University at Albany Libraries

Navigating the World Wide Web with Netscape Communicator

For Communicator 4.x in Windows 95

Netscape Communicator is a suite of software programs that includes the well-known Netscape Navigator Web browser. The Standard Edition suite consists of the following components: This document will focus mainly on the Windows 95 version of the Navigator Web browser.

With the proper software installed on your local computer, Navigator can retrieve several kinds of images as well as video and sound. You can download the Communicator suite with a variety of plug-ins configured to the browser, including:

You can install Communicator in your Windows-based or Macintosh machine. The program is available for downloading on the Netscape home page: http://home.netscape.com/. To use the program to access the Web, you need an ethernet connection or a dialup connection through an Internet Service Provider. For more information, see How to Connect to the Internet.

THE TOOLBARS

Navigator has three toolbars at the top of the screen:

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. There are two ways to do this:

HOW TO ACCESS RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET WITH NAVIGATOR

1. If you have the URL (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.

A. Type the URL in the Netsite bar at the top of the screen. To accomplish this, click on the Netsite bar to highlight the current URL. Then type in the new URL and press the Enter key.

B. Click on File/Open Page location at the top left of the screen. A pop-up window will appear with a blank line. On that line, type the URL of the file you wish to retrieve. Press the Enter key.

If you wish to reach the University Libraries home page, type this URL: http://www.albany.edu/library/.

2. IF YOU ARE ON A WEB PAGE

Click on Note: The colors blue and purple are generally the default colors for text that contains a link, and text representing a link that has been visited in the recent past. Nowadays, Web page creators are coloring their links in all sorts of ways. The best way to figure out which text represents a link is to point your mouse over the words and see if the pointer shape changes from an arrow to a hand. The hand represents a link.

After you click, the file will be retrieved and will display on your screen.

Note: Often the clickable words will be different colors than blue or purple. Document creators have the option of specifying colors.

3. IF YOU WANT TO USE PRE-INSTALLED LINKS

  1. Navigator's resource links: Navigator offers two icons on the navigation bar at the top of the screen with access to pre-installed resources.
  2. Bookmarks: The Bookmarks option on the top menu bar contains a list of resources placed there by previous users of Netscape at your terminal. This list can be a source of interesting Internet resources.

TRAVELING THE WEB WITH NAVIGATOR

Navigator allows you to move back and forth among the Web pages that you visit during a session.

To go back to previous sites:

To move forward:

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS

SAVING INTERNET DOCUMENTS FOR LATER USE:
HOW TO DOWNLOAD, E-MAIL, AND PRINT

You can download to disk, e-mail, or print the document on the Navigator screen.

To 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

To 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 THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT

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

To PRINT 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.

To PRINT SELECTED PORTIONS OF A WEB PAGE

See How to Copy and Paste from Netscape Navigator to Windows WordPad.

To PRINT LIGHT FONTS ON A DARK BACKGROUND

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.

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

THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON

The right mouse button offers a number of useful features if you are using a PC. 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

1. WHEN THE MOUSE POINTER IS ON THE SCREEN (but not on a link or an image)

2. WHEN THE MOUSE POINTER IS OVER A LINK

3. WHEN THE MOUSE POINTER IS OVER AN IMAGE

HOW TO NAVIGATE WEB PAGES USING FRAMES

Web pages created with frames divide the computer screen into two or more active windows. For an example, see the frames demonstration on the University Libraries home page.

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:

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:

To DOWNLOAD, E-MAIL, OR PRINT A FILE 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 asks that the frame be "selected" before acting on it. This requires that you click on the desired frame. In other cases, you need to be sure that the frame you want is the file that you are downloading or mailing. Sometimes your target frame is exactly what Navigator will download, e-mail, or print, but this is not always the case. To ensure success, load the frame into a new copy of the browser. Navigator allows you to open a second copy of the browser for this purpose.

To accomplish this, use the right mouse button as follows:

  1. Place your mouse pointer in the frame you wish to work with
  2. Hold down the right mouse button. A pop-up window will appear with several choices. Slide down the mouse and highlight, Open Frame in New Window
  3. Let go of the mouse button. A new copy of Navigator will launch with the frame loaded into the entire screen.
  4. Print, download, or e-mail the file

Other Frames Features: The Right Mouse Button

The right mouse button offers additional flexibility within the frames environment.

1. IF THE MOUSE IS POSITIONED INSIDE A FRAME (but not on a link or an image):

2. IF THE MOUSE IS POSITIONED INSIDE A FRAME AND ON A LINK

These additional functionalities are available:

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For the technically inclined, the Netscape Web site includes a page which collects questions and answers regarding the more detailed aspects of Navigator 4.x. This may be found on the page, All Technical Notes About Netscape Communicator 4.x.

Laura Cohen | 7/98
lcohen@cnsvax.albany.edu