Netscape Communicator Tips #10



*1. LATEST ONLY, PLEASE

When you're in the Discussions window, you can choose to look 
only at the new messages in a discussion group. To do this, 
select the discussion group that opens all the messages. 
Choose View, Messages, New, and only the latest messages 
appear in the window.


*2. HIDDEN WINDOWS

By default, the Netscape Communicator Discussions window 
displays the message list window in a top screen and the 
message itself in a bottom screen. The only problem with this 
is that you need to keep scrolling through to see either all 
the messages on the list, or the whole of the selected message. 
However, if you want to see the list window in the full screen,
you can hide the message window. To do this, click the Hide 
icon, the small triangle in the top left corner of the message 
window border. You can also select View, Hide Message from the 
menu. To get the message back, click the Hide icon again (when 
it's in the bottom left corner). To put the message window in 
full-screen mode, double-click it from the message list. 
Select File, Close to get back to the Discussions window.


*3. GET DOWNLOAD TONIGHT

The Netscape Communicator Preferences box has a feature that 
allows you to set criteria for downloading messages from the 
network server to your computer. Setting your own criteria is 
important, because you almost always want to download messages 
and read them from your own computer rather than doing this 
online. To set download options, select Edit, Preferences from 
the main menu, opening the Preferences dialog box. Click the 
category Offline, then select Download to open the Download 
panel. The options are pretty obvious: Check Download Only 
Unread Messages to restrict the download to unread messages. 
Check Download By Date and enter a date you want to establish 
as the cutoff date for downloaded messages. (Who wants old 
news, right?) Finally, narrow the field a bit. Click Select 
Messages and choose the specific discussion groups or mail 
folders from which you want to download. When done, click OK 
to close the Preferences box and save your settings.


*4. CACHE YOUR CHIPS

If you're a regular browser, you've probably run into the 404: 
Not Found error message. In other words, you can't access the 
document you want. There are a couple obvious reasons for this 
message to appear: The URL may no longer exist, or you may have 
entered the wrong address in the Location box. However, there's 
another reason that may not be so obvious: You may not have 
enough cache set to load the page properly.

To check your cache settings, select Edit, Preferences, then 
select Advanced, Cache from the Category list.  There are two 
types of cache settings, memory and disk. Memory cache stores 
text and graphics from Web pages as long as you have the 
Communicator session active, and disk cache holds things on 
your hard drive after you close Communicator (this makes it 
easier to open the page). The default setting for memory cache 
is set at 1024KB, but if you want to try for faster browsing, 
set this a little higher--say, 1200 KB. The disk cache default 
setting of 5000KB should be sufficient for most users. Once you 
have the cache setting you want, click OK to close 
the Preferences box.


*5. CHECK CACHE

Does Netscape Communicator take a long time to shut down? If 
so, you might have too much cache set. Communicator does its 
cache maintenance at the end of each setting, so the more it 
has to go through, the longer it takes to shut down. To check 
your cache settings, select Edit, Preferences, then select 
Advanced, Cache from the Category list. The default disk cache 
setting of 5000KB should be sufficient for most users, so make 
sure this is not set too high.


*6. ABOUT THE CACHE

Disk cache files are kept on your system in a file called Cache 
(look for it in the Netscape folder). However, the names of the 
files are cryptic, and you usually can't tell what the file 
contains. If you want to know what your disk cache folder 
contains, enter About:cache in the Location box, then press 
Enter. A page appears that tells you all kinds of information 
about your disk cache: the maximum size, the current size, and 
details on every file.


*7. MORE INFO, PLEASE

The last tip told you how to get information about your disk 
cache files (enter About:cache in the Location box). When you 
click the hot link that relates to a particular file (the URL 
address), a new Communicator window opens with more-specific 
information about the cache file. When you click the link in 
the new window, you can see the actual contents (the graphic, 
text, or other element that makes up the file).


*8. MEMORY FINDER

As you know, Communicator has two types of cache, disk and 
memory. The last couple of tips told you how to get detailed 
information about your disk cache by entering About:cache in 
the Location box. If you want to get the lowdown on your memory 
cache, enter About:memory-cache in the Location box, then press 
Enter. A page appears that gives you the statistics on all 
recently cached documents (that is, while you have 
Communicator running).


*9. GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION

If you want to see only the graphic files that you have in the 
cache, enter about:image-cache in the Location box, then press 
Enter. A page appears that tells you everything about the 
images you have in the cache. When you click the URL hot link 
for a specific file, a new window opens with more information 
about that file. When you click the link in this window, you 
see the image itself.


*10. NO-CACHE POLICY

Having files in your disk cache helps you load Web pages 
quicker. However, when the cache file gets too big, your 
overall computer performance begins to suffer. If this is the 
case, feel free to clear out your cache. To do this, select 
Edit, Preferences, then select Advanced, Cache from the 
Category list. Click Clear Disk Cache, then click OK to close 
the Preferences box.
