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 How To Log Onto A
Website
How To Use A Search Engine
'SURFING THE NET'
If you are already an experienced 'surfer' you will probably
want to skip this page and zoom to the next section via a handy
hyperlink...however...if you know someone who expresses an inability to
get to grips with this computer age (the editors used to profess to being technophobes
but seem to be graduating to amateur nerd status with startling rapidity), you may like to let them see this page
(and the
Laptop Literacy page, too)- log onto it for them or print this text out for
them to read.
Right. Now the Technocrats have gone, and we're on our own, we can reveal
our ignorance, fear, even blind panic at the prospect of being expected to grasp
a subject which sounds so huge!
Don't worry, we're going in together! We've been in already and it's not as bad
in there as you'd think. In fact, it's rather exciting.
All this stuff is pretty new to most of us in the seafaring world, even those
who have been using computerised equipment aboard for quite some time, which
doesn't really relate to surfing the web much. As we blunder along, learning by our copious
mistakes, we thought we might pass on what little aptitude we have gleaned. It's a bit like the sightless being led by the visually
impaired.
They say five year olds can assimilate this stuff in the twinkling of an eye. It's probably
true. Actually, the practical use of the laptop or PC is quite easy to get to grips
with.
Trust us! Some, (much cleverer people than we are,) could even tell you what makes it all possible and such fascinating
facts. In fact, we rather hope that someone will volunteer to do just that,
for our Laptop Literacy page one day, and all in words of one syllable...
Meanwhile, come lurching into the 21st century, with us recently converted technophobes and let's see if we can't catch up with those
five-year-olds, or at least stay in visual contact.
Assuming that you are using a computer which is connected to the
Internet (unless you are reading this from a CD or on a computer it was saved to
earlier, you are connected now) there are three main ways to find any website:
1) By finding out and deliberately typing in the address of a
site you wish to visit (see below).
2) By using a search engine (see below) to discover where sites you may be
interested in are lurking and clicking on one of the 'hyperlinks' (don't worry,
the translation is coming) it offers.
3) By clicking on an 'external hyperlink' (an underlined word, phrase or picture
which has been set up to whisk you to another website) which you find on a site
you are already visiting - you will often see hyperlinks in e-mails from those
who wish you to see information on a site too- and waiting while the website is
located and displayed.
This magazine, for example, has about ten thousand (no exaggeration) 'internal hyperlinks'
to get you around, from page to page; section to section and back to the
contents pages. It also has a number of links to other people's websites, or
'external hyperlinks'. It's all quite simple once someone pauses to translate
the techno-babble, don't you think?!
How to log on to a website for which you
have the address :
You may be wondering why we think it necessary to include this article... it is
because a lot of the sailors we know have learned to click on underlined
hyperlinks in e-mails but never ventured to try and locate a website via the
Address slot - using the pre-set link to their e-mail server at the local
Internet office. We've asked a few people what stops them browsing the net to
find the answers to questions they have just asked us. "Oh!" they
tend to reply, "I wouldn't have the faintest idea where to begin".
Starting from wherever you are, with the
screen showing any address in the address slot, or blank:
Highlight anything which may be in the Address slot on the screen at the time
(usually,
but not always, found near the top of the computer, above the useable area of
the screen), which is done by rolling the 'mouse' arrow onto the slot, and left clicking once.
You can type onto the highlighted area and your typing will automatically
replace what was there before. Alternatively, if you find it distracting to see
the old typing there, press the return key (on most computers it is somewhere on the right towards the rear of the keyboard and is marked with an arrow pointing left
(towards the rest of the keys, dear...) and/or the word 'Backspace',
Bk Sp perhaps, or delete and the highlighted words will disappear.
Now enter your website address, or URL as it is also known, short for
Uniform Resource Locator ( don't you just love these scientific-sounding names
they've given everything?!).
The full address of most 'domains' , as websites are called, (be warned, before you are tempted to click on
the underlined phrase coming up that, if you do, you may be whisked away from
this paragraph to who-knows-where and beyond reach of our assistance, in spite
of the efforts we will have made to prevent it...be it on your own head...)
is:
http:// www. whatever.com. It may suffice to put in
http:// whatever.com or www.
whatever.com.
Putting all of it in is belt and braces but that's O.K.
Once you have carefully put the correct address in the slot, without adding, changing or omitting
anything, which includes spaces, before the address, along its length or
anything other than a space directly after it, the easiest way to proceed,
especially if you are still having trouble getting used to double-clicking, is to press the Enter
key.
This is often the largest key of all, is almost always on the right hand side of the keyboard and usually has an
angled, left-facing arrow on it and/or the word 'Enter'.
Some computers are set up to start searching for the site the moment the address
is completed and you need do nothing. The panel at the bottom of the browser
window gives you indications of what, if anything, is happening.
[Incidentally (if you have not already discovered the fact), the addresses above
would not take you to any website of that name, if there is one, I typed spaces
into each one and turned them into internal hyperlinks, just in case you
couldn't resist the temptation! Glad you're back if you did go there...]
Once you have pressed Enter, or clicked on Go, or whatever, an hourglass or other substitute symbol will
appear, to let you know that the little donkey inside your computer has started walking slowly round and round and will shortly have got the machine sufficiently revved up to accept a visit
to the website of your choice. Did I say that? Now, where was I? Oh yes, the hourglass is there to remind you of your diet and keep you amused while the World Wide Web is being searched for the
'domain' you seek. Yes, that's what they call them! You are currently in our
'domain'! The Internet is definitely the place for the poor but power-mad to
build their empires, rubbing shoulders with the rest of the occupants of this
unlimited virtual real-estate without disturbing the neighbours with their
extremes of style.
You may find the domain you have chosen comes up extremely fast. On the other
hand, you may find you have time to fetch the week's groceries, have a pedicure and attend to various other
non-urgent matters before success is yours. It is
not impossible that a message will appear on the screen which lets you know that you may wait forever but that domain is not about to let you anywhere near
it...we
have occasionally waited quite some time, only to find that the 'home page' is
all there is, and that doesn't contain any relevant information either, just a
large photograph and a few links which go nowhere. Patience, friends, like any
other new field, the Web will take time to become as productive as one already
exploited over a long period. Already there is enough good stuff to make the
occasional glitches tolerable.
Once the website is on the screen, there are a couple of
interesting little things you may, or may not have noticed before but that can
be very useful.
If you 'wander' across the surface of the page on your screen, with the mouse, ( no,
madam, please! Not physically on the glass!
We meant the cursor) you may see a brief explanation
pop up of what can be expected if you left click on that 'link' word or
graphic, (or double click, if so stated), often in a little comic-style
'balloon', known as a 'tool tip'.
Alternatively, if you cast a glance down towards the bottom of the
screen, you may well notice that a sort of running commentary is taking place, on a slightly recessed area of the
left hand side of the lower frame of the 'window' you are currently viewing. This can be very
useful.
In fact, you may well find, if you are feeling frustrated in your efforts to glean an e-mail address from a
website, that the errant address will appear, down on that slot, when you pass the mouse slowly
(without clicking it) onto the words 'contact us' or 'click here to e-mail us', so that you are not obliged to write a hasty message when what you really wanted was to get their e-mail address and compose a letter at your
leisure.
Not many people know that.
Well they do now, of course, but it's silly of businesses not to state their e-mail addresses clearly on their websites anyway and then take the trouble to answer any
e-mails they receive, but that's a topic for another day...
In
the centre of that lower panel you will also notice a line of colour (blue,
usually) gradually creeping from left to right in another recessed panel. That
is an indicator of how much more the computer has to do before you are into the
website you have chosen. If it's all taking too long and you cannot afford the
time, the Esc button or Stop icon on the panel at the top of the screen (red and round with a white cross in the
centre) will get you out of it, or just close the browser window by clicking on
the X in the top right hand corner.
There are two sorts of search engine of which we are
aware: the
kind we have in this magazine (which allows you to search only within the
website you are on), called an 'internal search engine' and the other sort,
which scans or searches the WorldWideWeb, tells you how many sites there are
which carry words you have typed in and offers you a number of
descriptions of, and links to, the seemingly most pertinent. Either type of search engine is only as useful as you help it to be by
considering carefully what you will type into the slot provided.
You will soon see how
your input dictates the search engine's output. When you come to use one of the
Web search engines, you will find this experience very useful in avoiding the
receipt of tons of information you didn't actually want... if you can't wait
until the next issue to try one, have a go at Mamma - 'the Mother of All Search
Engines' as it is called. Just use the address slot in the usual way (as
described earlier on this page) for reaching any other website and put in the
address or click on the link if you can't wait... www.mamma.com
and then type in whatever you hope to find websites
about.
There are many good search engines on the Internet and we have picked one
from the middle of the alphabet to be as impartial as possible. Perhaps you'll
be able to recommend ones you have found when you write in to tell us how it's
going in hyperspace...we'd love to hear. Any tips for the uninitiated?
In the next issue we'll get acquainted with various
of the purpose-built 'search engine' sites, which work
rather like our own but on a global scale and, if you'd like to help we'd be
glad to hear all about your favourites. You'll have had time to discover some by
then if you haven't already.
In the meantime, if you have found sites, of any description, that you think other readers might find
interesting, why not send us an e-mail about them? We'll put them on an Internet
addresses page
in the next issue. As you may have discovered, it can take time to trawl through all
the options a search engine offers up. Knowing the address of a useful site can
save a lot of valuable time for other activities. If you want to know about
sites on a particular topic that other readers have already found, you can
list the topics that interest you in an an e-mail to us, if you like and we'll
put the topics on this page so that other readers who know some good addresses
will know that someone would like to share them. Perhaps they will e-mail us to
pass them on, via the address page.
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