- Move the mouse pointer to the underlined-text or outlined-picture link.
- When you get there, the mouse pointer turns into a pointing finger, and, if you look in the field at the bottom of the Netscape window, you'll notice the URL to which the link is pointing appear.
- Click the mouse (use the left button if you're using a Windows-style computer), and PRESTO! You're on your way "to" the site the link is pointing to. (Actually, it's the other way around. You're not going to the site -- the site is simply sending you a travel brochure of text and pictures.)
- The mouse pointer turns into a timepiece. If you're using Netscape, "comets" will appear in the "N" square at the upper right corner of the window, and the progress of the transfer will be shown (with words and a red "thermometer bar") in the bottom border of the window. The new Web page will appear, usually text first, followed by the graphics, depending on how fast your connection is.
* * BACK: If you want to return to the page you just left, click on the Back button at the top of the window. The Go menu (which also has a Back choice) will show you a list of sites you've visited -- you can click on any one of them to return to that particular site. * *
- Choose Open Location from Netscape's File menu.
- In the text-box that appears, type in the URL, being very careful to type it in exactly as it is shown, with no blank spaces, the "/" slashes going the right way, and upper/lower case correct. (If there is already an address in the box when it appears, it will be highlighted -- as in the illustration below -- just type in the URL you want. It will replace the one that is there.) Then press Return or Enter, or click on Open, and you're on your way!
- Highlight the entire URL with your mouse: click at one end and drag the mouse all the way across it, releasing the mouse button only when the entire URL is highlighted:
- Choose Copy from the Edit menu in the program where you're seeing the URL (it might be Netscape, or an e-mail program, or communications program, or a word processor). This saves the URL on your computer's "clipboard":
- Go to your Netscape window (if you're not already there), and choose Open Location from the File menu, just as described in Method #2, above.
- Choose Paste from Netscape's Edit menu.
This copies the URL you just saved on your "clipboard" into the Open Location box. It's just as if you'd typed it in yourself, but without all the fuss of trying to type in all that text and get it right at the same time! Just press Return or Enter, or click on Open, and you're on your way to the new URL.
Use a "keyword" search for the topic you want, using one or more of the large number of search engines that are now available for searching the Web. These search engines are discussed fully in a later section of this book.
Various groups (especially search-engine sites) offer collections of links to Web sites that relate to various content areas. These collections, sometimes called Web-guides, cover such areas as Education, Business, Sports, Community, etc. An education collection is often broken down into K-12, Higher-Ed, and even further. The following are two good starting points, from which you can jump off using the "follow-your-nose" method (#1) mentioned above:
-
A collection of education-related Web-guides:
(http://www.inform.umd.edu/mdk-12/netvision/webguides.html)
NetVision's own collection of education-related collections:
(http://www.inform.umd.edu/mdk-12/netvision/netv.html)
Netscape has a row of "directory buttons" running across its window just above the Web page display.
If you don't see them, choose Show Directory Buttons from the Options menu. For the most part, these buttons won't help you find specifically educational sites, but they may turn up sites that will excite you or the kids in your class. Here's a brief description of them:
- What's New -- The Netscape staff keeps an ear to the ground on the Web, and lists new sites it feels are of general interest. Many of the search engine sites have a similar feature.
- What's Cool -- is in the eye of the beholder. These are items the Netscape staff feels are particularly unusual or interesting (not updated as often as What's New). Many search engine sites have similar features.
- Handbook -- a how-to manual for Netscape, as you get better at it.
- Net Search -- This is a page of links to search engines, as well as various kinds of content-specific Web-guides (the Education parts of which are concentrated in the URL mentioned under Method #5, above). If you want to use the particular search engine that happens to be featured on the page you get, just type in the search word(s) you're looking for and click the Search button. But usually you're better off going to that search engine's own page, and learning how it works (see the description of search engines later in this book).
- NetDirectory -- essentially the same as Net Search.
- Software -- Netscape Corp's software offerings. You probably won't need these right away.