Information and Communication using Mozilla 1.4 and Ximian Evolution 1.4
Copyright © 2004 ICDL Foundation
2004
Table of Contents
- 1. The Internet
- 2. Web navigation
- 3. Web Searching
- Using a Search Engine
- Select a specific search engine
- Carry out a search for specific information using a keyword, phrase
- Combine selection criteria in a search
- Duplicate text, image, URL from a Web page to a document
- Save a Web page to a location on a drive as a txt file, html file
- Download text file, image file, sound file, video file, software, from a Web page to a location on a drive
- Preparation
- Printing
- 4. Electronic Mail
- Concepts/Terms
- Understand the advantages of e-mail systems such as: speed of delivery, low cost, flexibility of using a Web-based e-mail account in different locations
- Understand the importance of network etiquette (netiquette) such as: using accurate descriptions in e-mail message subject fields, brevityin e-mail responses, spell checking outgoing e-mail
- Security Considerations
- First Steps with E-mail
- Adjust Settings
- 5. Messaging
- Read a Message
- Reply to a Message
- Send a Message
- Create a new message
- Insert a mail address in the ‘To’ field
- Copy (Cc), blind copy (Bcc) a message to another address/addresses
- Insert a title in the ‘Subject’ field
- Use a spell-checking tool if available and make changes such as: correcting spelling errors, deleting repeated words
- Attach a file to a message
- Send a message with high, low priority
- Send a message using a distribution list
- Forward a message
- Duplicate, Move, Delete
- 6. Mail Management
Abstract
Understand and distinguish between the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW).
The Internet consists of all computers and networks across the world which are able to communicate with each other using telephone, fibre optic, microwave, radio, satellite or any other type of link. The Internet includes private, commercial, government and military computer systems. The main links which join continents, countries and major cities are collectively called the Internet Backbone.
Computers on the Internet use specific rules, called protocols, that define the procedures for communication. The protocol that controls communication across the Internet is called TCP/IP or Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol.
The World Wide Web or WWW is part of the Internet. This consists of servers that store web pages which can be read by browsers such as Mozilla, Netscape, Opera or Internet Explorer. Web pages in turn have a specific format known as HTML or Hypertext Markup Language. A browser is an application that is able to read (but not create) web pages.
- HTTP
As was mentioned in the previous section, a protocol is a rule for communication. Communication takes places at several levels. TCP/IP is the protocol that controls the flow of communication. Any specific type of communication that takes place needs additional rules that define how it will take place.
When HTML pages are transmitted across the Internet, the procedures are defined by another protocol called HTTP or HyperText Transfer Protocol.
- FTP
One of the features of the Internet is the ability to download files from sites. Downloading files requires another protocol called FTP or File Transfer Protocol.
- URL
Each website has a unique address called its URL or Uniform Resource Locator. The is also sometimes referred to as a web address. The structure of URLs will be discussed in the next section. To access a website, you would type its URL into the browser search window and press Enter or click the Search button.
- Hyperlink
Hyperlinks are links attached to text and icons in web pages and documents that enable you to jump directly to another site without having to type its URL into the search window. By convention, text which has a hyperlink associated with it is shown in a blue underlined font. To use a hyperlink, simply click on the text or icon in the web page. The browser is able to interpret the hyperlink and locate and display the site automatically.
To access the Internet, you need certain things:
A computer
A telephone line
A modem
Browser software on your computer
An account with an ISP.
To access the Internet Backbone, you need to have a link to an organisation that does. Special types of businesses have arisen whose purpose is to provide links for individuals and small organisations to the Internet. These companies are called Internet Service Providers or ISPs. In exchange for a fee, they will provide you with a link between your computer and the Internet backbone. ISPs vary in price and quality. Quality in this sense refers to how easy it will be for you to establish a connection and, once connected, how fast that connection will be.
A web address consists of a number of components separated by periods (full stops). Examples include: www.amazon.com, www.yahoo.co.uk, www.absa.co.za, www.icdlafrica.org, mail.sybaweb.co.za
The first part is the name of the server and the final part is called the top level domain zone. Some top level zones such as .com, .net and .org are international zones as they do not relate to any country in particular. Sometimes the top level domain zone corresponds to a country. Some examples are: .uk (United Kingdom), .za (South Africa), .ke (Kenya), .au (Australia), .ca (Canada) and .fr (France). Most organisations in the United States use the international top level zones .com, .org, .net. There are also some newer ones available such as .biz and .info.
Most countries allocated the next level to specific organisations. For example, in South Africa we have .co.za (Commercial organisations), .org.za (Not-for profit organisations), .ac.za (Academic and research institutions) and .gov.za (Government departments).
The part of the name following the server name is known as the domain name. Thus in www.amazon.com, the server www is attached to the domain .amazon.com. Just as many people have the same name, so do many servers. In fact, most servers on the Internet are called www. However, each combination of server and domain must be unique.
When you type a URL into a browser search window, the browser actually adds another part http:// to indicate that it will use the http protocol. The full entry will look like the following:
http://www.amazon.com
It is also possible to access a site where you can download files using FTP. In this case the entry should like like this:
ftp://svr5.fileaway.co.za
We would interpret the above as:
Use FTP
The server name is svr5
It is found attached to the domain fileaway.co.za, a South Africa domain.
A URL consists of a number of web pages. A web page is an item which is stored under a particular name on the web site. Often you will be required to enter a specific page to find information. For example:
http://www.galactic-info.ac.za/starclusters.htm
If you do not enter the name of a web page, the browser assumes it is index.htm. If, for example, you enter the URL www.galactic-info.ac.za, the browser will assume you mean www.galactic-info.ac.za/index.htm.
A browser has a very straight forward purpose, to locate files using their URL and display their contents on-screen.
Examples of browsers include Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Opera and Netscape.
Although browsers have a very specific purposes, they can have many features which improve their functionality. These include:
Navigate between sites. This is sometimes called surfing the web.
Record your visits to sites.
Bookmark important sites.
Whether or not to display graphics. Graphics can cause the computer to appear to run very slowly.
Enforce various levels of security and privacy.
Prevent the execution of cookies. Cookies are small programs that are downloaded from web sites. Usually they do such things as animate the screen, butthey can be sources of viruses or they could send information about you back to the server you are accessing.
Change the display in various ways.
A search engine is a special type of web site whose purpose is to help users access information stored on the Internet. Examples include Google and Altavista.
There are hundreds of thousands of web sites on the Internet. These are continually changing. New ones are continuously created while others disappear. You may know the names of a few useful sites, but this will be a tiny fraction of what is available. Through the use of key words which you feed into the search engine, it will use special techniques to find sites that make reference to these words. The results of the search are displayed on-screen as hyperlinks. By clicking on the hyperlinks, you can jump directly to the sites.
Search engines usually allow you to place added restrictions on the sites that are displayed. For example:
Display only sites which contain all of certain key words.
Display all sites which contain any of a list of key words.
Display sites that contain a specified phrase.
Display only English (or some other language) sites.
Restrict the search to sites that have been updated within a specified period.
Exclude sites which contain certain words.
Although a search engine is very powerful in locating sites that relate to the key words, it does not provide any assessment of the accuracy and validity of the data. Although there is vast amounts of valuable and useful information on the Internet, there is also much that is out-of-date, inaccurate or deliberately misleading.
- Cookies
Web sites frequently make use of graphics. They may also need to know certain things about your computer or be able to make changes to the way your computer is functioning. In order to achieve this, they download small programs onto your computer when you access the site. These small programs are called cookies.
Although cookies are often very useful, they do have a negative aspect. They could, for example, contain a virus. Alternatively, they could scan your computer for information such as access codes and passwords, and send these back to their source. When you allow cookies, you are also exposing your computer to a number of serious risks. Unfortunately, some sites cannot be accessed unless cookies are allowed.
Browsers give some control over cookies. You can set them so that they block all cookies, or allow cookies only from certain trusted sites or allow them all.
- Cache
Because web sites often contain a lot of graphics, they can take considerable time to load. To speed up the process of accessing web sites, your browser can make use of a cache. Cache is the name given to memory used for speeding up operations. A web browser uses cache to store web pages that you have accessed in the past. If you call up the same page, instead of loading it across the Internet, it retrieves it from cache. In using cache, you need to specify how long web pages should be stored. Actual pages get updated from time to time, so your cache will become outdated.
There are programs called web accelerators that speed up the operation of browsers. Accelerators make use of cache in a different way. They anticipate the web sites you are likely to use based on the sites you have been accessing. While you are working on a site, the accelerator will load these sites into cache ready for immediate use.
Abstract
Know what a protected Web site is, (use of username and password)
Most web sites are unprotected. This means anyone can access them and read their contents. Other sites are protected. As soon as you attempt to access them, a dialogue will appear on-screen asking for a user id and password. Unless you can supply these, you will not be able to progress forward.
Some sites are a mixture of protected and unprotected areas.
The registration processes required to access protected sites vary. Often it will involve payment of a fee. It may come as part of some some other process. For example, if you join an organisation, you may receive a user name and password which allows you access to protected areas of a web site. A common technique is to require you to complete a questionnaire in which you give personal details. Once this has been done, a user name and password is emailed to you.
Take note of the comments in module 1 about the dangers of using unknown sites on the Internet.
A digital certificate is an electronic document that proves the authenticity of a site. They are issued by a certification authority (CA). The certification authority links a public key to the name in the certificate. (Public and private keys will be discussed in the next section.) Digital certificates are used when secure connections need to be established between a computer and a web site. If the digital certificate cannot be verified, the web browser will send a warning message to the user.
The way digital certificates work is explained in the next section on encryption.
A digital signature is an added level of security. Digital signatures have in-built mechanisms that enable recipients to verify that the sender is who he/she says and that information has not been forged. Digital signatures are described more fully in the section called “Know what a digital signature is”.
Sites using these security methods have an address that begins htts rather than http.
Encryption refers to the scrambling of data so that it cannot be read without a key. This means that sensitive and confidential information can be sent across the Internet without being able to be read. For example, if you are doing banking over the Internet, a secure link called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is set up between your computer and the server. This involves scrambling the data so that, if it is intercepted, it appears as a meaningless set of characters.
Encryption involves the use of private keys and public keys. The public key enables the data to be encrypted by anyone. Once it is encrypted, it can only be deciphered with a private key. Only the owner of the site has this.
When a site sends you a digital certificate, they are also sending you a public key which enables you to encrypt information which only it can read.
The Internet is a wonderful source of information and software. Since there is virtually no control exercised over the Internet, it is also a source of danger and even criminal activity. There are thousands of download sites where you can obtain software, some of it legal some pirated. Whether or not the software is legal, there is always the possibility of viruses being contained in the software. This could be done deliberately by the developer of the site or because it was not checked adequately before being made available.
Before downloading software from the Internet, be sure that you can trust the site you are dealing with. There are excellent and safe download sites such as www.tucows.com so you should not need to use dubious sites.
In order to make use of some sites or order goods or services across the Internet, you will need to pay by credit card. When you give credit card information without the merchant actually seeing the card, it is referred to as a Card Not Present or CNP transaction. There are a number of dangers to both the buyer and the seller.
Vendors need to be sure that:
The card is not being used fraudulently.
Purchasers need to be sure that:
They can afford the goods they are buying. It is very easy to spend money using a credit card on the Internet.
The vendor will not abuse the information and make unauthorised debits. They should not deal with any unknown sites.
The information will not be stolen by employees and used fraudulently. Once again, well known reputable sites will have measures in place and will generally take responsibility if anything does go wrong.
The information will not be stolen and used by hackers. Only use sites that are able to encrypt the information you send using a secure link such as SSL.
A firewall is the first line of defence against hackers. It is a computer program that is installed on a computer that connects to the Internet. The firewall software analyses the packets (small groups of data that are transmitted as a unit) that pass between the computer and the Internet. It is programmed to follow certain rules which enable it to decide whether or not to allow a packet to pass. If a packet does not meet the rules programmed into the firewall software, it is rejected.
Click the ->->+ Start Applications icon.
The Mozilla application will load.
The Home Page is the web site that is located and displayed by Mozilla when it is loaded by the user. This is set in the Mozilla Preferences as follows:
->.
Expand the Navigator category by clicking on the + symbol.
Type the new home page into the Location window.
Click OK.
To display a web page you need to know its URL (web address). The following example illustrates how to access the Yahoo web site. Its URL is www.yahoo.com
Type www.yahoo.com into the Location bar as shown on the next screen and press Enter.
 |
If you do not type a protocol in front of the URL, Mozilla assumes the protocol is http and completes the URL as shown on the screen above.
Mozilla can often guess the URL you require. For example, if you wanted to view the web site of CNN but were unsure of the URL, you could type in CNN on its own. Mozilla would attempt to find the site for you and would try various possibilities starting with www.cnn.com.
Suppose you have the following situation. You have the web page of Google.com displayed and you wish to display the web page of Yahoo.com without actually closing Google. This is a similar situation to having more than one document open in a word processor. The procedure is quite straight forward:
->.
Type the URL, in this case www.yahoo.com, into the Location window.
Click on the Open in drop down window and select New Navigator Window.
Press Enter.
A new window will open with www.yahoo.com displayed.
Click on the appropriate icon at the bottom of the screen to switch between the web sites.
Web sites often take a while to download, especially if they contain a lot of graphics or if the Internet is very busy at the time you are using it.
Click the Stop button next to the Location bar.
In order to speed up with with web sites, Mozilla stores copies of pages in a cache or temporary memory area so that they can be recalled more quickly than if they had to be reloaded across the Internet. You can get the most up-to-date version of the page by using the refresh function.
Click the Reload button next to the Location bar or press Ctrl+R.
Mozilla comes with an extensive help system. Learning to use the help system can help you become familiar with the full range of the application's functionality. To access Help:
->.
Click the Maximise icon.
Click on Contents.
Suppose you wish to find out how to copy a web page.
Expand Browsing the web by clicking the + symbol.
Expand Copying, Saving and Printing.
Double click on Copying Part of a Page.
At this point it would be useful to acquaint yourself with the Contents of the Help system.
The Contents are useful if you know exactly what heading you are looking for. It may happen that you are looking for all entries containing a particular key word. The following example illustrates how to find all entries that contain the word cache.
->.
Click the Maximise icon.
Click on Search.
Enter the word cache into the Search window and click the Search button.
Click on the entry you wish to view.
The Index is a detailed listing of occurrences of key words in the help system.
Click on Index.
Expand the letter of the alphabet containing the key word.
Expand the contents of the key word and click the entry as shown in the following screen.
Before explaining how to show and hide the toolbars, it would be useful to become acquainted with the different components. These are illustrated on the following screen.
Click the small triangle to the left of the toolbar (either the Navigation toolbar or the Personal toolbar).
Click the triangle a second time to display the toolbar.
->.
The sub-menu will indicate toolbars that are displayed by a tick next to an entry. Clicking on a toolbar that is displayed will cause it to be hidden. Clicking on a hidden toolbar has the reverse action and causes it to be displayed.
The Site navigation toolbar is treated somewhat differently as there are three options as shown on the following screen.
 |
Full screen mode allows you to use the entire screen for the display of web pages. Only the Navigation bar will be displayed at the top of the screen. The rest of the screen is used for the display of the web page.
-> or press F11.
Press F11 again to return to normal view mode.
The loading of graphic images can slow down the display of web sites very drastically, especially if they are graphic intensive. Often these images are of little use when the user is after information. One way of speeding up access is to suppress the display of images.
->.
Expand the Privacy & Security category.
Select Images.
Check Do not load any images.
Click OK.
Some images are animated. This also slows down access. You may wish to display images, but not animate them. This can be achieved by checking Never in the Animated images should loop area of the previous dialogue.
The next two screens illustrate the difference between displaying and suppressing graphic images.
 |
 |
When you access a web site, Mozilla records this in its History.
Click on the drop down arrow at the right hand side of the browser address bar.
A list of recently visited sites is displayed.
Click the site you wish to visit.
An alternative is to use the Menu bar. The Go menu item will display sites visited during the current browser session.
Click on Go in the menu bar.
A list of recently visited sites is displayed at the bottom of the menu.
Click on the site you wish to visit or press Esc to clear the menu.
![[Note]](../images/admon/note.png) | |
These entries are automatically cleared after you quit the browser. | |
You can review your recent browsing activity.
-> or press Ctrl-H.
Expand Today by clicking the + symbol.
You may expand each web site to view the pages that you have visited in the site.
Highlight the entry you wish to delete and press the Delete key.
This will delete the entry and all its sub-entries.
This was covered in the previous section, in particular in the section called “Understand the make-up and structure of a Web address”.
A hyperlink is a cross-reference to another web site. The hyperlink is attached to an icon or a phrase. When a user clicks on a hyperlink, the browser displays the cross-referenced site. It is possible to do this in the current window or in a new window.
When hyperlinks are attached to phrases, the phrases are usually displayed in underlined blue text.
The following screen illustrates a number of hyperlinks.
 |
The underlined headings all represent hyperlinks.
Right click on a hyperlink and select . A window such as the one below will display details of the hyperlink.
Click on the hyperlink.
The currently displayed page will be replaced by the cross-referenced web page.
Right click on the hyperlink.
This will display a context menu.
Click Open Link in New Window.
Suppose you load three websites in the following order: www.google.com, www.cnn.com and www.bbc.co.uk. At this stage www.bbc.com would be displayed on your screen. If you wish to view any of the two previous sites, you can may use of the navigation bar.
 |
Click the Back icon. This will take you back to www.cnn.com.
Click Back again to go to the first site www.google.com or Forward to go to www.bbc.com.
You will notice that the web sites are displayed immediately. This is because they have been stored in cache memory by Mozilla. If the sites have changed since you last visited them, you would still see the unchanged version. In most cases sites do not change that rapidly that it would be an issue. If, however, you were viewing online stock market information, it would be an issue.
Click Reload or Ctrl-Shift-R to refresh the screen with the latest information on the current web page.
Many web pages involve a transaction such as purchasing goods, registering for a course or creating a web based email account. Some of these involve a single form while others involve several forms and could include giving credit card information.
| |
Only supply credit card information over the Internet if you are sure of the web site that you are using and if the site uses a secure method of transferring the information. | |
The following example illustrates how to create a Lycos mail account. This will involve completing a form using the browser window.
Enter the following URL into the browser window: http://login.mail.lycos.com/ and press Enter.
Click the SIGN UP in the Free Email window.
Fill in your details on the form that appears.
In this case it is quite a long form so you will need to scroll down to complete all the details.
Scroll down to the end of the form.
Enter the confirmation code.
The confirmation code prevents automated sign ups by computers.
Open the Terms and Conditions hyperlink in a new window to read the conditions you will have to agree to.
Click the I Agree button if you agree to the terms and conditions.
| |
Although the entire process is electronic, it nevertheless represents a contract between yourself and Lycos mail. Clicking an I Agree button is typical of transactions that involve conditions. Only click this button if you are happy to agree to the conditions. | |
At this stage you might like to set up a web based email for yourself using this process. Apart from Lycos mail, you can also get free web based email at www.yahoo.com and www.hotmail.com.
A bookmark is the URL of a site that is stored by Mozilla either in the Personal toolbar or in the Bookmarks menu. To access a site is then a matter of clicking on the name of the web site in the toolbar or menu.
Suppose you wish to bookmark the Lycos mail web address.
Access the site by typing login.mail.lycos.com into the Location bar and press Enter.
When the page is displayed: -> or press Ctrl-D.
Access another page and click .
Click on to return to the Lycos Free Mail web page.The actual URL is attached via a hyperlink to the name or description in the menu.
As the Personal toolbar can contain fewer names than the Bookmark menu, use it to bookmark sites that you visit the most frequently.
Suppose you wish to add Google Advanced Search to the Personal toolbar.
Display the web page by typing its URL into the Location bar and pressing enter.
The URL is: http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=enAlternatively, type www.google.com into the Location bar and click the Advanced Search hyperlink on the Home page.
Drag the Bookmark icon to the desired position on the Personal toolbar. The bookmark icon is the symbol located to the left of the URL in the Location bar.
The following screen illustrates a Personal toolbar that contains links to a number of Search engines. These will be described further on.
 |
As the number of bookmarks increases, so does the need for a system for organising them. The best way of doing so is to create a number of folders. Each folder should be a repository for web pages having something in common. The name of the folder should reflect this.
Mozilla has a special dialogue for managing bookmarks.
->. This displays the Manage Bookmarks dialogue. In the window are a number of existing folders.
->-> OR click the New Folder icon.
Complete the details as shown on the following screen.
Click OK.
The new folder will be added to the set of existing folders.
The following screen illustrates a number of bookmark folders that have been created.
 |
Folders that have bookmarks added to them are illustrated with a + symbol.
Click on the + symbol to expand the contents of the folder.
Locate the web site you wish to bookmark.
->.
Select the folder in which you wish to place the bookmark.
Click OK.
The following screen illustrates a folder containing a number of bookmarks.
 |
->.
Expand the folder containing the bookmark you wish to delete.
Click on the bookmark to select it and press the Delete key.
It will frequently happen that you want to look up information on the Internet but do not know where to look. In such a case you can make use of a Search engine. A search engine is a web site that will find the locations of web sites for you which contain key words or phrases. There are a number of these available. In the screen showing bookmarks in the section called “Add Web pages to a bookmark folder”, you will see the names and URLs of a number of search engines.
This section will focus on a specific search engine Google. You should, however, familiarise yourself with the other search engines and decide for yourself which you prefer.
Enter the following URL into the Mozilla Location bar: www.google.com.
Press Enter or click Search.
The secret of using a search engine such as Google lies in choosing the best key words or phrases to locate useful web sites.
Suppose you have a special interest in mountains and you would like to find web sites that can give you information on mountains.
Type the word mountain into the Search window of Google and press Enter.
If you see the security dialogue below, click Continue.
As you can see from the next screen, Google has found something like 32 000 000 web sites that contain the word mountain.
 |
These sites contain information on everything from the geology of mountains to mountain climbing. Suppose it is mountain climbing that you are interested in. In this case you would use a key phrase. Key phrases must be enclosed in inverted commas.
Type the following phrase “mountain climbing” into the Google Search window including the inverted commas.
Press Enter or click Goolge Search.
The search has now been narrowed down to about 378 000 web sites. Clearly the search needs to be narrowed still further.
Each of the web sites is shown as a hyperlink (the underlined blue text).
Click on a link to view the web site.
Click the Back icon to return to Google.
Scroll to the bottom of the Google web page and Click Next to view the next set of links.
Generally, Google attempts to list the most relevant web sites at the top of the list.
Suppose your main interest in mountain climbing is in Africa. What you want to look for then are sites which contain both the key phrase “mountain climbing” and the key word Africa.
Type the following exactly as shown into the Google Search window: “mountain climbing” Africa.
Press Enter or click Google Search.
At this point, the search has been narrowed down to about 22 600 web sites.
| |
When searching try to use key words that are as specific as possible. For example, if you are really interested in rock face climbing use this specific phrase. | |
Most search engines have an advanced interface that allows you to be very specific in your search.
If Google is open, click on the Advanced Search link, or type the following URL into the location bar:
www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en and press Enter.
The following screen shows how the advanced search can be further restricted to English language sites that have been updated within the past three months.
 |
The Google Advanced Search engine is a very powerful tool. It would be well worth your while to experiment with it an become fully conversant with its use. The Google site also contains tips and a help system.
Text and images can be copied from a web site into a document.
Copying an image from a web site displayed in Mozilla is a two stage process involving saving the image and then inserting it into a document.
Right click on the image you wish to copy into a document.
Click
Select the directory in which you wish to save the image.
Give the image a suitable name.
Click Save.
Open OpenOffice.org Writer.
Select the document into which you wish to paste the image.
->->.
Locate the image you have saved.
Click OK.
A web page is often made up of a number of files. In particular, images may be stored as files which are separate to the text. The location of these images can be copied into a document.
Right click on the image and select .
Go to the point in your document where you wish to paste the location.
->.
If your Internet connection is active, you may also be able to copy an image directly as follows:
Hold down the left mouse button and drag over the image. It should change colour slightly.
->.
Go to the point in the document where you wish to paste the image.
->.
Depending on how a web site has been constructed, you may or may not be able to copy the text directly. If the following method does not work, you will first need to save the web page as a text or html file (see next section) and then copy the text from there.
Go to the start of the text you wish to copy.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag over the text you wish to copy.
->.
Go to the point in your document where you wish to paste the text.
->.
Locate the web page you wish to save in Mozilla.
->. This will display the Save as dialogue.
Select the directory in which you wish to save the web page.
Give the file a suitable name.
Select the type of file you wish to save it as. The options are described in the following table.
Click OK.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
|
Web page, complete |
The entire web page including pictures is saved. As pictures are usually themselves files, Mozilla will create a directory for these. This directory will be a sub-directory of the one in which you saved the web page. Mozilla will change the links so that they are directed to the files in the sub-directory. Using this option,you can view the web site in its original form. |
|
Web page, HTML only |
The web page is saved without the pictures. In this case, the links to their original location are preserved. |
|
Text files |
This will save the file as a straight text version which can be viewed in a text editor or word processor. No links are preserved. |
| |
If you save a web page as a text file, you should manually change the file extension to txt to emphasise that you are saving it as a text file. Otherwise Mozilla will retain the existing extension. | |
The following screen shows part of the above file when saved as a text file.
 |
Although the Internet is a wonderful source of information and software, it unfortunately has a negative aspect as it is possible to acquire illegal software from some sites. There are two things you need to keep in mind when using download sites.
Downloading illegal software or other electronic material across the Internet amounts to software piracy. This is both illegal and unethical as it infringes on the intellectual property rights of the developer.
Software from illegal sites may contain viruses.
A very useful site for downloading software legally is Tucows. The following example will illustrate how to download the current implementation of Wine from Tucows. (Wine is a program that allows you to run some Windows programs under Linux without having Windows on your machine.)
Locate the Linux section of Tucows by typing the following URL into the Mozilla location bar:
linux.tucows.com
Click the Wine link on the screen.
This will display some information about Wine.
Click Console under the heading Download on the right hand side of the screen.
Follow the next couple of screens which require you to select the best mirror site. This is a local site that contains all the Tucows downloads.
When asked whether you wish to open or save the file, check the Save button.
Select a directory in which to save the download.
Either keep the name of the file that is displayed (preferable) or give it a new name.
Click Save.
| |
If you do change the name of a file, be careful not to change the extension of the file as this could have unforeseen consequences. This is especially the case of files that will be used on Windows systems. On Windows systems the file extension has a special meaning. For example, you can tell executable files in Windows by the fact that they have an exe extension. In Linux, you can only determine whether or not a file is an executable by viewing its properties. An executable file in Linux may not even have an extension. However, even in Linux some extensions such as rpm, tar and zip do have special significance. | |
There are a number of sites where you can download books free of charge. One of these is Project Gutenberg. The URL is www.promo.net/pg/
In this case we will locate a specific book, 2000 Leagues under the sea by Jules Verne.
Enter the following URL into the location bar of Mozilla and press Enter:www.gutenberg.net/browse/BIBREC/BR164.HTM
Scroll down towards the bottom of the screen.
Click on one of the download option links.
The next screen will ask you to select a site from which to download the file. Note there are sites in many countries. For quickest download, select the nearest site.
The process from here on is exactly the same as that described for downloading software.
Most computers have sound cards which enable you to play music and speech. All are stored as sound files of one type or another. There are a range of different formats. One of the most popular is mp3 which compresses the file while still providing good sound quality.
Similarly, movies can be stored as video files.
In order to play sound or video files, you will need to have the appropriate software installed on your computer.
The process of downloading audio and video files is exactly the same as that described for software and text files.
Previewing a web page will enable you to see what it will look like when printed.
->.
Scroll through the pages.
Click Close to return to the normal Mozilla window.
Portrait printing refers to print which is across the width of a sheet of paper. This is the normal method of printing. If a web page is very wide, then it is best to print in landscape. In Landscape printing is across the length of the page.
->.
Click the Format & Options tab.
Select the orientation, portrait or landscape.
Change the Scale, if you wish.
Set the Options, if you wish.
Click OK.
Abstract
Choose Web page print output options such as: entire Web page, specific page(s), specific frame, selected text, number of copies and print
->
In this dialogue you can set the following:
Print to the printer or a file: If you select the latter, you will be prompted for the file name and location.
The printer to use: Select the printer by clicking on the drop down arrow next to the printer name.
The range of pages to be printed: The default is All pages. To select a range of pages, select the Pages radio button and enter the start and end page numbers.
Number of copies: Enter the number of copies you wish to print in the corresponding window.
Print frames: Some web sites are made up of frames. These are boxes on the screen which can be dealt with as units. If the web page contains frames, you can select how you wish these to be printed.
Click OK.
The following screen illustrates a web site that makes use of frames. The borders of the frames can be clearly seen on the screen.
 |
You may also choose to print a selection of text.
Select the text you wish to print.
Click on ->
In the Print Range option click on Selection
Click on Print
Abstract
Understand the make-up and structure of an e-mail address.
An email address can readily be distinguished from a web address by the fact that an email address always contains an @ symbol while a web address never does.
The structure of an email address is mailboxname@domain. For example, in the address:
josephine@ct-services.co.za, josephine is the name of the mailbox and ct-services.co.za is the name of the domain to which it is attached. Usually the mailbox has a name which relates to the user. In this case she has used her first name. Sometimes you will find email addresses that have the form: josephine.taylor@ct-services.co.za. In this case the period between the first name and surname has no special meaning. A hyphen could equally well have been used. There can be many mailboxes attached to the same domain. In this case only the part to the left of the @ symbol would change. Thus another mailbox attached to the above domain might be info@ct-services.co.za.
Fast: Email is usually delivered within seconds to the recipient. The only delay occurs in the time taken by the recipient to check his/her email.
Low cost: The only costs are the line costs. Usually many emails are sent at once, reducing the cost even further.
Attachments: Documents, images, sound and video files can be sent with email messages as attachments. This further saves cost of delivery of heavy and bulky articles. The recipient can print the attachment or save it to the appropriate medium.
Reliability: Although email is occasionally lost through technical problems on the Internet, it is much more reliable than ordinary mail. Electronic receipts can be requested by the sender to confirm that the mail has arrived at the recipient.
Security: Using encrypted links, sensitive and confidential messages can be sent across the Internet. Sending hard copies of messages has a much greater security risk.
Normally an email client is an application which resides on a computer. Mail is downloaded from the ISP to the mail client. This can present a problem if you are away from your computer, especially if you are in a foreign country.
To overcome this problem, you can set up a web based email client. In this case, the email resides on a remote server and is never actually downloaded to a computer. The software for accessing the email resides on the mail server. The user accesses the mail site using a web browser. He/she would be required to enter a user name and password. Once these have been accepted, the user has access to the mailbox, which from there on functions in very much the same way as an ordinary mail client.
Web based mail clients need to be managed carefully. Usually there are quite strict size limitations. This means that they will fill quickly unless unneeded messages are deleted.
Web based email clients can be set up free on sites like Hotmail, Yahoo and Eudoramail. There are also sites which charge a fee. These would offer larger mail boxes and more features. These sites would be more suited to the business user who has to travel frequently.
Some domain registrars (organisations who register domains on your behalf) provide services such as web based mail linked to your own domain when you make use of their services.
Although email tends to be less formal than written communication, a poorly written and structured email can cause offence. This is especially true in a business environment. Used correctly, it is a valuable business tool. Below are some points to observe when writing email.
Insert a meaningful subject heading. Users scan their mailboxes before opening emails. A brief accurate subject heading can help them decide the relative importance of mail. Many users delete mail that is suspicious. Email with empty or meaningless subject headings would fall into this category.
Use an appropriate mode of address. There is a tendency to start email with the greeting Hi Jo. This level of familiarity and informality may be appropriate if you know the person you are sending the email to. When sending a business email, rather err on the side of formality. Remember, many people may regard the casual mode of address as disrespectful.
Check the spelling of your email. It is very annoying to receive email with many misspellings. Most email clients allow you to spell check your email.
Likewise check the grammar of your email.
Do not use all upper case (capital) letters or all lower case letters when writing email. This is simply not acceptable in anything other than a casual environment. Use the correct case for text. Even friends could react negatively to such lazy construction.
Be clear but brief in constructing email messages. In is quite common for users to receive a hundred or more emails at a time. Take into account that they might be under pressure when they receive your email. Use correct paragraphing and headings to enhance the clarity.
Include a signature at the end of your emails. This should include your full names, the capacity under which you are writing, your email address, phone and fax numbers and any other information which might be relevant to the communication.
Abstract
Be aware of the possibility of receiving unsolicited e-mail
A distribution list is a set of email addresses which are given a single collective name. A distribution list can have tens or hundreds of thousands of names on them. Once a distribution list has been compiled, emails can be sent to every name on the list by sending it to the name of the list. In other words, it is as easy to send the mail to a hundred thousand recipients as to one.
This has led to a whole industry of creating and selling distribution lists. These lists are then used to send unsolicited email to people on the lists. Unsolicited email, known as spam is a major problem for both users and the Internet. The transmission of millions of messages across the Internet wastes valuable bandwidth and causes deterioration in Internet performance. For users, spam not only causes irritation but also fills up mail boxes.
To deal with the problem, some countries are now introducing legislation to prohibit spam. Some ISPs make use of special anti-spam software to block spam. Sometimes this software makes use of known sources of spam while at other times it uses special techniques to analyse the content. It is also possible to install anti-spam software on your computer.
Email has been one of the major sources of the spread of computer viruses in recent times. These viruses are usually hidden in attachments to e