Home Page
The World Wide Web
The Net...
(How to get there from
Davidson County
Public Library System)
How to get there from here:
Via Windows 95:
A window called "My Computer" will pop up with icons (images) of file folders with titles underneath
Double click on the file folder icon entitled "Dial-Up Networking"
A window called "Dial-up Networking" will pop up with icons of 2 computers connected by lines
Double click on the icon entitled "Interpath"*
A dialogue box will appear with places to type in user name and password
The dialog box will show a red square moving back and forth between the two computers from the icon.
The box will also display information such as verifying login and password.
Another dialogue box will
pop up verifying login
and password and running a Security check.
In the window entitled
Triad Online Surfer Kit
double click on the icon
(green trumpet) called
"Call Infinet."
Double click on the Netscape
icon in
the Triad Online window.
Overview:
Netscape
To "surf" the Web we use a microcompu
ter
;client (program) called Netscape.
Netscape allows you to view tex
t
and graphics found on the Web Pages&
#
32;of the world.
Always be aware of the following when
;surfin
g the Web:
The Web changes constantly and
q
uickly, so it can never be completely
cataloged.
A site your find today may
n
ot be available tomorrow.
If you find a site with val
u
able information you may need again,
;
bookmark it while
you have it.
Search Engines
Search engines look for key words in the title and
content of web
documents. You type a string of words (one, two
or more) and the search
engine looks for the string in the web pages it
has indexed. It then
displays links to the pages it finds that match
your search request.
Once the links are found you can click on each of
them to find which one
best fits your needs. Some engines provide
abstracts or summaries with
their links. This allows you to verify whether or
not it is worth
clicking on them. With search engines, you can
usually use advanced
searching techniques, such as searching for
multiple terms. Some of the
search engines
available are:
Search Engines:
VSL (Virtual Software
Library)
*Meta Crawler and SavvySearch are the search
engines accessed from
the DCPLS home page. Meta Crawler and SavvySearch
are actually search
engines that searches other search engines in
priority order. Each
decides which search engines are most likely to
contain the information
you are looking for and selects two or three of
them to search at a
time. If SavvySearch is busy ("has a high load")
it automatically
directs you to other search engines and allows you
to choose one to
search. If after searching there you do not find
what you need go
Back(<=) to the "High Load" screen and hit the
Reload button(
circular arrow) in Netscape. This will allow you
to search again using
SavvySearch is it is not as busy.
Other Tips for Searching:
The more terms you add the
more you narrow your
search. Your request becomes more
specific.
Try to limit the number of
search terms to two or
three at a time. Results will be faster.
Subject -Oriented Directories
Subject-oriented directories are lists of links
categorized by subject
area.
Directories:
þ Clearinghouse for
Subject-Oriented Internet
Resource Guides
**WWW Virtual Library can be accessed from DCPLS
home page under Other
Library Resources.
Understanding Web pages
Now, you're probably comfortable with the idea
that information on
the
Internet is presented on pages you see on the
screen. Even the
navigational
concepts are pretty easy:
* You start with a home page (Davidson County
Public Library
System).
* You click on highlighted words
(colored and/or
underlined) in a page
to bring another page of related information
to your screen.
* You click on arrow buttons to go back (or
forward) to a page you
have
previously seen.
"Plus, you can go directly to pages that interest
you by
choosing menu items (click once on the
word):
* History items in the Go menu bring pages
you have viewed
before.
as worthy of easy access.
* Directory items in the Directory menu
bring pages that help
you use
Netscape and Internet features
Linking via buttons and menu items
When no built-in link is available, you can bring
a page by
entering the URL in the location field, then
pressing the return key.
(The
label of the location field changes to Go to when
you edit the
field.)
Alternatively, you can choose the File/Open
Location menu item, enter
the
URL in the dialog box, then press the Open
button.
*****************************************************************
******<
P>
The toolbar offers the following button links from
left to right:
* <=Back brings the previous page in the
history list. The history
list is
a reference to pages you have viewed.
* => Forward brings the next page in the
history list. (Available
only
after using the Back command or a history
menu item.)
preferences.
* Open produces a dialog box that allows you to
bring any page whose
URL
you can supply.
*****************************************************************
*******
Menu items offer each of the links available
through toolbar buttons
plus
many more.
* History items from the Go menu bring
previously viewed pages.
The
Netscape application automatically appends
the title of a page
you
have viewed as the topmost menu item in the
history list. The
View
History menu item produces a dialog box that
shows you how the
history
lineage is maintained.
* Bookmark items from the Bookmarks menu bring
pages of your choice.
You
can add a bookmark menu item for the page you
are viewing by
choosing
Bookmarks/Add Bookmark. The View Bookmarks
menu item
produces a dialog box that lets you establish
lists of bookmarks for
yourself and to share with others.
* Items from the Directory and Help menus bring
pages with
up-to-date
information on Netscape software and Internet
exploration.
*****************************************************************
*******
A pop-up menu offers utility features and a
shortcut for certain
links. On Windows and UNIX, you can click on
the right mouse
button to produce the pop-up menu. When the
mouse button is
pressed over a link or image, 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. On the
Windows 95 version, the pop-up menu item
Create Shortcut
lets you create Internet shortcut icons that
you can place on
the
desktop or in any folder. Clicking on an
Internet shortcut icon
automatically opens the Netscape application
and loads a
particular page.
*****************************************************************
*******
Saving pages
Quick Step by Step for saving, displaying, and
printing text
Via Windows 95
Single click on the Menu
item in Netscape
entitled "File" the pop-down menu will
appear.
From the pop-down menu
select and single click on
"Save As."
When downloading is
complete you will be back at
the web page in Netscape.
Put a 3.5" disk in the A
drive.
Double click on the Write
icon (usually a blue
cartridge pen).
From the menu of Write
single click on File and
from the pop-down menu choose and click on
Open.
Via Windows 3.1
Single click on the Menu
item in Netscape
entitled "File" the
pop-down menu will
appear.
From the pop-down menu
select and single click on
"Save As."
Put a 3.5" disk in the A
drive.
In the upper right corner
is a button labeled
"Save" or "Save As." Single click it to
save the file.
When downloading is
complete you will be back at
the web page in Netscape.
Put a 3.5" disk in the A
drive.
Double click on the Write
icon (usually a blue
cartridge pen).
From the menu of Write
single click on File and
from the pop-down menu choose and click on
Open.
Quick Step by Step for saving, displaying, and
printing images
Via Windows 95
Place the mouse cursor
arrow on the image you
wish to save and single click the Right
mouse button.
You do not change
the second block with
".gif or .jpg".
Put a 3.5" disk in the A
drive.
When downloading is
complete you will be back at
the web page in Netscape.
Put a 3.5" disk in the A
drive.
Double click on the green
LViewPro icon.
From the menu of LViewPro
single click on File
and from the pop-down menu choose and click
on Open.
Via Windows 3.1
Place the mouse cursor
arrow on the image you
wish to save and single
click the Right mouse
button.
You do not change
the second block with
".gif or .jpg".
Put a 3.5" disk in the A
drive.
In the upper right corner
is a button labeled
"Save" or "Save As." Single click it to
save the file.
When downloading is
complete you will be back at
the web page in Netscape.
Put a 3.5" disk in the A
drive.
Double click on the green
LViewPro icon.
From the menu of LViewPro
single click on File
and from the pop-down menu choose and click
on Open.
*****************************************************************
*******
Printing and finding
Quick Step by Step for saving and Faxing or
Printing pages
(used if you are sending information to another
library or need a direct
copy of a web page)
Via Windows 95
Single click on the "OK"
button in the right
hand corner.
In the right corner click
once on the "OK"
button.
Click on "Start" at the
bottom of the Windows 95
desktop.
In the pop-up menu that
appears highlight
Programs.
In the pop-up Program menu
that appears
highlight QuickLinkFax.
In the pop-up QuickLink
Fax menu that appears
highlight and click on QuickLinkFax.
The block on the far left
should now display the
list of files in the Outbox directory.
If the information is
going to another library
click on the phone list button.
A list of libraries will
be displayed in the
phone list.
Click on the "OK" button
to return to the fax
screen.
In the right frame at the
top click on the "Send
Fax" button.
Click on the "X" in the
upper right corner of
the window of the QuickLink Fax to close
it.
Via Windows 3.1
Single click on the "OK"
button in the right
hand corner.
Back at the fax dialog box
click on the "Save"
button.
Double Click on the WinFax
icon in the
Thomasville Library window.
From the WinFax window
click on the Send
button.
The fax dialog box will be
displayed.
If the information is
going to another library
click on the select button.
A list of libraries will
be displayed in the
phone list.
Highlight the library to
which you wish to send
the fax and click on "OK"button.
You should be back at the
fax dialog box.
At the bottom you should
press "Send"
button.
A Fax transmission window
will appear showing
the progress of the transmission.
Once the fax is sent, the
fax transmission
window will disappear.
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. When the mouse cursor points over a link, the
URL
location of the
link appears in the status field.
You can bring a linked page to your screen by
clicking once
on the
highlighted text, image, or icon. Clicking on a link
transfers page content
from a server location to your location. After you
click on
a link, the
Netscape status indicator animates to show you that
the
transfer of the
page to your computer is in progress. You can stop a
transfer in progress
by pressing the Stop button or choosing the Go/Stop
Loading
menu item.
An unfollowed link is a connection to a page that you
have
not yet viewed;
a followed link is one you have. Unfollowed and
followed
links are
highlighted in different colors. When your cursor
points
over a link, the status
message text field (at the bottom of the screen)
displays
the URL of the page that
one click will bring to screen.
After you click on an unfollowed link, the link
becomes a
followed link. If
you go back to a page where you have clicked on a
link,
you'll see that the
link has changed from the unfollowed color to the
followed
color. By
default, unfollowed links are blue and followed links
are
purple. (On
Windows and Macintosh, you can change the colors used
to
denote unfollowed
and followed links from the
Options/Preferences/Colors menu
item.)
You'll find the ability to stop (the red stop sign
button) a transfer in progress is
useful if the transfer is taking too long for your
liking.
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. Examine the
status field and progress bar to receive feedback
about the
progress of a
transfer.
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. Nor
does a link
always bring a new page to screen; rather, a link can
bring
a different
portion of the same page (in effect, automatically
scrolling
for you). For
example, the beginning of a page may include a table
of
contents that links
each chapter title to the chapter subheading deeper
into the
page.
Yet another kind of link doesn't bring a page at all.
A
mailto link whose
URL begins with mailto:, produces the Send Mail/Post
News
dialog box for
sending e-mail (with the recipient's address
automatically
filled in). See "Send
Comments or Questions to racdcpls@nr.infi.net or
rcopley@ncsl.dcr.state.nc.us"
at the bottom of DCPLS home page.
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 just like every person
has a unique palm
print.
(Arguments persist as to which is more
cryptic.)
A URL is text used for identifying and addressing
an item in a
computer
network. In short, a URL provides location
information and Netscape
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; Netscape already knows the URL
when you click on
highlighted text, press an arrow button, or select
a menu item. But
sometimes you won't have an automatic link and
instead have only the
text
of the URL (perhaps from a friend, a television
advertisement or a
newspaper article).
Netscape gives you the opportunity to type in a
URL directly into the
location text field (or the URL dialog box
produced by the File/Open
Location menu item. Using the URL, Netscape will
bring you the
specified
page just as if you had clicked on an automatic
link. Notice that the
label
on the location field says Netsite for pages from
a Netscape server,
Location for pages from a non-Netscape server, or
Go to as soon as you
edit
the field.
Here are some sample URLs:
http://home.netscape.com/index.html
ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/
news:news.announce.newusers
*****************************************************************
*
On Windows, the location text field offers a
pull-down menu to the right
of
the text. The menu contains up to 10 URLs of pages
whose locations
you've
most recently typed into the field and brought to
screen. Choosing a
URL
item from this menu brings the page to your screen
again. The URLs
are
retained in the menu across your Netscape
sessions.
*****************************************************************
URL Protocols
Netscape 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 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).
** The first component, the protocol, identifies a
manner for
interpreting
computer information. Many Internet pages use HTTP
(short for
HyperText
Transfer Protocol). Other common protocols you
might come across
include
file (also known as ftp which is short for File
Transfer Protocol),
news
(the protocol used by Usenet news groups), and
gopher (an alternative
transfer protocol).
**The second component, the server, identifies the
computer system
that
stores the information you seek (such as
home.netscape.com). Each server
on
the Internet has a unique address name whose text
refers to the
organization maintaining the server.
**The last component, the pathname, identifies the
location of an item
on the
server. For example, a pathname might identify a
page by specifying
the
name of the file comprising the page (such as
/welcome.html) as well as
the
name of one or more directories (folders) that
store a file (/home).
You can do more than read Netscape pages; you can
write on
them. Pages can
contain forms for you to enter and send information.
For
example, a page
might have a form with fields for you to enter a name
and
address next to a
button that sends the information to the page's
author.
Forms may offer
editable fields with or without default text, check
boxes,
radio buttons,
pull-down menus, selection lists, and buttons to send
or
clear the
information you enter. The content you enter into a
form
doesn't
permanently alter the page (that is, you're not
modifying
the source page
at its location), yet the form gives you the ability
to
conveniently
transmit a response.
To send ordinary e-mail, you fill in fields to supply
the
content of your
message, the subject summary, and the e-mail address
of the
intended
recipient. Pages with forms let you reply to
information you
read in the
page. To send a form, you fill in one or more fields
embedded within 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 e-mail address.
The author of a page determines the layout of a form.
A page
may contain
multiple forms, each form capable of sending fields
independently of
another form on the page. Fields in a form may
restrict the
kind or range
of text you enter (such as numbers only) to help you
fill in
the form as
desired.
Typically, forms are used to 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
news
pages, designed
for people to communicate with each other on special
interests, contain
forms for you to enter articles and subscribe to
newsgroups.
The Netscape
software has built-in links to pages with forms for
you to
comment about
the Netscape application, and request product
information.
Sending e-mail
The Netscape application lets you create and send
outgoing
e-mail.
(Currently, Netscape has no facility for receiving
incoming
e-mail so
you'll need a dedicated mail application to read
e-mail sent
to you.) With
the press of a button, you can insert the text of the
current page in the
e-mail message you create. You can also send an
attachment
(a file
containing the text of a page, the HTML source code
of a
page, or a
separate file of your choosing).
To send e-mail, choose the File/Mail Document menu
item.
This produces the
Send Mail/Post News dialog box. You may discover
pages with
a link or
button that also produce the Send Mail/Post News
dialog box.
Likewise,
newsgroup pages with a button for posting articles
use this
same facility.
The dialog box has several text fields:
* The From field contains your e-mail address
(supplied
in the Mail
panel).
* The Mail To field takes the e-mail address of
the
intended mail
recipient.
* The Post To (Newsgroup) field takes the name of
the
newsgroup you wish
to post to, preset with the name of the current
newsgroup (if any).
* The Subject field offers a place to include a
short
description of the
e-mail, usually preset with the name of the
current
page.
* The Attachment field contains the name of any
file you
have attached.
* The large message field offers a place to type a
message and include
the text of the current page, preset for mail
with the
current page's
URL.
You need to know the Internet mail address of where
you want
your e-mail to
go. Internet addresses typically contain a user name
followed by the @
symbol (pronounced "at"), followed by mail server
location
name. For
example, to send e-mail to this company, enter:
info@netscape.com
Pressing the Quote Document button inserts the text
of the
current page
inside the message field. Each line of included text
appears
in the message
field preceded by the greater than symbol (>). The
Netscape application
automatically inserts the > symbol to
differentiate the
page's text from
your message.
Pressing the Attach button produces a dialog box that
lets
you send e-mail
with a file attachment. An attachment is a separate
document
sent along
with the e-mail message. The dialog box offers the
choice of
Document Text,
Document Source, or File radio buttons (with a Browse
button
to select a
file).
If you want to send the current page as an attachment
(this
may be helpful
if your recipient is going to reuse the document),
choosing
the Document
Text item sends the text of the message intact (no
>
symbols are appended
to each line) while choosing the Document Source item
sends
the text of the
message embedded with all the HTML instructions that
format
Internet pages.
The File item lets you select a local file.
Pressing the Send button transmits the message and
any
attachments to the
recipient. If you've specified a text file containing
your
signature in the
Mail panel, your signature is appended to the message
field
in all of your
mailings.
Getting Out!!
(Exiting, Closing, Telling Netscape and Interpath to
go
away)
How to get out of here:
Via Windows 95:
Single click on the icon
bar at the bottom of
desktop entitled "Dial-Up Networking"
Via Windows 3.1:
Click on Disconnect in
the "Interpath Dialer"
display.
Click to close the
Interpath Dialer dialog
box.
The End
*****************************************************************
*******
Sections of this document were taken from:
Internet: Introduction. OIT Document
iig01. Revised:
8/3/95. Print date:
10/26/95. Publication of The Office of
Information Technology at
the
University of North Carolina.
Finding Stuff on the 'Net. OIT
Document iis05.
Revised:9/12/95. Print date:
10/26/95. Publication of The Office of
Information Technology at
the
University of North Carolina.
Netscape Handbook.
* Bookmarks items in the Bookmarks menu
bring pages you have
designated
* Home(the house button) brings the home page
designated in your
Communications Corporation.
Home Page
Director's Page