Robin Williams
x
.Following are a few tricks in Netscape.
The Home Button
The Home button in the toolbar will take you to whatever page you designate as Home. Whatever that designation is, is also the page Netscape opens to when you log on.
When you click on the Home button now, does it take you to a Netscape page? And when you open Netscape do you automatically land on a Netscape page? It's possible that the person who set up your connection designated a particular site for the Home button and opening page for you. But, instead, you might want to open to your favorite search engine, your family web site, your business site, or your favorite news site. So here's how to change the Home location so when you click that button you jump to your favorite page, and when you open Netscape, it opens to that page.
From the Options menu, choose "General Preferences."
If the "Appearance" screen is not showing, click on the tab at the top labeled "Appearance."
At the bottom you see "Browser Starts With." One of the options is "Home Page Location." In that edit box, type the entire address of the page you want to see whenever you open Netscape.
Click OK.
Type Size
Don't forget that you can change the size of the type you see in your Netscape window. I set mine at New York 12 point because it is so much easier to read on the screen than Times 12 point. Changing this default will change the size of all the actual type you can search and select--that is, it won't of course change any type that is in a graphic image. All the other headings on the page will change in relation to your chosen font and size. That is, if you make the body text 18 point Garamond, all your headings will be really large Garamond. Play with it and see.
From the Options menu, choose "General Preferences."
Click on the tab at the top labeled "Fonts."
There is a label "Use the Proportional Font:" Press on the font name next to that label and you will get the list of fonts open in your system. Choose one.
Press on the size menu and choose a size.
Click the Apply button to see how it affects your page. If you like it, click OK. If not, choose another font and size.
Click OK.
Go to a page
If you are jumping to a page on the World Wide Web, you do not need to type in the http:// part. Netscape will do it for you. You can just type the rest of the address.
If you want to go to a page with an address like this:
http://www.something.com
all you need to type is something and hit Return or Enter.
("Something," of course, stands for whatever the name is in that spot.)
For instance, if you want to go to http://www.adobe.com, you can just type adobe and hit Return. To go to the Peachpit site, just type peachpit and hit Return. To go to the Yahoo site, just type yahoo and hit Return.
Of course, if the address you want to go to has more words after the ".com," you will have to type them in. And this doesn't work on .org, .net, or the others.
To avoid picking up your mouse at all, you can hit the Tab key to select the Location box (unless there is a form on the page). Once the text in the Location box is selected, you don't have to first delete the text in it--simply type the name of the site you want to go to and the original text will be replaced by your address. Hit Return or Enter.
OR press Command L. Then type the name of the site (for instance, type yahoo). Hit Return or Enter to activate the OK button.
Drag-and-drop to jump to a page
If you have a web address in a program that is drag-and-drop (meaning you can select something like text, press on it, and drag the text somewhere else), then you can drag an address from, say, your e-mail and drop it onto the Netscape page. Netscape will go find that page. Or you can drag an address from your Notepad, from SimpleText, or from PageMill. You can drag-and-drop an html file from a Desktop folder onto your Netscape page, or any bookmark someone may have given you. (This is easier and more consistent on a Macintosh than on a PC.)
Don't try to drop the address in the Location box--you have to drop it right on the page itself!
