but in fact the two terms are not synonymous. The Internet and the Web are two separate but related things.

The Internet is a massive network of networks, i.e. a networking infrastructure. It connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate with any other computer as long as they are both connected to the Internet. Information that travels over the Internet does so via a variety of computer languages known as protocols.

The Web is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. It is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. The Web uses the HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to transmit data. This stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, or HTTP (this is usually automatically loaded as part of an address when you type an address/URL into a web browser). This is what you see in the first part of many web site addresses (or URL's). The Web uses browsers such as Internet Explorer or Netscape, to access documents called Web pages that are linked to each other via hyperlinks. Web documents also contain graphics, sounds, text and video.

Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to format documents by adjusting such things as font size, italics and bold, and the adding of hypertext links (links to other documents and files). Graphics may also be incorporated into an HTML document. HTML is an ever changing and evolving language. New tags are added as the language is updated, developed, and released (examples would be XML and DHTML or HTML 4).

Programming languages such as JavaScript, Visual Basic, Cold Fusion, ASP and PHP are extending the capabilities of the Web (these programs can do a wide range of things from creating dynamic html effects to interfacing with databases and displaying customized views online). An increasing amount of information on the Web is being stored in databases and such programs help to make it accessible. The Web is therefore not a fixed entity, but one that is in a constant state of flux and growth.

The Web is just one of the ways that information can be exchanged over the Internet. The Internet, not the Web, is also used for e-mail (abbreviation for electronic mail), which relies on SMTP, FTP, news groups, instant messaging, and Telnet.

If you don't have an Internet connections, many colleges, public libraries, and an increasing number of Internet cafes offer free access to the Internet. There are also many businesses (such as Kinko's) that lease time on the Internet.

BLOG-- A Blog, short for web log or weblog, is usually a personal, time-stamped, online journal that appears on a website. It can be periodically updated by the owner, sometimes called a blogger. Many sites offer free software to create blogs on personal websites. One of the most popular blogger sites is owned by Google.com and can be found at: http://www.blogger.com.

Chat Rooms & instant messaging-- Chat programs allow users on the Internet to communicate with each other by typing in real time. They are sometimes included as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the "chat room" to exchange comments and information about the topics addressed on the site. Chat may take other, more wide-ranging forms. For example, America Online is well known for sponsoring a number of topical chat rooms.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a service through which participants can communicate to each other on hundreds of channels. These channels are usually based on specific topics. While many topics are frivolous, substantive conversations are also taking place. To access IRC, you must use an IRC software program.

A variation of a chat program is instant messaging. With instant messaging, a user on the Web can contact another user currently logged in and type a conversation. Most famous is America Online's Instant Messenger. ICQ is another commonly-used chat program.

Downloading-- is when you take a file from someone else's computer and put it on your own. A file can be anything from a pretty picture to the entire text of the Declaration of Independence. Larger files, like video or music clips, can take longer to download than smaller, text-only ones. After a while, you'll recognize which will take two minutes and which will take two hours. For more information on how to download, see the section below that explains how to download from the Internet.

E-mail-- is the more common abbreviation for Electronic mail. It allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange messages. Each user of e-mail has a mailbox address to which messages are sent (example: abrennan@med.miami.edu). Messages sent through e-mail can arrive within a matter of seconds. A powerful aspect of e-mail is the option to send electronic files to a person's e-mail address or even to oneself for retrieval at a different location. In this way information sharing and retrieval is available any where with access to the Internet. Unfortunately, this also often leads to the propagation of viruses. So make sure to take care when opening attachments. Use a virus protection program ( like Norton Antivirus or McAfee VirusScan) and if possible a firewall program as well (like Black Ice, Zone Alarm, or Norton Internet Security).

E-mail discussion groups-- one of the benefits of the Internet is the opportunity it offers to people worldwide to communicate and share information. The Internet is home to a large community of individuals who carry out active discussions organized around topic-oriented forums distributed by e-mail. These are administered by software programs. Probably the most common program is the listserv.

A great variety of topics are covered by listservs, many of them are academic in nature. When you subscribe to a listserv, messages from other subscribers are automatically sent to your electronic mailbox. You subscribe to a listserv by sending an e-mail message to a computer program called a listserver. Listservers are located on computer networks throughout the world. This program handles subscription information and distributes messages to and from subscribers. You must have a e-mail account to participate in a listserv discussion group.

Visit Liszt at http://www.liszt.com/ to see an example of a site that offers a searchable collection of e-mail discussion groups. Majordomo and Listproc are two other programs that administer e-mail discussion groups. The commands for subscribing to and managing your list memberships are similar to those of listserv.

FAQ, RFC, FYI-- FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. These are periodic postings to Usenet newsgroups that contain a wealth of information related to the topic of the newsgroup. Many FAQs are quite extensive. FAQs are available by subscribing to individual Usenet newsgroups. A Web-based collection of FAQ resources has been collected by The Internet FAQ Consortium and is available at http://www.faqs.org/.

RFC stands for Request for Comments. These are documents created by and distributed to the Internet community to help define topics. They contain both technical specifications and general information.

FYI stands for For Your Information. These notes are a subset of RFCs and contain information of interest to new users.

FTP-- stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is both a program and the method used to transfer files between computers. Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer files from thousands of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account. FTP sites contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, files, and much more. If your computer is directly connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, you can use one of several software programs, such as WS_FTP for Windows, to conduct a file transfer.

FTP transfers can be performed on the World Wide Web without the need for special software. In this case, the Web browser will suffice. Whenever you download software from a Web site to your local machine, you are using FTP.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)-- connects you to the Internet, just as your long distance carrier connects you to the telephone network. Some of the most common Internet service providers are America Online, AT&T World Net Service, BellSouth.net and MSN. The average cost of this service is about $20 per month but varies based on actual usage. The site www.freedomlist.com compiles an up-to-date listing of companies that offer free or low-cost (less than $10 per month) access to the Internet.

LISTSERV-- A listserv is a small program that automatically redistributes e-mail to names on a mailing list. Users of a listserv subscribe to the mailing list. Then each subscriber will automatically receive all future e-mail postings. One caution for new users of listserv's- remember that if you hit reply from an e-mail program the message will go to every subcriber on the distribution list. It has the same effect as using the Reply All function in a regular e-mail. To send a response to only one person on the list, type in their e-mail address instead.

Newsgroups-- (also called Usenet discussion forums) are global electronic bulletin board systems used by millions of participants to exchange information and views on a vast range of topics. The major difference between news groups and e-mail discussion groups is the fact that Usenet messages are posted online and stay at a central location. To view these messages users must go online to read or download these messages. With e-mail distribution all messages are automatically sent to the every list member at the same time to their electronic mailbox. Newsgroups can be organized around any topic. Most ISP companies offer you newsgroup services in the form of a newsgroup server address. You indicate from a list which ones you are interested in and subject titles are delivered to a news reader for you to look at during your leisure.

Search Engines/Search Directories-- a search engine is a searchable database of Internet files collected by a computer program (this program is sometimes called a wanderer, crawler, robot, worm, spider, etc.). An index is created from the collected files, e.g., title, full text, size, URL, etc. There is often no selection criteria for these collection of files, except a ranking of "best fit" results. Beware: many commercial sites take money from websites to list them higher in the ranks when a search is run. The best search sites use a system of ranking/weighted results based on the number of times the site has been clicked on by users searching the same or similar terms. Click here for a list of general and specialized search engines or to learn more about search engines.

SSH-- (Secure Shell) was developed by SSH Communications Security Ltd., to log into another computer over a network, to execute commands in a remote machine, and to move files from one machine to another. It provides strong authentication and secure communications over insecure channels through encryption. This provides some protection against malicious attacks from viruses, worms, or hackers.

URL-- stands for Uniform Resource Locator. The URL specifies the Internet address of a file stored on a host computer connected to the Internet. Every file on the Internet, no matter what its access protocol, has a unique URL. Each web site must have its own specific address, similar to the way each home must have a unique address to in order to receive mail delivery service. URL's are usually case-sensitive (this means that each letter must be typed in exactly as it appears in the address, using upper or lower case letters). A URL begins with the characters http://, often followed by www. Common URL suffixes are .com (for commercial organizations), .edu (for educational institutions), .gov (for government agencies), .net (for network related entities), and .org (for non-profit groups and organizations).

Web Browsers-- a web browser is software, installed on your computer, that allows you to navigate the Internet. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are two of the most commonly used web browsers. See below for more information on, "How do I use the Internet/What's a Browser?"

Web Sites-- contains all the information offered by a particular organization, individual, or company, and will sometimes include links to other sites as well. Each web site generally starts with a home page and then links to other pages within the site containing various types of information and/or services/products. A website can be made up of a single webpage document or hundreds/thousands, limited only by the size restrictions of the webserver it is housed in.

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Internet Basics: How do I use the Internet/What's a Browser?

To access the World Wide Web, you must use a Web browser. A browser is a software program that allows users to see and navigate documents called web pages. There are two types of browsers:

Graphical: Text, images, audio, and video are retrievable through a graphical software program such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, or AOL. These browsers are available for both Windows-based and Macintosh computers. Navigation is accomplished by pointing and clicking with a mouse on highlighted words and graphics.

You can install a graphical browser such as Netscape Navigator in your Windows-based or Macintosh machine by downloading. Navigator is available for downloading on the Netscape Web site: http://home.netscape.com/. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is available from the Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/. (There are many other browsers offered by other companies, AOL offers a browser of their own as part of their ISP package.) To use these programs to access the Web, you need a connection to the Internet, through a network connection or an ISP.

Text-only: Lynx is a browser that provides access to the Web showing only text. To navigation a person must use the arrow up and down keys to indicated links, and press the forward arrow (or Enter) key to follow the link. Pictures are translated by using any alternative text the creator has supplied for it. Unfortunately many web page creators forget to include alternative or Alt Tags for pictures.) For more information, see the following web page, Albany Library's Guide to Using Lynx.

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Internet Basics: How do I use Netscape?
Navigating the Internet with Netscape
Netscape is a suite of software programs that includes the well-known Netscape Navigator Web browser, it comes with e-mail, news, and HTML editing clients as well. You can install Netscape in your Windows-based or Macintosh machine. The program is available for downloading on the Netscape home page: http://home.netscape.com/.

• Before you can use a browser to access the Internet, you need a connection. To connect you must use either: a network connection (used for connecting to networks, such as in a work/office environment or university/college through a LAN (Local Area Network, a smaller network); or a WAN (Wide Area Network, large network, usually made up of two or more LAN's); or a dialup connection through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) like MSN or AOL using a modem; or through alternative methods such as through digital cable lines.

The Toolbars
Navigator has three toolbars at the top of the screen:

• Navigation Toolbar: The first row of icons are for navigating among Web pages, searching the Web via sites chosen by Netscape (Search & My Netscape), printing (Print), and security options and information on the page your browser is currently open to (Security).

Back and Forward move you to Web pages you have previously viewed. Reload will make a Web page that loaded incorrectly or one that stopped in the middle of loading, try to load again for better viewing. *Note: If you have recently been to a page before and dates or images that you know have changed appear to be the same ones you viewed before, hold down the Ctrl button and click on the Reload button at the same time. This will load any changes. Web browsers often save images and copies of Web pages in memory to facilitate faster load times, Crtl + Reload tells the browser to dump this old, information and load the site from scratch again.

Home takes you to what ever you choose as your homepage (That is the page that the browser loads every time it is opened. By default it is Netscape's homepage. To change it choose Edit from the very top menu, go to Preferences. A dialogue box pops up. The second item is setting a homepage. Type in the URL (web address) of the page you would like your browser to start up with.

• Location Toolbar: Second row, contains the browser's Bookmarks file, and the window that displays the address of the current Web page you have accessed.
• Personal Toolbar: Contains the bookmarks in the Personal Toolbar folder of the bookmarks file. The program comes with certain links pre-installed. These can be deleted, or you can add your own.

To place your own bookmarks here:

• Go to a Web page that you want to bookmark, make sure the full name is displayed in the location box.
• Place your mouse over the icon pictured here. (It is a folder with a blue "bookmark" in it). This message will briefly appear: "Drag this to create a link to this page."
• Hold down the left mouse button and drag from this icon into the Personal Toolbar below. The bookmark will then be installed.

Making the Toolbars Disappear
You may make any of these three toolbars disappear during a session in order to give yourself a larger viewing window. (Or conversely someone else may choose to hide them and you want to get them back.) There are two ways to do this:

• Click on the far left hand grill of the toolbar. To bring back the toolbar, click again on the grill. That is the little downward pointing arrow and dots shown in this picture. When clicked on, they hide the toolbar (Personal Toolbar is shown here "hidden"), click again and it opens.

• Or Select from the top menu, the word View, then Hide Navigation or Hide Location or Hide Personal Toolbar. To bring back the toolbar, select the hidden toolbar from the menu again.

How to Get Around With the Netscape Browser

If you have the URL (Web address) of a Web page on the Internet
Type the URL to go directly to the page. Navigator gives you two ways of doing this.

• Type the URL in the location box on the Location Toolbar, next to Bookmarks. To accomplish this, click on the location box to highlight the current URL. Then type in the new one and press the Enter key.
• Or click on File, then Open Page. The Open Page dialogue box pops up and you can now type the location into the blank line and press the Enter key. (This is also a good way to look at web pages or images saved on your computer (just click the Browse button, and find the location of the file you want to view).

If you are on a Web page.
A clickable link will usually be indicated by one of the following:

• Words or images that change the shape of the mouse pointer from an arrow to a hand when it is placed over them. (They may also display the links URL on the bottom of the screen.)
• Words that are underlined.
• Underlined words on screen that are darker or have changed color since you first loaded the page. (This color change indicates that the resource has been recently accessed by your computer.)

Note: The colors blue and purple are generally the default colors for text that contains a link (blue is the unclicked link), and text representing a link that has been visited in the recent past (purple). Also, by default most links are underlined. However, currently Web page creators are coloring their links in all sorts of ways and have the option of of not having links underlined. The best way to figure out which text represents a link is to point your mouse over the words or image and see if the pointer shape changes from an arrow to a hand. The hand always represents a link.

If you want to use Pre-installed links
Netscape offers a few icons on the navigation bar at the top of the screen with access to pre-installed resources. For example:

• Search takes you to Net Search. Be aware that the services on this page have paid millions of dollars for the privilege of being located here. There are a great many more search engines that should also be explored. Please see our section on search engines for more choices.
• Bookmarks this opens to a list of resources of preset links covering subjects like news, travel, shopping, etc. You can also add your own bookmarks.

Saving Internet Documents for Later Use/How to Download, E-mail, & Print

DOWNLOAD TO DISK

1. Click on File/Save As (top left of screen). A pop-up window will appear.
2. Save in: Choose "3 1/2" Floppy (A:)"
3. Convert Save as Type to "Plain Text (*.txt)"
4. Add the txt extension to the filename, e.g., myfile.txt
5. Click on Save

E-MAIL
Note: Current versions of Navigator do not offer the ability to mail a Web page stripped of its HTML tags. Even those versions which offer the option to convert a page to "Plain Text Only" in its format options screen will not change the file to ASCII. The following directions are a work-around for this limitation. This alternative will insert page text as quoted text (> in front of each line) in the body of your e-mail message. As a drawback, only about 30K of text can fit into the message window.

1. Click on File/Send Page (top left of screen). A new pop-up window will appear.
2. To: Enter the e-mail address, including everything after the @sign
3. Click on the Quote icon.
4. Click on the Send icon (top left corner of window)

TO PRINT
Printing the entire document.

1. Click on the Print icon (top of screen)
2. Click on OK

 Printing selected pages.

1. Click on File/Print Preview (top left of screen)
2. Click through the pages to determine which pages you want to print
3. Click on the Print button (top left of screen)
4. Click on the circle next to "Pages"
5. Type in the page range you want to print From: and To:
   
6. OR, to print a single page, type in this page number after both From: and To:
7. Click on OK.

Printing light fonts on dark backgrounds.

Some Web page creators have chosen to design their pages with a dark background and light fonts. In these cases, a normal print operation will result in text that is usually too light to read. Note: Most newer browsers, automatically render text to black text and ignore background colors.

To ensure a readable printout, follow these steps:

1. Click on File/Page Setup.
2. Click the white box next to, Black Text. A check mark will appear.
3. Click on OK.
4. Print the page.

How Do I Increase the Font Size of Web Pages for Better Viewing?
From the Menu bar at the top of the browser choose View/Increase Font (or hold down the CTRL while pressing the ] buttons). See the image below for an example.

Other Options: Using the Right Mouse Button
The right mouse button offers a number of useful features if you are using a PC (the same does not hold true for Macs because they use a single button mouse). To view the possibilities, press down on the right mouse button and hold it. Options will display in a pop-up window.

The following is a selected list of right mouse button options:

When the mouse pointer is on the screen (but not on a link or an image).

• Back: Moves back to the previously visited page in your history list (same as Back icon)
• Forward: Moves forward to the next page in your history list (same as Forward icon)
• Reload: Reloads the current page from the server
• Stop: Stops loading the current page
• View Source: Brings up the HTML tags of the current page
• View Info: Brings up the page information screen, which lists various structural, date, and security information
• Add Bookmark: Adds the current page to the Bookmark file
• Create Shortcut: Creates a shortcut to the current Web page on the Windows 95 desktop
• Send Page: E-mails the current page

When the mouse pointer is over a link:

• Open in New Window: Opens the Web page link in another window with the browser open to that page, it does not change the old window with the original Web page still displayed in it.
• Open Link on Composer: Opens the page in Composer, the HTML editor of Communicator
• Back: Moves back to the previously visited page in your history list
• Forward: Moves forward to the next page in your history list
• Reload: Reloads the current page from the server
• View Source: Brings up the HTML tags of the current page
• View Info: Brings up the page information screen, which lists various structural, date, and security information
• Add Bookmark: Adds a bookmark for the destination of the current link
• Create Shortcut: Creates a shortcut to the linked-to Web page on the Windows 95 desktop
• Send Page: E-mails the current page
• Save Link as: Saves the link destination to the drive that you choose
• Copy Link location: Copies the URL for the current link into the Windows Clipboard for pasting into another Windows application

When the mouse pointer is over an image:

• Back: Moves back to the previously visited page in your history list.
• Forward: Moves forward to the next page in your history list.
• Reload: Reloads the current page. *Note: If you have recently been to a page before and dates or images that you know have changed appear to be the same ones you viewed before, hold down the Ctrl button and click on the Reload button at the same time. This will load any changes. Web browsers often save images and copies of Web pages in memory to facilitate faster load times, Crtl + Reload tells the browser to dump this old, information and load the site from scratch again.
• View Source: Brings up the HTML (source document) of the current page.
• View Info: Brings up the page information screen, which lists various structural, date, and security information
• View Image (filename): Loads the image into a new page in Navigator. You can click on the Back arrow to return to the previous page.
• Set As Wallpaper: Uses the image as the Windows background image on the desktop.
• Add Bookmark: Adds the image to the Bookmark file
• Create Shortcut: Creates a shortcut to the page containing the image on the Windows 95 desktop
• Send Page: E-mails the current page
• Save Image As: Saves the image file in its original format (gif or jpg) to the drive that you choose
• Copy Image Location: Copies the URL of the image into the Windows Clipboard for pasting into another Windows application

How to Navigate Web Pages Using Frames
Web pages created with frames divide the computer screen into two or more active windows. It is not easy to navigate a site that uses frames. Netscape Navigator offers several features to assist the user in working within the frames environment.

To move back to a previous frame.
When working in a frames environment, special navigation techniques must be used in order to move forward and back inside a particular frame. Let's say that you have clicked on a link and the file loads into one of the frames. How do you return to the previous item in that frame?

You can either: Click on the Back arrow (top left of screen), or press down on the right mouse button (not on a link or an image) and hold it. A pop-up window will appear with two choices. Slide down the mouse until you highlight the choice, Back. Let go of the mouse button. The previous file will appear in the frame. To move forward to a frame.If you have loaded several new files into a particular frame and have traveled backwards using the above procedure, you can then go forward again one by one through the files. You can either:

Click on the Forward arrow, or press down on the right mouse button and hold it. A pop-up window will appear with two choices. Slide down the mouse until you highlight the choice, Forward. Let go of the mouse button. The next file will appear in the frame.

To download, e-mail, or print within a frame.

To print, download, or e-mail a file within a frame, it is usually best to load this frame into a separate full-screen window. Especially in the case of printing, Navigator