Web Browser

General Disclaimer - Happy Online would like to remind all visitors that they are responsible for their own computer settings - some suggestions may not work on some computers and may result in errors - you should only make changes to your computer if you are comfortable with any consequences that may arise.

The Web Browser is the software where web pages are displayed from the World Wide Web, there are numerous Web Browser available however the most widely used one is Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Outlined below are the main features of Microsoft Internet Explorer and what they do, your web browser may be slightly different from Microsoft Internet Explorer but the main features are likely to be the same.

The Browser Window

The above screenshot shows the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser window - the main part of the window is taken up by the web page. If you wish to learn how to navigate around a web page please visit the Navigation section of this tutorial.

The web browser has various tools located above the displayed web page, these are known as Toolbars, there are additional tools available on the left hand side of the browser called the Explorer bar, and at the bottom of the web page is the status bar.

We will start by looking at the tool-bars, as you will see when looking at the toolbars there operation is inter-linked with the Explorer bar.

Menu Bar

The Menu bar is normally located at the very top of the web browser, as you can see it has various sections - File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools and Help, when you left click on each of these sections a drop down menu appears enabling you to do various actions as follows. (Note that not all functions are mentioned - some functions are not normally required when navigating the world wide web - however the major functions are all discussed.)

File - The file menu deals with the current open document, from here you can open a new document such as another web page, save the web page, alter the page set-up, print the web page, send the web page by email and find out the properties of the web page.

Edit - The edit page enables you to copy details from a web page to your clipboard (The clipboard saves the details so you can paste the copied material into another document). The edit section also allows you to find(on this page) - this allows you to look for a certain word on a web page.

View - The view section enables you to change some browser settings, you can select what toolbars you wish to display. For example you can decide not to show the radio toolbar if you dont use it. From this section you can also amend the text size of the web page.

Favorites - From here you can create a list of favourite web sites, the chancers are that your Internet Service Provider has already given you a starting list of web sites, If you wish to add more to your favorites you can do it simply in this section.

Tools - The tools section provides some other useful tools, one of the most important sections here is the Internet Options - from this area you can control your security settings.

Help - The help sections gives you various help functions and version details.

Standard Buttons

The next toolbar is the Standard Buttons toolbar and it should look like the above. Going from Left to Right the functions are:-

Left pointing arrow - This will move you to the web page previously visited, if you select the down arrow next to this a list will appear of the previously visited pages - you are able to select any of these pages.

Right Pointing arrow - This will move you forward a web page if you have moved back.

The X button - This will stop the current web page from being downloaded.

The Revolving Arrows - This will download the current web page again, in case it has not download properly or it may have been updated (EG A page displaying latest sports scores)

The Picture of a House - This will take you to your home page.

The Favorites button - This will open the Explorer bar to the left of the web browser - the explorer bar will contain your favorties.

History - This will open the History of the browser in the Explorer bar. It will include previously visited web sites to enable you to go back to them.

The Address Bar

The address bar details what page on the Web or even your local computer is being displayed. The address bar is the quicket way to navigate to a website if you know the website address. Simply type in the address and click the go button.

The Links Bar

The Links Bar operates similar to your favorites option and provides a direct link to some websites - management of the links bar can be controlled through the favorites drop down menu.

The Radio Bar

The Radio Bar allows you to access online radio stations and play music through the internet.

So that is what basically makes up a web browser, as mentioned early there is also a status bar, this is located at the bottom of the web page and currently you should be able to read text that says "Happy Online". The status bar can display various messages, it is most useful when you are following links on a web page. As you know when you point at a link your mouse pointer changes to a hand, if you look at the status bar the web address where the link goes should appear. (However be careful web programmers can code the status bar to do other things !)