The pop-up menu will vary depending on whether you are using a Windows or Mac platform and on whether you are using Netscape or Internet Explorer for your browser.
Modules >>
Internet I: Internet Browsing and Searching >>
Basic Browser Operation
In this section, you are asked to select the handbook below that corresponds to the the browser you are using. If you are not sure what browser version you have, open the browser, go to the Help menu, and click on "About <program name>." These tutorials will cover the toolbar buttons, menu options, and more. Since some Netscape programs can contain additional components to operate email (Netscape Messenger), newsgroups, and make webpages (Netscape Composer), the following tutorials may cover these topics. For this module, focus your attention on only the browser features for Browsing the Web. You can also choose to use the "Help" menu contents of your browser instead.
Netscape 3 Handbook
http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/3.0/handbook/Netscape 4 Handbook
http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/4.0/handbook/Microsoft Internet Explorer: Browser Basics Part I
http://www.microsoft.com/insider/internet/
In the previous section, you learned about the location bar. This is where a website address (or URL) is entered. Using your browser, go to the UVic homepage by typing the URL: http://www.uvic.ca in the location bar. You may also open a webpage by going to the File menu, clicking on "Open Page...," and entering the website address.
Saving images off of webpages
The website at UVic, which you just opened, has a photo in the centre of the page. This picture changes every week or so, so the file name shown below may be different. For part of your assignment, you are asked to save this image to your computer using the following instructions:
The pop-up menu will vary depending on whether you are using a Windows or Mac platform and on whether you are using Netscape or Internet Explorer for your browser.
Select the command that saves the image. In Netscape for Windows, this command is "Save Image As." Again, depending on your platform and browser software, the command may be one of the following: "Save this image as," "Download Image to Disk," or "Save Picture As." Select the command by clicking on it. You should see the following window:
Next, select where you want to save your file using the "Save in" drop down menu. Be sure you know which folder you saved it in, because you will need to find it and send it as an attachment for part of your assignment.
In the "File Name" field, the name of the image appears. At this point, you may choose to keep this name or change it by typing in another name. At the bottom of this pop-up window is "Save as type," which is a drop-down menu. The computer recognized the file type as a JPEG file, which is one of the image formats available. Leave this field as is, then click the "Save" button to save the image on your computer.
Saving text off of webpages
To save text off of the webpage, select the text by clicking and dragging your mouse across the portion you wish to save. The selected text will show a highlighted background as follows:
With the text selected, go to the "Edit" menu and click on "Copy." This stores the text in a temporary space, called a clipboard. If you want to save this text in a word processing document, open the program and document, then insert the selected text by going to the "File" menu and clicking on "Paste." The text should appear in the open document. You may then save the word processing document so the text will be available for future reference.
Saving a webpage to your computer
Many people use a "dial-up" connection to access the Internet and the length of time they stay connected is limited or charged by the hour. Instead of reading long text documents while online, it is possible to save the webpage to your computer for reference at a later time, when not connected to the Internet. For part of your assignment, you will save the webpage on "Plagiarism and Cheating" off the UVIC website. In your web browser, open a new (second) browser window. To do this, go to the File menu and select New Window. In this second window, enter the following webpage:
You can also just click on this link, but it will appear in the right frame of the Comp-in-Ed website. You would then have to click on that frame to select it and select "Save Frame As" as opposed to just "Save As."
When the page appears in your browser, go to the "File" menu and click on "Save As... ." You will see the following window:
Choose a folder on your computer where you want to save the webpage. In the "File Name" field, you will notice that the webpage is already named. In this case, "PaCh" shows up in Netscape. Further, you will notice that the "Save As Type" field shows "HTML," which is the file type for most webpages on the Internet. Click the "Save" button to save the file to your computer. Remember where you saved it, because you will need to send this file to the coordinator as part of your assignment.
To open a webpage stored on your computer, open your web browser, click on the "File" menu, and then click on "Open Page... ." The following pop-up window will appear:
Since you will be opening a file on your computer instead of a webpage on the Internet, click on the "Choose File" button. Go to the folder where you saved the file "PaCh.html" then select the file by clicking on it and click the "open" button. More than just the filename will appear in the above window. What appears is the file name and the directory path by which the computer can find it. In this case, the computer will search for the file in the C drive (C:\), then in the My Documents folder (My Documents\). The name of the file (PaCh.html) appears at the end of this string. Next, you have to choose which program you want to use to open the file. Netscape "Composer" is the program where you would edit the file. Since you just want to view the file, open it in Netscape "Navigator," which is the default setting. Click on the "Open" button to open the file.
Cache
The file you saved contained some images; however, you saved only the HTML file and NOT the images in the above procedure. When you opened the file, you may have noticed "broken image links," which look like the following:
If you could see the images when viewing the page, then it was because the image information was stored in your "cache." Your computer stores copies of frequently accessed pages in the memory cache or disk cache. This way, the computer does not have to retrieve the page from the network every time you view it. To learn more about your cache, how to clear it, or control the settings for it, go to the "Help" menu in your browser, choose "Index," then search for "cache" and review the material provided. The Help menus in most software programs are an incredible resource.
Security
Various webpages on the Internet have forms in which you can transmit information about your personal profile, about your credit card information, etc. To be sure that your information is encrypted and your connection is secure, you should view the security information for that website. First, you can check the security icon or button to see what status the padlock is showing.
 |
= encryption |  |
= no encryption |
Click on the "Security" button in the Toolbar to view the following window, which provides security information.
Before submitting any personal information over the Internet, like your credit card, be sure the website source matches that provided in the "verification" section in the above image, and that the webpage is encrypted for your protection.
Printing webpages
Some webpages are divided into different sections, called "frames." For example, the menu in the left side of this website is a different frame than the one displaying this module. In order to print text from any one frame, you need to click somewhere inside of the frame you wish to print. This selects the frame. Next, click on the "Print" button in your browser toolbar. You may also go to the File menu and select "Print" or "Print Frame." The Print pop-up window appears, which allows you to set your printing preferences, such as printer properties, number of copies, and print range. Set your preferences, make sure your printer is on and has paper, then click OK to begin printing.
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Copyright © 2001-2002 Valerie Irvine. All rights reserved.
Revised: September 23, 2002.
