Frequently Asked Questions

The Electronic Campus website is designed to work properly with the following minimum browser versions:

• Internet Explorer 5.1 for the Macintosh
• Internet Explorer 5.0 for the personal computer
• Netscape 4.7 for the Macintosh
• Netscape 4.7 for the personal computer
• Firefox 1.x for both the personal computer and Macintosh
• Safari for the Macintosh

Note: All current versions of standards-compliant browsers should also be compatible.

If your computer can support a later version, you should choose the latest non-beta release available.

Support for Java, JavaScript, and cookies must be enabled in either browser and can be "turned on" via the Preferences dialog box in Netscape or the Internet options dialog box in Internet Explorer.

To access any secure portion of the website, your browser will need to support 128-bit encryption.

Internet Explorer for Macintosh is not compatible with some features of the online system. With Macintosh platforms, you must use Netscape.

Choosing the right keyboard can make a big difference in your daily computing. Today we will look at several different types of keyboards that can keep your hands and wrists comfortable and can make entering computer information much easier.

You probably got an average keyboard like this one when you purchased your computer. While this keyboard may be all that you need, you should be aware that there are other options.

For instance, if you are a hunt and peck kind of keyboard user and your ageing eyes make it difficult to see the letters on the keyboard, you might investigate a keyboard like this one called "BigKeys" which has keys almost four times bigger than normal." Another option may be to use stickers with larger letters on your keyboard like these from Gold Violin.

If you have pain or discomfort in your wrists, fingers, or elbows, you may want to consider an ergonomic keyboard. In this Comfort Type Keyboard from Kensington, the keys are slightly angled to put your wrists in a more comfortable position.

Ergonomic keyboards come in many shapes and sizes. The idea behind them is to arrange the keys in a way that will relieve some of the pressure that is caused by typing on a normal keyboard. In this Microsoft Desktop Comfort Keyboard the keys are raised 6 degrees and angled to allow easier typing. And the keys that are used by the left and right hands are slightly separated.

If you have serious problems with your hands or wrists, you may want to investigate a keyboard with even more ergonomic features. These range from keyboards where the left and right hand are separated and angled to one like this SafeType keyboard which allows your hands to be in a natural position. You type on this with your hands up and down just like they would be in your normal walking position.

Yes, it can be hard to get used to some of these keyboards, but I can tell you from experience, they give a lot of relief to your hands and arms.

Title Bar

Let's take it from the top. The name of the Web site or title of the page you are viewing is found on the top left hand corner of your screen. Traditionally, this horizontal blue bar runs across the entire width of your screen. This blue bar that contains the name of the Web site is called the Title Bar. The Title Bar will serve as a trusty anchor, always letting your know where you are by sharing the title of the Web site you are visiting. This bar does not take you anywhere, but it always lets you know where you are.

Menu Bar

Underneath the Title Bar are other bars that can be used for moving around the Internet. If you are looking for quick and easy ways to navigate, the bars located at the top of your screen under the Title Bar will be helpful. One of the most useful bars is the Menu Bar. You will quickly appreciate each of the options found on the Menu Bar.

The Menu Bar is the horizontal band that contains commands and options that can be chosen. In Internet Explorer, these selections are File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, and Help.

Clicking on each of the items in the standard Menu Bar at the top of your page will drop down a menu that is a useful way to access the many features of the Internet Explorer program. The last menu item is the Help item. You will be surprised and relieved how often you will be able to click Help and find the answers you need.

The Menu Bar is a very useful tool when trying to make your way around a Web site. Because the Menu Bar offers so many helpful functions, the quicker you master File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, and Help, the better. It does not take long to learn the purpose of each of these menu items that help you move around the Internet.

Address Bar

Because the Address Bar offers a unique method of navigating the Web, it will be explained in greater detail a little later in this lesson.

Tool Bar

As its name implies, this is the area where a lot of work gets done. The Tool Bar is much like the Menu Bar stretching from left to right across the top of your screen just under the Address Bar. Because the Tool Bar is the workhorse of bars, it is larger and contains many useful icons divided into three areas. Each of these icons has a text description of its function under the icon itself. If you do not see the text description, hold your cursor over the icon, and the function of the icon will appear. Either way, it will not take you long to associate each function with its picture. Let's become familiar with the first area which contains five icons. The remainder of the icons on the Tool Bar will be explained in later lessons.

Back/Forward

The first icon on the Tool Bar is the Back Icon. You will be surprised how often you will want to return to a Web page or Web site you enjoyed earlier.

How about another direction change? Ready to return to the Web page you were viewing before you backtracked with the Back arrow? Yes, there is a tool for that. The Forward icon can return you to square one by revisiting each page successively.

Let's review. How would you find a page that you have just visited? To return to the last page you viewed, simply click the Back arrow icon on the toolbar.

If you want to view one of the last nine pages you visited in this session, just click that small black down arrow located to the side of the Back or Forward icon. You will see a list of the sites you have visited previously. Then just click the page you want from the list.

Stop and Refresh Icons

It will not take you long to appreciate two other icons found on the Tool Bar. The Stop icon is located to the right of the Back and Forward arrows. Clicking the Stop icon will stop the page you have selected from downloading.

This icon is especially useful. Click the Stop icon if a page is taking too long to download. What if you changed your mind and do not want to visit a page? Just click this icon. Occasionally you find that you have clicked on a wrong link. Again, the Stop icon to the rescue.

The next icon is not quite as intuitive as the old familiar Stop icon. It is the Refresh icon. Refresh makes sure you are viewing the latest version of the current Web page. Remember one of the unique characteristics of the Internet is that it is dynamic and fluid. Information is continuously being added, and Web pages are constantly changing. It might be important to you that you are viewing the very latest information. For that reason, you have a Refresh icon. Just click the Refresh icon and your browser will reload the latest version of the page you are viewing.

Home Page Icon

In reference to this icon, home page is the Web page that your browser uses when it starts, the Web page that appears every time you open your browser. Clicking the home page icon found on the Tool Bar will take you to the specific page you have set as your browser's home page.

As a review, let's look at an easy to understand labeling of the three important bars we have just mastered. I bet you use the Tool Bar the most, but you will find you cannot get along without any of them!

Acknowledgement: AARP (www.aarp.org), reprinted with permission.

URLs

Don't be afraid of getting lost or overwhelmed on the mammoth Information Highway. There is an easy way to know where you are at all times. One way to keep track of where you are on the Web, especially if you have been moving around by links, is to check out the Address Box. This box gives you the location or address of the current page you are viewing.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

That unusual word at the top of the page in what is known as the locator box or address box is the address of a Web page. Each Web page has a unique address called a Uniform Resource Locator or URL. The URL (pronounced U-R-L) is the specific address of a Web page.

There is a special system for addressing Internet sites. The URL or Web address is typically composed of four parts:

• A protocol name (a protocol is a set of rules and standards that enable computers to exchange information)
• The location of the site
• The name of the organization that maintains the site
• A suffix that identifies the kind of organization it is

For example, the address http://www.aarp.org is made up of the following areas:

http:// — This Web server uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This is the most common protocol on the Internet.

www. — This site is on the World Wide Web.

aarp. — The Web server is at AARP.

org — This is a nonprofit organization.

Some common extensions are:

com (commercial)
edu (educational institution)
gov (government)
int (international)
mil (military)
net (network)
org (organization)

You might also see foreign addresses that add a country code as the last several digits of the address, such as:

au (Australia)
ca (Canada)
fr (France)
it (Italy)
us (United States of America)

Address Bar

The Address Bar is an excellent tool that can be used for navigating the Web. If you know the address of a page you want to visit, type the URL in the Address Bar. Then press Enter on the keyboard or click on the word Go on the right side of the Address Bar.

The power of the computer really shines through with a feature called AutoComplete which is built into Internet Explorer. If you start typing a Web address that you have previously used, a list of matching addresses appears. The addresses of all the Web sites that you have visited are kept in the computer memory. Your browser will locate an address that you have previously typed in the Address Bar by searching for similar addresses trying to find a match. As you type each letter, the list is refined to match your typing. You can choose one of these addresses by simply moving your mouse over the name and clicking.

Acknowledgement: AARP (www.aarp.org), reprinted with permission.

For Internet Explorer on a PC (Windows) machine
From the toolbar across the top of the screen, click the "View" word. A pull down menu is displayed. Scroll down until you come to "text size" and then you will be able to select the font size you would like to use.

For Netscape on a PC (Windows) machine
From the toolbar across the top of the screen, click the "Edit" word. A pull down menu is displayed. Scroll down until you come to "preferences," then "appearances," and then "fonts." You will need to adjust the "proportional" and "monospace" sizes that you would like to use.

For Internet Explorer (version 5.0 or later) on a Mac OS machine
From the toolbar across the top of the screen, click the "View" word. A pull down menu is displayed. Scroll down until you get to "text zoom," then pick the percentage (the larger the percentage, the larger the increase in size).

For Netscape on a Mac OS machine
From the toolbar across the top of the screen, click the "Edit" word. A pull down menu is displayed. Scroll down to "Increase Font Size" as many times as required for your own best legibility.

You may choose to "click" on the link to open/view the file using Adobe® Acrobat® Reader or "right-mouse click" on the link. To save the file, choose the option "save target as" or "save file," or click on the "save" button (it looks like a floppy disk) on the toolbar.

If you choose to print, press the "print" icon (on your tool bar the printer button).

If you do not have Adobe® Acrobat® Reader, you can dowload Adobe® Acrobat® Reader here.

Click one of the hyperlinks below for quick and easy access:

• Latest Netscape Browser Software Page — download the latest version of Netscape.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer Personal Computer Page — download the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer for the personal computer.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer Macintosh Page — download the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer for the Macintosh.

If you are an AOL subscriber, you can upgrade by going to keyword: upgrade in AOL.

Acknowledgment: Text courtesy of College Foundation Inc. and www.cnfc.org.

As you surf the Internet, you are sure to find many Web sites you like. Saving each of these in your Favorites list will make it easy to access these Web sites. No doubt, you will visit some of these sites more often than others. So why not reposition your most used Favorites to the top of the list?

As you use the Internet more frequently, it is no surprise that you accumulate more and more Favorites. And why not? The Internet has resources for all of your current, past, and future pursuits. You will find that if you simply add more and more Favorites, your Favorites list can quickly become difficult to manage. The solution is to save your Favorites in folders that will contain like items. For instance, you may want to save all the Web sites that give you good computer-related information in a folder named "Computer Information." Likewise, all the information that you collect regarding cameras can be saved in a folder named "Photography."

When you add a Favorite, you have the option of saving the Favorite in an existing folder or creating a new folder where you can store the Favorite.

Remember when you click on Add Favorite, the default name of that Web page appears. This may not be the name that you wish to call this page. So when you add a new Favorite, look at the name in the Name Box.

Position the cursor at the end of the name and drag your mouse across the name to highlight it if you would like to change the name. Once the name is highlighted, you can simply type in the name of your choice. Even if you are careful to create your Favorites in the correct folder with a meaningful name, there will come a time when you need to sort through and organize your Favorites. This is quite an easy task.

Customizing History

When you know that you will want to revisit a Web site, it is a good idea to add that site to your list of Favorites. However, no matter how good you are at saving sites as Favorites, you cannot put them all in this folder. Consequently, there will be Web sites not in your Favorites folder that you enjoyed yesterday or last week and would like to revisit. This is the perfect scenario for using your History list.

Internet Explorer automatically keeps track of the Web sites that you visit. You can use the History list to find Web sites and pages that you've viewed in the last few days, hours, or minutes. The length of time that a computer tracks your surfing is user definable in the History list. You may want to keep track of the Web sites that you visit for several months, or, for privacy purposes, you may not want to keep such a list at all. The more days you specify, the more disk space used on your computer to save that information. When you install Internet Explorer 5, the default number of days is set to twenty, but you can easily change that.

Acknowledgement: AARP (www.aarp.org), reprinted with permission.