BITS Netscape Web Basics

Netscape Personal Edition
Web Basics

Starting Netscape Navigator

You can find shortcut icons on your desktop and in
the Netscape folder (on the Start|Programs menu.)

1.	Double click your BITS icon to connect to the service.
2.	Double click your Netscape Navigator icon to start your browser and explore the Internet.
3.	When you first start Netscape Navigator, you see a home page - the page you view each time you start Navigator. Netscape Personal Edition is preset to display the Netscape homepage, but you can change this to any page you want. We recommend changing the home page to the page listed in your configuration settings found at the beginning of this book.

The Button Bar

Paging Forward and Backward:

There will be times when you go to a new webpage and find that you'd rather go back to the previous one. Click the "Back Button". To move forward to a page you've already visited click the "Forward Button".

Going Home

By Clicking the "Home Button" you will return to the page that starts when you start Netscape Navigator. You can customize the start page to what ever you would like by clicking "Options" on the Menu Bar then click "General Preferences". Click the "Appearance" tab and type the address of the page in the box labeled "Start with:"

Reloading your page

When you open a web page for the first time, Netscape Navigator saves the pictures and text in a memory cache (pronounced "cash"). When you return to a page you've already visited, Netscape can either show you what's in cache or return to thepage to see if anything has changed.

By showing you what's already in memory, Netscape Navigator saves the time it takes to reconnect and re-download the same webpage. But if you suspect something might have changed since your last visit---for example a stock price or a weather radar picture---you might want to click on the "Reload Button" and Netscape Navigator downloads the page again.

Images

The Images Button is available when the Options|Autoload Images menu item is unchecked (you've opted to load just a page's text and skip the graphics). If you decide to see images after the page has loaded, click Images.

Open

This button lets you enter a URL to display the specified page in the content area.

Print

Displays a dialog box so you can print the content area of the current Navigator window.

Find

Lets you search for a word or phrase in the current page.

Stop!

Some pages take what seems like forever to load. If a page takes too long, you can click your "Stop Button" and try again later.

Directory Buttons

Button Action

What's New! Displays a page of links to new pages on the Internet.

What's Cool! Displays a page of links to cool pages on the Internet.

Handbook Displays an introductory page for the Navigator Handbook and a list of supplementary information (accessed remotely from Netscape's server).

Net Search Displays a directory of Internet Search Engines.

Net Directory Displays a master directory of other Internet Directories.

Software Displays information on Netscape Navigator software upgrades.

Searching the Net

To look for information on a specific subject, or for a specific page, you can use a search engine (sometimes called a search utility). Click the Net Search directory button to see a page of available search engines. You can read descriptions of how they search (some search just page titles, headers or indexes, while others search entire pages). When you select a search engine, you can immediately link to it. Most search engines give you instructions and advice on how to perform an effective search.

Bookmarks

You can add Bookmarks to your favorite pages. Bookmarks are more permanent ways to mark your pages--they stay on the bookmark list until you remove them. The easiest way to create a bookmark is to go to the page you want to mark, and then click Bookmarks|Add Bookmarks.

After you create bookmarks, you can the bookmark list in the Bookmarks window. To open this window, click Bookmarks|Go to Bookmarks.

Because bookmarks are such a powerful feature,
the Navigator offers many ways to create and organize
the bookmark list. For more on bookmarks, see
"Bookmarks window" in the Navigator Handbook.

	What's New!	Displays a page of links to new pages on the Internet.
	What's Cool!	Displays a page of links to cool pages on the Internet.
	Handbook	Displays an introductory page for the Navigator Handbook and a list of supplementary information (accessed remotely from Netscape's server).
	Net Search	Displays a directory of Internet Search Engines.
	Net Directory	Displays a master directory of other Internet Directories.
	Software	Displays information on Netscape Navigator software upgrades.