Browser Basics
The language of Web Browsers is generically termed hypertext.
The name implies that hypertext is more than just text on
a computer screen. As we shall see, it is much more than
mere text. The most important feature of hypertext is the
concept of a link.
Hypertext Links
This Tutorial is a collection of hypertext documents. The
colored and/or underlined text (for
example, like this) corresponds to hypertext links to
other documents (or other locations within the present document).
Clicking once on these links will take you to the corresponding
document, and if you use the mouse to place the cursor over
the link the corresponding address for the link usually
appears somewhere on the screen (usually at the bottom,
but exactly where depends on the browser you are using---hold
your mouse over a link without clicking and see what happens!).
The preceding example of a link was to a simple text file,
but links can correspond to much more interesting things.
For example, try the following links (use the "Back"
button to return if the link takes you to a new page).
Hypertext is for exploring, and you are unlikely to get
into trouble by clicking on whatever link interests you.
You can always return to the previous page by using the
"Back" button on your browser, and your browser probably
has a "History" or "Go" list that allows you to return immediately
to documents accessed earlier in the session.
In the worst case, the "Home" button on the browser will
rescue you from almost anything, taking you back to where
you started. And don't worry about damaging any hardware
or software on your computer by randomly clicking on hypertext
links. If you can do that, you are very clever indeed!
Browser Navigation Buttons
Exactly where the navigation buttons mentioned above are
located depends on your browser. The following image shows
the menu of Internet Explorer 5.0
for Windows. The "Back" button, as well as other navigation
aids such as "Home" and "Forward" (you guessed it, the opposite
direction of "Back"!) are evident. Your browser is probably
similar. Note that this is an IMAGE OF A BROWSER, not a
browser---you can't click on the buttons in this image and
expect it to do anything!
Most browsers are very intuitive, so just click on things
to see what they do. If you don't like what they do, use
the "Back" functions described above and try something else!
Visited and Unvisited Links
Unless something unusual has been done, your browser is
probably set up to distinguish visited from unvisited links:
the color of links you have already visited will be different
from unvisited ones. The exact colors depend on your browser
and the document you are viewing. Two common colors for
visited and unvisited links are red and blue, respectively,
but they depend on the browser and how the document that
you are viewing has been written. For example, in the present
document the visited and unvisited links will probably be
red and blue, respectively, if you are using Internet
Explorer with default settings as your browser.
Words Aren't the only Clickable Objects
In addition to words, other objects on a page may be clickable
links. For example, images may be hypertext linked to something
else. This will usually be indicated if the cursor image
turns into a hand with a pointing finger when it is over
a clickable link. When in doubt, click and see what happens!
|