A Web browser is a program for accessing and displaying Web pages. The two most popular Web browsers are Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Communicator, both of which are free. While either browser will work fine for viewing most pages, there are some subtle differences that may affect the display of some pages, especially with respect to newer features of the Web. For this class, Internet Explorer is assumed since it is more widely available and somewhat more stable, but you may choose to use Communicator if you wish.
Starting the browser:
- Click on the browser icon on the desktop. If the icon does not appear on your screen, you can start the browser by clicking on the Start button at the bottom-left of the screen, selecting Programs from the Start menu, and then selecting the desired browser from the Programs menu.)
Note: when you start the browser, the home page for that computer is automatically loaded. For computers on campus, the home page is most likely the Creighton University page. For your own personal computer, you can change the home page by selecting Internet Options from the Tools menu in IE (or Preferences from the Edit menu in Communicator).Opening a Web Page
- In the Address box, type the Web address (also known as its Uniform Resource Locator or URL) for the desired page. The Web address for this course is www.creighton.edu/~csc107
Note: you must be very careful when entering a Web address since any typo will most likely cause the browser to fail in locating the page.Opening a Local Web Page
- To open a Web page that is stored on your local computer, select Open from the File menu.
- In the box that appears, click on Browse to search for and select the appropriate file.
- Once the file has been selected, click Open to open that file in the browser.
Note: when you open a local Web page, the file name is preceded with file:// in the Address box of the browser. This distinguishes the local page from pages loaded over the Web, whose addresses are preceded with http://.Viewing the Source of a Web Page
- Load the desired page in the browser (see above).
- Select Source from the View menu to display the HTML source for that page.
Downloading/Saving a Web Page
- Load the desired page in the browser (see above).
- Select Save As from the File menu.
- Enter the file name under which the file is to be saved. If you want the file stored in a location other than the default folder, click on the Save In box and the appropriate folder icons to select the desired location (e.g., the A: drive).
- Click the Save button.
Since a Web page is nothing more than a text file that contains special HTML tags, you can use any text editor you choose (even advanced word processors such as Word or WordPerfect). In the G411 computer lab, a simple text editor named MEdit (by Imran Hussain, www.indus-soft.com) is installed on all machines for your use. This free editor is similar to the NotePad editor that comes on all Windows machines, but has some additional features that will prove useful. Most importantly, the editor uses different colors for HTML and JavaScript elements, making it easier to identify fix errors when they occur. In addition, it contains a visual listing of files, making it easier to load and save files. It is recommended that you use this editor while in the lab, and you may freely dowload a copy for use on your own computer (from www.indus-soft.com/download.htm).
If you prefer, you may certainly use the NotePad editor or any other text editor that you are familiar with. Be sure that your editor is set to save files in plain text format.
Starting the Editor:
- To start eh editor, double Click on the "MEdit Text Editor" icon that appears on the desktop desktop.
- Alternatively, you can open any desired editor by clicking on the Start button at the bottom-left corner of the Windows screen, then selecting the desired editor from the Programs menu.
Creating a New File:
- Select New from the File menu.
- You will then be prompted to select the type of file you are creating. Select "HTML" from the list of options, so that the editor will recognize and color HTML elements as you type them.
- Click the Select button.
- An Untitled document should then appear in the editor, and you can start typing in that document.
Opening an Existing File:
- Select Open from the File menu.
- Browse to select the desired file.
- Click the OK button.
Note: Using MEdit, you can also select the desired file by first specifying the desired Drive in the box (e.g., a:\) and then clicking on the desired file from the listing.Saving a File:
- Select Save from the File menu.
- If this is a new file, you will be prompted for a file name. Enter the name in the File Name box. If you want the file stored in a location other than the default folder, click on the Save In box and the appropriate folder icons to select the desired location (e.g., the a:\ drive).
- Click OK.
Copying a File:
- Select Save As from the File menu.
- Enter the new file namein the File Name box and select the appropriate folder location.
- Click OK.
In order to make a Web page accessible to the world, it must be stored on a computer running special Web server software. For this course, this requires two steps, (1) uploading the file to the public_html directory of your bluejay account, and (2) setting the appropriate protection on the file so that Web broswers from outside of Creighton can view the page.
Transferring files to Bluejay
The procedure for uploading files to the server is different depending on the browser you are using. Separate instructions are provided below.
Using Internet Explorer:
- Enter ftp://yourUserName@bluejay.creighton.edu/public_html in the Address box of the browser window, where yourUserName is your user name on Bluejay.
- Enter your Bluejay password at the prompt.
- A list of all your Web pages on Bluejay will appear in the browser.
- Drag the desired files onto the browser window by clicking on the file and holding the mouse button while you move the mouse to the browser window. Alternatively, you can cut-and-paste the desired files onto the browser window.
Using Netscape Communicator:
- Enter ftp://yourUserName@bluejay.creighton.edu in the Address box of the browser window, where yourUserName is your user name on Bluejay.
- Enter your Bluejay password at the prompt.
- Click on the link labeled public_html.
- A list of all your Web pages on Bluejay will appear in the browser.
- Drag the desired files onto the browser window by clicking on the file and holding the mouse button while you move the mouse to the browser window.
Making BlueJay Web Pages Accessible
- Enter telnet://bluejay.creighton.edu in the Address box of the browser window.
- A separate telnet window will appear and you will be prompted for your user name and password.
- At the resulting $ prompt, enter the command webready. This command will set the appropriate protection modes for all of your files to make them accessible over the Web.
- Log out by entering the command exit at the $ prompt.
- A window will appear informing you that the connection to bluejay has been terminated. Click OK.
- Close the telnet window by clicking on the X at the top-right corner of the window.