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How To Use a Browser

A Module of the CYC Course – Computer Basics

8-28-10

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What is the Internet and WWW?• The Internet (also known as the Net) is a global, interconnected system of networks that connects computers around the world to exchange data.

• The World Wide Web (also known as the web or WWW) is a system of linked pages containing documents and multimedia.

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Why use the Internet?• Research • Connect with friends and family• Shop • E-mail• Download files like music or photos

• Take online classes• Play games• What else?

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What is needed to connect to the Internet?• A computer, laptop, or mobile phone.

• Internet Service Provider - A commercial organization that provides access to the Internet for a fee. Or, a free wireless connection (also called wifi).

• Web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc).

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What Is a Browser?

• A software program that allows you to view web pages

• Popular browsers– Internet Explorer

• IE is free and included with computers using Microsoft Windows

– Mozilla Firefox • Firefox is free and needs to be

downloaded and installed.

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Main elements of a browser:• Address box (used for typing in address of Website, for example, http://oprah.com)

• Menu Bar– Home button – Back and forward buttons – Stop and reload /refresh

– Drop down menus

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Address Bar

• Displays the URL or address of the Web page you are viewing.

• To visit a Web page, type the URL (web address), like http://google.com, in the address box and press “Enter” or click “Go.”

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Home Button

• Home: The initial web page that is displayed when you open the

Internet browser

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Back and Forward Buttons

• Back: Returns you to the last web page you viewed.

• Forward: If you pressed the back button, the forward button will take you to the web page that you visited before pressing the back button.

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Stop and Refresh

• Stop: Stops loading a web page.

• Refresh: Reloads the current web page to give you an updated version of the page.

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Drop Down Menu

• Shows a list of previously visited Web pages.

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Bookmarks or Favorites

• Saves the address of a favorite Internet site in a file in order to revisit that site in the future.

• Explorer: favorites

• Firefox: bookmarks

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Practice finding:

• Home• Stop• Refresh• Back• Forward• Address box • Drop down menus• Bookmarks/Favorites

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Elements of a website

• A website is a collection of text, images, videos, links, and other elements with a unique web address.

• A web address consists of a name, a period & a top level domain.

• Most common extensions:– .org: mostly non-profits– .edu: colleges/universities– .mobi: mobile phone sites– .com: mostly commercial– .gov: U.S. federal government– .us or .uk: mostly country websites

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Ways To Get To a Website• Favorites/bookmarks • URL • Links• Search engine

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URL

• If you know a site’s address, type the URL in the address box and press “Enter” or click “Go.”

• If you receive an error message, make sure that the URL is correct.

• Try: http://espn.com or http://allrecipes.com/

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Links

• Hyperlinks, also simply called links, are text or graphics on a web page that provide access to other web pages.

• Text that is hyperlinked is usually underlined and may be a different color than the main text.

• Jumping from one web page to another by clicking on links is called surfing the Internet.

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Home Page

• The home page is the initial Web page that is displayed when you open the Web browser.

• It can also be the main or introductory page of a Web site.

• http://pandora.com

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Additional Resources

• If your computer includes McAfee SiteAdvisor, you will see additional icons with your search results.

• Password checker - http://www.passwordmeter.com/

• How to clear your browser history - http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser%27s-Cache

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Sources

• This curriculum was partially adapted from a slide presentation entitled “Internet Basics” created by the Indian Prairie Public Library.

• Additional content created by Connect Your Community, a project of OneCommunity, funded by the federal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

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Creative Commons License

• This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0