The World Wide Web is a linked universe, and it's easy to learn
the basics of moving around in it. It is (within limits) orderly and
organized, but there is no single central structure or rule that governs
it. Here are the essentials of structure and navigation:
- HOME is where you start, and most browsers permit an easy return to HOME.
Netscape has a HOME button, and in lynx the Backspace or Delete key will
display a history of previous links
- Each WWW document has a URL, a Universal Resource Locator,
which has all the information a browser needs to locate and retrieve it.
This document's URL is
http://liberty.uc.wlu.edu/~hblackme/workshop/basics.html
- http:// says 'use the HyperText Transfer Protocol'
- liberty.uc.wlu.edu identifies the machine on which the file
resides
- ~hblackme indicates that the file is in my directory space
- workshop is the subdirectory of my public_html directory in
which the file resides
- basics.html is the name of the file
- You use links (which are highlighted, underlined, or have a
different color from the rest of the text) to move from one document (or
location or site) to another
- you can "go back" to a previous link using the <=BACK
button in Netscape or the left arrow key in lynx
- you can see a list of the links you've followed using the GO
menu on the Netscape menu bar. In lynx the Backspace or Delete key does
the same thing
- You can record links you think you'll want to revisit using
the Bookmarks menu on the Netscape Menubar, or by hitting the
a key in lynx (a to add, and v to view
your list of bookmarks)
- You can e-mail documents using
- the File menu in Netscape if
the mail server has been set up
- the p key in lynx (which gives the choices of e-mail or
save-to-file)
- You can see the URL of a document
- in the Location: box in
Netscape
- by hitting = in lynx
- You can see the HTML code of a document
- by using the View menu in Netscape (choose 'Source')
- by
hitting \ in lynx