Mozilla is a full-featured integrated web browser, email client, news reader and web page composer program. Using Mozilla a user can be exposed to the richness and diversity of multimedia content and services available on the WWW.
To start Mozilla, click on the Mozilla icon on the panel or launch the application from the menu system:
Main Menu --> Internet --> Mozilla Web Browser
Click to view screen shot Fig 8.1 The Mozilla Web Browser
By default the web browser component of Mozilla (Navigator) will be executed and displayed. The Navigator window has the following main parts.
- the navigation toolbar
- the menu bar
- the side bar
- the display panel
(Mozilla Navigator has many features and only a a brief description of its main functionalities and features can be given here. The user should refer to the Help button on the menu bar for more details.)
The Navigation Toolbar
Click to view screen shot Fig 8.2 The Navigation Toolbar
The navigation toolbar allows you to access a website by entering its Uniform Resource Locater (URL) or more informally known as its web address, e.g. http://www.mozilla.org in the address box provided. Actually you need to enter only the name of the host i.e. "www.mozilla.org" and Mozilla is smart enough to figure out that you want to access the web server on that host.
Clicking on the arrow at the right edge of the address box will open a pull-down menu showing a history of websites visited previously. You can click on an entry in the list to select that website to access.
Also present on the navigation toolbar arethe Back, Forward, Reload and Stop buttons.
The Back button enables you to go back to the previous web page displayed.
The Forward button enables you to go forward to the next web page that you have already accessed.
The Reload button forces Mozilla to re-access the website and load the current web page.
The Stop button halts the loading of a web page that is currently proceeding.
Next to the address box in the navigation toolbar is the Search button. This button enables you to perform searches for relevant web pages on the Internet by making use of a search engine. To search for some particular information, you can enter the keywords for the search into the address box and then double-click on the Search button. The results of the search will be displayed in the display panel. You can configure the search engine to use by this search button in the Mozilla Navigator configuration setup (see Configuring Mozilla below).
The Menu Bar
Click to view screen shot Fig 8.3 The Menu Bar
The menu bar has several menu buttons. Clicking on one will open up a drop-down menu selection where selected operations can be performed.
The File button caters to the performance of file level operations like the printing and saving of web pages. the opening of web pages, files etc.
The Edit button allows you to find strings of text on the displayed page as well as to edit the Mozilla configuration to you personal preferences.
The View button allows you to control the viewing of the various toolbars as well as the zooming of text and full page display of the display panel. The HTML source code of the currently displayed page can also be viewed using the selection “Page Source” under this button.
The Go button performs similar navigational functions as the navigation toolbar described earlier. A history of previously visited sites can also be accessed by this button. The pull-down menu shows a list of previously visited websites and you can click on one of these to open up the selected web page. Under the Go button, if you select the History item,
Click to view screen shot Fig 8.4 The History Pop-up Window
a pop-up window will be displayed showing in detail the browsing history (i.e. the list of sites visited) over the last few days (by default this period is 9 days; this number is configurable, see below).
The Bookmarks button enables you to manage your bookmarks and personal folder. You can add frequently visited sites to the bookmark and/or personal folder. To manage and organise your bookmarks you can select the “Mange Bookmarks” item in the drop-down menu.
Click to view screen shot Fig 8.5 The Bookmark Manager Pop-up WindowThe bookmarks can be organized into folders by dragging and dropping them into the desired folder. New folders can be created by clicking on the New Folder button at the top. Folders can have a name and description. To separate and group together related folders, a separator line can be drawn by selecting the “New Separator” button.
The Window button enables you to navigate and move among the windows opened in Mozilla. You can also use this button to move from one open Mozilla application to another, e.g. to move from the Navigator application to the Mail (email) application.
The Help button contains the Mozilla help files arranged in user-friendly web page style and format.
