Upon starting Navigator, the first page you see is your current home page.
To display the content you seek, you'll need connections to those pages. Well-crafted pages provide built-in connections to other pages. These connections are presented as highlighted word, picture, or menu links. Each link contains Internet location information that serves as an address of the web site.
When you click with the mouse cursor over a highlighted word, picture, or menu link, you bring another page of information to your screen. The entire network of pages can be potentially interlinked, one pointing to another.
You can go directly to pages that interest you by choosing menu items.
From the File menu, choose the pull-right item New, then Navigator Window.
The new window displays another copy of your home page on the screen in a fully functional and independent Navigator window.
Each time you open the Navigator window, you begin a new session of Internet interaction. Even if one connection has not completed its page display, you can begin another connection in a second Navigator window.
Using frames, Navigator can display pages within a page (like the picture-in-picture feature of television sets). Frames segment a page into rectangular areas, each area capable of displaying a page.
The Internet is a collection of information stored in computers physically located throughout the world. Much of the information on the Internet is organized onto electronic pages. You'll bring one page to your computer screen, discover its contents, and have the option of bringing more pages of information.
The World Wide Web (or Web) is one facet of the Internet consisting of client and server computers handling multimedia pages. Client computers use software such as Netscape Navigator to view pages. Server computers use server software to maintain pages for clients to access.
Foremost, Navigator presents pages of the Internet with elegance and efficiency. The software allows you to immerse yourself in content unencumbered by the complexity of distributed networks.
Navigator software offers two distinct tools to help you locate information: Internet "search" tools and page "find" tools.
The Edit menus of the Bookmarks window and Message window have similar commands, Find in Bookmarks and Find in Message, respectively.
To understand how a single page is kept distinct in a world of electronic pages, you should recognize its URL, short for Uniform Resource Locator. Every page has a unique URL.
Not only does each page have a unique URL, but also each image and frame on a page. You can access a page, an image, or an individual frame by supplying its URL.
A URL is text used for identifying and addressing an item in a computer network. In short, a URL provides location information and Navigator displays a URL in the location field. Most often you don't need to know a page's URL because the location information is included as part of a highlighted link; Navigator already knows the URL when you click highlighted text, click a toolbar button, or select a menu item. But sometimes you won't have a link and instead have only the text of the URL (perhaps from a friend or a newspaper article).
By entering a page's URL, Navigator can bring you the specified page just as if you had clicked a link.
Here are some sample URLs:
http://home.netscape.com/index.html
ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/
If you omit certain parts of a URL in the location field, Navigator automatically completes the entry. You can omit the following:
On Windows, when you begin to type a URL in the location field, Navigator attempts to automatically complete the URL. As you type, Navigator checks for previously visited URLs that match the letters you have typed and, if a match is found, fills in the remainder of the letters. If more than one match occurs, you can press the down-arrow key to fill in the next matching URL.
Also on Windows, the location field offers a pop-up menu to the right of the field. The menu contains up to 14 URLs of pages whose locations you've most recently typed into the field and viewed. Choosing a URL item from this menu brings the page to your screen again. The URLs are retained in the menu for each of your Navigator sessions.
Navigator uses the URL text to find a particular item, such as a page, among all the computers connected to the Internet. Within the URL text are components that specify the protocol, server, and pathname of an item.
Notice in the URL http://home.netscape.com/index.html that the protocol is followed by a colon (http:), the server is preceded by two slashes (//home.netscape.com), and each segment of the pathname (only one here) is preceded by a single slash (/index.html).
Some pathnames use special characters. If you are typing a URL into the location field, you'll need to enter the characters that exactly match the URL. For example, some pathnames contain the tilde character (~), which designates a particular home directory on a server.
Web pages are created by authors using a language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language).
HTML uses short tags (source text enclosed in angle brackets) to designate a page's links and graphical elements. When you transmit a page, Navigator interprets the HTML tags and presents them as links and other graphical elements.
Tags often contain URL information. When you click a tag containing a URL, you're instructing the Navigator application to display page information that's located on a server, irrespective of the server's geographic location. The URL part of the HTML tag is hidden in the page's source text; the content area only displays the highlighted link.
A link is a connection from one page to another. You find a link by looking for one or more words highlighted with color, underlining, or both in the content area of a page. Images and icons with colored borders also serve as links. A link within a page that contains frames can be a connection that displays one or more new pages within frames, or an entirely new top-level page replacing all frames.
You can change the colors used to denote unfollowed and followed links; from the Edit menu, choose Preferences, then select the Colors panel. If you have a black-and-white monitor, unfollowed and followed links are highlighted only with underlining and not differentiated.
You can stop a transfer whenever the loading process takes longer than you like. This might happen if the content of the page is large or if the server computer is sluggish. Sometimes the page specified by a link just isn't available. You'll usually get a message if a connection was not made or a page not found.
When you bring a page to your screen, you'll see the whole page or, if the content is extensive, only a portion. (Scroll bars let you see the rest.) Often the portion you see is the beginning of the page, but sometimes a link brings you content from the page's middle or end. A link can display a new page or display a different portion of the same page (in effect, automatically scrolling for you). For example, the beginning of a page might include a table of contents that links each chapter title to its respective content further down the page.
Yet another kind of link doesn't display a page at all. A "mailto" link whose URL begins with mailto: produces a mail application window, if available, for sending mail (with the recipient's address automatically filled in).
Whereas a URL identifies a server's page location on the Internet, an Internet address identifies a user's mailbox location. Here are the components of the Internet address aname@aserver.com:
The three-letter suffix in the location name helps identify the kind of organization operating the server. (Some locations use a two-letter geographical suffix.) Here are the common suffixes and organizational affiliation:
In addition to links in the content area, you can also access links using Navigator toolbar buttons and menu items. Menu items offer each of the links available through toolbar buttons, plus many more.
Click the Home button. The URL of your home page is designated in your preferences.
Pop-up menus offer utility features and shortcuts for certain links. When you hold down the mouse button over various elements of a page, pop-up menu items let you go to pages, view individual images, save files onto your disk, copy locations to the clipboard, and perform other tasks depending on where the cursor is pointing.
This section describes what you see in the main Navigator window. Most of the navigational tools and text fields are visible, though some View menu items let you hide features in order to give more screen space to a page's content.
The content area contains the current page displayed by the most recently requested link. Vertical and horizontal scroll bars may be present if the page is larger than the screen area.
The content area of some pages is segmented into rectangular frames, each frame containing its own page.
Clicking a link within a frame can affect the page within the frame, pages within other frames, or the top-level page. Generally, toolbar and menu items affect the top-level page. Navigation commands affect each frame: you choose Back to revisit the previous frame and choose Forward to revisit the frame ahead.
The author of a page supplies the content you initially see. Sometimes the content is presented as a single unit taking up the entire content area of the window. Other times the content is displayed in multiple rectangular frames that, together, form a patchwork of individual pages that fills the content area. Frames and the actions of links upon frames are created by page authors using HTML.
Each frame can contain scroll bars to let you view more information. Navigator allows you to resize any frame by positioning the mouse cursor in the borders between frames (the cursor changes shape), then dragging the frame to a new size.
A frame within a page is, in essence, a smaller page within a large patchwork page. Each frame has characteristics of a page. Together, the frames form a top-level page (also called a frameset). For example, clicking a link within a frame can display new information within the frame or in a different frame. Likewise, a link can display an entirely new top-level page replacing all the frames.
You can set the background to white, gray, or a custom color of your choosing. You can also determine if your choice of background should always be used or if the background transmitted with a page should override your choice.
Error messages often originate from the server providing the page you wish to see. Navigator tries to evaluate any problem you encounter and present information to help you solve or circumvent it.
The most common error messages result from trying to view a page that isn't available. Often, this occurs because the server issuing the page is temporarily shut down or too busy with other connections to handle your request. Occasionally, the page is no longer available at the specified URL.
Some pages and frames can automatically update themselves using Netcaster or technologies called "server-push" and "client-pull." These allow pages to have multiple interactions with server computers. You can always terminate these automatic actions by going to another page or otherwise exiting the page.
These small replacement icons are sometimes accompanied by alternative text, also called ALT text. ALT text is shown only as a substitution when an image is not loaded. On some platforms, ALT text is also shown temporarily within a rectangular border as an image is loading. You can view these images at a later time.
The advantage of deselecting Automatically load images is that pages are displayed on screen faster. The disadvantage is that you can't view the images until you specify that you want the images loaded.
The Automatically load images preference item affects subsequent links and not the current contents of a page. However, if you choose the View menu's Reload item or click the Reload button on the toolbar, the preference item acts upon the reloaded page.
Pages that present large or detailed images often have inline thumbnail images (also called snapshot images) inserted into pages that serve as links to external images. These thumbnails provide an approximate view of the actual image, yet are much smaller and faster to transport than the full image. You can expand the thumbnail into the full image by clicking once on the thumbnail.
Ideally, pages on the screen should present images (or other multimedia effects) as simply and efficiently as text. However, images, sounds, and movies are relatively larger in byte size than text and can take considerable time to transmit from remote computers (servers) to your computer. The length of time needed to display a page with images depends on several factors, most prominently the speed of the modem or direct link connecting you with a remote server. To compensate for the potential lethargy of transmitting images, Navigator offers features that let you manipulate how images are handled.
Navigator loads images into pages automatically. If the author of a page has designed the page with inline (embedded) images, the images are displayed when you bring the page to your screen.
Like highlighted text, an inline image can be linked to another page, another position on the same page, or any type of external file such as an external image. As with all links, positioning the mouse cursor over a link puts the URL location of the prospective link in the status message area.
External images (unlike inline images) are displayed in their own windows. You can view an external image by clicking a link to the image. Navigator can open external images stored in GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), and XBM (X Bit Map) file formats. Other file formats require that you have a suitable helper application available on your hard disk (and referenced in the Applications preference panel).
Links to external images work like links to pages. An external image file has a unique URL just like an ordinary page. External images are not automatically loaded in their full representation even if the Advanced panel's Automatically load images item is selected.
You can designate your own home page (the page Navigator first brings to the screen each time you open a new window) by supplying a URL as a preference panel item. The default home page, the page that Navigator is initially set to display, has this URL: http://home.netscape.com/index.html. (If you omit the pathname index.html, the file still loads by default.)
You can change your home page (or change back to the default) through the Navigator panel.
Each time you ask Navigator to open a new window, the designated home page is displayed on screen. The URL can designate a page from a remote computer or one on your hard disk.
From the File menu, choose Open Page. Then select the page (file) on your hard disk. (For example, you can choose your bookmark file.) After the page opens, you'll see its URL in the location field. You can select and copy the URL, then paste it into the Location field in the Navigator preferences panel.
At first, you probably won't have any pages stored on your hard disk. But later, you might want quick and sure access to certain pages, such as one with valuable links or one you've created for yourself.
Plug-ins, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, and Java are advanced technologies that software developers and page authors use to enhance the delivery of Internet information. From the viewpoint of typical users, these technologies are transparent, built into the system of Internet servers, applications, and content. You can take advantage of the technologies with no effort on your part.
Occasionally, you may want to add new capabilities not currently built into the Navigator environment. Plug-ins are software programs offered by various manufacturers that you can add to the Navigator plug-in folder to supplement Navigator capabilities.
Some popular plug-ins are automatically installed with your Navigator software; others are available from the manufacturer's Internet site. To find out which plug-ins are installed, choose the Help menu's About Plug-ins item. You'll also find information and links on this page for numerous plug-ins.
Page authors use Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, and Java technologies to give pages dynamic capabilities that are seamlessly integrated into the operation of Navigator software. Dynamic HTML and JavaScript allow a page to respond to actions, such as clicking a button or submitting a form, more quickly and efficiently than if the actions were communicated remotely to server computers. Internet pages offering Java applets can perform animation, interactivity, and other actions beyond those possible with HTML.
Dynamic HTML is a set of technologies that provides the user with pages that are richer, faster, and more interactive. The technologies also give page authors more precise control over the styles, positions, and actions of the HTML objects that make up a page.
JavaScript works largely as an extension to the Internet's standard HTML language. It is a relatively easy-to-learn, stand-alone programming language built into Navigator software.
Java is a full-featured programming language whose programs (called applets) can travel over the Internet. Whereas plug-ins are tailored for a particular computer system, Java programs operate across the network, regardless of platform. Because Java capabilities are built into Navigator, Java applets require no installation.
Software developers can learn about plug-ins, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, and Java through web sites and retail textbooks. Each technology offers connectivity capabilities so that plug-ins, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript programs, and Java applets can communicate and interact with one another.
You should be aware that advanced technologies involve security considerations. You may want to download plug-ins only from trusted sites. Additionally, you can disable language technologies in the Advanced preferences panel.
(On the Mac OS, the Bookmarks menu is available only from the menu bar, and the personal toolbar is not available.)
The navigation, location, and personal toolbars provide simplified access to links, commands, and page location information. The toolbars are displayed at the top of each Navigator window, just below the menu bar. You can reposition the toolbars or hide them to increase the amount of screen area available for page content.
Drag a toolbar to another toolbar position and drop it. The other toolbars reposition themselves.
You can hide a toolbar so that the toolbar tab remains visible, or you can completely hide the toolbar and its tab.
Click one of the following buttons. Buttons on the toolbar provide quick access to commonly used features.
(On the Mac OS, the Bookmarks menu is available only from the menu bar.)
Click the Bookmarks icon (also called the Bookmark QuickFile icon) to the right of the label Bookmarks.
Click this icon to display a pop-up menu containing your bookmark links as well as menu commands for adding and editing bookmarks. Select a bookmark item from the pop-up menu to display the page represented by the bookmark.
Alternatively, you can select Open Page from the File menu to type or choose a URL, and then open the page in the Navigator window.
On Windows, when you begin to type a URL in the location field, Navigator attempts to automatically complete the URL. As you type, Navigator checks for previously visited URLs that match the letters you have typed and, if a match is found, fills in the remainder of the letters. If more than one match occurs, you can press the down-arrow key to fill in the next matching URL.
Choose an item from the location field pop-up menu. To display this pop-up menu, click the pop-up menu arrow located to the right of the location field.
First, drag the Page Proxy icon (located to the left of the location field) over the Bookmarks pop-up menu to display the menu, then drag and drop the icon into the desired menu item position. This creates a bookmark for the page you are viewing, and files the bookmark in the Bookmarks window. If you simply drop the icon over the pop-up menu icon, the bookmark is filed at the bottom of the Bookmarks window. You can also drag the proxy icon directly into an open Bookmarks window.
Drag the Page Proxy icon (located to the left of the location field) over the personal toolbar, then drop the icon at the desired position. This creates a toolbar button for the page you are viewing.
Drag and drop the Page Proxy icon (located to the left of the location field) onto the desktop. This creates an Internet shortcut for the page you are viewing.
Drag and drop the Page Proxy icon (located to the left of the location field) onto another Navigator window. This opens the current page in the other window. To open more than one Navigator window, choose the pull-right item New from the File menu and select Navigator Window.
(On the Mac OS, the personal toolbar is not available.)
The personal toolbar lets you create buttons that link to your favorite web sites. You can add, remove, and reorder buttons. You can drag and drop icons onto the toolbar to quickly create buttons.
You can use the Bookmarks window for full toolbar control. Items added to the personal toolbar are stored as bookmarks in a special folder you can designate in the Bookmarks window.
To specify a bookmark folder you wish to set as the personal toolbar folder, open the View menu in the Bookmarks window and choose the Set as Toolbar Folder item. Alternatively, you can create a new folder named "Personal Toolbar Folder" that will be automatically used as your toolbar folder when no other folder is specified.
The bookmark folder you designate to hold your personal toolbar buttons can contain bookmarks or other folders. That is, bookmark folders can be embedded in your personal toolbar folder.
You can add, delete, and reorder personal toolbar buttons in the same way you add, delete, and reorder bookmarks. You designate personal toolbar buttons simply by storing the button items in a designated personal toolbar folder.
If you have a toolbar button for a particular bookmark, clicking the button opens the page. If you have a toolbar button for a bookmark folder, clicking the button displays a pop-up menu containing each of the bookmarks within the folder.
You can also create a new folder with the name "Personal Toolbar Folder" that will automatically serve as your toolbar folder. This name is used as the default personal toolbar folder when no other folder has been specified.
You can also drag and drop the Page Proxy icon to add a personal toolbar button for the page you are currently viewing. Drag the icon (located to the left of the location field) onto the personal toolbar.
Each bookmark and bookmark folder contained in the personal toolbar folder appears as a toolbar button, though the toolbar's size allows for access to only a small number of buttons.
The order of the bookmark items in the Bookmarks window determines the order of the buttons in the toolbar. To reorder the buttons, drag and drop the bookmark items in the personal toolbar folder to the order that you want.
Drag the Page Proxy icon onto the personal toolbar. The Page Proxy icon, located to the left of the location field in the location toolbar, represents the current page you are viewing. You can drag the Page Proxy icon to the toolbar when the toolbar is expanded or collapsed.
The added item appears both in the personal toolbar and in the bookmark folder designated as your personal toolbar folder.
Bookmarks offer a convenient means to retrieve pages whose locations (URLs) you've saved. You store your bookmarks in a list that's saved on your hard disk. Once you add a bookmark to your list, the item stays until you remove it or change lists. The permanence and accessibility of bookmarks make them invaluable for personalizing your Internet access.
History offer a convenient means of redisplaying pages you've previously viewed. Unlike bookmark lists, which store page locations that you've designated, history items are saved automatically when you display a page.
(On the Mac OS, the Bookmarks menu is available from the menu bar. The Bookmarks window is opened from the Navigator menu.)
Bookmarks offer a convenient means of page retrieval. You store your bookmarks in a list. Once you add a bookmark to your list, the item stays until you remove it or change lists. The permanence and accessibility of bookmarks make them invaluable for personalizing your Internet access.
Navigator offers many options for creating a bookmark list. Basic options let you add and access a page through a pop-up menu on the location toolbar or through the Navigator menu of the main menu bar. The simplest way to obtain direct access to a favorite page is to open the Bookmarks menu and choose Add Bookmarks. This adds the current page as an item in the Bookmarks menu.
More advanced options, available from the Bookmarks window, let you create hierarchical menus, partial menu displays, multiple and shared bookmark files, list descriptions, and list searches. The Bookmarks window lists your bookmarks and offers a set of menu items to help you organize your list. In addition, many drag-and-drop options are available for creating and filing your bookmarks.
The bookmark list you create is represented by a bookmark file on your hard disk. Each item in the list contains the title of the page (which you can choose in a menu), the associated URL (which lets Navigator retrieve the page), and some additional date information.
The same Bookmarks menu is displayed by either the pop-up menu in the location toolbar or the Navigator menu of the main menu bar.
Choose one of the following items:
Choose Edit Bookmarks to open the Bookmarks window. You can drag and drop bookmark icons or use the window's menu items to arrange the display of your bookmarks and bookmark folders.
To delete a bookmark, select the bookmark icon in the Bookmarks window, then press the Delete key (or choose Delete from the Edit menu).
Choose one of the following items:
If you release the Page Proxy icon over the Bookmarks icon, a bookmark for the current page is added to the bottom of the bookmark list.
If you hold the Page Proxy icon over the Bookmarks icon, the Bookmarks menu is displayed, allowing you to further drag the Page Proxy icon to a particular position in your bookmark list. When you release the mouse button, the bookmark is filed at the menu position you have selected.
You can drag and drop the Page Proxy icon anywhere in the list, including nested bookmark folders (displayed as pull-right menu items). As you drag the icon over your current list of bookmark names, a horizontal line appears between menu items to indicate where the new bookmark will be placed when you release the mouse button.
(On the Mac OS, the Bookmarks window is opened from the Navigator menu. The Bookmarks menu is available from the menu bar.)
The Bookmarks window offers the full set of bookmark capabilities. You can double-click bookmarks to access pages, drag and drop icons to arrange your bookmarks, and use the window's menu bar to create new bookmark items and manipulate bookmark lists.
Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Edit Bookmarks. Alternatively, you can open the Navigator menu, choose the pull-right Bookmarks item, then select Edit Bookmarks.
The Bookmarks window lists the same names that appear in the Bookmarks menu; however, the Bookmarks window gives you many more tools for organizing your bookmarks. The menus of the Bookmarks window contain items that help you build and maintain bookmark lists.
The Bookmarks window displays bookmark icons and folders in a list, arranged like files and folders on your hard disk. Each bookmark icon corresponds to an item in the Bookmarks menu. Each bookmark icon in a folder corresponds to a menu item under a pull-right (hierarchical or multilevel) menu. Folders can be nested in other folders.
Using the Bookmarks window, you can create and name a bookmark folder. Bookmarks that you place in a bookmark folder are accessed in pull-right menus.
Double-click a bookmark icon to access the corresponding page. Alternatively, you can select a bookmark, then choose Go to Bookmark from the File menu.
Drag and drop icons into folders to arrange your bookmarks.
While dragging an item around, you'll see a box or a line indicating the position where a drop will occur. When you drag an item over a folder, you'll see a box around the folder (a drop positions the item first in the folder list). When you drag an item over a bookmark or separator, you'll see a horizontal line between adjacent items (a drop positions the item at the line).
Each folder represents a level (header) in a pull-right (cascading or hierarchical) menu.
(On the Mac OS, the personal toolbar is not available.)
(On the Mac OS, the personal toolbar is not available.)
Navigator checks the specified bookmarks for changes, while displaying progress and results in a dialog. If a page has changed, Navigator lists it alongside a distinct, accentuated icon. If the page's modifications have not been verified, Navigator lists it alongside a question mark in the icon.
Bookmarks are maintained in lists; each list is represented by a bookmark file. You can have more than one bookmark list, each with its own set of titles linked to favorite pages, although only one bookmark list can be active at a time.
You can read any HTML file containing links and convert the links into bookmarks. The links are placed in a folder atop the bookmark list.
(To import a hotlist into Navigator, you should first convert your hotlist to HTML. Several downloadable utilities perform this conversion. You can also use another browser's mail command to transmit a hotlist in HTML format.)
The Bookmarks window contains a menu bar similar to that of the Navigator window. The Navigator and Help menus are the same as in the Navigator window. The File, Edit, and View menus contain the following items that are specific to the Bookmarks window.
(On the Mac OS, the Bookmarks window is available only from the Navigator menu. You can display the Bookmark Properties dialog by opening the Bookmark window's Edit menu and choosing Get Info.)
The Bookmark Properties dialog box is automatically opened whenever you choose New Bookmark or New Folder from the Bookmarks window's View menu. You can also choose to open the dialog from the Bookmarks window for any selected bookmark item.
You can use the Bookmark Properties dialog to set or modify information for any current bookmark or bookmark folder. The dialog presents bookmark list information about a single bookmark item. The information is stored in a bookmark file on your hard disk.
The following information is displayed in the dialog:
Navigator maintains a history list of pages you have recently viewed. You can find different kinds of history list information in the following ways:
Choose the page title in the Go menu. The Go menu only offers page titles you've viewed in the current session.
Alternatively, you can open the Navigator menu, choose History, and then select the page title. On Windows and Unix, the History window offers page titles you've viewed during one or more sessions.
A history list does not necessarily contain all the pages you've recently viewed. Only a single lineage of history items is displayed.
For example, a series of pages containing maps might show you increasing detail as you click links. If you view consecutively linked pages with titles North America, United States, New York State, and New York City, you'll see all four items appear in the history list with New York City topmost in the list.
Furthermore, if you back up to the United States page, then view pages of California and San Francisco, California and San Francisco automatically replace New York State and New York City. The new thread of links replaces the old thread of links.
From the Navigator menu, choose History.
You can specify when the color of a visited link reverts to the color of an unvisited link. When the specified number of days elapses, the color of a visited link changes back to the color of an unvisited link and the page visit information is cleared from the History window.
You can specify that visited links revert to unvisited links immediately. This also clears the History window of all page visit information.
The main menu bar contains the following menus:
Navigator also offers a context-sensitive pop-up menu whose items are shortcuts for several commonly used and frame-specific commands. The items offered in the pop-up menu depend on which screen element the mouse is positioned over.
On Windows and Unix, clicking the right-mouse button displays the pop-up menu. On the Mac OS, holding down the mouse button displays the pop-up menu.
On the Mac OS, the Bookmarks menu is available from the menu bar, and both the Bookmarks and Navigator menu titles are displayed as icons.
The File menu allows you to open, save, print, and perform other tasks on Navigator windows. The menu contains the following items:
The Edit menu allows you to cut, copy, paste, and search within Navigator windows, as well as set the preferences for customizing Navigator. The menu contains the following items:
The View menu allows you to control the display of toolbars, page content, and page information. The menu contains the following items:
The Go menu allows you to navigate among pages. The menu contains the following items:
The Navigator menu allows you to switch among each of Navigator's components and access the windows that present Navigator's primary features. The menu contains the following items:
The Help menu allows you to find documentation and support services for Navigator and other Netscape products. The menu contains the following items:
On Windows and Unix, clicking the right-mouse button displays a pop-up menu with items that are shortcuts for items that can also be found on the current window's menu bar. On the Mac OS, holding down the mouse button displays the pop-up menu.
Many items in the pop-up menu depend on where the mouse is positioned. For example:
The pop-up menu for the Navigator window contains the following items:
Navigator gives you the opportunity to save a page as a file on your computer. You can do this after or instead of bringing the page to your screen.
Saving a file to your hard disk allows you to display the page's information without any network connection. A file on your disk is a local file; a file out on the network is a remote file.
Some links don't transmit pages (for example, those that transmit software, sound, or movie files). You can often identify these links by noticing a URL that begins with ftp or ends with a file-type suffix such as au or mpeg. Clicking these links can automatically download (save) a file to disk and launch helper applications that support the file's format. Most links, however, point to pages that you can bring to your screen or specifically save on your disk.
Within a page, you can cut, copy, and paste using Edit menu items; however, Cut and Paste items are only effective in certain editable fields. The content area of a page is a read-only field that only enables you to select and save copies of page text for use elsewhere.
Navigator works on several operating system platforms and reserves the use of a few special characters to help interpret URLs. To avoid problems, don't use the following characters when you create a filename:
From the File menu, choose Save As to save the current page locally on your hard disk as a source (HTML) file or a text file. On Unix, you can also save in PostScript format.
A file saved in HTML source format retains the formatting of the original page. The source format is a text file encoded with the HTML necessary to reproduce the formatted text or image faithfully.
A file saved in text format is presented as plain text. Text format saves text without the HTML coding tags.
Where some links, such as many FTP links, automatically download and save a file to disk, Save As manually saves page files.
Save As lets you save an image file, but not a page's inline images.
When you view a page containing frames and a frame is currently selected, the File menu's Save Frame As menu item is offered in addition to Save As. This lets you save only the page within a currently selected frame. The other options for saving the page are unchanged.
By using a pop-up menu item, you can save a page as a disk file instead of bringing the page to screen. A dialog prompts you for a filename. Saving to disk is particularly useful for retrieving a nonformatted page (such as a data file) not intended for viewing.
You can also save a page to disk by clicking a link while holding down the Shift key (Option key on the Mac OS).
After saving a file to disk, choose Open Page from the File menu. In the resulting dialog, select the file using the Choose File button (or type the file's URL) to display the page in the content area. After you have specified a page location, click Open to display the page.
(On the Mac OS, select the pull-right menu item Open, then choose Location in Navigator to enter a URL or choose Page in Navigator to select a file.)
You can display the HTML-formatted text or graphic image of any local file saved in source format (though a page's inline images might be replaced with icons). You can also display plain text files.
If you want to open a saved GIF, JPEG, or other nontext file, make one of the following selections:
The View menu's Page Source item lets you view the HTML source of the current page. By default, source text is displayed in a Navigator window.
On pages with frames, you can view the HTML source of the frame by selecting (clicking on) the frame, positioning the mouse over the frame, clicking the right-mouse button, and selecting View Frame Source in the pop-up menu.
Many of the File and Edit menu items in Navigator work as they do in other applications.
From the File menu, choose Print, or click the Print button in the toolbar. A dialog box lets you select printing options and begin printing. On Windows, you can choose Print Preview from the File menu to see a screen display of a printed page.
When you view a page containing frames, in the File menu you'll see Print Frame in place of Print. The command lets you print only the page within a currently selected frame. The dialog box options for printing the page are unchanged.
When printing a page, Navigator formats content according to the size of the printed page rather than the size of the onscreen window. The Print command rearranges the page layout (text is word-wrapped and graphics are repositioned) in order to accommodate paper size.
From the File menu, choose Page Setup. You can use this command to choose page layout options including header and footer information.
Choose the Edit menu's Find in Page item. A Find dialog box lets you type the string of characters you wish to find. Select the Match case checkbox (Case Sensitive on the Mac OS and Unix) to require that capital letters are matched.
On Windows, select the Up or Down radio button to direct the search toward the beginning or end of the page. If there is a current selection, the search begins at the selection and does not wrap around to the beginning of the page. On the Mac OS and Unix, select the Find Backwards checkbox to start the search from the beginning or end of the page.
To find the same word or phrase again, choose the Edit menu's Find Again item.
From the View menu, choose Page Info. The information, displayed in a separate window, helps you establish the page's authenticity and other security characteristics.
In the upper portion of the window, the page's structure is presented as a hierarchy of the component URLs (for example, the URLs of image files contained in the page). The lower portion of the window consists of several fields stating location, type, source, cache, length, modification date, and character-set encoding information, as well as details about the page's security status.
You should verify that the information
Click the Security toolbar button or choose Security Info from the Navigator menu.
Pages can contain forms for entering and sending information. For example, a page might have a form with fields for you to type a name and address next to a button that sends the information to the page's author.
Forms can offer editable fields with or without default text, checkboxes, radio buttons, pop-up menus, selection lists, and buttons for sending or clearing the information you enter. The content you type into a form doesn't permanently alter the page (you don't modify the source page), yet the form gives you the ability to conveniently transmit a response.
Pages with forms let you directly reply to information you read in the page. In contrast, mail requires you to fill in fields identifying the mail address of the intended recipient and a subject summary.
You fill in one or more fields on a page, usually labeled with instructions and configured with a button that sends the form's contents to the recipient without requiring you to provide any mail address.
The author of a page determines the layout of a form. A page can contain multiple forms, each form capable of sending fields independently of another form on the page. Fields in a form can restrict the kind or range of text you enter (such as numbers only) to help you fill in the form as desired.
Typically, forms give you a fast and easy way to make a request or send back a response regarding the page you are reading. Forms can supply an interface to databases with fields that let you query for information and perform Internet searches. The Usenet discussion pages, designed for people to communicate with each other on special interests, contain forms for you to type messages and subscribe to discussion groups. Navigator has built-in links to pages with forms for you to comment about the application and request product information.
A cache temporarily stores the information on a page in your computer. The first time you ask for a page, Navigator retrieves the page from the network. No pages are permanently stored in a cache. If you request a page you have seen before, Navigator checks to see if the page is available in a cache. For example, if you use the Back button to display a page, a cache can display the page more quickly than the network can retransmit it.
Sometimes you might not want a page to be retrieved from a cache. The page you displayed initially may be different from the page currently offered by the network. If a modification to a particular URL has occurred, you may want the updated page rather than the copy (now "stale") stored in a cache. Remember, you have no control over when a server updates its pages.
When you click a link, choose a bookmark, type a URL, or click the Reload button, Navigator checks with the server to see if an update has occurred before bringing a page from a cache. If any change to the page has occurred, a fresh version is transmitted over the network; otherwise, a copy is quickly retrieved from a cache.
If you press the Reload button while holding down the Shift key (Option key on the Mac OS), Navigator retrieves a fresh version from the network regardless of whether the page has been updated. The cache is not used. This type of reload is useful if you suspect the cached copy of a page has been corrupted.
When you click the Back button or choose a history item, Navigator does not check the network. Since you are explicitly requesting a previously viewed page, Navigator tries first to retrieve the cached copy (if still present in the cache) even if the server offers a more recent version.
Navigator lets you customize cache settings using the Cache preferences panel. To display this panel, open the Edit menu, choose Preferences, and select the Cache panel. The Cache panel is in the Advanced category.
Navigator uses memory and disk caches to improve performance and reduce network traffic. When you bring a page from the network, information is stored in both caches. Navigator retrieves a page from the memory cache more quickly than from the disk cache, though retrieving from the disk cache is still faster than fetching from the network.
The disk cache has the advantage of persistence. When you exit from a session (quit Navigator), the memory cache is emptied, but the disk cache is maintained (and takes up space on your hard disk).
Sometimes a cache can get confused (such as when servers provide inaccurate page modification dates). If you suspect a cache is acting improperly (such as providing "stale" pages) or just wish to free up space, you can clear the caches by clicking the Clear Memory Cache Now and Clear Disk Cache Now buttons in the Cache preferences panel.
You can change the size of each cache to maximize its effectiveness. A larger cache might increase Navigator performance, though allocating too much space can constrict other applications. You might try to increase the size of the memory cache to whatever your system routinely has unused and increase the disk cache to between 2000 and 5000 kilobytes (2 and 5 megabytes).
You might find that a large disk cache increases the time required for Navigator to quit. If cache maintenance causes undue delay when you exit from the program, consider reducing the size of the disk cache.
Plug-in modules are software programs that extend the capabilities of Navigator. Some plug-ins are already installed with Navigator. Other plug-ins can be installed automatically, requiring only that you click a button requesting the installation. You can also download plug-ins and manually install them on your hard disk using instructions that come with the plug-in. After installation, Navigator uses the plug-in's capabilities like other built-in Navigator features.
Plug-ins can have one of three modes of operation: embedded, full-screen, or hidden. An embedded plug-in is a part of a larger HTML page, visible as a rectangular frame within a page (embedded plug-ins are specified in HTML with the EMBED tag). A full-screen plug-in is a self-contained viewer, completely filling the content area of a Navigator window. A hidden plug-in runs in the background.
Navigator's appearance remains relatively unchanged even when plug-ins are in use. Frames without plug-in data function like ordinary frames. Basic operations such as navigation, history, and opening files are not changed by plug-ins.
The plug-in application programming interface (API) allows other vendors to extend Navigator with native support for new data types and additional features. Plug-ins are dynamic code modules, native to each Navigator platform. Plug-ins complement architectures such as OLE and platform-independent programming languages such as Java. Here are the primary goals of the plug-in API:
A plug-in can retrieve a URL with the same network functionality as Navigator. The data from such a URL is provided as a stream as the data arrives from the network. Plug-ins can themselves generate data that Navigator or other plug-ins can display. Plug-ins can both produce and consume data.
Plug-ins are associated with a MIME data type that Navigator does not natively support. When Navigator encounters an unknown data type from a server, Navigator looks for a plug-in that is associated with that MIME type and loads the plug-in.
Generally, pages are displayed on your screen as a result of your input. You click a link or an image to request a page. But servers also have the ability to automatically deliver or "broadcast" an updated version of a page to your screen. For example, a weather watcher might want to see an updated satellite photo at 15-minute intervals.
Navigator's Netcaster component offers wide-ranging broadcast capabilities. In addition, Navigator provides page creators and server administrators two limited, complementary capabilities for automating page delivery.
The server transmits page information to your screen. Navigator displays the information and leaves the connection to the server open. With an open connection, the server can continue to "push" updated pages for your screen to display on an ongoing basis. You can close the connection by closing the page.
The server transmits page information to your screen along with programming code that automatically instructs Navigator to perform an action such as "reload this page in ten minutes" or "go load this URL in two minutes." After the specified amount of time has elapsed, the client (Navigator running on your computer) "pulls" updated pages to your screen according to the instructions that have been provided along with the page. You can terminate the page's actions by closing the page.
In server push technology, an HTTP connection is held open for an indefinite period of time (until the server is finished sending data to the client or until the client interrupts the connection). In client pull technology, an HTTP connection is never held open; rather, the client is told when to open a new connection and what data to retrieve. Server push uses a variant of the MIME message format "multipart/mixed" that lets a single message (or HTTP response) contain many data items. Client pull uses an HTTP response header (or equivalent HTML tag) that tells the client what to do after a specified time delay.
Autoscroll is a feature of Navigator that lets a server deliver ongoing page information to your screen automatically. The connection to the server is kept open and new page information is added. The autoscroll area (a page or page frame) automatically scrolls to accommodate the data stream. Both autoscroll and server push features leave the connection to the server open and display new content on an ongoing basis; however, autoscroll adds new information to the page whereas server push updates the entire page. You can close the connection by displaying a new page.
The autoscroll feature can support an online chat session with another user. You can view incoming text automatically without having to use the scroll bar to move down the page. You can also type and send text at the same time in an adjacent window without interrupting the incoming text stream.
To implement the autoscroll feature, page creators and server administrators use Navigator's autoscrolling tool. Autoscroll is an HTTP header attribute. The content-type modifier AUTOSCROLL is similar to CHARSET.
As new text arrives in the autoscroll area, the text scrolls to keep the most recent line of transmitted text on the screen. You can scroll up to view previous text without having to watch the text stream, and you can scroll down to again view the incoming stream. The autoscroll area can display a maximum of 1000 lines and consists of two components: