Understanding the Netscape Navigator Screen

Opening Netscape Navigator

Before using Netscape Navigator, your connection to the Internet must be open. If you are connecting using a modem, dial in to your Internet Service Provider using the instructions you have been given. If you are on a network, you are generally connected all the time, as long as your computer is on.

To open Netscape Navigator double-click the Netscape Navigator icon on your desktop or locate the application icon on your hard disk and double-click it.

Understanding the Netscape Navigator Screen

When you open Netscape Navigator, you see the default Web page displayed on the screen.

For most of your browsing on the Web, you can use the buttons across the top of the screen and the Locations bar.

Location bar: Click in the white bar and type the URL you want to go to. (Note: you must type the address perfectly.)

Back: Click to go to the last page you viewed in the current session with Netscape Navigator.

Forward: Click to view the page you viewed before clicking the Back button.

Reload: Reloads the Web page. Use this when you think the Web page may have changed since you went to it or if you have trouble accessing a page

Home: Takes you to your default page. To set your default page, choose Edit > Preferences from the menu. Type the URL you want in the Location text box of the Home Page section of the dialog box.

Search: Lets you search for topics on the World Wide Web, using Netscape Navigator's default search engine on Netscape's Web site. You can use your own search engines. Click here for more information.

My Netscape: Takes you to Netscape's personalized Web site which can customize content for you.

Print: Prints the currently displayed Web page. A web page can be quite long and make require several sheets of paper when printing. To see how the page will look when printed, choose File > Print Preview from the menu (in recent versions of Netscape Navigator).

Security: Opens the Security Info window where you can get information about the currently displayed Web page, including whether or not it is encrypted (for security purposed).

Shop: Takes you to Netscape's shopping Web site. (Shopping is why you browse the Web, isn't it?)

Stop: Stops accessing the URL you requested. Use this is the page is taking too long to appear or if you made a mistake in the URL.

Bookmarks: Lets you create a list of often-used sites so you can get to them easily whenever you want. To add the displayed Web page, click Bookmarks > Add. To go to a bookmark, click Bookmarks and then click the site you want from the list.

At the bottom of the screen is a status bar that provides information on your progress on the Internet. You may see Transferring data or Document Done appear in the status bar.