For best results: this site requires that cookies be enabled for proper operation - see Legal Page for more info
|
For best results: this site requires that cookies be enabled for proper operation - see Legal Page for more info
|
|
Select Any of These |
Translate this page
Netscape Gold Web EditorLAST UPDATED: 08 March 2009 17:03:54 -0600
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME GEE, WYSIWYG! SCENERY CHEWING WHO CAN MAKE A RAINBOW SPRINKLE IT WITH DEW GET BOLD AND CENTERED--WITHOUT TAKING A COURSE IN SELF IMPROVEMENT PRIVATE VIEWING IMAGE IS EVERYTHING DEEP BACKGROUND IMAGE BROKERING ALTERATIONS WHILE YOU WAIT A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS CHAIN CHAIN CHAIN YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO RICH OR TOO THIN TURNING THE TABLES LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT GOING FOR THE NATURAL LOOK THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM LOST HORIZON WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS BE A SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHOR SO DOGGONE EASY SEARCH VOYEURS REVEAL WHAT OTHERS HOPE TO FIND NETSCAPES NUGGIES NEWSGROUPS THE KEYS TO WEB PAGE SECURITY ITS A SECURE SITE, NOT A DMZ QUIET YOUR MODEM YAHOO GEOCITIES: THATS 35 IN DOG YEARS WHERE TO DOWNLOAD NAVIGATOR GOLD WEB RING, THE CIRCUITOUS DIRECTORY WEB PAGE IMAGE MODIFICATIONS VIEW SOURCE CODE TO LEARN HTML USING META-SEARCH ENGINES FOR VANITY SEARCHES USING BLOCK QUOTES IN WEB PAGES USING AN IMAGE AS A WEB PAGE BACKGROUND UPLOADING WEB PAGES USING THE GEOCITIES FILE MANAGER SWITCHBOARD TRACKS DOWN BUSINESSES, PEOPLE ROLE OF MAILTO LINKS IN WEB PAGES REVERSE LOOKUP DIRECTORY RESOURCES FOR BACKGROUND IMAGES PURVEYORS OF FREE WEB SITES PUBLISHING YOUR PAGES TO THE WEB PROBLEM-SOLVING ADVICE FROM NETSCAPE ONLINE PHOTO ALBUMS NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR GOLD HTML EDITOR: GEE WYSIWYG NAVIGATOR GOLD AUTHORING GUIDE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR TOP, BOTTOM OF WEB PAGE KEYBOARD COMBOS: UP, DOWN, TURN AROUND HOW TO CREATE LINKS IN WEB PAGES HOW SPAMMERS COLLECT E-MAIL ADDRESSES HOME PAGE FOR STAFF OF NEW YORK TIMES HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE MACINTOSH HIDE DIRECTORY BUTTONS HEADER, FOOTER OPTIONS FOR PRINTING WEB PAGES GOOEY TURNS WEB PAGES INTO STICKY CHAT ZONES FRAMES AND YOUR WEB PAGES FOR A TRUE VIEW, TEST WEB PAGES IN BROWSER FILE EXTENSIONS REFERENCE GUIDE DOWNLOADING IMAGES FOR YOUR WEB PAGE DEFAULT FONT ISNT DEFAULT ON THE WEB CONSULT EACH SEARCH ENGINE FOR SITE-SPECIFIC TIPS CONDUCTING VANITY SEARCHES COMMON SEARCH ENGINE MISTAKES COLOR FAQ FOR ADVANCED USERS COLOR A WEB PAGE BACKGROUND CLEAR ALL STYLES BUTTON BUILDING A WEB PAGE AVOID SPAM WITH MODIFIED E-MAIL ADDRESSES ANCHORS AWEIGH AN UNOFFICIAL NETSCAPE FAQ AMPERSAND IN BOOKMARK TITLE ALT TAGS LET IMAGES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES ADDING EXTRA SPACES TO A WEB PAGE ADD TABLES TO YOUR WEB PAGES ADD A HORIZONTAL LINE TO YOUR WEB PAGE MAILTO LINKS IN WEB PAGES ADJUST FRAMES FOR A BETTER VIEW
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COMEToday 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.
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.
SCENERY CHEWINGNow that you know how to use the Color box to create custom colors, try using it to create a custom background color for your Web page. Even if you plan to use a graphic image as your Web page background, it's not a bad idea to specify a custom background color anyway. Why? When people visit your site for the first time, it may take a while for that background image to render (depending on how big the file is). While waiting for the image to load, and while the text is already visible, the viewer will see either his or her own default background color (for many people, this is white or a nasty shade of battleship gray) or the custom background color you've assigned. A shade that complements your eventual background makes for a more aesthetically pleasing and subtle transition once your background image finally arrives. Anyway, here's how to do it. While working on your page in the HTML editor, choose Properties, Document. In the Document Properties box, click the Appearance tab. Now click the Background button. There's that Color box again! Choose a basic color and click OK, or click Define Custom Colors to mix up a custom background (if you do, be sure to click Add To Custom Colors before you click OK, otherwise you won't be able to reproduce that color easily elsewhere).
WHO CAN MAKE A RAINBOW? SPRINKLE IT WITH DEW?To render Web page text in color using Navigator Gold's HTML editor, highlight the text and click the Color button on the toolbar (it's the one that looks like a tiny Rubik's Cube). You'll see a grid of Basic Colors and, below that, a grid for Custom Colors. To use a basic color, just click the color once and click OK. The text you highlighted appears in that color. If none of the shades in the Basic Colors grid make you happy, you can mix a custom color of your own. With the text highlighted, click the Define Custom Colors bar. Now you'll see an enlarged version of the Color box. There are two ways to designate a custom color in this view. One is to punch in the correct numbers in the boxes to create a given pigment, if you know them (sure, right). The other way is more fun. Let's try to re-create that favorite of interior decorators, moss green. You see that big box full of rainbow colors? Click your cursor smack in the middle of the field of green. Now click to grab the little black arrow on the far right side of the Color box. Drag it up; while you do so, keep an eye on that smaller Color/Solid box. That's the actual color you're making. See how the tone lightens as you drag the arrow up and darkens when you pull it down? Now let go of the arrow for a moment and try clicking up and down in the big green field. You'll see even more variants, from bright to muted. Try going sideways closer to the yellow stripe, then closer to the blue, to see how your shade of green looks when these colors influence it. Now try to achieve that moss green we talked about by changing the position of your cursor and dragging the black arrow. When the perfect shade appears in the Color/Solid box, stop. Click Add To Custom Colors, then click OK to save your changes and close the Color box. Back at your Web page, the text you highlighted now appears in marvelous moss green.
GET BOLD AND CENTERED--WITHOUT TAKING A COURSE IN SELF IMPROVEMENTTo change the way text looks on your Web page, highlight the text you want to modify and click the appropriate toolbar buttons. The five "A's" on your toolbar represent the following text modification options: Decrease Font Size, Increase Font Size, Bold, Italic, and Fixed Width (this one makes your text look as if you typed it on a typewriter). Experiment with these to get the hang of them. For example, type something at the top of your new home page. "Welcome to My Home Page" will do. Highlight the phrase and click the Increase Font Size button (the one that looks like an A+) two or three times. Bam, bam, bam! Now that's a header! Next click the Center button (this one's a little harder to spot, but it looks like a few centered lines) to center your header in the middle of your page.
PRIVATE VIEWINGYou've got a Web page, all right, but it's not quite ready for prime time. You need content, as they say in the Web biz. (You know, what the "creatives" USED to call words and pictures.) To create text from scratch, just start typing it in. The words you type appear in whatever font you've designated as your default for page viewing. Remember that after you publish your page on the Web, other people will see the page in whatever font THEY'VE designated as the default for their browser, so don't put too much stock in the way the page looks in a particular font. (Note that there ARE ways to force other people to see things your way in your favorite font, but it requires a pretty good grasp of HTML--unless you want to download Netscape Communicator and use its HTML editor, Composer.)
IMAGE IS EVERYTHINGSince we're on the subject of backgrounds, let's talk about how to incorporate an image as a background. Officially, you can use any sort of image as a background, but most people use a relatively small one, which they then duplicate, or tile, a great number of times to fill in the background. It's difficult to use a single image as a background, because the image won't fill out the screen the way you'd like it to--instead, it starts to fold over on itself at the outside edge. (Try it if you don't believe us). When you've found an image you want to use as a background, here's what to do. While working on your page in the Netscape HTML editor, choose Properties, Document. Click the Appearance tab. In the Document Properties dialog box near the bottom, you'll see a Background Image area. Check the Use Image check box to select it, then click the Browse button to open the Select Image File box. Locate and select your image file, then click Open. Back in the Document Properties dialog box, click OK. Now you should see your background image assert itself.
DEEP BACKGROUNDComing up a little short on suitable background images? Not to worry--lots of Internet resources supply great backgrounds for free (or for the small price of acknowledging the background image's creator). Some background designers stick to artistic patterns and textures; others create thematic arrangements suitable for, say, holidays or a particular interest. You can locate such sites using any search engine. The Mining Company's Web Clip Art site also has a slew of links to backgrounds (not to mention to other Web page graphic elements); go to http://webclipart.miningco.com and under Net Links click one of the links for Backgrounds. Important: To download a background image, right-click it and choose Save Image As from the menu. Save the image to a suitable folder. When it's time to incorporate the background image into your page, you can browse to that folder and select the file. Whatever you do, DON'T link back to the originating background site where you downloaded the image. That's a big mistake some folks make (but we know YOU won't).
IMAGE BROKERINGLast time, we told you how to save a background image. You actually use the same technique to save any image you find on the Web--whether it's a photograph, a piece of clip art, or a button no larger than a sesame seed. Just right-click the image, choose Save Image As from the menu, and save the image to a suitable folder. The only caveat is that you should never use an image without permission, because so many are protected by copyright (and copyright violations are enforced even on the Internet). When it's time to use that image in your Web page, here's all you need to do. Working on your page in Netscape's HTML editor, choose Insert, Image to open the Properties dialog box. Click the Image tab; under Image File Name, click the Browse button to open the Select Image File dialog box. Locate and select the image file you want to use in your page, then click Open. Back in the Properties dialog box, click OK.
ALTERATIONS WHILE YOU WAITMost of the modifications you'll make to a given image take place outside the Netscape environment, whether you use a nitty-gritty shareware image-editing program or a $900 copy of Photoshop. However, you CAN make some adjustments within Netscape that affect how your image displays on your Web page. To get an idea, while working on your page in Navigator Gold's HTML editor, go ahead and insert the image onto the Web page (using Insert, Image). Now right-click the image and select Image Properties from the pop-up menu. This brings up the Properties box. Here you can dictate the size of the image as represented in pixels; indicate whether you want space or a black border (or both) to surround the image--and if so, how much; and choose whether you want text to wrap around the image or not. After you've made your alterations, click OK.
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDSYou've surely noticed when visiting Web pages that even before an image loads you often see a descriptive text notation cluing you in to what will appear in that space. While this is most useful to people who use text-based browsers or have images turned off for faster surfing, it's also nice for those of us who just plain get bored waiting for pictures to render. You create this effect with ALT tags, and you can easily add them to your own pages with the Navigator Gold HTML editor. Whenever you choose Insert, Image to add an image to your page, the Properties box includes an area for optional Alternative Representations. Type your descriptive text in the Text box. Note that you can also designate a second image to appear in place of the first, if necessary. This is useful when your primary image is in an unusual format that not every browser will recognize.
CHAIN CHAIN CHAINWe've discussed how to create and save Web pages using Netscape Navigator Gold's HTML editor. We've talked about adding and modifying text, images, and backgrounds. What else is there? Well, any self-respecting Web page needs a link or three. Here's how to create hyperlinks in your Web page. Highlight the word or phrase you wish to link, or if it's an image link you're after, select the image by clicking it once. On the toolbar, click the Make Link button, which looks like a single link from a chain. (Alternately, you can choose Insert, Link from the menu or just press Ctrl-L.) In the Properties box, on the Link tab, type the URL for the link. Or if you want to link to another Web page you've created, you can click the Browse button to navigate to the page on your hard drive and select it. As long as you later publish this page to your Web site, the link should work (though in some cases you may have to futz around with it later). One way to minimize headaches is to mirror on your hard disk the directory structure you intend to use in your Web directory.
YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO RICH OR TOO THINYou've got a wide, shallow layer of text on your Web page, but what you really want is an elegant, skinny column. How do you get from here to there? With the Navigator Gold HMTL editor's Block Quote function. Select the text you wish to slenderize and choose Properties, Text. Click the Paragraph tab. Under Additional Style, select Block Quote. Click OK to close the Properties box. Now you've indented your block a bit. To indent the selected block more (or to expand it again, if you go too far), use the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons on the toolbar. They're the ones that show lines for text with arrows on either side for pushing it around.
TURNING THE TABLESPeople love to make tables. With Navigator Gold's HTML editor, you can make a veritable checkerboard out of your Web page, contrasting colors and all. Let's make a simple table for practice. Click once where you want your table to appear. Choose Insert, Table, Table (or click the Insert Table button on the toolbar; it looks like a window with four panes). The New Table Properties box appears, brimming with possibilities. Let's make a table with three columns and four rows (columns go up and down; rows are horizontal). You see how the default numbers are for two rows and two columns? Go ahead and change those numbers to 4 and 3. Take your time, we'll wait. Assign any other attributes you want and change the table width and height to 50 percent of the window (100 percent seems excessive, don't you think?). Under table alignment, click the Center radio button. Now click once inside the first box and type something in the cell. Continue adding data to the cells this way. Want to change the background color for each cell? Easy. Right-click the cell, choose Table Properties, and click the Cell tab. Select the Cell Color check box and click the Choose Color button. Select one of the colored squares (or custom-create a new one) and click OK. Use the Table Properties box to modify your table further, however you like. For example, you can change the way text aligns inside a cell: left, right, or centered. It takes practice to get tables right. If you get flustered and want to delete a table and start over, just right-click it and choose Delete, Table.
LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOTIt can be so frustrating when you know how to do all these fancy tricks, but you still can't figure out how to do something simple--like, for example, add an extra space or two to your Web page. In Navigator Gold's HTML editor, if you try pressing the spacebar twice in a row, it just ignores you, right? Well, don't fret about it. Try Shift-Space next time and you'll go far.
GOING FOR THE NATURAL LOOKSometimes you just want to start over from scratch. If you're creating a Web page with Netscape Navigator Gold's HTML editor and you've got a block of text you've colorized and modified and linked until it looks ridiculous, don't bother trying to Undo the damage. Just highlight the block and click the Clear All Styles button on the toolbar (it's the letter "A" surrounded by a corona of slash marks). Your selection reverts to its birthday suit, losing all modifications, including links. Note: If you'd like to remove a link from text or an image, but not change any other modifications, select the linked material and click the Make Link button on the toolbar. On the Link tab in the Properties box, click the Remove Link button and click OK.
THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEMWe've told you Navigator Gold's HTML editor is a WYSIWYG editor. That's mostly true, but once in a while you don't see elements in the editor as they will appear to Web visitors. At times like these, you need to take a peek at your page through the browser. To do so, choose File, Browse Document. You'll be prompted to save your work if you haven't done so lately. (You'll have to save the page before you can view it through the browser, so go ahead and click Yes.) Now you'll get a surfer's eye view. Remember, too, that different browsers render Web pages differently. If you REALLY want to know how your page looks to others, you should take a look at it through several different browsers. The most common browsers are Netscape's Navigator 3.x and 4.x (aka Communicator), Microsoft's Internet Explorer 3 and 4, and America Online's browser.
LOST HORIZONWant to straighten out a Web page? Create a visual partition with a horizontal line or two. Click your cursor once where you want a line, then choose Insert, Horizontal Line. The line that appears will stretch all the way across the page (unless you got it tangled up in your block quotes somehow), but you can change that. To modify the attributes of your line, right-click on the line and choose Horizontal Line Properties. Set the width to 40, 60, or 80 percent for a nice effect. Experiment with the various options to get the line just right.
WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, READ THE INSTRUCTIONSFor more information about building Web pages using Netscape Navigator Gold, including advanced topics such as incorporating Java elements, consult the Navigator Gold Authoring Guide, available on the Netscape site at http://www.pcworld.com/r/tw/1%2C2061%2Ctw-n30601%2C00.html
BE A SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORAfter you've created your Web pages with the Navigator Gold HTML editor, the next step is to publish them to the Web. Assuming you've already got an account with an ISP that provides you with Web storage, here are the steps. (If not, stay tuned for upcoming tips on where to publish your Web pages for free.) First get your settings in order. Choose Options, Editor Preferences and click the Publish tab. Make sure you've selected the two check boxes for Maintain Links and Keep Images With Document. Next you'll need to check with your ISP about what to put in the Default publishing location fields (or check its Web site first; many ISPs routinely include this info in online FAQs). This is the trickiest part of the whole operation; if you're unable to publish your pages later, it's probably because you screwed up these entries. The user name and password you supply will likely be the same ones you use to log in to your Internet account. An optional step: On the General tab, supply your name, the paths of any external editors you plan to use, and any other information you like. On the Appearance tab, set any appearance defaults you wish (when creating individual pages, your new appearance settings for a given page will override any defaults you've selected here). Whew! Now to publish your page: Choose File, Publish (or click the Publish button on the toolbar--it looks like a lightning bolt on a sheet of paper). This opens the Publish Files box, which should incorporate the data you already supplied in the Editor Preferences box. If your Netscape configuration is fairly secure from prying eyes, you can convince this box to save your password so you don't have to supply it every time you publish your Web pages. Just click the Save Password check box near the bottom. If everything else looks good, click OK. If you're lucky, the page will publish to the Web without any problems. If not, don't despair. Just check your settings again carefully, maybe talk to your ISP, and keep trying. You'll get it figured out eventually. Once it works, it works!
SO DOGGONE EASYIt's also quite easy to use the Geocities File Manager to upload Web pages created with Netscape Navigator Gold's HTML editor. After you gain access to the Geocities File Manager--it's at http://www.geocities.com/members/tools/file_manager.html --by entering your user name and password, scroll down to the EZ File Upload area. Here you can upload up to 20 files at a time (the default setting is for 5 files; you can change the default using the pull-down menu next to Number Of Files To Upload and clicking the Display button). Click the first Browse button, and a File Upload dialog box appears. Navigate around your drive until you locate and select the HTML file you've created and wish to publish. After you select the file, click Open, and the file name appears in the first text box on the Geocities page. Don't worry if the path reflects the directory structure of your computer's hard drive--this won't cause a problem with the Geocities upload, nor will your Geocities site duplicate it anywhere. Once you've got all the file names you want in their little boxes, click the Upload Files button to start the file transfer. When you're done, the uploaded file(s) should now appear in your Geocities directory. Click the View link beside the file name to see how the page looks online.
SEARCH VOYEURS REVEAL WHAT OTHERS HOPE TO FINDYou want to know what's wrong with this country? Spend a little time with a search engine voyeur and you start to get some ideas. Just don't spend TOO much time with these voyeurs, or you might lose faith in humanity and stuff like that. Okay, so maybe we're exaggerating. Judge the collective consciousness for yourself by checking out Magellan's Voyeur at http://voyeur.mckinley.com/cgi-bin/voyeur.cgi There's also a Search Ticker on WebCrawler at http://webcrawler.com/SearchTicker.html
NETSCAPE'S NUGGIES NEWSGROUPSAnother resource for getting answers to your tricky questions 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
THE KEYS TO WEB PAGE SECURITYSo what do we mean by security status, anyway? Well, every Web site is either secure, insecure, or mixed (that is, it contains both secure and insecure pages). See that little skeleton key down in Navigator's bottom left corner? That key tells you the security status of a given Web page. A broken key on a gray background, the icon you'll see most, means the document is insecure. That's not usually a big deal, unless the site wants something valuable from you, such as a credit card number. In that case, you'll want to look for an unbroken key on a royal blue background, which denotes a secure environment. Even the teeth on the key provide security information: one tooth indicates medium-grade encryption; two teeth means high-grade encryption. Go ahead and click the key itself to learn more about a page's relative security.
IT'S A SECURE SITE, NOT A DMZOf course, you probably already know when you're heading into secured territory, because Navigator starts firing off urgent notifications. Don't let these warnings intimidate you. A secure site is just one that uses some type of encryption. This creates an environment within which you can send private information with considerably less risk of the bad guys intercepting it. You'll often find secure areas on shopping sites, for example, where they want you to buy stuff with your credit card and let them mail it to you at home. Rest assured that you can explore the depths of a secure site without the risk of anyone starting an FBI file on you or taking your money without permission. Remember, it's difficult for strangers to get your credit card number or other personal information about you unless you give it out. If you're very concerned, just don't turn over credit card information to anyone online.
QUIET YOUR MODEMWhen you open Navigator to initiate an Internet connection, do you still hear that awful noise when the modem connects? ("Wreeeeee-ooooooooooock! Ding dong, ding dong!") You can get rid of that sound. In Windows 95 or 98, choose Start, Settings, Control Panel. Double-click the System icon and, in the System Properties box, select the Device Manager tab. Click the Modem icon and select your modem. In the Internal Properties box, click the Modem tab and slide Speaker Volume to the Off setting.
YAHOO GEOCITIES: THAT'S 35 IN DOG YEARSGeocities has been offering free home pages since June 1995 (that's a long time in Net years). Now part of the Yahoo empire, the Geocities offer still stands, and it includes an expansive 15MB of storage, a page-building wizard, subdirectories, tools and add-ons (such as games, message boards, a guest book, a page counter, a feedback form, stock quotes, a clock, and so on), streaming media, technical support, affiliate programs for hawking goods and services, and a free e-mail account. It's a good deal.
WHERE TO DOWNLOAD NAVIGATOR GOLDOur next series of tips will focus 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. Netscape Products Archive 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.)
WEB RING, THE CIRCUITOUS DIRECTORYA 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 80,000 rings are registered with the RingWorld Directory, and Web rings have special appeal and usefulness to those with niche interests. For example, there are 403 sites in the Linux Web ring, which pays homage to the open source operating system, and 14 sites in the PogueRing, for fans of the great Irish band the Pogues. If you're interested in attachment parenting, a search reveals 241 DIFFERENT Web rings related in some way to that topic. You get the idea. The RingWorld Directory lists rings in subject categories and offers a search feature to narrow down your choices. RingWorld Directory http://www.webring.com
WEB PAGE IMAGE MODIFICATIONSMost of the modifications you'll make to a given image take place outside the Netscape environment, whether you use a nitty-gritty shareware image editing program or a $900 copy of Photoshop. However, you CAN make some adjustments within Netscape that affect how your image will display on your Web page. To get an idea of these, while working on your page in Navigator Gold's HTML editor, go ahead and insert the image onto the Web page using Insert, Image. Now right-click the image and select Image Properties from the pop-up menu. This will bring up the Properties box. Here you can dictate the size of the image as represented in pixels; indicate whether you want space or a black border (or both) to surround the image, and if so, how much or how wide; and choose whether you want text to wrap around the image. After you've made your alterations, click OK.
VIEW SOURCE CODE TO LEARN HTMLYou probably know you can see a Web page's source code by choosing View, Document Source. Viewing source code is a good way to learn the rudiments of HTML, particularly if you choose a page with a relatively simple design. You can also learn a little more about a Web document, such as its security status and (sometimes) when it was last modified, by choosing View, Document Info.
USING META-SEARCH ENGINES FOR VANITY SEARCHESTo run a vanity search, you can wander from search engine to search engine, jonesing for results. But vanity search junkies may get a quicker fix using a meta-search engine such as those under the umbrella of Go2Net (DogPile and MetaCrawler), or Mamma, "the Mother of All Search Engines." Where ordinary search engines collect their results from the Web, meta engines take advantage of all that hard work by culling their results from six or eight other engines. Theoretically, this should make meta engines the best way to search every time. Unfortunately, in practice no type of search engine is clearly superior for all searches. DogPile http://www.dogpile.com MetaCrawler http://www.metacrawler.com Mamma http://www.mamma.com
USING BLOCK QUOTES IN WEB PAGESYou've got a wide, shallow layer of text on your Web page, but what you really want is an elegant, skinny column. How do you get from here to there? Use the Navigator Gold HMTL editor's Block Quote function. Select the text you wish to slenderize and choose Properties, Text. Click the Paragraph tab and, under Additional style, select Block Quote. Click OK to close the Properties box. Now you've indented your block a bit. To indent the selected block further (or expand it if you go too far), use the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons on the toolbar. They're the ones that show lines for text with arrows on either side.
USING AN IMAGE AS A WEB PAGE BACKGROUNDSince we're on the subject of backgrounds, let's talk about how to incorporate an image as a background. Officially, you can use any sort of image as a background, but most people use a relatively small image, which then gets duplicated, or tiled, a great number of times to fill in the background. It's difficult to use a single image as a background, because the image won't fill out the screen the way you'd like it to--instead, it always starts to fold over on itself at the outside edge. (Try it if you don't believe us). When you've found an image you want to use as a background, here's what to do. While working on your page in the Netscape HTML editor, choose Properties, Document. Click the Appearance tab. In the Document Properties dialog box near the bottom, you'll see a Background Image area. Check the Use Image check box to select it, then click the Browse button to open the Select Image File box. Locate and select your image file, then click Open. Back in the Document Properties dialog, click OK. Now you should see your background image assert itself.
UPLOADING WEB PAGES USING THE GEOCITIES FILE MANAGERIt's easy to use the Geocities File Manager to upload Web pages created with Netscape Navigator Gold's HTML editor. Go to the Edit Pages page (you may have to enter a user name and password to get there): http://geocities.yahoo.com/members/tools/file_manager.html Under Advanced, click the Open File Manager link. In File Manager, scroll down to the EZ Upload area. Here, you can upload up to 20 files at a time (the default setting is for 5, but you can change the default using the pull-down menu next to Number Of Files To Upload--click the Display button). Click the first Browse button, and a File Upload dialog box will appear. Navigate around your drive until you locate and select the HTML file you've created and wish to publish. After you select the file, click Open and the file name will appear in the first text box on the Geocities page. Don't worry if the path reflects the directory structure of your computer's hard drive--this won't cause a problem with the Geocities upload, nor will it be duplicated anywhere in your Geocities site. Once you've got all the file names you want in their little boxes, click the Upload Files button to start the file transfer. When you're done, the uploaded file(s) should appear in your Geocities directory. Click the View link beside the file name to see how the page looks online.
SWITCHBOARD TRACKS DOWN BUSINESSES, PEOPLEWe've been talking about how to find yourself online. Usually, there's not much urgency involved in locating yourself. But sometimes you really do need to track down someone else. Whether you're looking for a person or a business, near or far, Switchboard can be a immensely helpful resource. Bookmark it. Switchboard http://www.switchboard.com
ROLE OF MAILTO LINKS IN WEB PAGESWeb page developers often include mailto: tags in their Web pages. These are links that act a lot like URLs, except that when you click them, the Navigator mail window opens, usually with a specified mailing address in the To field. How do you know when you've come across a mailto: link? Generally, you can't tell just by looking at it--it's up to the page developer to tell you what the link does. They often provide a way for Web site visitors to send feedback to the Web developer.
REVERSE LOOKUP DIRECTORYEver use a criss-cross directory? Instead of looking up a person's name and finding out his or her address and phone number, you can do the opposite: find out the person's name based on the address or phone number. This is helpful, for example, when you've got a stray phone number in your pocket and no other information. It's also, to be honest, a gold mine for marketers and other people who like to be annoying for a living, but there's no reason the rest of us shouldn't take advantage of it. Reverse Lookup operates on the criss-cross directory principle, except instead of covering a single city, you can use it for the entire United States or Canada. Give it a try at Reverse Lookup http://www.infospace.com/_1_169174148__info/reverse.htm
RESOURCES FOR BACKGROUND IMAGESComing up a little short on suitable background images? Not to worry--lots of Internet resources supply great backgrounds free (or for the small price of acknowledging the background as a contribution by the graphic artist who created it). Some background designers stick to artistic patterns and textures; others create thematic arrangements suitable for, say, holidays or a particular interest. You can locate such sites using any search engine. About.com's Web Clip Art site also has a slew of links to these (not to mention other Web page graphic elements). Go to Under Subjects, click Backgrounds. Important: To download a background image, right-click the image and choose Save Image As from the menu. Save the image to a suitable folder. Then, when it's time to incorporate the background image into your page, you can browse to that folder and select the file. Whatever you do, don't link back to the site where you downloaded the image. That's a big mistake some folks make (but we know YOU won't).
PURVEYORS OF FREE WEB SITESOf course, Geocities isn't the only free home page provider around. If you have a small site in mind, consider one of the services listed at About.com's Personal Web Pages site: http://personalweb.about.com/internet/personalweb/msub21.htm To build a larger site, here is a short list of some of Geocities' notable competitors: Tripod Among other things, a Tripod membership will get you 50MB of storage, short domain names in the form of membername.tripod.com, page-building utilities and templates, CGI scripts and JavaScript apps, video-editing tools and streaming media, voice chat, domain name registration, commission and affiliate programs, and international domains. Part of the Lycos Network. Angelfire Angelfire only sounds like a Stevie Nicks song. It's really a source for up to 50MB of free storage, personalized URLs, page-building and management tools, a script library, free art and animations, and more. A program called Commissions Central lets you earn cash on sales referrals. The site also promises, "We won't blather you to death ...'cause you just wanna make pages." Also part of the Lycos Network. Acme City Acme City hosts entertainment-related Web sites about TV, movies, music, animation, and comics. Build a site there and get 20MB of Web storage and access to official star photos.
PUBLISHING YOUR PAGES TO THE WEBAfter you've created your Web pages with the Navigator Gold HTML editor, the next step is to publish them to the Web. Assuming you've already got an account with an ISP that provides you with Web storage, here are the steps. (If not, stay tuned for upcoming tips on where to publish your Web pages for free.) First get your settings in order. Choose Options, Editor Preferences and click the Publish tab. Make sure the two check boxes, for Maintain Links and Keep Images With Document, are selected. Next you'll need to check with your ISP about what to put in the Default Publishing Location fields (or check its Web site first; many ISPs routinely include this info in online FAQs). This is the trickiest part of this whole operation; if you can't publish your pages later, it's probably because you've screwed up these entries. The User Name and Password you supply will likely be the same ones you use to log in to your Internet account. Optional: On the General tab, supply your name, the paths of any external editors you plan to use, and any other info you like. On the Appearance tab, set any defaults you want (when you're creating individual pages, your new Appearance settings for a given page will override any defaults you've selected here). Whew! Now it's time to publish your page. Choose File, Publish (or click the Publish button on the toolbar; it looks like a lightning bolt on a sheet of paper). This opens the Publish Files box, which should incorporate the data you already supplied in the Editor Preferences box. If your Netscape configuration is fairly secure from prying eyes, you can tell this box to save your password so you don't have to supply it every time you publish your Web pages. Just click the Save Password check box near the bottom. If everything else looks good, click OK. If you're lucky, the page will publish to the Web without any problems. If not, don't despair. Just check your settings again carefully, maybe talk to your ISP, and keep trying. You'll get it figured out eventually. Once it works, it works for good!
PROBLEM-SOLVING ADVICE FROM NETSCAPEWhen 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
ONLINE PHOTO ALBUMSA big trend in building personal home pages is the specialty site that simplifies the process of publishing digital images to the Web, allowing you to create online photo albums. Most of these sites give you the choice of whether to make your photo-sharing public or private. Online album providers include Club Photo, Picturetrail, PhotoLoft, Ofoto, and Photo Island. Though the album services are free, most of these sites offer additional photo products and services for sale, such as prints made from your digital originals. Club Photo http://www.clubphoto.com Picturetrail http://www.picturetrail.com PhotoLoft http://www.photoloft.com Ofoto http://www.ofoto.com Photo Island http://www.photoisland.com
NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR GOLD HTML EDITOR: GEE WYSIWYGMany--perhaps most--Netscape Navigator 3.x users are running Navigator Gold, which comes with a useful HTML editor. Using this editor, 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 you create Web pages by means of a (sometimes elaborate) code called 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 a WYSIWYG editor. Pronounced wiz-ee-wig, this acronym 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--in our next tip, we'll start building a Web page.
NAVIGATOR GOLD AUTHORING GUIDEFor more information about building Web pages using Netscape Navigator Gold, including advanced topics such as incorporating Java elements, consult the Navigator Gold Authoring Guide, available on the Netscape site. Navigator Gold Authoring Guide http://www.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/3.0/handbook/authoring/navgold.htm
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR TOP, BOTTOM OF WEB PAGEIn an instant, you can travel to the very end of a Web page with Ctrl-End. Once you're at the end of the page, press Ctrl-Home to beam yourself back up to the top. This will work from anywhere in the page.
KEYBOARD COMBOS: UP, DOWN, TURN AROUNDOnce you memorize them, keyboard combinations make 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.
HOW TO CREATE LINKS IN WEB PAGESWe've discussed how to create and save Web pages using Netscape Navigator Gold's HTML editor. We've talked about adding and modifying text, images, and backgrounds. What else is there? Well, any self-respecting Web page needs a link or three. Here's how to create hyperlinks in your Web page. Highlight the word or phrase you wish to link, or, if it's an image link you're after, select the image by clicking it once. On the toolbar, click the Make Link button, which looks like a single link in a chain. (Alternately, you can choose Insert, Link from the menu or just press Ctrl-L.) In the Properties box, on the Link tab, type the URL for the link. Or, if you want to link to another Web page you've created, you can click the Browse button to navigate to the page on your hard drive and select it. As long as you later publish this page to your Web site, the link should work (though in some cases you may have to futz around with it later). One way to minimize headaches is to mirror on your hard disk the directory structure you intend to use online in your Web directory.
HOW SPAMMERS COLLECT E-MAIL ADDRESSESWriter Glenn Fleischman has documented an interesting FTP trick spam artists use to harvest e-mail addresses. The scam relies on the tendency of certain browsers to transmit your e-mail address as a password for an anonymous FTP log-in. When canny coders rig a Web page image to load only after initiating an FTP download, this invisible transaction can haul off your e-mail address--but only if you have your version of Navigator set up to send your e-mail address this way. To make sure you're not vulnerable, Navigator 3.x users can go to Options, Network Preferences and click the Protocols tab. Make sure the bottom checkbox, Send E-Mail Address As Anonymous FTP Password, is not checked. Click OK. FTP E-Mail Scam http://www.glenns.org/ftpgrab.html
HOME PAGE FOR STAFF OF NEW YORK TIMESIf you approach the Web as a reporter would, you might like to use the home page used by reporters and editors at the New York Times. The CyberTimes Navigator is a quick-loading page, crammed with links to online reference materials. If you like it so much that you want to make it your starting point on the Web, just go to Options, General Preferences and click the Appearance tab. Under Startup, where it says Browser Starts With, click the Home Page Location radio button and type the URL (or just copy it and paste it in). All areas on the New York Times site require you to register, but it's free. http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/cynavi.html
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE MACINTOSHDouglas Adams is attributed with the following zinger: "Macintosh--we may not do everything right, but at least we knew the century would end." For those of you who "Think Different," a newsgroup for Macintosh users of Netscape Navigator can provide the personalized attention you need. Click this link to travel directly to the newsgroup, which hangs out on a secure server at Netscape. Once you've arrived, we recommend that you subscribe to the group so you can return to it. This is likely the best place you'll ever find for answers to your questions about using Netscape products with your Mac. (Of course, it's also a great place to bond with other Mac users.) news://secnews.netscape.com/netscape.macintosh Meanwhile, as part of the Unofficial FAQ prepared by the Netscape Champions, power users who answer questions in the Netscape newsgroups, a Mac FAQ offers answers to common questions at http://www.ufaq.org/mac_faq.html
HIDE DIRECTORY BUTTONSSo you don't use those directory buttons that appear in the menu bar in the Navigator browser (What's New, What's Cool, Destinations and so forth)? No problem--just dump them from the browser. From the Navigator menu, choose Options, then deselect Show Directory Buttons. See you later, directory buttons.
HEADER, FOOTER OPTIONS FOR PRINTING WEB PAGESNavigator gives you some options for how information will appear on a page you print. To set these, select File, Page Setup, which opens the Page Setup dialog box. Select any options you want--for example, check the Document Title and/or Document Location (URL) boxes to make those appear in the page header--then click OK. You can change these options as often as you like, depending on the type of information you want on the printed page.
GOOEY TURNS WEB PAGES INTO STICKY CHAT ZONESEver visited a Web page you liked so much, you wished you could tell someone? Not just anyone, but someone who really understood the attraction? If so, you might want to get Gooey, a browser add-on utility that creates a chat environment for any group of users who happen to be surfing that Web page at the same time. If you're interested, you can download this utility from the Gooey home page.
FRAMES AND YOUR WEB PAGESCan you build frames-based pages using Navigator Gold's HMTL editor? The short answer is no. The long answer is sort of. Frames are just individual pages, so you can build those using the editor, then use a text editor such as Notepad to fold in the HTML code that will create the frames. To learn the codes you'll need, visit simple frames-based pages and use your View, Document Source command to study the raw HTML. It's not terribly difficult, but it may take a lot of time to get the frames to look just the way you want. Before you embark on such a project, remember that most people find frames really annoying. Just thought we'd mention that.
FOR A TRUE VIEW, TEST WEB PAGES IN BROWSERWe've told you that Navigator Gold's HTML editor is a WYSIWYG editor, meaning "what you see is what you get." That's true for the most part, but once in a while you can't see elements in the editor as they will appear to Web visitors. At times like these, you need to take a peek at your page through the browser. To do so, choose File, Browse Document. You'll get a prompt to save your work if you haven't done so lately. (You'll have to save the page before you can view it through the browser, so go ahead and click Yes.) Now you'll have a surfer's-eye view. Remember, too, that different browsers render Web pages differently. If you REALLY want to know how your page looks to others, you should take a look at it through several different browsers. The most common are Netscape's Navigator 3.x and 4.x (aka Communicator), Microsoft's Internet Explorer 3 and 4, and America Online's browser.
FILE EXTENSIONS REFERENCE GUIDELBM? RDL? VBW? If you're a software fiend--maybe even a download junkie--you might find yourself occasionally stumped by the file extensions you encounter on your very own hard drive. To help matters, a File Extensions reference guide by Richard E. Harvey defines more than 1500 files types by extension. File Extensions http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/frameset/0,1458,5316,00.html
DOWNLOADING IMAGES FOR YOUR WEB PAGELast time, we told you how to save a background image. This is actually the same technique you will use to save any image you find on the Web--whether it's a photograph, a piece of clip art, or a button no larger than a sesame seed. Just right-click the image, choose Save Image As from the menu, and save the image to a suitable folder. The only caveat is that you should never use an image without permission, because copyright protects so many of them (and copyright violations are enforced even on the Internet). When it's time to use that image in your Web page, here's all you need to do. Working on your page in Netscape's HTML editor, choose Insert, Image. This will open the Properties dialog box. Click the Image tab and, under Image File Name, click the Browse button to open the Select Image File dialog box. Locate and select the image file you want to use in your page, then click Open. Back in the Properties dialog box, click OK.
DEFAULT FONT ISN'T DEFAULT ON THE WEBYou've got a Web page, all right, but it's not quite ready for prime time. You need content, as they say in the Web biz--you know, what the "creatives" USED to call words and pictures. To create text from scratch, just start typing it in--no big deal. The words you type appear in whatever font you've designated as your default for page viewing. Remember that eventually, after you publish your page on the Web, other people will see the page in whatever font THEY'VE designated as the default for their browser, so don't put too much stock in the way the page looks in a particular font. (Note: you CAN force other people to see things your way, in your favorite font, but it requires a pretty good grasp of HTML--unless you want to download Netscape Communicator and use its HTML editor, Composer.)
CONSULT EACH SEARCH ENGINE FOR SITE-SPECIFIC TIPSThere are a whole lot of search engines out there, and just about every one of them includes advice on how best to use its search tools. Usually you'll find a Search Tips, Help, or Hints button or link near the search text entry box. It's really worth taking a look at these tips--what you find may surprise you. It turns out 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.
CONDUCTING VANITY SEARCHESHave you ever heard of a "vanity search"? That's what it's called when you enter your own name into a search engine and see how many listings come up. If this sort of behavior appeals to you, don't feel guilty--you're not alone! Note that you'll get better results from many search engines if you surround your name with double quotation marks.
COMMON SEARCH ENGINE MISTAKESThe 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. Here are some examples we saw when visiting the Voyeur engine mentioned last time. mercedez benz This one won't get you the right answerz. layryn hill Who's this? A Lauryn Hill impersonator? the hope diamond] That stray bracket will bring bad luck! It is much 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 illustrate the need to slow down and get it right. Lack of specificity can also ruin a search. Searches we saw for "homepage" or "WWW" or "chat" are too broad to return useful results. Use more words, and words with greater specificity, to track down the information you need. If the search engine supports it, enclose phrases in quotation marks and use Boolean operators, like AND and OR, as in this search: "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" AND "Mr. Rogers" OR "King Friday" Though there is an enormous amount of information on the Internet, you may not always find satisfactory answers to your queries. We wonder what sort of results these queries returned: What is the color of blue? What sound does a groundhog make? What dose the g-spot look like? Is there a loch ness monster? What do you do If your Gerbils skin on his tail is pulled off?
COLOR FAQ FOR ADVANCED USERSIf all this color talk is old hat to you, some more advanced information may interest you. Netscape has prepared a short FAQ about its color palette and how to choose colors for your Web pages so they don't look awful on visitors' monitors: http://help.netscape.com/kb/consumer/19960513-14.html
COLOR A WEB PAGE BACKGROUNDNow that you know how to use the Color box to create custom colors, try using it to create a custom background color for your Web page. Even if you plan to use a graphic image as your Web page background, it's not a bad idea to specify a custom background color anyway. Why? Because when people visit your site for the first time, it may take a while for that background image to render (depending on how big the file is). While waiting for the image to load, and while the text is already visible, the viewer will see either his or her own default background color (for many people, this is white or a nasty shade of battleship gray) or the custom background color you've assigned. A shade that complements your eventual background makes for a more aesthetically pleasing and subtle transition once your background image finally arrives. Anyway, here's how to do it. While working on your page in the HTML editor, choose Properties, Document. In the Document Properties box, click the Appearance tab. Now click the Background button. There's that Color box again! Choose a basic color and click OK, or click Define Custom Colors to mix up a custom background color (if you do, make sure to click Add To Custom Colors before you click OK--otherwise you can't easily reproduce that color elsewhere).
CLEAR ALL STYLES BUTTONSometimes you just want to start over from scratch. If you're creating a Web page with Netscape Navigator Gold's HTML editor and you've got a block of text you've colorized and modified and linked until it looks ridiculous, don't bother trying to undo the damage. Just highlight the block and click the Clear All Styles button on the toolbar (it's the letter A, surrounded by a corona of slash marks). Your selection will revert to its birthday suit, losing all modifications, including links. Note: If you'd like to remove a link from text or an image without changing any other modifications, select the linked material and click the Make Link button on the toolbar. On the Link tab in the Properties box, click the Remove Link button and click OK.
BUILDING A WEB PAGEToday 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 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 will present 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 will lead 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 seem to come up with ideas for what to put on it. 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 text entry 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 to spice up your page a bit.
AVOID SPAM WITH MODIFIED E-MAIL ADDRESSESAnother way that spammers pick up e-mail addresses is by collecting them from newsgroups where people post messages. This practice is usually an automated one, so many newsgroup habitues have adopted a simple trick to avoid winding up on the junk mail lists: They configure their Mail and News Preferences to give out their E-Mail and Reply-To addresses with extra characters. For example, an e-mail address such as user@tipworld.com might be rendered as user@ tipworld.NOSPAMNO.com. Then, in a signature file, the writer would include directions to "remove NOSPAMNO from address before replying." If a spam marketer tries to send e-mail to a server called tipworld.NOSPAMNO.com, the mail will just bounce back. The spammers won't bother combing thousands of messages for such instructions, however, making the likelihood of receiving junk e-mail much lower. If you try this trick, bear in mind that the spammers pick up every single e-mail address that appears in the post or its headers, so be careful. That's why some mischievous people supplement their signature files with the real or presumed addresses of people they don't like, often in the form of "SPAM to bgates@microsoft.com" (naturally, we don't endorse this practice). Address Munging FAQ: Spam-Blocking Your E-mail Address http://members.aol.com/emailfaq/mungfaq.html
ASCII ART IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER We mentioned ASCII art the other day. Joan Stark maintains a fine collection at her ASCII Art Gallery site, including lots of colorized text images. We ought to warn you, however, that the site uses a number of Java animations (so if your computer chokes on these, proceed with caution). http://www.geocities.com/spunk1111/
ANCHORS AWEIGHEver click on a Web page link only to travel just a short distance down the same page? That trick is possible courtesy of targets (aka named targets or anchors), and you can achieve the same result in your own Web pages using Navigator Gold's HTML editor. While most links direct you to the top of a page, an anchor takes you to a particular point on a page. So when incorporating anchors, you're not actually limited to the same Web page; you can link to spots on different pages, as long as they include anchors. Here's how to add an anchor to a Web page. Put your cursor at the beginning of the line to which you want to link. Choose Insert, Target (or click the Target button on the Character Properties toolbar; it looks like an arrow pointing at a bull's eye). In the Target Properties box, provide a name for your target. It can be up to 30 characters long. Click OK. You'll see a target icon appear in your chosen location (don't worry; it's only visible while you're editing a page). Now, when you create a link, in the Properties box you'll see the target name you chose listed in the box under Select A Named Target In Current Document. Click the name once to select it, and you've forged your link. Notice that the Properties box also allows you to locate anchors in other documents you've created. To do so, click the Browse button to track down the other file, then, on the right side of the Properties box under Show Targets In, click the Selected File radio button to see a list of targets on that page. Select the one you want and click OK.
AN UNOFFICIAL NETSCAPE FAQStill searching for solutions to thorny problems? Try the Unofficial Netscape FAQ, prepared by Netscape "Champions" (a group of Netscape-designated gurus) and available at The UFAQ answers questions about all Netscape versions, including those for the Macintosh and Unix.
AMPERSAND IN BOOKMARK TITLEA reader writes: "Have you ever typed an ampersand (&) in the name field of a Bookmark? It looks fine in the Bookmarks editor, but when you look at it in the Bookmarks drop-down list in Netscape, the ampersand becomes an underscore. To correct this, type two ampersands next to each other where you want the single ampersand to appear."
ALT TAGS LET IMAGES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVESYou've surely noticed when visiting Web pages that even before an image loads you'll often see a descriptive text notation that clues you in to what will appear in that space. While most useful to those people who use the old text-based browsers or have images turned off for faster surfing, it's also nice for those of us who just plain get bored waiting for pictures to render. You create this effect with ALT tags, which you can easily add to your own pages with the Navigator Gold HTML editor. Whenever you choose Insert, Image to add an image to your page, the Properties box will include an area for optional Alternative Representations. Type your descriptive text in the Text box. Note that you can also designate a second image to appear in place of the first, if necessary. This is useful when your primary image is in an unusual format that not every browser will recognize.
ADJUST FRAMES FOR A BETTER VIEWFrames are a good way for the Web page designer to organize the content of the page, but they can be a little inconvenient sometimes. Here's a flexible way to play around with the frame size. Just place your cursor on the frame border. When it becomes a double-arrow icon, click and drag the border to move it left or right (or up and down, depending on the location of the frame).
ADDING EXTRA SPACES TO A WEB PAGEIt can be so frustrating when you know how to do all these fancy tricks, but you still can't figure out how to do something simple--like adding an extra space or two to your Web page. In Navigator Gold's HTML editor, if you try pressing the spacebar twice in a row, it just ignores you, right? Well, don't fret about it. Try Shift-Space next time and you'll go far.
ADD TABLES TO YOUR WEB PAGESPeople love to make tables. With Navigator Gold's HTML editor, you can make a veritable checkerboard out of your Web page, contrasting colors and all. Let's make a simple table for practice. Click once where you want your table to appear. Choose Insert, Table, Table (or click the Insert Table button on the toolbar; it looks like a window with four panes). The New Table Properties box will appear, brimming with possibilities. Let's make a table with three columns and four rows (columns are vertical and rows are horizontal). You see the default numbers for 2 columns and 2 rows? Go ahead and change those numbers to 3 and 4. Assign any other attributes you desire and change the table width and height to 50 percent of the window. Under Table Alignment, click the Center radio button. Now click once inside the first box and type some text in the cell. Continue adding data to the cells this way. Want to change the background color for each cell? It's easy. Right-click the cell, choose Table Properties, and click the Cell tab. Select the Cell Color check box and click the Choose Color button. Select one of the colored squares (or custom-create a new one), then click OK. Use the Table Properties box to further modify your table however you like. For example, you can change the way text aligns inside a cell: to the left, to the right, or centered. It takes practice to get tables right. If you get flustered and want to delete a table and start over, just right-click the table and choose Delete, Table.
ADD A HORIZONTAL LINE TO YOUR WEB PAGEWant to straighten out a Web page? Create a visual partition with a horizontal line or two. Click your cursor once where you want a line, then choose Insert, Horizontal Line. The line that appears will stretch all the way across the page (unless you got it tangled up in your block quotes somehow), but you can change that. To modify the attributes of your line, right-click the line and choose Horizontal Line Properties. Set the width to 40, 60, or 80 percent for a nice effect. Experiment with the various options to get the line just right.
MAILTO LINKS IN WEB PAGESWeb page developers often include mailto tags in their Web pages. These links act a lot like URLs, except that when you click them, the Navigator mail window opens, usually with a specified mailing address in the To field. How do you know when you've come across a mailto link? Generally, you can't tell just by looking at them--it's up to the page developer to tell you what the link does. They often provide a way for Web site visitors to send feedback e-mail to the Web developer.
ADJUST FRAMES FOR A BETTER VIEWFrames are a good way for the Web page designer to organize the page's content, but they can be a little inconvenient sometimes. Here's a flexible way to play around with the frame size. Just place your cursor on the frame border. When it becomes a double-arrow icon, click and drag the border to move it left or right (or up and down, depending on the location of the frame).
|
Just Check out some of our sponsors
|
|
COPYRIGHT 1998 - 2009 All names used are Trademarks of the respective companies Send mail to
CompanyWebmaster with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
