Woburn Public Library and the World Wide Web

A Tutorial Program for First Time Users

(This version is for the Macintosh using Netscape 1.1)


Use the scrollbar at the right side of this window to move up or down the page >
(click on the up arrow to move up or click on the down arrow to move down).

To go to the PC version of this tutorial click here

If you want to skip this tutorial you can click here
to go directly to the Woburn Public Library Home Page.


Welcome to the World Wide Web tutorial program.

The purpose of this tutorial program is to allow you to become familiar with the World Wide Web (WWW or Web for short) and learn how to find information on the internet that is of interest to you. In this short session you will learn how to do the following things:


How to navigate on the Web.

Getting back to your starting place (or your home location):

Sometimes when traveling around the world on the Web you may get lost and end up in strange, scary locations, but don't panic!

The very first thing to learn, for situations such as this, is how to get back here to your starting page. To do this at any time and from any other location, just click on the button at the top of this window called "Back". Each time you click on this button you will move back on step on the path you have taken until you find yourself back at your starting page. (The button called "Home" will take you back directly to the home location which is the page you were on when you first logged on to Netscape)

A page on the Web is a continuous document which may be very long, filling many computer screens. You can move around on this page or any other page by using the scroll bar on the right side of the window. Just click on the down arrow to move down the page and the up arrow to move up. Also you can use the "page up" or "page down" keys on the keyboard to move up or down by one full screen. For smaller movements you use the the up arrow key to move up by one line or down arrow key to move down by one line. The "end" key on the keyboard will usually take you directly to the bottom of the page and the "home" key on the keyboard will usually take you directly to the top of the page. Try these keys now to see how they work.

What are Hotlinks?

To navigate on the Web to new locations and new documents you just click on "hotlinks" (also called hypertext links). Hotlinks are most often indicated by text that is colored and underlined. You simply click once on any hotlink to go to the location or take the action it descibes.
As an example click on the hotlink below and then click on the hotlinks on each new page to take a quick round trip and end up back here:

Click on me! I am a hotlink to page 2.

Another way of navigating is by using the "Back" button on the top of the screen. Each time you click on this button you will go back to the previous link you have used.
Click on the "Back" button now three times to repeat the path you just followed in the reverse order and return back here.

The "Forward" button on the top of the screen acts in a similar way except it takes you in the opposite direction from the "Back" button.
Click on the "Forward" button now three times to repeat same path in the forward direction and return back here.

You may have noticed that the "Back" and "Forward" buttons have the important advantage of bringing you back to the same place on a page that you started from. Other buttons, such as the "Home" button, usually bring you back to the top of the page.

One more useful navigation tool is the "Go" menu at the top of the screen. If you click on this and hold the mouse button down you will see all the steps in the path you have recently followed and can go directly to any location by selecting it and releasing the mouse button. The most recent location is at the top of the list and the current location is indicated by a checkmark.
Try it now to go to another location such as "WPL MAC Tutorial Page 3" and then return here by selecting "WPL MAC Tutorial".

Note that the first time you select a hotlink it will change color (as will all other hotlinks to that same location). The color change is a useful navigation aid to help you keep track of where you have been, but does not affect the operation of the hotlink in any way.

Graphics can also serve as hotlinks. There are two different ways of using graphics for hotlinks as illustrated by the examples below:

I am an ordinary graphic with no hotlink.

and I am the same graphic with an ordinary hotlink!

and I am the same graphic with a fancy imagemap!

The graphic in the center has a hotlink which behaves in a similar manner to the text hotlink you used before - namely when you click on it it performs one single action. The graphic on the bottom is called an "imagemap" and is much more versatile. It detects exactly where you click in the image and can be programmed to take many different actions according to that location. For example, you could get a different action by clicking on one eye or the other or the mouth etc. This particular graphic is 32 pixels square and so could be programmed to take up to 32X32=1024 different actions depending on the exact position of the cursor where you click! (Note that this graphic has been programmed only to bring you back to the top of this page.)

How do I know whether a graphic has a hotlink and which kind it is?

An easy way to determine whether a graphic has a hotlink and which kind it has is to move the cursor over the graphic. The cursor will change from an arrow to a pointing hand and the URL (destination of the link) will appear in the line at the very bottom edge of this window. If the URL shows numbers at the end which change as you move the cursor around in the graphic then the graphic is an imagemap, otherwise it is a normal hotlink. Try moving the cursor over the images above (without clicking) and see the difference in the display at the bottom of the screen.

How do I go directly to a new location that doesn't have a hotlink?:

Suppose someone hands you their business card which has the address (URL) of their home page on it (for example, http://www.ibm.com/). How do you go there?

Easy! Just select all the text in the "Location:" box at the top of the window, type in the new address and depress either the "enter" or "return" key on the keyboard.
Try it now if you wish. (But remember to click on the "Back" button to return here.)

What are bookmarks and what can they do for me?

Bookmarks are a convenient way for you to use the computer to keep track of places that you have been so that you can quickly and easily return at any time. When you are at a location you want to save you set a bookmark by selecting "Add Bookmark" from the "Bookmarks" menu at the top of the screen. To go to a bookmark that has been saved you just select it from the same "Bookmarks" menu.


Definitions of special terms and abbreviations.

Browsers (Netscape, Mosaic,...):
A browser is a program installed on your computer which allows you to access documents and graphics on the internet in an easy, point-and-click way. When you click on a hotlink and go to a new page it is the browser that issues all the special commands to the remote computers (called the servers) to cause this to happen. The browser also takes the information that comes from the remote computers (in the form of a HTML document and graphic files) and converts it to the user-friendly text and graphics that you see on your screen. Each make of computer has its own customized browser which enables all computers to display the Web pages in much the same way.

There are a number of different browsers, each available in different versions to work with specific computers. Mosaic was the first browser that made the Web possible. Netscape is the browser that is now in widest use (and is the one that is being used here).

HTML:
HTML is the abbreviation for "HyperText Markup Language" which is the standard language by which all Web documents are described. You don't have to know HTML to access the Web, but it is important if you want to change or author Web pages. You can see the HTML document related to any page by selecting "Source..." from the "View" menu. You can read, copy or print the text from this view but you can not change it.
Try View Source to take a look at the HTML text for this page.

Hypertext:
Hypertext is a method by which a particular word or set of words in a document can be linked to a another location in the same document or in any other document. It is somewhat similar to having footnotes where the footnotes describe an exact location in any document. The true power of the Web is that hypertext links (called "hotlinks") are performed automatically by computer and the linked documents can exist on different computers anywhere in the world.

URL:
URL is the abbreviation for "Uniform Resource Locator" which is the standard addressing scheme by which all Web files or resources are identified. Each Web page, graphic and resource has its own unique URL indicated by a "http" prefix. Other standard prefixes refer to other internet protocols including:

The URL of the current document is shown in the "Location" line at the top of this window. When you position the cursor over any hotlink the URL of the destination will be shown on the line at the bottom of the screen.

As an example, the full URL for the WPL Home Page is
http//:www.ultranet.com/~woblib/index.htm


How to print these instructions and other material of interest.

Sometimes it is valuable to make a printed copy of material such as this, particularly if you are a first time user. You can take the material home and study it at your leisure and use it as a reference the next time you use the Web.

This or any other page can be printed by selecting "Print..." from the "File" menu at the top left of the screen. If the material printed is too wide to fit on a single sheet of paper you may be able to use "Page Setup..." from the "File" menu to print at a smaller size (e.g. Reduce/Enlarge = 75%).


How to access the WPL card catalog to locate books.

The WPL is a member of MLN (Minuteman Library Network) which is a group of 27 public and 3 academic libraries located north and west of Boston, MA.

You can also use the Web to access the MLN catalog from anywhere (via telnet). To see how this works just click on the MLN hotlink below. When you are connected use the following steps:

  1. When you see the "USERNAME:" prompt type "library" as the password and depress the [return] key.
  2. Type "99" for the standard catalog and depress the [return] key.
  3. Type "1" and depress the [return] key to search the catalog.
This will connect you to the MLN directory from which you can look up books by following the instructions on the screen. Give it a try! When you are through type "Q" and depress the [return] key. Follow the instructions on the sceen to quit.

Click here to connect to MLN


Visit a few of the hot sites on the Web.

In addition to accessing the MPL catalog you can just as easily visit any other library or interesting site around the world. Below are three sites which will give you a feeling for the tremendous variety of resources and topics which are available. Take a quick look by clicking on the hotlinks below. Remember that when you are through exploring you can come back here just by clicking on the "Back" button at the top of the screen.

[ The Library of Congress. ] [ Harvard University ] [ GNN What's New ]


Searching for special subjects on the Web.

There is no central directory of for the Web. There are, however, a large number of special search programs that can help you locate many special topics or home pages in a specific subject area. One of the most useful is the Yahoo search utility which lets you search by keywords and will generate a detailed report of what it finds, grouped by its own general subject categories. When you try this make sure you select the proper options for the search you are making and read the help file if you don't understand how the search is done.

Search Using Yahoo


Learning about newsgroups and how you can participate.

Newsgroups are free associations of people on internet that share common interests. You can subscribe to any groups of interest to you and read the news or correspond with any members by email. As an example of the wide range of interests take a quick look at the category of newsgroups that are oriented towards the arts, hobbies and recreational activities.


Sending email while using the Web.

To send email to someone on the Web just click on any hotlink that is identified as email such as the one below. An email hotlink will open a special message window which is pre-addressed to a specific organization or individual.

Send email to the Woburn Public Library.

If you have finished this tutorial please send email to the Library now and let us know. Type in your message and include your name When you are finished just click on the "send" button. If you decide not to send the message you can cancel by clicking on the small box in the upper left hand corner of the message window. When you click on either send or cancel the message window will close automatically and you will be returned to this window.

You can also send email at any time by selecting "Mail Document..." from the "File" menu at the top of the screen. The URL and title of the page you are viewing will be included automatically but you will have to type in the exact internet email address.


Congratulations on completing this tutorial!

At this point you should be able to navigate on your own!

We hope to be soon adding other tutorials on advanced topics such as search techniques.
Please let us know about any special topics that are of interest to you.

The University of Michigan has an extensive list of tutorials covering the use of computers and internet for library purposes. These tutorials cover a wide range of subjects and experience levels.


[ Return to WPL Home Page ]

URL: http://www.ultranet.com/~woblib/index.htm

Special thanks to the Milton Public Library for this tutorial. Check out the MPL Home Page

Please send any suggestions, comments or questions to the Woburn Public Library.
EMAIL: woblib@ultranet.com