|
Links for K-12 Teachers | Assessment Assistance | On-Line Practice Modules | Daily Dose of the Web
Netscape Tips 
Using
Netscape to display the contents of a folder
You can display the contents of a folder on your computer in your browser window. Arrange your screen so you can see your Netscape Navigator (or other browser) window and the contents of your hard drive. On a Macintosh double click the hard drive and view by name. On a Windows 95 computer right-click the My Computer shortcut and choose explore. Click on the plus sign beside the C drive icon to display the contents of that drive. When you have found the folder you want to display, click on the folder icon, hold the mouse button down and drag the folder into the browser window. Release the mouse button and the contents of you folder will be displayed. Click on a document, folder, or image icon to display the selected item. This is especially helpful if you have been saving images from your web surfing sessions. Click on the back button to get back to the Netscape window you were in before displaying the folder.
Configuring
Netscape to send and receive Email
To use Netscape to send and receive Email you must enter information about the name of the mail server and your Email user name. Navigator- If your browser is Netscape Navigator go to the Options menu bar at the top of the screen and choose Mail and News Preferences. This window has five tabs displayed. First choose the servers tab. In the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server enter the information after the @ symbol in your Email address. My address is bylesb@ten-nash.ten.k12.tn.us, so I enter ten-nash.ten.k12.tn.us. Information in the Incoming Mail (POP3) Server will usually be exactly the same, so once again I entered ten-nash.ten.k12.tn.us. The POP3 User name will be the part of your address before the @ symbol, and that was bylesb for me. On this same window (the Servers tab) you may select to have the mail removed from the server. You should do this if you are going to be using the same computer all the time. Next, select the Identity tab. In the first block enter your name just as you would when signing a letter. I entered Bill Byles. Your Email address and the Reply To: address blocks will usually be exactly the same. Enter your entire address; mine would be bylesb@ ten-nash.ten.k12.tn.us. Be careful, if you make a mistake here you can still send the mail, but people will not be able to reply to you. Communicator- If your browser is Netscape Communicator go to the Edit menu bar at the top of the screen and choose Preferences. Click on the + sign beside Mail and Groups to open the folder. Information will be entered just as in Navigator.
Using
about:global to display the sites visited by a computer
There is a wide world of resources available to a classroom teacher, but care must be taken to avoid having your students visiting inappropriate web sites. If students know that the teacher is looking over their shoulder every second, they are less likely to be tempted to stray off the lesson objectives. You may not physically be able to supervise every computer in your room accessing the Internet, but your computer can, and will give you a report complete with date and time that each site was visited. Click on the Open button on the toolbar, or highlight the URL in the location block just below the toolbar and type about:global where you would normally type the URL. When you hit the Enter or Return key you will be given a complete history of the web pages visited by the computer, as well as each image that was part of the page. If you have a computer that is used on the Internet quite a bit, you may have several hundred, or even thousand, entries. That number is directly related to how many days pass before the links expire on your computer. If you do not know how to reset that, send me Email. Please include your name, school, and subject taught in the body of your message.Some people feel that filter software is the answer to this problem, but my personal opinion is that teacher supervision (with the assistance of about:global) is a better answer. You may wish to see a more detailed discussion of about:global written by Lynn Ewing, Technology Coordinator at Chenowith Elementary School in The Dalles, Oregon. This article is from the archives of TC World.
Opening
sites without typing the entire URL
"Yes, it's a pain in the neck to have to type in http://www.infoseek.com, but if you want to get to the site you just have to put up with it!" Not so. For a large number of sites you can type only a part of the URL. In the example above I would type only the server name, infoseek, hit the Enter or Return key and get to the site. If you think that there is a site related to a company or subject you may be able to get to that site by just typing in the domain name information. For example; HBO has a web site at http://www.hbo.com any you can get there by just typing hbo, the same is true of CNN, the NBA, the NFL. I even found that there is a duh.com by trying this. Two words of caution. First this is not a replacement for a search engine and spaces are not allowed. Second, some sites may not be quite what you had in mind. The .com sites seem to have preference. Thus if you were trying to go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/ and just typed whitehouse you would link to a highly inappropriate erotic site. To get to the real White House you must type www.whitehouse.gov which makes this tip not as useful unless you are using the .com sites.
Get
rid of that AOL Instant Messenger reminder that keeps popping up
If you have installed Netscape Communicator you may be seeing a reminder to Sign On to AOL Instant Messenger more than you want to. To get rid of the message click Setup on the Sign On screen. Don't worry, I am not going to trick you into signing on. Next select the Misc tab and uncheck Start AIM when Windows start. Close the window and you will not see this message the next time.
Clearing
the location pull down menu on a Windows 95 computer
Immediately below the Toolbar and above the directory buttons you will find a rectangle which will be named either Location or Netsite. This is where the Universal Resource Locator [URL] is located. If you type in a URL in this place and hit the Enter key you will go to that site and it will be added to a pull down menu. At the far right end of the Location window is a small black triangle. By clicking on this you will see that last ten URL's which were entered into the Location window. What if someone has accidentally entered the URL for nastysite.com? How can it be removed. One method is to physically enter up to ten new sites in the location window to replace the URL for nastysite.com. However, this does not always work. Then it is time to (take a deep breath) edit the Windows registry. It's not as bad as it sounds. Go to Netscape's Tech Support and print out the directions for Netscape on a Windows 95 computer. Quit Netscape and follow the directions exactly. The offending URL will be gone when you restart Netscape.But wait! There is an easier way. A shareware program called Cover Your Tracks is available from TUCOWS on their Browser Add-ons page. This program will clear the pull-down history for you without editing the registry. If you like what this program does, be ready to send the author the $10 fee that is requested. There is a countdown timer, and after 30 uses of this program it will no longer work.
An
easier way to use about:global
An earlier tip in the Netscape section told how to use the command about:global to ask Netscape to tell you which sites your classroom computers have visited. Here is how to make it even easier. After you have entered about:global, and while the history is displayed on your screen, go to the Bookmarks window and select the first option, Add Bookmark. That will put a bookmark of the about:global command at the bottom of your list of bookmarks. Next go to the Window menu and select bookmarks. Click on the bookmark you just created, hold the mouse button down, and drag the bookmark to the top of the list. When the black line is at the top of the list of bookmarks let go of the mouse button and that is now bookmark #1. While the bookmark is still selected go to the Item menu and select Edit bookmark. Change the name to something simple. Now that the bookmark is at the top of the list you may check the computer by going to the Bookmarks menu and selecting your about:global bookmark. If students know how to delete bookmarks, make sure you have a rule about not removing this bookmark.You may wish to see a more detailed discussion of about:global written by Lynn Ewing, Technology Coordinator at Chenowith Elementary School in The Dalles, Oregon. This article is from the archives of TC World.
Where
can I go to get more information about Netscape?
Your question has probably been asked before. Therefore, a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file is probably where you will find the answer to your Netscape question. There is an unofficial netscape FAQ site which has a listing of answers to questions that have frequently been asked. Whether you are using Navigator or Communicator you will probably find the answer to your question. You will also find links to other sites of interest to Netscape users. Check out the Netscape Unofficial FAQ site.
View
your Bookmarks as an HTML Page
If you your bookmarks as an HTML page each bookmark becomes a link and they are all displayed on a single page. No more scrolling down through the bookmarks list. But wait, that's not all! You can also bookmark this page and not have to open it as HTML the next time. Macintosh users Open Netscape and choose the File menu. Select Open File in Browser and navigate to your bookmarks file. It is located in the System folder, in the Preferences Folder, in the Netscape f folder and the name of the file is Bookmarks.html. IBM users Open Netscape and choose the File menu. Select Open File and navigate to your bookmarks file. It is located in the Netscape Folder in the Navigator (or Communicator) folder and the name of the HTML file is Bookmarks. After you have opened the file, bookmark it and you will not have to go through this process again.
Custom Search
|
Visitors since November 2000 |
 Memphis, TN |
