WWW and Netscape

Refer to Internet Tools explanation of WWW and browsers for detailed explanations of WWW.

Note: The instructions in this tutorial are designed for users who are using Netscape. Other browsers may use different commands to perform similar tasks.

Where to access WWW

The University of Delaware provides Netscape to users at most University sites.

Starting Netscape

To access Netscape you need to double-click your left mouse button on the Netscape icon from your computer's operating system (windows).

First steps

The first time that you start Netscape, the University of Delaware home page will appear (or the default homepage your system is pointed to.) You may notice that the Delaware home page has a list of general topics. The words in blue (underlined or otherwise different from the regular text) are links to other pages here at Delaware and elsewhere. To begin, you should try navigating some of these pages. Simply place your mouse over hyperlinked text and press the (left) button twice to access further information.

Navigating Netscape with the Buttons

Often you will want to control your movement in Netscape more than the links allow. These steps cover that aspect of Netscape.
  • If you look at the top of Netscape's screen you will see a row of "buttons" with titles like "Back", "Forward", etc. To view the titles simply put your mouse over the button, without clicking. If you click on the button labeled "Back", you will notice that the page you were at before reloads. This may be repeated as many times as you wish until you reach your starting point. Each click will take you back one step. After clicking back, you may now click the "Forward" button to return. This button will take you forward to all pages you first viewed after the one currently loaded. The next button is labeled "Home". Clicking on this button will take you immediately to your default home page. This button can be useful if you have followed many links and don't want to spend the time going back through each page. The next button, "Reload", simply reloads the current page.
  • The next button, "Open", is very important, and we will spend some time on it.
      The "Open" button is used when you have a specific address. You can get WWW addresses in many ways. You may read about them in publications, on newsgroups, people may send you addresses through Email or you may see them during TV commercials.
    1. In order to go to an address, press the open button.
    2. A box will appear on your screen with the title, "Open Location" with a box beside it. That box is where you will type the address.
    3. You must move the mouse pointer over the box in order to type in it. If nothing appears when you type, try positioning the mouse more carefully.
    4. Type in the URL http://www.udel.edu/alex/mba/. This is the address of the University of Delaware MBA Program.
    5. Then, press the "Open" button that came in the box.
    6. The page will then appear in a few moments.
    7. You can read the page. When you are finished, you may press the back button in order to return to the default home page or keep browsing other pages from the Delaware MBA page.
  • The next button is labeled "Print", this allows you to print the current document to a local printer.
  • The next button is labeled "Find", this allows you to search for text within the current document. When you press the Find button, a dialog box will appear. Type in the text you are looking for, you can search up or down the document, case or not case sensitive. Press "Find Next" and the text will be highlighted for you (if its there!)
  • The final button is labeled "Stop". This is useful when you are trying to load a document that is taking too long to load. Press the Stop button and the document will stop loading. You will either have access to the partial document or the previous document. To try to reload the document you may want to use the "Reload" button (assuming you had the partial document).

    Navigating Netscape with the menus

    Across the very top (above the buttons) of the Netscape window you will notice a series of words, "File", "Edit", etc. These words are the titles of menus in Netscape. You can access these menus by clicking on the word with the mouse button and continuing to hold the mouse button down. When you do this, a list appears with all the choices that you have from that menu. You select a choice by dragging the mouse pointer over the name and then releasing the button. Many of the menu choices will do the same thing as the buttons below, but there are few important features which can only be accessed with the menus.

    Saving files

    You can save files to your hard drive for further review. To do this:

    1. When you are on a page you wish to save, use the mouse to select the menu called "File".
    2. Drag the mouse over the selection "Save As:".
    3. You will then be prompted with a file name to save it as...complete as appropriate. The file is now on your hard drive (disk). You can use Netscape to view it as a local file by accessing the same "File" menu, drag the mouse over the selection "Open File", type in the file name. This allows Netscape to view a local file.
    4. The "Open Location" option, under the "File" menu, allows you to access other documents on WWW much like the "Open" button as discussed previously.

    View Source

    As you become familiar with WWW you may want to see the html programming that created the documents that you view. This is particularly useful if you design WWW pages. Simply:

    1. When you are on a page you wish to view, use the mouse to select the menu called "View".
    2. Drag the mouse over "Document Source".
    3. You should now be able to view the document as it was written, with its html coding etc.
    4. When finished, press the x in the top right hand corner to return to the page.

    Bookmarks

    One useful feature of Netscape is the Bookmark. This gives you the ability to remember where you have been so that you can quickly return there if you ever want to view the information again. To do this:

    1. When you are on the page you wish to bookmark, use the mouse to select the menu called "Bookmark".
    2. Drag the mouse over the selection "Add to Bookmark" and release the button.
    3. The URL is then added to your bookmark list.
    Later, to return to the page you added, you can do so by doing the following:

    1. Use the mouse to select the menu "Bookmark".
    2. Drag the mouse over the selected page you are looking for (from the list of all bookmarked pages) and release the button.
    3. You will see the page loading.

    Searching WWW

    There are many search engines that you can access if you want to explore WWW and look for certain information without knowing a specific web address. Popular search engines include Alta Vista, http://altavista. digital.com, Excite http://www.excite.com, HotBot http://www.hotbot.com, Infoseek http://infoseek.com:80/Home/, Open Text http://www.opentext.com:8000, Webcrawler http://webcrawler.com and the Yahoo Directory http://www.yahoo.com.

    If you give your search engine a list of keywords, it will search its database of all the WWW pages for documents with those words appearing in them. These databases are updated frequently and attempt to include a significant portion of WWW world. Try the above search engines looking for MBA programs. Perhaps use the keyword mba (Did the University of Delaware MBA Program appear at all?!)

    Accessing useful corporate sites

    As an example of the marketing capabilities of WWW and Netscape, you will now visit a site that includes a collection of marketing sites:

    1. Start Netscape as you normally would.
    2. Press the "Open" button to call up the "Open URL" box.
    3. In the space for the address, enter http://www.udel.edu/alex/wwwlinks.html
    4. Press the "Open" button on the dialog box. The address will begin to load.
    5. Various links from this page will take you to sites such as Coca Cola, Federal Express, Saturn, The CD Store, Hall of Malls, Fallon McElligott etc. Enjoy.

    Accessing Usenet News Groups

    You can access Usenet news groups from Netscape (as an alternative to using trn). You must first check that your preferences on Netscape are enabled to read news.
    1. From the menu at the top of your Netscape window, select "Options", then select "Mail and News Preferences".
    2. Under News preferences check that your News server reads news.udel.edu (assuming you are accessing the University of Delaware's news server). If it doesn't, type: news.udel.edu in the box and press "OK".

    You can access Usenet News groups by double-clicking on a link to a news group, or by accessing a selected news group of your choice.

    Accessing a "linked" news group.

    Many news groups are linked from WWW. If you have an appropriate browser (Netscape 2.0 for example) you can read the news group and correspond as you would using trn (if you are familiar with WWW and not trn, this may be a more "user friendly" option.)
    1. Click on the news group link. For example, from the Delaware MBA page focusing on current full-time job postings, (http://www.udel.edu/alex/mba/main/full.html), click on udel.mba-news. You now have access to the Delaware MBA news group.
    2. Three boxes will appear. The top left box lists the different news groups you have access to, with the Delaware MBA news group highlighted. The top right box lists articles in the news group. The bottom box shows the article that is highlighted from the top right box.
    3. You can use the scroll option on the right of the screen to read the highlighted message, or use the up/down arrow keys to select other articles. Buttons across the top of the window allow you to:
      • Post a new message
      • Reply to the author of the current message
      • Post a reply to the news group
      • Post a reply and send a message to the author
      • Forward the message
      • Move to the previous message
      • Move to the next message
      • Mark the thread as read
      • Mark all messages as read
      • Print the message

    Accessing a selected news group.

    To access a news group of your choice:
    1. Click on the "window" option from the menu across the top of your browser (netscape).
    2. Scroll down to the Netscape News option.
    3. You will see a display similar to the previous example. Click on "file" and scroll down to Add Newsgroup option. A dialogue box will appear. Type in the name of the newsgroup you wish to access and press: "OK".
    4. Continue as you did in the previous example.
    Index to Demystifying the Internet UD Home Page
    Index to Internet Tools Index to Internet Tutorials
    The University of Delaware
    August, 1996