Browser basics

• Web browser
• What's in a name - URL's
• What's on a page
• Getting to an address
• Navigating and exploring
• Bookmarking your favourites
• Returning to your favourites
• Organising your favourites
• History
• Many windows

Web browser

A web browser is software which enables you to easily use the World Wide Web, viewing it as text, pictures, and video including sound. Shown to the right is an example page displayed in Internet Explorer. Two web browsers are used in Dubbo College, Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Both browsers work in a similar manner, however, the terminology is different in some cases. Parts of the Internet Explorer window are shown below. I will use these terms for both Web browsers.

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What's in a name - URL's

The World Wide Web contains approximately 200,000,000 computers hosting approximately 3,000,000,000 pages (and 1.5 million being added daily- ). Every page and every computer must have a unique address. This unique address is called the Uniform Resource Locator (URL for short)

All URL's can be interpreted by breaking it down into its components. The URL's,
http://www.brightplanet.com/deepcontent/tutorials/search/index.asp and
http://lisweb.curtin.edu.au/staff/gwpersonal/searchtut/index.html
can be interpreted as:

The domain name gives an indication of the identity of the computer. Working backwards, right to left gives:
lisweb.curtin.edu.au

Some top level domain names and country codes:

If no country is identified, it means the host computer is located in the United States. (Remember, the Internet originated in the US, it did not need to be identified)

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What's on a page

Pages typically consist of text and graphics.
Active Links
Some text and some graphics contain an active link. This means that, when clicked, they will take you to a new page or perform some predetermined action.
As you move your mouse over the page, you will notice that the shape of the pointer changes. This indicates a different area of the page.

Mouse Pointer	Indicating	What happens when clicked with the left mouse button?
	Inactive portion of the page	Nothing
	Active Link	Will open a new page (or other)
	Text	Allows you to click and drag to select the text

On the web page below, mouse pointer types are shown for several areas.

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Getting to an address

Using the address bar.
Web pages often come to our attention via personal recommendation, TV, magazines etc.
If you already know the URL of the page, you can go directly to the site by entering the URL in the address bar of the Web browser. For instance, to check out the Royal family home site type www.royal.gov.uk/ into the address bar and press the Enter key or click the Go button as shown below.

While the page is loading, notice what happens in the status bar.
You will notice that the URL in the address bar is now preceded by http:// and has lengthened to include the page name (output/page6.asp).

Your request for this page went down the phone line to Sydney, across the world to Britain, collected the information for your screen and returned it to your computer.

Pretty fast and incredible don't you think!
Go to each of the following sites in turn:

• www.brightplanet.com
• www.antdiv.gov.au
• www.csiro.au
  

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Navigating and exploring

The buttons commonly found on the toolbar are shown below:

Explorer Button	Function
	To return to the last page you viewed, click the Back button. To see a list of the last few pages you visited, click the small down arrow beside the Back or Forward button
	To view a page you viewed before clicking the Back button, click the Forward button
	If a page you are trying to view is taking too long to open, click the Stop button.
	If you get a message that a Web page cannot be displayed, or you want to make sure you have the latest version of the page, click the Refresh button
	To return to the page that appears each time you start Internet Explorer, click the Home button.
	This button opens a list of sites that you have previously recorded as being your favourite sites.
	To select a Web page from the list of those you visited recently, click the History button. On your computer at home you can set the number of days that are recorded.

To reveal a list of pages that you can go back and forward to:

click the down arrow next to the button click on the page you wish to go directly to

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Bookmarking your favourites

Both Internet Explorer and Netscape have the ability to permanently record and organise your favourite web sites. Internet Explorer call these "favourites" while Netscape calls them "bookmarks".

If the address and description of the page you are currently viewing is worth recording, add it to your list of favourites.

click on the favorites menu and select Add to Favorites The dialog box shown to the right will be revealed locate or create a suitable folder change the name if it is not appropriate check Make available offline if you want to save the site click the OK button to save

Making the page available offline can be very useful at home where every connection requires a phone call and internet time.

Returning to your favourites

To return to your favourite site:

click the Favorites toolbar button to open favourites in a new window as shown to the right click on a page to open it OR open a folder to reveal more pages click on the page to open it

Alternatively

open the Favorites menu open the folder containing the link click the row to open the page

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Organising your favourites

To move, delete and rename favourites or to create or move new folders:

From the Favourite menu select Organize Favourites Use the Create Folder, Rename and Delete buttons in the usual manner.

To move a favourite to a new folder

select the Favourite to move using a left mouse button click click Move to Folder button select the folder from the list which is displayed in the new dialog box click OK button

To move a favorite up the list

Creating a new folder adds the folder to the bottom of the list

To move a folder up or down the list:

select the folder with a left mouse button click hold left button - Drag the folder up (or down) A black line indicates the new position of the folder release the mouse button when the folder is in the correct position   WARNING be prepared to temporarily lose a folder or two - the process is not easy

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History

I know I was at a good site the other day!
A word of warning about the volatility of the Internet! Web sites change constantly. New sites come on line, good sites get taken over and changed, sites are removed. If you find a good site today, do not assume that the information you found will be there tomorrow. If a site is particularly relevant, save the material onto your computer. (Be careful of copyright).

As you visit sites, the browser keeps a record of the sites you visit. This record is retained for a number of days specified by the owner of the browser. If you know that you visited a site recently, didn't record it as a favourite, but cant find the address, fear not, History may be able to help you.

To open History

Click the History button A new window will open on the left of the screen click a day to expand and reveal sites click a site to expand and reveal pages at the site hover a moment to see details of the web page click a page to open it

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Many windows

The Internet is quite slow on occasions. So you don't waste time waiting for pages to load, use a number of windows. While one (or more) window is loading the page, you can spend time profitably reading an already opened web page.

All windows will be represented in the task bar as icons. To go from one window to another, simply click on its icon. Often windows are maximised instead of being tiled as shown to the right. To open a new window from the File menu select New Window To open a link in a new window right mouse click on the link select Open in New Window from the menu

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Internet Searching index page

Copyright © Dubbo College 2003 - Bryan Jeffress HTTL

Last updated July 2003