Netscape Navigator 3.X Tips #2



*1.   SLOW DOWN, YOU TYPE TOO FAST 

The vast majority of errors people make when initiating searches 
are simple spelling and grammatical errors. This is significant, 
because these kinds of errors are the ones most likely to defeat 
your search! For example, a visit to the Magellan Voyeur 
revealed the following search attempts: 

Oliver Ann Burns 
freesewing patterns 
ERMAN AND HESSE 
AMsterdamchristianredlightdistrict 
m ission style furniyure 

The person who ran a search for "Oliver Ann Burns" is almost 
certainly trying to find information on the writer Olive Ann 
Burns (she wrote the popular novel "Cold Sassy Tree"). 
Meanwhile, unless "freesewing" is a radical new splinter 
movement that advocates threadless garment construction, that 
person needs to reenter the search string as "free sewing 
patterns," with the addition of a space. 

"ERMAN AND HESSE" produced no results except a stern warning 
from Magellan concerning the overuse of Boolean operators. But 
a simple search on "Hermann Hesse" brings up as its first 
return the Hermann Hesse Home Page (which Magellan stupidly 
ranked only 74 percent relevant). We won't elaborate on the 
final two examples above, except to point out that it really is 
more efficient to proofread your query before initiating a 
search. Otherwise, you may not notice the mistake or realize 
that's why you're getting such crappy returns. We don't really 
think many of you make such gross errors, but these do 
illustrate the need to slow down and get it right! 


*2.   CONSIDER THE SOURCE 

There are a whole lot of search engines out there, and just 
about every one of them includes advice on how best to use their
search tools. Usually a button or link marked "search tips," 
"help," or "hints" appears near the search text entry box. These
tips are really worth a look--what you find may surprise you. 

It turns out that not every search engine likes the same 
treatment. Some search engines don't support Boolean operators 
(AND, OR, NOT), though most do. Some encourage natural language 
queries ("How old is Bill Clinton?"), while other search sites 
are indifferent to them. You get the idea. 


*3.   RELOCATION EXPERTS 

Ever notice that when you visit a site hosted on a Netscape 
server, the word "Location" to the right of your Location box 
turns into the word "Netsite"? There's not much you can do with 
that information, really, but now you know. 


*4.   COLLECTED WISDOM 

When it's specific problem-solving advice you need, remember 
that Netscape has prepared a Knowledge Base with answers to 
lots of thorny questions. You can browse the Knowledge Base at 

http://help.netscape.com/browse 

or you might find it easier to use the search engine to narrow 
down possibilities: 

http://help.netscape.com/search.html 


*5.   NUGGETS OF NETSCAPE 

Another resource for getting your tricky questions answered is 
a variety of Netscape-oriented newsgroups. Netscape calls them 
Nuggies, and you can, too, if you really want to. The subject 
areas of these newsgroups range from general Netscape 
information, to discussion of Navigator and Communicator under 
various platforms, to specialty 
groups devoted to development, servers, and security issues. 
For more information about the Netscape newsgroups, visit 

http://help.netscape.com/nuggies 


*6.   BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS 

Still searching for solutions to thorny problems? Try the 
Unofficial Netscape FAQ, prepared by Netscape "Champions" (a 
group of Netscape-designated gurus) and available at 

http://www.ufaq.org 


*7.   FROM RIGHT TO LEFT 

Do you ever have trouble nailing that little X in the top right 
corner of your Navigator browser window when you want to close 
it (maybe you end up comically minimizing or maximizing the 
window instead, launching a short game of chase the X)? Don't 
get irritated--just shift your emphasis to the other side. You 
can double-click the top left corner of the window to close it. 
You probably have a small Netscape helm icon there. Give it 
a try. 

Ctrl-W also does the trick, but that's not exactly mnemonic, 
is it? 


*8.   WHAT'S YOUR NAME? WHO'S YOUR DADDY? 

You know, there comes a time in many of our lives when nobody 
asks us for ID anymore. It can be a bittersweet experience, 
frankly. But if you visit a password-protected Web site on a 
regular basis, you may have thought that day would never come 
on the Web. 

Well, you were wrong, and that's good news if you're tired of 
typing in an ID and password all the time. This trick allows 
you to bypass that ID or password dialog box. Just type 

http://userid:password@www.sitename.com 

in the Location box (using your own ID, password, and site 
name, of course). Even better, create a bookmark containing 
this modified URL as your destination. If you prefer not to 
have your password in your bookmarks, where snooping gremlins 
might find it, you can modify the URL with just your user ID so 
you'll be prompted for a password only. To achieve that result, 
type this URL: 

http://userid@www.sitename.com 

(Having trouble with the bookmark? Let's review: To create a 
new bookmark from scratch, open Bookmarks [Ctrl-B] and choose 
Item, Insert Bookmark. Fill in the name and URL, then click OK. 
To modify an existing bookmark, right-click the bookmark and 
choose Properties. After you tinker with the URL, click OK.) 


*9.   STOP! I WANT TO GET OFF 

If you click a link and decide mid-click that you don't want to 
go there after all, just drag that half-click over to a blank 
area of the Web page and then let go. You won't go anywhere. 

If your voyage is already under way when you change your mind, 
press Esc to halt the transmission immediately. 


*10.   ARE WE THERE YET? 

You can tell whether a Web page is finished loading by watching 
the Status Bar, located at the bottom of your browser window. 
Status messages appear on the left side. When a page has 
finished loading, the message "Document Done" appears. 

Another way to tell if a page is done loading: Watch the 
Netscape N in the top right--when those shooting stars stop 
falling, the page has finished loading.
