Netscape Navigator 3.X Tips #7



*1. JUMP START            
  
Can't wait to check your mail when you launch Netscape? You can 
configure Navigator to open Mail first, if you like. This is a 
good option for highly organized people--the less organized 
among us, those with packed in-boxes, might miss a message here 
and there. From the Options menu, choose General Preferences 
and click the Appearance tab. Under Startup, where it says On 
Startup Launch, click the Mail check box. As you see, you can 
also set News to open at Startup. You can turn off the browser 
if you like, or set it to launch simultaneously with Mail 
and/or News. When you're finished making your changes, click OK.


*2. THE BRASS RING            
  
A search engine is a good way to track down information on the 
Web, but it's not the only way, nor is it always the best way. 
Over the next few tips, we'll explore a few alternatives to 
search engines that are suitable for return visits. 

A Web ring is a group of related sites you can visit by jumping 
from one to another, either in random order or in a "circle." 
More than 40,000 rings are registered with the WebRing service, 
and Web rings have special appeal and usefulness to those with 
niche interests. Say you like historical romances, for example. 
There are 43 sites in the Historical Romances ring, enough to 
keep you swooning for days on end. There are all of 250 sites 
in the All Things Ferrety ring for ferret enthusiasts, while 
the Ring of Turkish Anesthesiologists boasts 7 sites. You get 
the idea. The WebRing home page lists rings in categories, 
by subject. 

http://www.webring.com


*3. JUST A LITTLE OFF THE TOP            
  
Cut and paste is great, but there's an even more convenient way 
to copy the URL of the page you're on to the Clipboard so it's 
ready to paste anywhere. Just double-click the little 
chain-link icon to the left of the Location box, and you've 
routed that URL to storage, all ready to paste. Don't believe 
it? Open a new Message Composition window and press Ctrl-V to 
paste. Ta-da!


*4. U-TURN            
  
Once you memorize them, keyboard combinations make your life 
easier. Here are two to commit to memory: 

To get to the very bottom of a Web page, press Ctrl-End. To 
return to the top, press Ctrl-Home.


*5. AGENT -0700            
  
In your Netscape mail headers, do you see a mysterious number 
in the Date line--say, -0700 or -0400? Ever wonder what that 
means? Actually, it indicates what time zone you're in, 
represented as an offset of Greenwich mean time (GMT) or, 
variously, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Working with your 
system clock, Netscape Navigator indicates your time zone in 
mail headers and even makes adjustments to account for daylight 
saving time. 

For answers to frequently asked questions about time and 
frequency (including why the acronym for Coordinated Universal 
Time is UTC instead of CUT), visit: 

http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/faq/faq.htm 

To learn about time zones around the world (and their GMT 
offsets), try: 

http://www.hilink.com.au/times


*6. GO AWAY, URLS--PART 1 OF 2            
  
We get more questions about clearing the URL history than on 
any other subject, so bear with us while we go over this 
information once again. 

Many of you want to know how to clear the Location drop-down 
box of places you've been. URLs appear there only after you've 
typed or pasted them in yourself, and the list only holds about 
15 URLs (so if ou ever forget how to do this, you could always 
type in 15 new, less suspicious entries). There are a couple of 
methods for clearing the Location line. Here's the first, which 
appears in the Unofficial Netscape FAQ (http://www.ufaq.com). 

First make a backup copy of your prefs.js file. Then, using a 
text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad (NOT a word processor 
like Word), browse to c:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\userID\. 
(If your path is different, follow your own path!) Open the 
prefs.js file. There you'll see the history listed in this way: 

user_pref ("browser.url_history.URL_1", 
"http://www.tipworld.com/"); 
user_pref ("browser.url_history.URL_2", 
"http://www.fileworld.com/"); 
user_pref ("browser.url_history.URL_3", 
"http://www.pcworld.com/"); 

Even though it says you shouldn't edit the file, throw caution 
to the wind and delete the entries, making sure to delete the 
ENTIRE line, not just the URL itself. Save the file and 
restart Navigator.


*7. GO AWAY, URLS--PART 2 OF 2            
  
Many of you want to know how to clear that Location drop-down 
box of places you've been. URLs appear there only after you've 
typed or pasted them in yourself, and the list only holds about 
15 URLs (so if you ever forget how to do this, you could always 
type in 15 new, less suspicious entries). There are a couple of 
methods for clearing the Location line. If you've tried editing 
the prefs.js file without success, try this instead. You need 
to be EXTREMELY cautious when working with these important 
system files. 

Windows 95 and NT users: 

You'll be editing Windows Registry files, so you should do a 
Registry backup before you begin. In Windows 95 or NT 4.0, with 
Netscape Navigator completely closed, click Start, Run and type 

regedit 

to open the Windows Registry. Double-click HKEY_CURRENT_USER. 
(If you use NT 3.51, select File, Run In Program Manager, enter 
regedt32.exe, and go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER window.) From 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER, navigate to Software, Netscape, Netscape 
Navigator, and finally URL History. When you open the URL 
History file, the Location entries appear in the right window. 
Delete any entry except (Default), then choose Registry, Exit. 

Windows 3.x users: 

With Netscape completely closed, use Notepad to open the 
netscape.ini file. It should reside in the c:\Windows directory 
or wherever you stored Netscape Navigator. Scroll down until 
you find the (URL History) section. The following lines 
represent each item on the Location list: 

URL_1=address1 
URL_2=address2 
URL_3=address3 

and so on. Delete the URL address (whatever comes after the 
equal sign) from the line. Close the file and be sure to save 
your changes.


*8. THE GOLD STANDARD            
  
Our next series of tips focuses on how to build Web pages using 
Netscape Navigator Gold. For the record, Navigator Gold is just 
a beefier edition of the standard Navigator 3 package. You may 
be using Navigator Gold already (if you're not sure, go to 
Help, About Netscape to find out which version you're using). 
If not, Netscape hides this little gem in its Products Archive, 
which you will find at 

ftp://archive:oldies@archive.netscape.com/archive/index.html 

There you should see several links to versions of Navigator 
Gold. We recommend that you download version 3.04. 

(Note: Users of Netscape's Communicator suite get a 
page-building component called Composer, which is similar but 
not identical to the Web page editor in Navigator Gold.)


*9. GEE, WYSIWYG!            
  
Many--perhaps most--Netscape Navigator 3.x users are running 
Navigator Gold, which comes with a useful HTML editor. Using 
this editor, you (yes, you!) can design and build your own Web 
pages. If you've never explored this aspect of your Netscape 
software before, why not give it a try? We'll explore the 
fundamentals of Web page design over the next few days.  

The editor in Navigator Gold isn't particularly intimidating. 
You may know that Web pages are created by means of a (sometimes 
elaborate) code--HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language. But you 
don't need to know any HTML to make Web pages using the 
Navigator HTML editor. That's because it is what's known as a 
WYSIWYG editor. Pronounced wiz-ee-wig, WYSIWYG stands for "what 
you see is what you get." You don't have to work with code at 
all--instead, the Navigator Gold editor lets you see the 
results of what you're doing while the editor sorts out the 
code in the background. But enough acronyms already. With our 
next tip, we'll start building a Web page.


*10. IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME            
  
Today we're going to start building a Web page using Netscape 
Navigator Gold's HTML editor. If you're the creative type, at 
this point your imagination may be overflowing with visions of 
sugarplums. That's fine, but do give yourself a chance to learn 
the ropes before you reach for the stars. 

To start, open Netscape, and from the browser window choose 
File, New. That presents you with three additional choices: 
Blank, From Template, and From Wizard. We suggest you jump 
right in by choosing Blank. Later, though, you might want to 
check out the possibilities available via the other two 
options. Choose From Template, for example, and you can choose 
from a series of prefab page designs. Choose From Wizard, and 
the Netscape site leads you, step by step, through the creation 
of a standard page. The wizard may be a good choice for those 
who want to build a page but can't come up with ideas for what 
to put on it. 

Okay, now that we know how to start a Web page, let's learn how 
to finish one. After you choose File, New, Blank, type 
something--anything will do--on your page and choose File, Save 
As. When the Save As dialog box appears, type a name in the 
File Name box and click OK. 

That's it--you just created a Web page. If it felt a bit 
anticlimactic, wait until tomorrow, when we begin sprucing up 
your page a bit.
