Activity Three
Using Netscape Navigator Bookmarks
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You can keep track of internesting sites you find on the Web by
using Netscape Navigator's bookmarks. Bookmarks are managed within Navigator
as a series of Internet addresses and folders with descriptors you provide. Folders
allow you to organize your bookmarks. By using bookmarks, you will be easily able to find
those essential and fun Websites when you want them.
This activity describes how to add Navigator bookmarks, how to return to them
once you have created them, how to edit them, how to create and use folders, and how to remove
bookmarks.
Goals
In developing our modules and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based modules or activities have a computer (PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or dial-up software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but perhaps Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a module or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.
Netscape Navigator is a useful program for browsing or surfing the Web. One problem with surfing, though, is trying to keep track of all the great sites you visit so you can return to them. Navigator supports bookmarks, which are simply Internet addresses you want to keep handy (kind of like addresses in an address book) so you can return to those sites whenever you want. The Navigator bookmark feature allows you to create folders, into which you can place your bookmarks, so you can organize bookmarks by categories. To learn more about bookmarks, visit any of the Websites in the Internet Resources section below.
If you've spent any time surfing the Web, you have probably found sites that you didn't have time to fully visit or places you know you want to return to. Even if you spend all your waking hours surfing the Web, eventually you will want to exit from Navigator without loosing track of the sites you want to return to. To address this need, Navigator includes bookmarks and folders so you can store the addresses of the Websites you've visited for another session.
Netscape Navigator also keeps a history of all the Websites you have visited (under the Go menu) so you can easily navigate back and forth during a session. For those occasions when you want to return to a Website, you can create a bookmark (which stores the address of the site in a file managed by Navigator) and return to that site by simply selecting the bookmark and going to it.
Creating bookmarks is easy! When you are in Netscape Navigator and you find a site you want to mark, use the Add Bookmark option from the Bookmarks menu. This will create an entry in your bookmarks file with the URL (uniform resource locator) of the site and the title of the page as the descriptor. To return to that site, click on the Bookmarks menu and you should see a list of all your bookmarks and folders. This list is only displays the first 25 bookmarks (or so) and if you have more than you can use the down-arrow or more bookmarks button to review them.
You can also use the Bookmarks window under the Window in Netscape 2.0 menu to add, edit, go to, and remove bookmarks. Clicking on this option opens a window with your folders and bookmarks displayed. Use the Item menu to add or edit bookmarks and folders.
Once you have created bookmarks, navigating to them is simple. There are two ways to have Navigator go to a bookmark: (1) use the Bookmarks menu, find the location you want to visit, and go to it by double-clicking on that entry; (2) use the Bookmarks window, select the bookmark by clicking on it, and then use the Go to bookmark option from the Item menu.
You may have occasion to move from one computer with Netscape Navigator to another, in which case you will probably want to take your bookmarks with you so you can use them on the other computer. Use the Save Bookmark File As... option on the File menu within the Bookmarks window to create a file that contains your bookmarks. This file can be saved onto a floppy diskette and imported into Netscape Navigator on any other computer using the Import bookmarks... option on the File menu under the Bookmarks window. Make sure you save the bookmarks already on the machine to a file before using this option as it will overlay the existing bookmarks with yours.
If you need to delete a folder or bookmark, use the Bookmarks window, then click on the folder or bookmark you want to remove to highlight it. Use the Delete Bookmark option from the Edit menu. This will remove the bookmark or folder from your list.
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