Introduction & Opening Program | Navigating Pages | Bookmarks & Downloading | Printing, Saving, Editing
Finding Text on a Page | Cache, History, Resolution | Outside Resources

Visiting a Web Page:
When the program is opened each time, (provided an Internet connection is available) it will automatically load up what is set to the "Home Page." This is a page that is saved within Netscape and can be changed (see later in tutorial). Once Netscape is open and running, you can visit any site you wish by clicking in the location bar and typing in the URL of the site you wish to visit (for example, "http://www.google.com" is the URL for the search engine Google; "http://nbp.rutgers.edu" is the URL for Rutgers University's New Brunswick/Piscataway campus main page). After entering in the URL, simply hit "Enter" on the keyboard.

Navigating a Page:
Web pages will generally contain "links," which when clicked bring you to either a different portion of the site, a file to view, or a different site all together. A link can be either text or an image; links will generally be noted by blue text or an underline, or will change colors if the cursor is placed over it. By simply placing your cursor over a link (without yet clicking it), you will notice that in the bottom left-hand corner of Netscape the address to the file linked to will appear as text. For example, on the Rutgers University main page, by placing the cursor over the words "The University" in the "About" section, you will see the link pointing to "http://ruweb.rutgers.edu/about-the-university.shtml." By clicking that link, the browser will then open the file you have clicked.

Links that go to files with extensions such as .htm, .html, .shtml, .jhtml, and their variants will bring you to another web page. Notice what the file extension of a link is before you click it; any files can be linked to online. While the vast majority will be other web pages (and images), you may come across files such as .zip, and .exe. Be aware of what exactly you are clicking. For more information, view the tutorial dealing with viruses.

Many pages will be taller than the screen (some may be wider, but this is rare). To continue viewing this material on the page, simply use the scroll bars at the far right and bottom of the screen, indicated by the triangles, to move back and forth along the page.

If you wish to bring your browser back to a page you visited previously rather than attempting to find a link on your current page, you can click the "Back" button on the "Navigation Toolbar" to go back one page. Also, by clicking and holding this "Back" button, you can choose from approximately ten sites, in chronological order of your visiting, to go "back" to. If you wish to then go forward, again, you can use the "Forward" button the same way as the "Back" button.

If you wish to stop the loading of any web page for any reason, click the "Stop" button.

If you then wish to reload the page (or to check and see if any changes have been made to a page since your last visit), click the "Refresh" button (also on the standard button toolbar).

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