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When you start Netscape 6, you see Navigator, your browser. A What's New page appears automatically in the browser window when you first launch Netscape 6.
If you're viewing the What's New page for the first time, explore it. Click the items on the page to view more detailed explanations of new features. When you are ready to begin using Netscape 6, click "Start Using Now."
After the first launch, you will normally see your home page when you launch Netscape 6. Unless you choose a home page yourself, your home page is chosen by your network or Internet service provider, or you see Netscape's home page.
To choose your own home page, see "Specifying How Netscape Starts Up" in Customizing Netscape 6. (Open the Help menu, choose Help Contents, and click Customizing Netscape 6.)
Some pages are divided into rectangular areas called frames. Each frame can display other pages.
To view more than one page at a time, open the File menu and choose New Navigator Window. At first the new window displays a copy of your home page, but you can use it to view a different page.
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You move to a new page by typing its URL---its location (address) on the Web. URLs normally begin with the abbreviation "http://," followed by one or more names that identify the address. For instance, "http://netscape.com"
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Location Bar |
Don't know a URL? You can type part of a URL, such as "cnn" (for www.cnn.com); or type a general word, such as "gifts" or "flowers." Navigator guesses what page you want to view, or displays a page with a choice of links related to the word you typed.
If you are new to the Internet, type this URL to view a tutorial for novices: http://home.netscape.com/netcenter/newnet
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Most web pages contain links you can click to move to other pages.
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There are several ways to re-visit pages:
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Back Forward |
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Location Bar |
If you don't want the Location bar or History window to display the pages you've been visiting, you can clear the History list and Location bar history:
Tips for the History window:
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If a page is taking too long to appear, or you change your mind and don't want to view a page, click the Stop button.
To refresh the current page, or get the most up-to-date version, click Reload.
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Reload | Stop |
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The addresses, or URLs, of web pages can be quite long and difficult to remember. Fortunately, it's not necessary to memorize URLs in order to browse the Web. Your browser has a list of bookmarks, which are pointers to interesting web pages. To go to a bookmarked page:
Remember: To retrace your steps, click the Back arrow.
You can save your own bookmarks to point to pages you frequently visit, and to other interesting places on the Web. See Customizing Netscape 6 for instructions. (Open the Help menu, choose Help Contents, and click Customizing Netscape 6.)
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In addition to navigating the Web with Navigator, you can let the Web come to you by using My Sidebar.
My Sidebar is a customizable frame in your browser where you can keep items that you need to use all the time---the latest news and weather, your address book or buddy list, stock quotes, a calendar---and many other options you can choose. My Sidebar presents these items to you in tabs that it continually updates.
Netscape 6 comes with some My Sidebar tabs already set up, but you can customize My Sidebar by adding, removing, and rearranging tabs. For details, see Customizing Netscape 6. (Open the Help menu, choose Help Contents, and click Customizing Netscape 6.)
To view an item in My Sidebar, click its tab.
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If you don't see My Sidebar, it may be closed. Open it by clicking its handle. |
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In this section: |
There are three ways to search quickly: from the Location bar, from My Sidebar, and from the Net Search page.
Searching for web pages on a particular topic is as easy as typing a question, or just a word or two, into the browser's Location bar, as pictured below.
For example, if you want to find information about dogs:
After you perform a search, the results are saved in My Sidebar's Search tab until you do a new search. You don't have to click the Back button to retrieve the search results.
To save the results of a search, click Bookmark Search Query. To return to the list later, Open the Bookmarks menu. You'll find the search results in a folder at the bottom of the Bookmarks menu.
The My Sidebar Search tab lets you quickly search and bookmark your search results. For example, if you want to find information about cats:
If the My Sidebar Search tab contains a list of search engines from which to choose, then it is set to search in advanced mode. You can keep it that way, or change to a basic setting by opening the Search menu, choosing My Sidebar Search Tab, and choosing Basic.
To save the results of a search, click the Bookmark Search Query button. To return to the list later, Open the Bookmarks menu. You'll find the search results in a folder at the bottom of the Bookmarks menu.
The Net Search page lets you type in a Search term or phrase, or explore several categories (such as Arts & Entertainment, Business, and many more) that may interest you. To visit the Net Search page:
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You can set the My Sidebar Search tab to Advanced mode, which lets you narrow a search or choose one or more search engines.
To save the results of a search, click the Bookmark Search Results button. To return to the list later, Open the Bookmarks menu. You'll find the search results in a folder in the Bookmarks menu.
You can specify which search engines should be used for different categories of searches.
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To save your search results as bookmarks:
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By default, when you click Search the Netscape search engine is used. Netscape's search uses the Netscape Open Directory project (the largest human-edited directory on the Web), and the Google search engine.
If you like, you can designate a different search engine as the default. You can also specify how you want search results displayed in My Sidebar.
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Internet Keywords work with the Location bar to help you quickly find specific types of information. There are several ways to use Internet Keywords:
Shortcut: The most commonly used Internet Keywords are listed in the pull down menu to the left of the location bar. Click the triangle and choose from the list. To see a longer list of keywords, choose List of Keywords.
Important: To use Internet Keywords, you must press Enter on your keyboard (Return on Mac OS) instead of clicking the Search button. Pressing Enter activates the Internet Keyword feature; clicking Search initiates a search.
To see the difference, try this:
If typing Internet Keywords into the Location bar is not working for you, check your Smart Browsing preferences to be sure the Internet Keywords feature is enabled.
To see a recent stock quote for a company, type "quote" followed by the company's stock ticker symbol, and press Enter.
If you don't know a company's stock ticker symbol, type the company's name. The Quote page will list all companies with similar names, and you can choose the one for which you want a quote.
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Whenever you visit a web page, your browser generates a list of related pages for you to consider. The What's Related list is displayed in My Sidebar.
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If it is not already open, open My Sidebar by clicking its handle. |
The What's Related list may be closed, so that only its tab is showing. To open it, click its tab.
To visit one of the web pages in the What's Related list, click its link.
If you prefer not to use What's Related or Internet Keywords, you can turn these features off.
What's Related works by gathering information on the browsing habits of a huge number of Internet users. If you do not wish What's Related information to be gathered in conjunction with your browsing, you can disable What's Related by turning off or removing the What's Related tab from My Sidebar. See "Removing My Sidebar Tabs" in Customizing Netscape 6. (Open the Help menu, choose Help Contents, and click Customizing Netscape 6.)
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To find text within the page you are currently viewing:
To find the same word or phrase again:
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To search the bookmarks list:
To search the History list:
Search options:
To use the search results:
Tip: If the list is hard to read, try expanding the Search Bookmarks/History window.
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In this section: |
To copy some text from a page:
You can paste the text into other files.
To copy a link (URL) or an image from a page:
You can paste the link into other files or into Navigator's Location bar.
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To save an entire page:
When you view a page containing frames and a frame is currently selected, the pop-up menu's Save Frame As option is offered in addition to Save Page As. This lets you save only the page within the selected frame.
Saving a file onto your hard drive lets you view the page (or its HTML code) when you're not connected to the Internet.
To save an image from a page:
To save a page without displaying it (which is useful for retrieving a nonformatted page, like a data file, that's not intended for viewing):
Important: Some links automatically download and save files to your hard drive after you click them. The URLs for these links often begin with "ftp" or end with a file-type extension such as "au" or "mpeg." These links might transmit software, sound, or movie files, and can launch helper applications that support the files.
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To print the current page:
The size of the printed page, not the size of the on-screen window, determines placement of content on the print-out. Text is wrapped and graphics are repositioned to accommodate paper size.
Print Plus is a service that helps you:
To use this service, open the File menu and choose Print Plus.
Note: Print Plus includes a utility that automatically checks to see what type of printers are configured on your computer. The information about your printers is stored on your computer in a cookie. You are always asked for permission before this information is gathered.
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In this section: |
You can get a quick translation of a web page that gives you the gist of the content in a language of your choosing.
You'll be taken to the Gist-In-Time web page. The address (URL) of the page you want to translate is already filled in.
There's a brief delay while the translation is completed.
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If you browse, compose, or send and receive email in more than one language, you need to select the appropriate character codings and fonts.
A character coding method is the way a document or message has been converted to data to be used by your computer. All web documents and mail and news messages use a character coding method (also known as a character encoding or character set).
The character coding method for a document depends on its language. Some languages---such as most of the Western languages---share the same coding method. Others, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Russian, use different method.
Your version of Netscape 6 is probably set to default character coding(s) appropriate for your region. However, If you use more than one language you may need to select appropriate character coding methods and designate the fonts you wish to use for use coding method.
To select character codings:
The character coding methods you select are added to the bottom of the Character Coding menu. If you have more than one coding method selected, the active one has a bullet (dot) next to it.
Netscape 6 can detect which character coding a document uses, and can display it correctly on your screen. To take advantage of this capability:
To make changes to your list of active character sets:
To change the default fonts:
Many web page authors choose their own fonts and font sizes. You can override the authors' intentions by selecting "Always use my font settings, overriding web page font."
To adjust the readability of fonts, type a number for your preferred resolution in the field next to "Screen resolution." 96 dpi (dots per inch) is the standard resolution, but you may want to choose a larger value.
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Web pages are sometimes available in several languages. Netscape 6 presents pages in the language you prefer, if it is available. You can specify the languages you wish to see, in order of preference.
To set language preferences:
Note: Two-letter codes enclosed in brackets appear next to each language in the list. These are standard abbreviations for languages. For a complete list, go to this web site:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/related/iso639.txt
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For information about Netscape 6 in multiple languages, open the Help menu and choose International Users.
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In this section: Getting the Latest Software Automatically
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Navigator can handle many types of files. However, for some files, such as movies, Navigator launches a "helper" application that can handle the file, or it saves the file for you to view later.
The settings in the Helper Applications preferences panel tell Navigator which helper applications to use on your computer. You probably don't need to change them because they come preconfigured. Also, if Navigator doesn't know which helper application to use, it guides you in finding one.
For experienced users to fine-tune the Helper Applications preferences:
To add a new helper application to the list:
To specify how Navigator should handle downloaded files:
To remove an item from the list:
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When you bring a web page to your screen, Netscape 6 automatically loads (starts up) several features that help interpret web pages. These features can make web pages more lively, but they take time to load.
To turn off automatic loading:
To save time typing your password when you use "anonymous" as your user ID for an FTP site, choose "Send email address as anonymous FTP password." Choosing this option transmits your email address automatically when you log on to a public FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site. FTP sites are used for transferring files.
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Your computer stores copies of frequently accessed pages in the memory cache or disk cache. This way, the computer doesn't have to retrieve the page from the network each time you view it.
To set the size of the memory cache or to clear it (Windows and Unix only):
Important: A larger memory cache allows more data to be quickly retrieved. But unless you have a lot of extra memory on your computer, 1024K is large enough.
To set the size of the disk cache or to clear it:
Important: A larger disk cache allows more pages to be quickly retrieved, but more of your hard disk space is used.
When you quit Netscape 6, it performs cache maintenance. If maintenance takes longer than you wish, try reducing the size of the disk cache.
To specify how often Navigator checks the network for page revisions (so that you don't keep "stale" pages in the cache too long):
If pages that should be in the cache are taking longer to appear than they should, make sure the preference is not set to "Every time," because the verification requires a network connection that takes time.
To refresh a page at any time:
To retrieve a fresh copy of a page regardless of what's in the cache:
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Netscape 6 can notify you when updates for your software are available, and it can install the updates automatically.
You can specify how you want Netscape 6 to handle automatic software installation:
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If you use a mouse wheel, you can control how the mouse wheel's button functions.
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In this section: |
This section explains how to open Netscape's Personal Security Manager, and how to work with proxies.
For detailed instructions on using Netscape 6's privacy features, including Cookie Manager, Password Manager, and Form Manager, see Understanding Privacy. (Open the Help menu, choose Help Contents, and click Understanding Privacy.)
Personal Security Manager helps you protect the security of your communications over the Internet. Personal Security Manager can check the security settings of web sites you visit, encrypt mail before you send it, and help assure security in many other ways.
Personal Security Manager has its own extensive online Help, including general information about maintaining security on the Internet, and definitions of security-related terminology.
To access Personal Security Manager and view its Help, open the Tasks menu, choose Privacy and Security, and then choose Security Manager. Personal Security Manager also appears when you click a lock icon in the browser window.
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Many organizations block access from the Internet to their networks. This prevents outside parties from gaining access to sensitive information. The protection is called a firewall.
If your organization has a firewall, the browser may need to go through a proxy server before connecting you to the Internet. The proxy server prevents outsiders from breaking into your organization's private network.
Before you start:
To set the browser to work with the proxy:
(If you select Manual proxy configuration) In the "No Proxy for:" field, type the names of any domains that you can connect to directly, bypassing the proxy. For example, if you type "netscape.com", then the proxy is bypassed each time you view a web page from netscape.com.
Domain names are the part of a URL that contains the name of an organization, business, or school---such as netscape.com or washington.org. If you use local host names without the domain name, list them the same way. Use commas to separate multiple hostnames. The wildcard character [*] cannot be used.
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10/13/00
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