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World Wide Web

What is the World Wide Web?
Surfing the Web with Netscape
Having Your Own Bookmarks in the Mac Lab
Web Search Engines
Making your own Web Page

What is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web is a vast collection of "pages" (information archives) located on computers around the world, linked together through the Internet. The web pages include text, pictures, sounds, movies, forms, applets, etc., which combine to make the web the most popular and interactive resource available on the Internet. But, of course, you know some of this already since you are viewing this web document.

To view web pages, you need to run client software called a Web Browser. The web browser requests the web page's data from the Web Server computer which holds those pages, then displays the text and graphics of the page on your computer screen.

Almost all web pages contain links to other web pages. When you click on a link on your screen, your browser requests the information for the new page from the appropriate server. Web pages can be linked to any other web pages available on any web servers around the world. It is this willy-nilly, free-format linking of millions of web pages around the planet that gives the World Wide Web its name.

The volume and variety of information available on the World Wide Web is huge, and it is increasing all the time. Therefore, even though the web is easy to use, it is sometimes hard to find the specific information you want.

Surfing the Web with Netscape

(This write-up applies specifically to version 3.0 of Netscape Navigator, but other versions and other browsers have similar commands.)

The most popular web browser is Netscape Navigator, which most people simply call "Netscape" -- and this is the browser we have installed on our Macs at UNM-LA. Netscape Navigator is also available for many other types of PCs and workstations. The second most popular browser in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

To use Netscape, simply run the Netscape program. On the UNM-LA Macs, you will usually find Netscape Navigator inside the "Network" folder on the hard disk. I have seen the "quick instructions" for using Netscape given as this:

Start-up Netscape.
Click on anything that looks interesting.
Stop every six hours to eat.

That works for some people, but a little more instruction is helpful.

Scrolling. When you are viewing a web page your screen may only be showing you part of the page -- use the scroll bars to see the rest of the page. A web page can actually be quite long. Keep this in mind if you decide to print a web page: the computer will print the whole web page, not just the part currently displayed in your screen window.

Links. Web pages contain links to other pages. The links are usually in the form of colored, underlined text like this. Graphics can also be links, like this:
Sometimes, a large graphic may contain many links (such as the graphic at the top of this web page) -- just click on the part of the graphic you are interested in. You can get a "preview" of where the link will take you before you click it: when you position your cursor over the link, the URL (address) that the link points to will appear at the bottom of the Netscape window.

Wait for it... After you click on a link, there will be a delay while Netscape contacts the web server and retrieves the necessary files. The delay may be short, or it may be long. Netscape signals that it is busy by animating its icon (shown at right).

Stop. If the delay drags on longer than you care to wait, you can click on the "Stop" button to halt the transfer. This can happen when the web server Netscape is trying to reach is down or very busy. Netscape keeps you informed about progress of the current transfer at the bottom of its window.

Back. A very important button is the "Back" button, shown at right. You can click on it to backtrack through the links that you have followed. Once you have moved back, the "Forward" button will be active and allow you to move forward through the links you just came backward through.

Entering a URL. You can go directly to a web page of interest if you know the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the page. You can click on the "Open" button (shown at right) and type in the URL. You can also directly edit the "Location:" field near the top of Netscape's window.

More Help. To get more instructions of how to use Netscape, pull down the "Help menu" and select one of the help topic commands.

Having Your Own Netscape Bookmarks in the Mac Labs

If you find a web site that you want to return to at a later date, you can create a bookmark to the site by selecting Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu. The new bookmark is added to the bottom of the menu. Selecting that bookmark from the menu takes you back to that page. You can edit and re-arrange the bookmarks in a special window by selecting the Bookmarks command from the Windows menu (see the help files discussed above for more info).

BUT...these bookmarks are stored in a file on the hard disk, and anyone using that Mac can add or delete bookmarks from the list. How can you ensure that you will always have your bookmarks when using a Mac in the UNM-LA labs?

First: You have to save a copy of the bookmarks to your own floppy diskette (edit them as desired first).
To save a bookmarks file:

a) Select Bookmarks from the Windows menu.
b) Select Save As from the File menu.
c) Navigate using the dialog box to point to your diskette.
d) Save using the name "My Bookmarks" (or some similar name).

Then: Each Time You Startup Netscape...

a) Select Bookmarks from the Windows menu.
b) Select Open Bookmarks from the File menu.
c) Navigate using the dialog box to point to your diskette.
d) Double-click on your "My Bookmarks" file in the dialog box file list.
e) Close the Bookmarks window.

Now, any bookmarks you add or changes you make to the bookmarks list will be stored in the "My Bookmarks" file on your diskette (you do not need to save the bookmarks file again).

Web Directories and Search Engines

The web is huge, so it's often difficult to find what you want. Web directories and Search Engines help you locate the information you want. Here are links to my favorite search engines.

Beginners may want to start with the Yahoo web directory. Just look through the list of topics and choose one. A page of sub-topics will be displayed -- pick one of those. Eventually, the links lead to web pages on your specific topic of interest (which often include links to similar pages). Remember, you can always backup and try another branch in the directory.

Not everything is in the directories -- This is where the Search Engines are useful. The companies that maintain the search engines have programs that prowl the web searching for new pages. They collect the information about the pages (URL, keywords, etc.) into giant databases. These databases are what you search when you use thier search engines.

To use a search engine, simply type keywords into the entry field on its main page, then press RETURN or click on the appropriate button. The search engine will return a page of links -- try them out and see if they take you to the information you want.

Search Tips. We will discuss the best way to search the web in class, but here are a few tips:

Read the "search tips" link in the search engine you are using. Some engines let you specify groups of words in quotes which must occur together (for example "new mexico"), mark certain words that must occur (+volcano), and words that should not occur (-hawaii).
If your intial attempt fails, try other keywords or combinations of keywords. Try to think of terms which will appear prominantly on pages you are interested in, but which are not common words.
Try more than one search engine -- they do not contain the same things in their databases!

Making Your Own Web Page

As part of this class, we will look at how web pages are made. Students who are interested may elect to make their own web page as a final project for the class. We will provide specific instructions on how to create web pages using the UNM-LA Macs.

HTML. Web pages are written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML). The HTML file for a web page contains the text to be displayed on the web page. Embedded within the text are markup "tags" which specify how the text is to be formatted for display. Tags are also used to specify where graphics will be inserted, create links to other pages, and control such things as background color for the page.

Here are some example of HTML tags in action:

This HTML Code...	...Would Produce The Results Below:
This is <b>very</b> important	This is very important
<h1>Heading Line</h1>	Heading Line
<p align=center>Here is centered text. <br>Note the linebreak. <br>But Returns in HTML are ignored. </p> <p>A new paragraph, not centered.</p>	Here is centered text. Note the linebreak. But Returns in HTML are ignored. A new paragraph, not centered.
Here's Smiley: <img src="gifs/smiley.gif" align=top>	Here's Smiley:
Click the <a href="secretLink.html">link</a>	Click the link

Notice that most tags occur in pairs, like the tags that specify bold text: <b>....</b>
Some tags, such as the <br> linebreak, are used alone. Some tags may include optional "attributes" which affect the formatting, such as the "align=top" in the image tag.

To see the HTML code which produced this web page which you are reading, select the Document Source command from Netscape's View menu. Cool.

The Tools. To make your own web pages, you will need the following (we have all of the necessary software on the UNM-LA Macintosh computers):

An account on a Web Server computer. You will have an account on Chicoma, the UNM-LA WebServer, as part of this class.
A word processor or text editor to edit the HTML code files. If using a word processor, be sure to save files as "text only" (the "Normal" save mode of a word processor includes formatting information within the file).
Graphics programs to edit any graphics you want to include (if needed). You can also scavange graphics from other web pages (some sites give free permission to use their graphics).
The Fetch program to put your web page files onto Chicoma. This Mac program will create directories, set permissions, and upload your files -- your hands need never touch UNIX!

You will be given a basic HTML page in class to use as a template in constructing your own web pages. You can develop and debug your web pages right on the Macintosh -- then, when they are completed and working, you can place them on the web server.

More Info. Below are listed some web sites with more information about HTML. There are also sites listed which have on-line graphics that are free-for-the-taking. To copy a graphic from any web page, point to it with your cursor and then click & hold the mouse button. A menu will pop up which contains a command allowing you to "Save this Image as..." -- selecting this brings up the standard Macintosh "Save dialog box."