Objectives |
Microsoft Internet Explorer is a software package for viewing World Wide Web pages on the Internet. You can use it to browse, read and download information from all over the world. You set up your own Web pages[2] at Aberystwyth to impart information about yourself or your interests for other ‘Web Surfers’ to access.
Before starting a browser you should first copy any Favorites folders you have onto the D: drive on the machine you are working at.
Double click with the left mouse button on the Copy Internet Files Utility icon on the desktop
The following box will appear;
Click with the left mouse button on the box labelled Copy files FROM my Central Filestore.
The screen will go black for a couple of seconds you will then get a message telling you that your Favorites folder has been copied from the M: drive to the D: drive.
Double-click the left mouse button on the Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop.
Once Internet Explorer has been launched, your screen will look something like this, with the UWA Home Page displayed.
Some of the text on the page may be links to other pages or documents.
Move the mouse cursor over the screen, the cursor will change from an arrow to a hand with a pointing finger when you are over a link.
This cursor change indicates that you are over a link, and that clicking the left mouse button will take you to another page. Look at the bottom left-hand end of the Status Bar and you will see the address[3] the link is pointing to.
Click on Academic Departments and then click on your own department’s link to go to its Home Page.
You may see some more links in some cases links will be shown as underlined text or with the text coloured blue (which is the most frequently used colour). Sometimes, pictures or icons can also be links.
Remember: When the cursor is over a link, it will change in appearance from an arrow to a hand with a pointing finger.
Click on some of the links on the department Home Page you have chosen. Many staff put photographs of themselves on these pages, which may be useful if you are new to the University. Use either the Scroll Bars or the Page Up and Page Down keys[4] to view the contents of each page.
Internet Explorer keeps a list of the pages you have visited. Now we will re-visit some of those indicated above.
Move the mouse up the screen to the top left-hand corner and over the Back button on the Toolbar and then click once and you will go back one location.
Click on the downward pointing arrow next to the Back button. This will bring up a list of sites you have just visited; you can then go to one of these sites by clicking on the name of that site with the mouse button.
Click on the Forward button, just to the right, and you will move forward one location. Again clicking on the down pointing arrow next to the Forward button will bring up a list of sites you have visited.
Click on the Home button to return to the University of Wales, Aberystwyth Home Page, Gwebodaeth.
Every page of every Web Site has an unique address[6]. This is called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and the most common type is a hypertext link of the form
http://www.inf.aber.ac.uk/support/helpdesk/helpsheets.html
Click once in the Address box below the Toolbar and type in the URL shown here then press Return.
This will take you to the page where you can access all the Computing Help Sheets
Scroll through thte page untill you find Help Sheet 54 - How to set up World Wide Web Pages at Aberystwyth.
Single click the left mouse button on this Help Sheet and have a look at it, when you’ve finished use the Back button to return to the main Help Sheet Web page.
To print a Help Sheet:
Scroll down the page and click on the number of a Help Sheet you think will be useful to you.
Single click the left mouse button on File menu and then single click again on Print, the following Print dialogue box will appear.
If you have already selected a default printer, its name will appear in the Name box at the top.
If not, click on the button marked with the downward pointing arrow and then on the name of the printer to which you want to send the Help Sheet.
Single click the left mouse button on OK to print out your chosen Help Sheet.
Many Microsoft applications including Word 2000, Paint, Access 2000, Excel 2000 and PowerPoint 2000 have a Print dialogue box similar to this one, and offer you the same options. Do print out the Help Sheet about printing, or refer to it on the Advisory Web Pages. If you have trouble printing from any application, please visit a Help Desk.
Internet Explorer allows you to access vast quantities of information that has been placed on Web Sites all over the world. To find information about a particular topic, you will need to use a Search Engine.
Remember: Searching the Web can be very slow[7], particularly in the afternoon and early evening. It is also easy to get sidetracked among so much information, so always allow plenty of time.
Click on the Search button on the Toolbar
This will open a small window to the left of your browser’s window. In here you can specify what it is you want to search for, whether you wish to find a web page, a person’s internet address, a business or to find a map.
Selecting one of the options and then entering a search term, (in this example I selected the Find a Web page option and entered the terms ‘Solar Wind’. This then produces a new search window displaying the results of your search. From here you can click on any of the results to go to that page or document.
You can search other sites for the same information by clicking on the down arrow next to the Next button. This will bring up a list of the most popular search engines available at the time. This will carry out the same search (using the same terms) but using the selected search engine. To start a new search click on the New button which will take you back to the original search page as shown on the right here.
When you find a Search Engine that you like, or when you come across a Web Page you think will be of use to you, you can add it to your Favorites list so that you can access it again without having to remember the URL[8].
Return to the help sheets web page, and click on the Favorites button the following window will appear to the left of your screen.
Click on the button labelled Add…
Click on OK or press Enter.
Now click on the Favorites button again and you will see that your chosen Web Site appears on the drop down menu and clicking on it will re-open that site.
Single click the left mouse button on File and then on Exit.
Alternatively, click on the Exit button at the top right-hand corner of the Internet Explorer window.
Don’t forget to use the Copy Internet files Utility when you have closed down your browser to copy your Favorites to your M: drive
[1] Internet Explorer uses the American form of spelling for this word.
[2] See Computing Help Sheet 54, obtainable either via the WWW (see later in this document) or from Computing Help Desks.
[3] This may just be the name of a file, or may be a full URL (Uniform Resource Locator – see next page). The .htm extension to the filename stands for hypertext markup language.
[4] Above the block of four cursor arrow keys on your keyboard.
[5] A full explanation of what the Toolbar buttons do is in Help Sheet 12, Internet Explorer for Windows 95 and Windows NT, which you can get from the Help Desks.
[6] This address may be anywhere in the world. The only time the location of an address may be significant is if it is in a country like America. The lines of communication are often very busy and it can take a very long time to retrieve a file. Sometimes it is necessary to select a time when activity in that country is at a minimum, perhaps in the early hours of ‘their’ morning. An awareness of different time zones will be of assistance here.
[7] If you find a page is taking a very long time to load, you can stop it by clicking on the Stop button on the Toolbar.
[8] Often you find an interesting site as you are searching for an unrelated topic. Adding it to your Favorites list at once means you can find it again without having to try and duplicate your search sequence on another occasion.