This document will provide you with some of the advanced features of Netscape Navigator and Web browsing. The document assumes you have a working knowledge of Netscape and some Web browsing experience. Beginning users should consult the ITS document Getting Started with Netscape (MAC010).
You can download the installation for Netscape on the World Wide Web at the ITS Supported Software page.
Brief descriptions and requirements for Netscape Communicator are available on this site as well.
In order to run Netscape Communicator v6.2.3, you need to make sure that your computer has the minimum system requirements to run the application.
Bookmarks allow you to easily access your most commonly used Web sites. In order to add a site to your list of bookmarks, simply go to the page that you would like to bookmark, and then from the menu bar click on the Bookmarks option to bring up a drop-down menu. Click on Add Bookmark, and the page you are currently viewing should now be added to your list of bookmarks.
To access a page you have bookmarked, simply click on Bookmarks from the menu bar or click on the Bookmarks icon, then browse down the drop-down menu and find the page in which you have bookmarked. Once you've located the bookmarked page in the drop-down menu, click on it, and Netscape Navigator should immediately jump to that Web site.
If you should ever need to back up your bookmarks (such as to transfer them to a new computer, or reenter them after installing a new operating system, etc.), they are stored in a single file located in the Netscape program folder. The exact path is:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\bookmarks.html
This path is the default path setup by Netscape. If you changed the location of the installation default, then your bookmarks.html file may be located in a slightly different path. Also, if you are using multiple Netscape profiles, you may have a different bookmarks.html than other users, in which case the path may be slightly changed as well.
Copy this file bookmarks.html to a floppy diskette, or to a network drive to which you can temporarily store data. The file can later be copied back to the same directory.
Netscape Communicator allows for multiple users to save their own unique settings when using one of the Communicator applications. That means that one computer with Netscape Communicator can accommodate a number of users, and each user will be allowed to set up Netscape to their personal liking. In this way, each user can have their own bookmarks, their own startup page, and their own email account set for Netscape to use. To do this, first go to Start>Programs>Netscape Communicator>Profile Manager. When you have this application running, you can start up a new profile by pressing the New button. Follow the on-screen instructions, and click Finish when done. Once the new profile is created, every time you start up Netscape Communicator, you will be asked which profile to start with. Choose the appropriate profile (the one you created), and then press the Start Communicator button. The browser will start up, and now any setting changes you would like (e.g. adding bookmarks, default startup page, etc.) can be made and will be saved under this profile. The next time you start up Netscape Communicator and choose this profile, all the changes you made previously will be used at the start up.
To initiate a search over the World Wide Web, you can do one of two things:
Here are some good search engines that are available on the Web:
| Yahoo! - www.yahoo.com | Hotbot - www.hotbot.com |
| Infoseek - ww.infoseek.com | Metacrawler - www.go2net.com/search.html |
| Google - www.google.com | Lycos - www.lycos.com |
| Alta Vista - www.altavista.com | WebCrawler - www.webcrawler.com |
| Dogpile - www.dogpile.com |
For more searching tips, please refer to the ITS document Browser Searching Tips (INET001) available at the ITS Help Desk in Keller 105 and on the World Wide Web at:
www.hawaii.edu/itsdocs/net/srchtips.pdf
Netscape allows for the use of some common applications in order to help better display some types of Web pages and documents on the Web. These applications run in conjunction with the Netscape Communicator. The most common helper applications that you may encounter would be:
There are many other helper applications that may be encountered, e.g. Macromedia's Flash or Shockwave. Use discretion when downloading any applications on your computer. Also, download applications from trusted sites to avoid the heightened risk of virus infestation of your computer, and know that each downloaded application will use up disk space and memory resources on your computer.
While "surfing" the Web, you may encounter a variety of messages that Netscape will bring up. A couple of common messages that you may see while using the World Wide Web include:
Message box saying that Netscape couldn't find the page you've requested (the address you typed is invalid).
"Not Found" error, meaning that the page you are looking for doesn't exist on the Web.
Message box, asking you to install a plugin for a Web page to work properly.
In response to these messages, you can take one of the appropriate actions:
The option to print is available by going to the File menu, and then clicking on Print. One way to test how many pages will be printed is by printing the first page. The first page should have a total page count on the top or bottom of the page. You can choose which pages to print by going to the print range section of the window and either selecting All or selecting Pages, noting the range of pages which you would like to print. After selecting the range, click on OK.
Netscape allows you to enable and disable Java within the browser environment. To turn Java on, you need to select Edit from the Menu bar, then select Preferences. Select Advanced from the Preferences window, and click on the check box for Enable Java. You can use this same procedure to enable JavaScript as well, but selecting the Enable JavaScript check box. To turn off Java and JavaScript, follow the same procedures for turning on Java and JavaScript, but uncheck the check boxes for Enable Java and/or Enable JavaScript.
For additional help with Netscape, you can use Netscape's Help Contents, by either pressing the F1 key, or going to the menu bar, clicking on Help, then choosing Help Contents. You may also want to use Netscape's Reference Library, which you can access by going to the menu bar, clicking on Help, and then selecting Reference Library. You may find both of these resources from Netscape quite useful.
