Since Netscape 6 is a new program and related to 4.7x in name and function
only, it is not recommended that you install it over 4.7x. Specify a different
location when installing 6. You may want to go back, and it will be easiest
to do so if you don't overwrite 4.7x. Technically, version 6 is supposed
to import all profiles (including their respective address books, bookmarks,
and preferences) from 4.7x upon installation. However, several users have
experienced problems with this supposed ability. But there is hope--more
on this in the next few tips.
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Start the Netscape 6 Profile Manager from your Start Menu. If you do
not see your profile listed, create a new one by clicking Create Profile.
Start Netscape 6 with this new profile. Start Netscape Mail by clicking
Tasks, Mail or pressing Ctrl-2. When the Mail window opens, the Account
Wizard will automatically begin. Enter your name, e-mail address, and e-mail
log-in information. (You may need to check with your ISP for the incoming
and outgoing mail server names.) Give this account a descriptive name and
click Finish. Netscape 6 allows you to check mail for as many different
e-mail accounts as you require. To create a new account for Netscape 6
to check, click File, New, Account in the Mail window.
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In Netscape Navigator, you can view images one at a time. This capability is useful if an HTML page at a particular Web site contains several images. To look at a single image, do the following:
1. While logged onto the site, place the mouse pointer over the picture you want isolate and right-click.
2. From the menu that appears, choose View Image.
3. If you want to save the image, click on the Save Image As option.
4. To return to the site, click Back.
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When you're at a Web site and find a graphic that you must send to a
friend right away, press Ctrl-M, which opens a Netscape Communicator Message
Composition window. Now grab the image and drop it into the message body
(trust us, it can be done). That's it--address and send the message as
normal. (This slick technique works for links as well; you just have to
make sure your preferences are set to send HTML messages by default. To
do this, select Edit|Preferences, click the plus sign (+) next to Mail
& Groups, then select Messages and check the box next to By Default,
Send HTML Messages.
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You look at the slickest site on the Web and say to yourself, "There's
no way I could create the same thing." Not necessarily so. Composer makes
it very easy for you to see the structure of Web pages and use what you
can from them. To do this, open that favorite page in Navigator, then choose
File|Edit Page from the main menu. This opens Composer with the page displayed
in the window. From here you can see the page's underlying structure, save
it to your computer's hard drive, or edit it (though you won't be able
to post your changes back to the original site's server unless that server
is actually yours).
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Composer includes two toolbars that let you execute menu commands without
going to the menus. One is the Composition toolbar, which controls actions
for the Web page, such as creating, opening, or saving, uploading files
to a remote server (publish), viewing the page in the browser, editing
the page, creating links and targets, inserting images and tables, and
checking spelling. The other is the Formatting toolbar, which you use to
execute text commands, such as paragraph formatting; setting font type,
style and size; setting color; and aligning the text. You can hide or display
each toolbar by clicking on the tab on the extreme left.
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In the last tip, we suggested that you select the paragraph mark
along with the selected text before making a drag-and-drop text move. This
applies to many drag-and-move operations that have nothing to do with numbered
lists. The paragraph mark contains the formatting information for the text.
So anytime you need to make a move and retain the formatting, you need
to select the paragraph mark. An easy way to select the paragraph mark
along with a single paragraph sentence is to hold down the Ctrl key and
double-click on the sentence to select it. Then, with the sentence still
selected, release the Ctrl key and press the space bar. While holding down
the Shift key, press the right arrow once. This will move the selection
one place to the right and will select the paragraph mark. This won't work
with sentences in the middle of a paragraph because there's no paragraph
mark there.
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Horizontal lines are nice things to add to Web pages because they add
form to the page and can break up blocks of text and images. It couldn't
be easier to add a line in Composer. Click on the on H. Line icon from
the Composition toolbar, and a thin line appears spanning the width of
the page. If you want to make the line larger or smaller, grab an edge
(top, bottom, left, or right) with the mouse and drag it until you reach
the size you want. If you want to set the line properties, click on the
line to select it (a black bar appears inside the line), then click on
the H. Line icon. This opens the Horizontal Line Properties box.
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There are two ways to find out if you have a plug-in installed correctly.
You can either choose Help|About Plug-ins, or enter "about:plugins" (without
the quotes) in the Location box. Either way you get a list of all the plug-ins
that are recognized by your copy of Navigator, including the file name
and location of the plug-ins on your computer, the data types supported
by each plug- in, and any other information provided by the plug-in developers.
If you've just installed a plug-in, it should show up on the page. If you
don't see it, try downloading the file again or installing it again.
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Once you've inserted an image in the Web page you're working on in Composer,
you can set some properties. To do this, click on the image once to select
it, and then press the right-mouse button and select Image Properties from
the floating menu. Here you can set the size, alignment, and more. If you
want to edit the image, click on Edit Image. However, you must have the
image saved to your computer's hard drive before you can do this. You can't
edit an image that's stored on a remote server (although you can resize
it, or move it around the page, etc.).
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Tables are a great way to order your Web page, and often the page looks
even better if you use a table but hide the borders. Because Composer gives
all tables a border by default, you need to change the table settings to
make it invisible. To change the settings, click on the table to select
it, and then select Format|Table Properties (or right-click on the table
and select Table Properties from the floating menu). Enter 0 in the Border
Line Width box. Composer displays dotted lines on the page that indicates
the table is there, but the table's borders will be invisible to anyone
who views it with a browser.
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Composer allows you to manipulate your HTML file with an external HTML
editor. Wait just a minute, you say, isn't Composer an HTML editor? The
answer is yes, but you still may need an external editor. You see, Composer
acts as a graphically based HTML editor, in which you manipulate the page
by selecting text and graphics right on the screen. All the coding gobbledygook
happens in the background. Of course, however, there may be times when
you want or need to massage the source code directly--which means you need
to have your external editor specified. No problem doing this. First open
Composer and choose Edit|Preferences|Composer, which opens the Composer
Preferences window. In the section External Editors, enter the HTML editor
you want in the HTML Source field. Click on OK to close the box and save
your preferences.
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Here's a quick rundown of some of the most common file formats that
you run into when surfing the Internet: GIF, JPEG, and TIFF refer to graphics
files. GIF and JPEG graphics are usually used for inline images in Web
pages, while TIFF files are commonly found in desktop publishing programs.
AIFF, AU, MIDI, and WAVE refer to data types that contain sound--music,
speech, or whatever. AU is the native sound on Sun computers, and WAVE
is the native sound on Windows computers. QuickTime, AVI, and MPEG refer
to video data types. QuickTime was developed for Apple, while AVI was developed
for Microsoft. Finally, VRML refers to the programming language of virtual
reality (Virtual Reality Markup Language), which allows for interactive
3D worlds on the Net. You usually need plug-in applications to display
or interact with any of these data types, so look for information about
plug-ins in upcoming tips.
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When you work with text in Composer, you have many style and size options.
Before you begin to work with text, however, you can select the way Composer
expresses the font size in the drop-down list when you choose Format|Size.
The numbers on this list depend on options that you can choose in the Composer
preferences. To set these, open Composer and select Edit|Preferences|Composer,
which opens the Composer Preferences window. You select the number options
from one of the three buttons that appear in the Font Size Mode section.
"Show relative size as points" means that the numbers on the list indicate
the actual point sizes of the text (which may vary according to the font
style). "Show relative HTML font scale" means that the numbers show the
relative font size using a standard scale. The scale shows 0 as the size
of the text in Normal style, with negative numbers progressively smaller
and positive numbers progressively larger. "Show relative HTML scale and
absolute 'point-size' attributes" means that the list displays both point
sizes and HTML scale sizes.
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Be very careful when you name your files if you intend to put your Web
pages up on a public Web server. Specifically, you should name the top
level file--the one that people see first, before they click on any links--either
index.html or index.htm. (The extension depends on what system your ISP
uses.) This is because the Web server treats files with these names a little
differently, displaying them first automatically when someone browses to
your site. If there's no index.html or index.htm file, the user may get
a "File not found" error message.
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Working with Composer is like working with any other Windows text editor, which means that there are many ways you can quickly perform editing tasks directly from the keyboard. For example, if you press the Home key, the cursor moves to the beginning of a line. When you press Ctrl-Home, the cursor moves to the beginning of the document. Look for more keyboard shortcuts in the next few tips. Press Ctrl-A to select the entire contents of a document. Press Ctrl-C to copy to the clipboard. Press Ctrl-V to paste what you copied. More keyboard shortcuts. Press Ctrl-B to change selected text to boldface. Press Ctrl-I to italicize it. Press Ctrl = (Ctrl plus the equal sign) to increase the indentation of selected text. Press Ctrl -(Ctrl plus the minus sign) to decrease the indentation of selected text. Press Ctrl-Shift-L to insert a link at the spot where the cursor currently rests. More keyboard shortcuts. Press Ctrl-Z to undo your last edit. Press it again to redo the last undone edit.
http://www.dejanews.com
This site allows you to search newsgroups for specific words and phrases.
It returns any relevant messages it finds. You can also look for particular
newsgroups by category.
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