About internet.....

Web

The most popular part of the Internet is called the World Wide Web (or just the Web or just WWW).

The World Wide Web sometimes runs slowly. You can spend lots of time waiting for it to respond to your commands. Cynics call it the “World Wide Wait”.

To use the World Wide Web, you need a program called a Web browser.

The first good Web browser was Mosaic, invented by a University of Illinois undergrad, Marc Andreessen, in 1994. Later that year, he left the university and formed a company called Netscape Communications Corp., where he invented a better Web browser called Netscape Navigator (or just Navigator).

In 1995, Microsoft invented a competing Web browser called Internet Explorer (IE). Versions 1 & 2 of it were invented in 1995, version 3 in 1996, version 4 in 1997, version 5 in 1999, version 6 in 2001, version 7 in 2006, version 8 in 2009, and version 9 in 2011. Its recent versions (5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are better than Netscape Navigator. They’re free. They’re included as part of Windows. IE version 9 requires Windows Vista or 7; if you’re still using an older Windows (such as Windows XP), stay with an older version of IE (such as IE 8) or use one of IE’s competitors instead.

In 1998, Netscape Communications Corp. gave up trying to compete against Microsoft: the company sold itself to AOL, which wrecked Netscape Navigator by putting lots of AOL ads into it. But a group of volunteers called Mozilla.org (helped by funding from AOL) invented an improved ad-free Netscape Navigator called Mozilla then invented further improvements: Firefox 1 in 2004, Firefox 1.5 in 2005, Firefox 2 in 2006, Firefox 3 in 2008, Firefox 3.5 in 2009, Firefox 3.6 in 2010, and Firefox 4 in 2011. For many years, people considered Firefox to be better than IE; but IE 9 is a dramatic improvement over earlier IE versions, so it’s about as good as Firefox.

Another popular Web browser is Opera. It was invented in 1994 by researchers at Norway’s telephone company (Telenor), then spun off as a separate company (Opera Software) in 1995. It became famous for running faster than IE and Firefox and consuming less RAM. The current version is Opera 11. It’s fast and consumes so little RAM that it can fit comfortably even in cell phones and the smallest videogame machines.

Apple’s computers (the Mac and the iPad) come with Apple’s own Web browser, called Safari. Microsoft used to make Mac versions of IE but stopped when Apple invented Safari. The current version is Safari 5.

In 2005, a company called YouTube started putting videos on the Internet. In 2006, Google bought YouTube but was frustrated that IE was handling YouTube’s videos too slowly, so in 2008 Google invented its own Web browser, called Chrome, which handled videos faster. The current version is Chrome 10.

Though Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Chrome were each intended to improve on IE, most people still use IE, because it comes preloaded on most Windows computers. Moreover, IE’s newest version (IE 9) claims to be fast and as good as those other browsers.

Here’s what people actually use:

45% of Web browsing is done by people using IE, because they’re too lazy to switch.

30% of Web browsing is done by people using Firefox, because they heard it’s the best browser.

17% of Web browsing is done by people using Chrome, because they heard it’s new and exciting.

5% of Web browsing is done by people using Safari, because they have computers built by Apple.

2% of Web browsing is done by people using Opera, because they heard it’s fast, compact, European.

1% of Web browsing is done by people experimenting with other browsers.

This chapter explains the 3 most popular Web browsers: IE, Firefox, and Chrome. It explains the newest versions: IE 6&7&8&9, Firefox 3.6&4&5, and Chrome 12. (Later, in the iPad chapter, I’ll explain the iPad’s version of Safari.)

Install the browser

To use IE, Firefox or Chrome, you (or your dealer) must put it onto your computer’s hard disk.

How to install IE

If you bought your computer in 1996 or afterwards, its hard disk probably contains IE already, since IE is included in all modern Windows versions (Windows 98, 98 SE, Me, XP, Vista, and 7).

To use IE, you might have to tell Windows about your Internet service provider (ISP) and your ISP’s phone number. To find out how, read the instructions your ISP sent you. If you don’t understand them, phone your ISP’s technical-support number.

For example, if you’re using Windows XP and want to use the IE 6 that it included, do this:

Click “start” then “Control Panel”.

Click “Network and Internet Connections”. (If you don’t see that choice, make it appear by clicking “Switch to Category View”.)

You see the Network and Internet Connections window.

Click “Set up or change your Internet connection”. Press Enter. Press the Tab key. Type your area code (such as 603). Press Enter four times. Click “Set up my connection manually”. Press Enter twice. Type your ISP’s name (such as “Galaxy Internet Services”) and press Enter. Type the phone number of your ISP’s computer (such as 782-4447) and press Enter. Type the user name that your ISP agreed to assign to you (such as “poo”), press the Tab key, type the password that your ISP agreed to assign to you (you’ll see black dots while you type it), press Tab, type the password again, remove the check mark from “Turn on Internet Connection Firewall for this connection” (by clicking there), and press Enter. Press Enter again.

Click “Internet Options” then “Connections” then “Dial whenever a network connection is not present” then “OK”.

Close the Network and Internet Connections window (by clicking its X button). Close the Dial-up Connection window (by clicking its X button).

If you’re using Windows 7 with IE 8, here’s how to upgrade to IE 9:

Start using IE 8 (by clicking the “e” that’s next to the Start button). Click in the address box. Type www.BeautyOfTheWeb.com and press Enter.

Click the orange “Download Now” button then the blue “Download Now” button. Close the IE 8 window (by click the X at the screen’s top-right corner). The computer says “Setup needs to close these programs”. Press Enter.

The computer says “Installing Internet Explorer 9” then “Set up Internet Explorer 9”. Click “Use recommended security and compatibility settings”. Press Enter.

The computer says “welcome to a more beautiful web”. Close the IE 9 window (by clicking the X at the screen’s top-right corner then clicking “Close all tabs”), so you can start fresh.

If you’re using Windows Vista with IE 8, here’s how to upgrade to IE 9:

Start using IE 8 (by clicking the “e” that’s next to the Start button). Click in the address box. Type www.BeautyOfTheWeb.com and press Enter.

Click the orange “Download Now” button then the blue “Download Now” button.

If the computer asks “Do you want to run or save this file?” click the Run button. If the computer asks again “Do you want to run this software?” click the Run button again. If the computer says “A program needs your permission to continue” click “Continue”.

The computer says “Internet Explorer 9 is now installed”. Click “Restart now”. Be patient: after a pause, the computer will shut itself down; after another pause, the computer will turn itself back on; after another pause, the computer’s screen will return to the normal desktop.

Start using IE 9 (by clicking the “e” that’s next to the Start button). Click “Use recommended security and compatibility settings”. Press Enter.

The computer says “welcome to a more beautiful web”. Close the IE 9 window (by clicking the X at the screen’s top-right corner then clicking “Close all tabs”), so you can start fresh.

How to install Firefox

If you’re using Windows 7 and IE 9, here’s how to “upgrade” to Firefox 5:

Start using IE 9 (by clicking the “e” that’s next to the Start button). Type “www.mozilla.com” (so your typing is in the address box) and press Enter. Click “Firefox Free Download”.

If the screen’s bottom says “Do you want to run or save Firefox” click the Run button. If the computer asks again “Do you want to run this software?” click the Run button again. If the computer asks “Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?” click “Yes”.

The computer will say “Welcome to the Mozilla Firefox Setup Wizard”. Press Enter twice. The computer will say “Ready to start installing Firefox”.

Are you bold enough to make Firefox your main browser? If not (because you want IE to remain your main browser and want Firefox to be just your secondary browser), remove the checkmark from “Use Firefox as my default web browser” (by clicking the checkmark).

Press Enter four times.

If the computer says “Firefox is not currently set as your default browser”, remove the checkmark (by clicking it) then click “No”.

You’ll see two windows (one for Firefox, one for IE). Close both windows (by clicking their X buttons) and click any “Close tabs” button, so you can start fresh.

How to install Chrome

If you’re using Windows 7 and IE 9, here’s how to “upgrade” to Chrome 12:

Start using IE 9 (by clicking the “e” that’s next to the Start button). Type “www.google.com/chrome” (so your typing is in the address box) and press Enter. Click “Download Google Chrome”.

Are you bold enough to make Chrome your main browser? If not (because you want IE to remain your main browser and want Chrome to be just your secondary browser), remove the checkmark from “Set Google Chrome as my default browser” (by clicking the checkmark).

Click “Accept and Install”.

The computer will say “Choose a search engine”. You can click Google’s Choose button or Yahoo’s Choose button or Bing’s Choose button. For your first experiment with Google Chrome, I recommend you click Google’s Choose button.

If the computer asks “Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?” click “Yes”.

You’ll see two windows (one for Chrome, one for IE). Close both windows (by clicking their X buttons), so you can start fresh.

Start browsing

Turn on the computer, so you see the Start button in the screen’s bottom-left corner. Then choose one of these methods.…

Method 1: double-click an icon saying “Internet Explorer” or “Mozilla Firefox” or “Google Chrome”.

Method 2: click Start then either “Internet Explorer” or “Mozilla Firefox” or “Google Chrome”.

Method 3: click the tiny Internet Explorer icon that’s next to the Start button and has an “e” on it.

If the computer asks for your user name, type it and press the Tab key.

If Windows XP says “Password”, do this procedure:

Put a check mark in the “Connect automatically” box (by clicking it), then click “Connect”.

You’ll see the Internet Explorer (or Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome) window. Make sure it consumes the whole screen. (If it doesn’t consume the whole screen yet, maximize it by clicking its resize button, which is next to the X button.)

If Chrome says “Google Chrome isn’t your default browser”, click “Don’t ask again”.

Show text labels

Here’s how to make the browser easier to understand.

IE 6 Click “View” then “Toolbars” then “Customize”. Make sure the “Text options” box says “Show text labels”. (If it doesn’t, click the box’s down-arrow, then click “Show text labels”.) Press Enter.

Firefox 3.6 Click “View” then “Toolbars” then “Customize”. Make sure the Show box says “Icons and text”. (If it doesn’t, click the box’s down-arrow, then click “Icons and text”.) Press Enter.

IE 7&8&9 and Firefox 4&5 and Chrome The browser is already as easy to understand as possible, so skip this step.

Hide useless toolbars

Here’s how to avoid having your screen cluttered with useless toolbars.

IE 9 Right-click the star (which is near the screen’s top-right corner). Make sure you have a check mark in front of just “Lock the Toolbars”, not in front of anything else.

IE 8 Right-click the word “Favorites” (which is near the screen’s top-left corner). Make sure you have check marks in front of just “Compatibility View Button”, “Command Bar”, “Status Bar”, and “Lock the Toolbars”, not in front of “Menu Bar” or “Favorites Bar” or “Microsoft Live Search Toolbar” or anything else. (If the computer asks “Do you want to disable this add-on?” press Enter.)

IE 7 Right-click the gold star (which is near the screen’s top-left corner) or any gray area across from it. Make sure you have check marks in front of just “Status Bar” and “Lock the Toolbars”, not in front of “Links” or anything else (such as “McAfee VirusScan” or “Show Norton Toolbar” or “Yahoo! Toolbar” or “Google”). To add or remove a check mark, click its position.

IE 6 Click “View”. Make sure you have a check mark in front of “Status Bar”. (To add or remove a check mark, click its position.) Click “Toolbars”. You see the Toolbars menu. On that menu, make sure you have check marks in front of just “Standard Buttons” and “Address Bar” and “Lock the Toolbars” (and “Google” if you see that choice), not in front of “Links” or anything else (such as “McAfee VirusScan” or “Acer eDataSecurity Management”).

Firefox 3.6 Click “View”. Make sure you have a check mark in front of “Status Bar”. (To add or remove a check mark, click its position.) Click “Toolbars”. You see the Toolbars menu. On that menu, make sure you have a check mark in front of just “Menu Bar” and “Navigation Toolbar”, not in front of “Bookmarks Toolbar”. (To add or remove a check mark, click its position.)

Firefox 4&5 and Chrome The toolbars are already as minimal as possible, so skip this step.

Address box

Click in the address box, which is the wide box near the screen’s top-left corner. (In IE 6&7&9 and Firefox and Chrome, that box is white; in IE 8, that box is light gray. That box is also called the address bar or location bar.)

Any writing in that box turns blue. Then type the Internet address you wish to visit.

For example, if you wish to visit Yahoo, type Yahoo’s Internet address, which is —

http://www.yahoo.com/

Yes, that’s Yahoo’s Internet address. It’s also called Yahoo’s Uniform Resource Locator (or URL, which is pronounced “Earl”).

When typing an Internet address (such as “http://www.yahoo.com/”), make sure you type periods (not commas); type forward slashes (not backslashes).

The address’s first part (“http://”) tells the computer to use HyperText Transfer Protocol, which is the communication method used by the Web. The “www.” emphasizes that you’re using the World Wide Web. The “.com” means the service (Yahoo) is a commercial company.

Instead of typing “http://www.yahoo.com/”, you can be lazy and type just this:

www.yahoo.com

That’s because the computer automatically puts “/” at the address’s end and puts “http://” before any address that doesn’t contain “:” already.

In an Internet address, each period is called a dot, so “www.google.com” is pronounced “dubbilyoo dubbilyoo dubbilyoo dot yahoo dot com” by literate computerists; grunters say just “wuh wuh wuh dot yahoo dot com”.

Notice that the typical address (such as “www.yahoo.com”) begins with “www.” and ends with “.com”.

At the end of your typing, press Enter. (If you typed just “yahoo.com” and forgot to type the “www.”, the computer will automatically do the “www.” for you after a slight delay.)

Here’s another shortcut: you can type just —

yahoo

but afterwards, instead of just pressing the Enter key, do this:

Hold down the Ctrl key; and while you keep holding down the Ctrl key, tap the Enter key.

That “Ctrl with Enter” makes the computer automatically type the “www.” and “.com” for you.

Here’s another shortcut: start typing “yahoo” (by typing “y” then “a” then “h”) but look below where you’re typing; if you see what you want (such as www.yahoo.com) because the computer successfully guessed what you wanted, click the computer’s correct guess.

IE9 and Chrome have another shortcut: start typing “yahoo” (by typing “y” then “a”) but notice that if it’s something you typed previously, the computer will complete the typing for you: if you’re satisfied with the computer’s typing, just press Enter afterwards.

Using any of those methods, you’ll eventually see the beginning of Yahoo’s home page.

Seeing the rest of the page To see the rest of the page, click the scroll-down arrow (the 6 or Ú near the screen’s bottom right corner) or roll the mouse’s wheel (which is between the mouse’s buttons) toward you. To see the page’s beginning again, click the scroll-up arrow (5 or Ù) or roll the mouse’s wheel away from you.

Links

On Yahoo’s home page, you see many topics to choose from.

The screen’s left edge shows these 18 hot topics:

mail, autos, dating, finance, games, health, horoscopes, jobs, Messenger, movies, omg!, real estate, Shine, shopping, sports, travel, updates, weather

The screen’s center shows today’s news. The rest of the screen shows extra topics.

Each topic is called a link (or hot spot). Click whichever link interests you.

You can click anyplace where the mouse’s pointer-arrow turns into a pointing finger. But for your first experiment, I recommend you click an item from today’s news (in the screen’s center), since the news is simpler to handle than the topics at the screen’s edges.

As soon as you click — presto! — the computer shows you a whole new page, devoted entirely to the topic you linked to! Read it and enjoy!

While you’re looking at that new page, you’ll see its address in the address box. On that new page, you’ll see more topics that are links: places where the mouse’s pointer-arrow turns into a pointing finger. (The links are usually underlined or colored or bolded.) Click whichever link interests you, to visit a further page.

Back & forth

After admiring the new page you’re visiting, if you change your mind and want to go back to the previous page you were looking at, click the Back button (which is near the screen’s top-left corner and has a left-arrow on it).

Then you see the previous page. (On that page, any links you clicked might have changed color.)

After clicking the Back button, if you change your mind again and wish you hadn’t clicked the Back button, click the Forward button (which is next to the Back button and has a right-arrow on it).

Back list To hop back several pages, you can click the Back button several times.

To hop back faster, do this:

IE 9 and Firefox 4&5 and Chrome Right-click the Back button (or while pointing at the Back button, hold down the mouse’s left button awhile). You see a list of pages you visited recently. The list is short: at most 9 pages in IE9, 14 pages in Firefox 4&5, 17 pages in Chrome.

IE 7&8 and Firefox 3.6 Click the u next to the Back & Forward buttons. You see a list of pages you visited recently. The list is short: at most 9 pages in IE 7&8, 14 pages in Firefox 3.6.

IE 6 Click the u near the Back button. You see a list of pages you visited recntly. The list is short: at most 9 pages.

Then click the page you want to go back to.

Home (useful just in IE & Firefox) Each time you launch IE or Firefox, the first page you see is called your
start page or home page (because that’s where life starts — at home). If you view other pages (by clicking links) and later change your mind, you can return to viewing the home page by clicking the Back button many times — or click the
Home button once. (The Home button has a picture of a house on it. In IE 9, it’s near the screen’s top-right corner.)

History Here’s how to see a list of pages you visited in the last few weeks.

For IE 7&8&9, do this:

Click the Favorites button (which is a star) then the word “History”. You see the History window.

Decide which date’s history you want to see: click either “Today” or a recent day or “Last Week” or “2 Weeks Ago” or “3 Weeks Ago”. (Click once or twice, until you see that date’s list of sites; then click a site once or twice, until you see that site’s list of pages.) Click whichever page you want to visit.

For IE 6, do this:

Click the History button (which is a clock with a green arrow curving back).

You see the History window. Decide which date’s history you want to see: click either “Today” or a recent day or “Last Week” or “2 Weeks Ago” or “3 Weeks Ago”. (Click once or twice, until you see that date’s list of sites; then click a site once or twice, until you see that site’s list of pages.) Click whichever page you want to visit.

The History window will stay on the screen until you close it (by clicking its X button).

For Firefox 4&5, do this:

Click the orange “Firefox” button (which at the screen’s top-left corner) then “History” (which is in the second column). You see a list of the last 10 pages you visited (including the current page). Either click one of those 10 page names (to visit that page) or click “Show All History”, which gets you more choices, as follows.…

You see the History window. Decide how much history you want to see: for Firefox 4, click “Today” or “Last 7 days”; for Firefox 5, double-click “Today or “This month”. You see a list of 15 pages: scroll down to see the rest of what you asked for. Double-click whichever page you want to visit.

For Firefox 3.6, do this:

Click “History”. You see a list of the last 10 pages you visited (including the current page). Either click one of those 10 page names (to visit that page) or click “Show All History”, which gets you more choices, as follows.…

You see the History window. Decide which date’s history you want to see: click either “Today” or “Yesterday” or “This Month” or an earlier month. (Click once or twice, until you see that date’s list of pages.) The list of pages for that date is in alphabetical order. Double-click whichever page you want to visit.

For Chrome, do this:

Click the wrench (which is near the screen’s top-right corner, just below the X). Then click “History”.

You see a list of all pages you visited in the last few weeks. (To see the whole list, scroll down.)

Click whichever page you want to visit.

Favorites If you’re viewing a wonderful page, here’s how to make the computer remember that the page is one of your favorites and bookmark it.

For IE 8&9, do this:

Click the Favorites button (which is a star) then “Add to Favorites”. Press Enter.

In the future, whenever you want to return to your favorite pages, click the Favorites button (which is a star) then the word “Favorites” that’s left of “Feeds”: you’ll see a list of your favorite pages. Click whichever page you want to visit (or delete a page from the list by doing this: right-click the page name you want to delete, then click “Delete”).

For IE 7, do this:

Click the “Add to Favorites” button (which is a green plus sign in front of a gold star). Press Enter twice.

In the future, whenever you want to return to your favorite pages, click the Favorites button (which is a gold star) then the word “Favorites”: you’ll see a list of your favorite pages. Click whichever page you want to visit (or delete a page from the list by doing this: right-click the page name you want to delete, then click “Delete”, then press “Enter”).

For IE 6, do this:

Click the word “Favorites” that’s next to the word “View”. Click “Add to Favorites”. Press Enter.

In the future, whenever you want to return to your favorite pages, click the word “Favorites” again: you’ll see a list of your favorite pages. Click whichever page you want to visit (or delete a page from the list by doing this: right-click the page name you want to delete, then click “Delete”, then press “Enter”).

For Firefox 4&5, do this:

Click the star that’s in the address box (not the star at the screen’s right edge). The star turns gold.

In the future, whenever you want to return to that page, click the star at the screen’s right edge then “Unsorted Bookmarks”. You see a list of pages you created that way.

Which page do you want to visit? For Firefox 4, click that page; for Firefox 5, double-click that page. (To delete a page from the list, right-click the page name you want to delete, then click “Delete”.)

For Firefox 3.6, do this:

Click “Bookmarks” then “Bookmark This Page”. Press Enter.

In the future, whenever you want to return to your favorite pages, click “Bookmarks” again: you’ll see a list of your favorite pages. Click whichever page you want to visit (or delete a page from the list by doing this: in the list, right-click the page name you want to delete, then click “Delete”).

For Chrome, do this:

Click the star (which is near the screen’s top-right corner). Press Enter.

In the future, whenever you want to return to that page, click the “+” (at the screen’s top): you’ll see a list of your favorite pages. Click whichever page you want to visit (or delete a page from the list by doing this: right-click the page name you want to delete, then click “Delete”).

Search box At the top-right corner of Yahoo’s first page, you see a yellow “Web Search” button. To the left of that button is a white box, called the search box.

Try this experiment: click in the search box, then type a topic that interests you. For example, type:

lincoln

Don’t bother capitalizing: the computer ignores capitalization.

At the end of your typing, press Enter. Yahoo will find about 100 million Web pages mentioning Lincoln. Yahoo will begin by listing the 10 Web pages that Yahoo thinks you’ll find the most useful, plus some ads. (Some of the ads have a pink background. Other ads are at the screen’s right edge.)

For example, if you asked for “lincoln”, Yahoo will list 10 Web pages about President Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln cars (made by Ford), Lincoln University (in Pennsylvania), Lincoln Electric (which makes welding machines), and the town of Lincoln (in Nebraska). To see all 10 of those Web pages, scroll down to the bottom of the page by using your mouse’s wheel or the down-arrow near the screen’s bottom-right corner.

Each Web page’s name is underlined. Click whichever Web page you want — or click “Next” (at the bottom of Yahoo’s page) to see a list of 10 more Web pages about Lincoln.

To be more specific, type more words in the search box. For example, if you’re interested just in Abraham Lincoln, type:

Abraham Lincoln

If you’re interested in just Lincoln cars, type:

Lincoln cars

If you’re interested in just Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin, type:

Abraham Lincoln log cabin

Open something different

To switch to a completely different address, click in the address box again then type the Internet address you wish to visit.

For example, if you wish to visit Google, type this —

http://www.google.com/

or type just this:

www.google.com

At the end of your typing, press Enter. Then type a topic to search for (and press Enter). For example, if you type “lincoln”, Google will find about 120 million Web pages mentioning Lincoln. It will begin by listing 10 pages about Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Memorial, Lincoln cars, Lincoln University, Lincoln Electric, Lincoln Industrial (which makes lubrication equipment), and the city of Lincoln (in Nebraska). The name of each Web page is underlined. Click whichever Web page you want — or click “Next” (at the bottom of Google’s page) to see a list of 10 more Web pages about Lincoln. To be more specific, type more words in the search box, such as “Abraham Lincoln” or “Lincoln cars” or “Abraham Lincoln log cabin”.

Yahoo and Google are called search sites, since their purpose is to help you search for other sites on the Internet. They’re also called Web portals, since their purpose is to serve as a grandiose door through which you pass to launch your journey across the World Wide Web.

Print

While you’re viewing a page, here’s how to print a copy of it onto paper.

IE 9:               while holding down the Ctrl key, tap the P key.

IE 7&8:          click the Print button (showing paper coming from a printer).

Firefox 4&5:   click the orange “Firefox” button then Print then OK.

Firefox 3.6:     click File then Print then OK.

Chrome:         click the wrench then Print then press Enter.

That makes your printer try to print the whole page — even the part of the page that goes below the screen’s bottom edge and doesn’t fit on the screen.

If the Web page is wider than your paper, the computer squeezes the Web page onto your paper by printing a shrunken image of the page. (Exception: IE 6&7 are too stupid to shrink the page, so they print just the page’s left part and doesn’t bother trying to print the page’s rightmost part.)

If the Web page is very wide, make the printer rotate the page 90 degrees, so it fits on the paper. Here’s how. For IE 9, do this:

Click the Tools button (which is a bumpy-circle gear at the screen’s left edge) then Print then Page Setup then Landscape then OK. Then while holding down the Ctrl key, tap the P key.

For IE 7&8, do this:

Click the Print button’s down-arrow then Page Setup then Landscape then OK then the Print button.

For Firefox 4&5, do this:

Click the orange “Firefox” button. Put the mouse pointer on “Print” but don’t click it. Click Page Setup (which appears in the second column) then Landscape then OK. Click the orange “Firefox” button again then Print then OK.

Later, if you want to return to printing normally (without rotation), click the orange “Firefox” button then Page Setup then Portrait then OK.

For Firefox 3.6, do this:

Click File then Page Setup then Landscape then OK. Click File then Print then OK.

Later, if you want to return to printing normally (without rotation), click File then Page Setup then Portrait then OK.

For Chrome, do this:

Click the wrench then Print then Preferences then Finishing then Landscape then OK then Print.

Simultaneous pages

Here’s how to make your computer’s RAM (memory chips) hold two Web pages simultaneously, so you can switch back and forth between those pages fast.

IE 7&8&9 and Firefox and Chrome While you’re viewing a Web page, try one of these activities:

Click a link while holding down the Ctrl key.

While the mouse is pointing at a link, click the mouse’s wheel (instead of the mouse’s left button).

In the address box, type an address and then, while holding down the Alt key, press Enter.

Near the screen’s top, you see two wide tabs: each tab contains a Web page’s name (title). To switch between the two Web pages, click their tabs.

When you get tired of having two tabs, here’s how to have just one tab again:

Decide which tab you don’t want anymore. For Firefox and Chrome, click the X on that tab; for IE, click that tab then the X on it.

That tab disappears, along with its Web page, so you see just the other tab.

IE 6 While you’re viewing a Web page, do this:

Hold down the Ctrl key; and as you keep holding down the Ctrl key, tap the N key (which stands for “new window”).

You’ll see a new window. It looks like the previous window (it shows the same Web page, and it completely covers the first window); but you can tell it’s a new window, because at the screen’s bottom center (to the right of the Start button) you now see two wide buttons about Web-page windows.

Suppose you change what’s on the screen (by clicking a link, or entering a new Web address, or entering something new in a search box). That changes what’s in the visible window; but the other window (which is hidden behind the visible window) remains unchanged. To view the window that’s been hidden, click its wide button at the screen’s bottom.

By clicking those two wide buttons at the screen’s bottom, you can switch back and forth between the two windows.

When you get tired of having two windows, here’s how to have just one window again:

Click the X at the screen’s top right corner. That deletes the visible window, so the RAM contains just the other window, which then appears on the screen.

Exit

When you finish using IE or Firefox or Chrome, close its window (by clicking its X button).

If you’ve been communicating with the Internet using old technology (IE 6, with an ordinary phone line instead of DSL or cable), press Enter.

3 ways to search

Here are the 3 popular ways to search for a topic on the Web.

Search-box method

In a search box, type the topic you’re interested in, and then press Enter. That makes Yahoo (or Google or Bing) use its search engine, which searches on the Internet for pages about that topic.

Google has the best search engine. Here’s how to use Google’s search box. (Yahoo and competitors are similar.)

When you make Google search for a topic, Google typically finds thousands of pages about that topic. Google tries to guess which of those pages are the most relevant; Google begins by trying to show you a list of the most relevant pages (on a white background). That list is interrupted by some ads, which are marked “sponsored links” and have pastel colored backgrounds. The ads relate vaguely to the topic you requested, but you can ignore them. They’re listed first because the advertisers paid for such listing.

What Google ignores Google ignores capitalization, so don’t bother capitalizing. Typing “george washington” has the same effect as typing “George Washington”.

In the search box, type just words separated by spaces. Google ignores commas, periods, question marks, and exclamation points.

Google usually ignores these common words:

a, the

be, is, are, was, will

I, it

of, for, about, in, on

what, when, where, why, how

and, or

Restricting your search The more words you type in the search box, the more restricted the search will be, since Google will show you a Web page just if the page includes all the words you mentioned.

If you type “bush”, Google will list all Web pages that mention “bush”. Google will guess that you’re mainly interested in President George Bush, so it will begin by listing Web pages about George Bush the father, George Bush the son (even a page comparing his photos to a chimpanzee’s), and their families. Google will also mention Web pages about Kate Bush (the singer), other people whose last name is Bush, a discothèque in Belgium called “La Bush”, and eventually any plant called a “bush” and also pubic hair (for which the slang word is “bush”).

If you’re more specific, Google will mention fewer Web pages.

For example, if you’re interested in just Kate Bush the singer, type “Kate Bush” instead of just “Bush”. Then Google will show you info about just Kate Bush.

If you want info about plants that are bushes, type “bush plant”. That gets you mostly Web pages about plants that are bushes but also includes a few jokes about President Bush being a plant and some comments about President Bush’s opinions of nuclear power plants. You can also try “bush shrub” or “bush garden” (which includes info about gardens but also about a Japanese restaurant called “Bush Garden”) or “bush landscaping”.

If you type “bush pubic”, you get Web pages about shaving & combing pubic hair and a feminist protest against George Bush. Go try other combos that get closer to whatever kind of info you want to know about a “bush”.

The more words you type in the search box, the more specific your request is, and the fewer Web pages will match. If you get too few Web pages, try different words instead.

Try variations. If you’re interested in plants that are bushes, and you don’t like what you get when you search for “bush plant”, try searching for “shrub” instead, which will get you a different list: Web pages that mention the word “shrub”.

Google notices your word order. If you say “bush plant”, Google begins by listing Web pages that mention “bush” before “plant”; if you say “plant bush”, Google begins by listing Web pages that mention “plant” before “bush”.

Google searches for just the words you requested. For example, if you search for “airline”, Google will list Web pages that contain the word “airline” but not Web pages that contain the word “airlines” instead. For complete listings, search for “airline” then search again for “airlines”.

If you type quotation marks around a phrase (such as “to be or not to be”), Google shows just Web pages containing that exact phrase.

Which Web pages are important To determine which Web pages to show you first, Google considers how closely each Web page matches what you requested — but also considers how important each Web page seems to be. Google considers a Web page to be important if many other Web pages contain links to that page, and if the Web pages that link to it are themselves important also (by being linked to from other Web pages).

Feeling lucky? After you’ve typed some words into the search box, the usual procedure is to press the Enter key. That has the same effect as clicking “Google Search”: it makes Google show you a list of relevant Web pages. Often, the first Web page in that list is the most relevant. If it is, congratulations: you’re lucky! You found what you’re looking for, fast!

If you think you’re going to be that lucky, try this trick to go even faster: after typing words into the search box, click “I’m Feeling Lucky” (instead of pressing Enter). Google will take you immediately to the first Web page on the list, without having you wait for the whole list to be generated and having it wait for you to choose from the list.

Phone book In the search box, if you type a phone number (such as “603-666-6644”), Google will look through phonebook white pages and tell you who has that phone number (if the number is listed).

If instead you type a name (of a person or business) with a city and state (such as “Russ Walter Manchester NH”), Google will look through the phonebook white pages and tell you the phone number (if the number is listed), street address, and ZIP code. When you type a person’s name, you must type at least the last name; do not type a middle name; type the first name or first initial if you know how it’s listed in the phonebook white pages. Instead of typing a city and state, you can type a ZIP code if you know it.

Maps In the search box, if you type an address (such as “196 Tiffany Lane Manchester NH”), Google will show you a map of that address.

Pictures To search for a picture (instead of words), do this:

Click “Images”. In the search box, type what topic you want the picture to be about. Press Enter.

You’ll see tiny pictures about your topic. Click whichever picture you like. You’ll see it enlarged.

Click “Back” to return to Google. Google will assume you want all future searches to be about pictures, until you click “Web” instead of “Images” (or until you stop using Google).

Single site If you want Google to search through just one Web site, say so. For example, if you want to search for info about Windows Vista just on Microsoft’s Web site (which is microsoft.com), say “Windows Vista site:microsoft.com”.

Who links to you? To find all Web pages that link to your favorite Web page, type “link:” then your Web page’s address, like this: “link:secretfun.com”.

Censorship Google can censor the list of Web pages and pictures, so you don’t see pornography.

To change how Google censors what you see, click “Preferences” (which is to the right of the search box) then choose complete censorship or no censorship or partial censorship (which censors pictures but not words), by clicking the appropriate circle under “SafeSearch Filtering”. (If you’ve never expressed a preference, Google assumes you want partial censorship.) To confirm your choice, click the Save Preferences button (which is near the screen’s top right corner), then press Enter.

Translation Google can translate English to & from 5 European languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and German). It can also translate French to & from Spanish & Portuguese.

For example, if you’ve been using English but Google finds a Web page in one of those 5 European languages, Google will translate the Web page to English if you do this: instead of clicking the Web page’s name (in the list of Web pages), click the “Translate this page” nearby. Then Google will show you the Web page rewritten into English by Google’s robots (which are computers). Google’s robots make many translation mistakes but give you at least a rough idea of what the Web page is trying to say.

For further fun, try this:

Click “Language Tools” (which is next to the search box), then click in “Translate text” box. Type some sentences in English or one of those 5 European languages. Click the down-arrow below that box. You see 14 choices of what languages to translate to and from (if you scroll to see the whole list): click the choice you want. Google’s robots will translate what you wrote and put the answer in the top box.

Cached pages When Google shows you a list of Web pages about your topic, that list is based on info that Google collected several months ago about the Internet. The list might no longer be correct. When you click on one of the Web pages in the list, the Internet might give you an error message saying the page no longer exists, or the Internet might give you a page different from what you were expecting.

Fear not! Though the original Web page might have disappeared from the Internet, Google’s kept a copy of that original Web page in Google’s cache. To see the original, go back to Google’s list of Web pages; but instead of clicking the Web page’s name, click the word “Cached” that’s below the page’s name and description. Then you’ll see the same original page that Google saw.

Experiment The Internet is huge. For a typical topic, Google will find thousands of pages about it. For the most popular topics, Google will find millions of pages.

If you try to fool Google by typing a short fake word (such as a nonsense syllable), you’ll be surprised: Google will typically inform you that the word was already invented by others and will show you several pages about it (because it turns out to be the name of a rock band, or an organization’s initials, or a word in a foreign language, or a word invented by a novelist to describe a splat-like sound). If you try to fool Google by typing several seemingly unrelated words or names (separated by spaces), Google will typically find a Web page containing them all (because the Web page is from a crazy novel or reading list or alumni list or dictionary).

Other search engines Here’s a list of popular search engines:

Google.com

Yahoo.com

Bing.com

Ask.com

MSN.com

AltaVista.com

AOL.com

Try them! Each gives slightly different results.

A metasearch site called InfoSpace.com runs 3 search engines simultaneously (Google.com, Yahoo.com, and Bing.com) and combines their results into a single list.

Search yippy The most advanced metasearch site was Clusty.com. It was invented by 3 scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 2010, it was sold to Yippy, which renamed it search.yippy.com. It shows you the combined list of results (based mainly on Bing.com and Yahoo.com) but also a list of clusters (categories that the results fit in).

For example, if you search for “Obama”, the screen’s left edge shows this list of clusters (which are also called “clouds”) to choose from:

+ Re-election

+ Budget

+ Photos

+ Issues, Social

+ Articles

+ Sharpton

+ Barackobama

+ Michelle Obama

+ Answers

+ Policies, Candidates

Below that list, you see “all clouds”; if you click that, you see an even longer list of clusters (clouds).

If you click the “+” that’s left of a cluster, you see a list of subclusters. When you find a subcluster you like, click it to see a list of Web pages about that subcluster.

Even if you search for a topic that’s not nearly as famous as “Obama”, search.yippy.com analyzes the results and invents clusters to organize them. For example, try doing a search on your own name (or the name of your organization, street, town, or favorite topic), and see how search.yippy.com invents clusters for your results. Amazing!

Subject-tree method

Go to www.dmoz.org. At that Website, called the
Open Directory Project, you see this list of broad topics:

arts, business, computers, games, health, home, kids & teens, new, recreation, reference, regional, science, shopping, society, sports

That list is called the subject tree of knowledge (because it’s as tempting as the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden). Click whichever topic interests you (or click “World”, which lets you read the site in 88 foreign languages instead of English.) Then you see a list of that topic’s branches (subtopics). Click whatever subtopic interests you. Then you see a list of subsubtopics (twigs). Click whichever subsubtopic interests you. Keep clicking until you finally zero in on the very specific topic that interests you the most: it’s the fruit of your search!

That site was created by 75,000 volunteers. It organizes 4 million of the Web’s best sites.

Address-box method

Give your friends a sheet of paper and ask them to jot down the addresses of their favorite Web pages. (Or get lists of nifty Web addresses by reading computer books, magazines, newspaper articles, or ads.)

For example, here’s a list of excellent Web sites:

Topic                    Best Web site

news                      yahoo.com

weather                  weather.com

phone numbers      411.com

maps                      maps.google.com

driving directions   MapQuest.com/directions

encyclopedia          wikipedia.org

health                     InteliHealth.com

debunk rumors      snopes.com

classified ads         CraigsList.org

short movies          YouTube.com

(A more detailed list of Web sites begins on the next page.)

Type one of those addresses in the address box, then press Enter.

To understand how addresses work, consider the best driving-directions Web site, whose full address is:

http://www.MapQuest.com/directions/

The address’s first part (“http://”) is called the protocol.

The address’s next part (“www.MapQuest.com”) is called the domain name; it tells you which computer on the Internet contains the info. The typical domain name begins with “www.”, then has the name of a company (such as “MapQuest”). The domain name’s ending (called the top-level domain) is typically “.com”, which means “USA commercial company”. Some addresses have different top-level domains:

Top-level

domain   Meaning

.com         USA commercial company

.org          USA organization (typically non-profit)

.gov         USA government (typically federal)

.mil           USA military

.edu         USA educational institution

.net          USA network resource (typically ISP)

.us            USA other (typically local government)

.ar            Argentina

.au            Australia

.br            Brazil

.ca            Canada

.ch            Confoederacio Helvetica (Switzerland)

.cn            China

.es            España (Spain)

.fi             Finland

.fr             France

.de           Deutschland (Germany)

.dk           Denmark

.hk            Hong Kong

.ie             Ireland

.il                 Israel

.in             India

.it             Italy

.jp            Japan

.kr            Korea (South)

.mx           Mexico

.nl             Netherlands (Holland)

.no           Norway

.nz            New Zealand

.ph           Philippines

.ru            Russia

.se            Sweden

.tv            Tuvalu (South Pacific islands)

.tw            Taiwan

.uk            United Kingdom (Britain & N. Ireland)

Recently, these new top-level domains were invented: .info, .name, .biz (for business), and .ws (for website).

The rest of the address (such as “/directions/”) is called the page name; it tells which file on the computer contains the page you requested.

Type each address carefully:

While typing an address, never put a space in the middle.

Watch your punctuation. The typical address will contain a dot (.) and a slash (/). An address can also contain a hyphen (-) or squiggle (~). Addresses never contain commas, backslashes, or apostrophes.

For the typical address, type small letters (uncapitalized), since capitalized page names are rare. (The computer doesn’t care whether you capitalize the protocol and domain name.)

Best sites

To enrich your life, go to the best Websites. Here they are.…

Links

SecretFun.com is my own site. It contains info about The Secret Guide to Computers and my other book (Tricky Living). By clicking the links in the first pink box, you and your friends can read parts of The Secret Guide to Computers and Tricky Living, free, and you can also jump to the other sites recommended in this chapter.

General searches

Google.com finds the most topics on the Internet. If you type some words, then press Enter, you’ll see a list of the main Web sites containing those words.

News

For news headlines and the stories behind them, go to Yahoo.com. At the screen’s center, near the bottom, you see this menu bar:

News                              World                       Local                        Finance

Click “News” for today’s top articles, “World” for more articles about other countries, “Local” for articles about your region (after you tell Yahoo your ZIP code or city-and-state, or you click the down-arrow under “Local”), “Finance” for articles about the stock market, banks, and economy. You see headlines (after you scroll down); click a headline to see its story. Below each list of headlines, click “More” (or the words after it) to see a longer list of headlines. Instead of going to Yahoo.com and then clicking “More”, you can use this shortcut: go to Yahoo News (news.yahoo.com), which divides the news into these categories:

top stories, most popular, local news, world, U.S. news, politics, business, science, technology, health, entertainment, travel, sports, odd news, opinion

For details about today’s stock market, go to Yahoo.com then click “Finance” (which is at the screen’s left edge) or use this shortcut: go to Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com). Then, at the screen’s left edge, click “Dow” or “Nasdaq” or “S&P 500” or “10 Yr Bond” or “Oil” or “Gold” to see a chart of how those indices changed in the last 24 hours.

For a bigger collection of news stories, try Google News (news.google.com), which uses a computer (rather than humans) to decide which of the moment’s news stories are the hottest. It shows you thousands of news stories, categorized and prioritized. The main categories are:

top stories, world, U.S., business, sci/tech, entertainment, sports, health, spotlight

Weather

To find out the weather, go to Weather.com (which is produced by The Weather Channel). Click in the box that says “Enter Zip, City, or Place” (which is at the screen’s left edge).

Which place on earth do you want a weather report for? Type the ZIP code (or city-and-state or city-and-country or airport-and-state or landmark-and-state), then press Enter.

You see the current weather and the forecast for the next 36 hours (after you scroll down).

To customize your forecast, click one of these words on the menu bar:

Overview  Hourly  Tomorrow  Weekend  5-Day  10-Day  Month  Map

You see a customized forecast.

To see more details, click whichever choice you see and prefer: “EXPAND WEATHER DETAILS” or “Details” or “Text” or “Video”.

Time

Here’s how to find the exact time.

For time in the U.S., do this:

Go to Time.gov, which is run by the U.S. government. You see a map of the U.S., showing the time zones. On the map, click the place whose time you want.

For time in other countries, do this:

Go to TimeAndDate.com. Click in the “Search for city” box (near the screen’s left edge). Start typing the name of the city whose time you want. Below your typing, you see a list of cities that match what you’ve typed so far. (For example, if you type “Mos”, the list will include “Moscow, Russia” and “Moss, Norway” and “Mossoró, Brazil” and “Mosul, Iraq”.) Click the city you want.

After a brief pause, you’ll see a digital clock. The clock tells you the exact time, to the nearest second, and updates itself every second. When you get tired of looking at the clock, go to a different Website instead.