Lesson 17
Using Microsoft Internet Explorer
to view Web-pages. E-mail. The program Outlook Express
Basic questions
1.
What is
the Internet?
2.
What
components of the Internet you know?
3.
What is
the World Wide Web? What is the Web-page?
4.
What are
the Internet protocol you know?
5.
How user
can access to the Web pages?
6.
What is
the URL? How the anatomy of the URL?
7.
What is
the Domain Name System? Types of the domains.
8.
What is
the web-browser? How types of the Web-browser you know?
9.
How user
can working with multimedia on the Web?
10.
What is
the Blog and the RSS?
11.
How to
access resources on the Web with Internet Explorer 6?
12.
How to
save or print the web documents for the later use?
What is the Internet?
The Internet
is a global network of computers. There are many different types of computers
on the Internet – PCs, Macintoshes, and others – and many of these computers
are parts of smaller networks, which are also just as varied [10]. The Internet is based upon a common language
that allows all these computers to talk to each other.
Besides this common
language, the Internet is actually no more than a huge collection of cables,
computers and software. These computers are connected together in a continuous
net. Most of the physical connections consist of optical cables or telephone
lines that are either bought or leased from telephone companies. In some cases
signals are transmitted via satellite links.
It is difficult to find
the Internet in the physical world. Many of the connections are also used for
other purposes, like ordinary voice telephone calls. And many of the computers
are only attached to the Internet occasionally. The easiest way to understand
the Internet is to use it.
The Internet is a
decentralized network of computers or cables with no central connections being
so important that if they are put out of action the entire net stops. Even if
part of the net stops working, the rest can continue uninterrupted. All
communications simply find a way around the damaged area.
You will often hear that
the Internet is nothing more than anarchy. In one way this is correct, because
there is no one institution that owns it, but in practice a few institutions do
control certain aspects of it. The owners of each individual network, usually
companies or Internet service providers, make decisions about their own
networks. So no one can make rules or regulations for the entire Internet. But
owners of individual networks can control their own part of the net. But this
does not count for very much, as it is nearly impossible to check that these
rules are obeyed.
Even though the Internet
really became a mass medium in the middle of the ‘90s, its roots go back to the
sixties. The initiative to set it up came from the American defense
establishment, which started a research project with the aim of linking
different types of computer together in a large network. The autumn of 1969 saw
the first two computers on two American university campuses connected together.
Slowly, more and more computers were attached to the network. At first there
were few things the network could be used for. A file could be moved from one
computer to another. As time went by, different ways of using the net were
invented. In the ‘90s the use of the Internet has exploded. Now there are
millions of computers connected to the Internet, and new ways of exploiting it
are being found all the time.
Developments on the
Internet go incredibly quickly. As soon as a new or improved program is
produced, it can be distributed around the world on the net in a flash. So it
is quite usual that within a few months of the release of a new program, it is
in use by many millions of people. It has become normal practice that the even
the best programs for using the Internet are free, or can be tried out for a
period without payment, before the user has to pay for them.
A brief
history of the Internet
At the beginning of the
1960s, an American researcher had already developed the theoretical basis for
networking computers. Some years later, the Advanced Research Projects Agency,
ARPA, a research institute of the American military, developed such a computer
network. In October 1969, two computers in two scientific institutes in the
U.S. were connected with one another [10].
After a few months, two
more computers were connected to this network, which was called the ARPANet. In
1972 – when the network included 23 computers – electronic mail, or e-mail, was
developed. At the end of the 1970s, the discussion groups called newsgroups
came into existence.
Between the 1970s and
1983, the ARPANet was connected to further networks. The large new network that
resulted from these connections was called the Internet since it connected
several networks with one another. Also in this year, an address system was
established that allowed computers on the Internet to have names rather than
the numbers by which they had previously been identified. Gradually, more and
more countries connected to the Internet, and by 1988, more than 50,000
computers were connected to this network. Until this point, the Internet was used
primarily by the academic world. In 1989, an Englishman invented web pages,
that is, pages on the World Wide Web. In
A quick Internet terminology overview
The Internet is a network
of computers spanning the globe. This communication structure is a system
connecting more than fifty million people in countries around the world. A
global Web of computers, the Internet allows individuals to communicate with
each other. Often called the World Wide Web, the Internet provides a quick and
easy exchange of information and is recognized as the central tool in this
Information Age.
The Internet is a computer
network made up of thousands of networks worldwide. No one knows exactly how
many computers are connected to the Internet. It is certain, however, that
these number in the millions and are growing.
No one is in charge of the
Internet. There are organizations which develop technical aspects of this
network and set standards for creating applications on it, but no governing
body is in control. The Internet backbone, through which Internet traffic
flows, is owned by private companies.
All computers on the
Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP.
Computers on the Internet use a client/server architecture. This means that the
remote server machine provides files and services to the user's local client
machine. Software can be installed on a client computer to take advantage of
the latest access technology.
An Internet user has
access to a wide variety of services: electronic mail,
file transfer, vast information resources, interest group membership,
interactive collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting,
breaking news, shopping opportunities, and much more.
The Internet consists
primarily of a variety of access protocols. Many of these
protocols feature programs that allow users to search for and retrieve material
made available by the protocol.
Common Internet Information Services
World
Wide Web
The World
Wide Web (abbreviated as the Web or WWW) is a system of Internet servers
that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single
interface. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet is accessible
on the Web [11]. This includes
e-mail, FTP, Telnet, and Usenet News. In addition to these, the World Wide Web
has its own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. These protocols
will be explained later in this document.
The World Wide Web
provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This creates a
convenient and user-friendly environment. It is not necessary to be conversant
in these protocols within separate, command-level environments, as was typical
in the early days. The Web gathers together these protocols into a single
system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with
multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is the fastest-growing
component of the Internet.
The operation of the Web
relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. HyperText
is a document containing words that connect to other documents. These words are
called links and are selectable by the user. A single hypertext document can
contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web, words or graphics
may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links may or
may not follow a logical path, as each connection is programmed by the creator
of the source document. Overall, the Web contains a complex virtual web of
connections among a vast number of documents, graphics, videos, and sounds.
Producing hypertext for
the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText
Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to
accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and
bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics and multimedia may also be
incorporated into an HTML document.
The World Wide Web
consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links to documents
and resources throughout the Internet.
The Web provides a vast
array of experiences including multimedia presentations, real-time
collaboration, interactive pages, radio and television broadcasts, and the
automatic "push" of information to a client computer. Programming
languages such as Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, Cold Fusion and XML are
extending the capabilities of the Web. A growing amount of information on the
Web is served dynamically from content stored in databases. The Web is
therefore not a fixed entity, but one that is in a constant state of
development and flux.
E-mail
Electronic mail, or e-mail, allows
computer users locally and worldwide to exchange messages. Each user of e-mail
has a mailbox address to which messages are sent. Messages sent through e-mail
can arrive within a matter of seconds.
A powerful aspect of
e-mail is the option to send electronic files to a person's e-mail address.
Non-ASCII files, known as binary files, may be attached to e-mail messages.
These files are referred to as MIME attachments. MIME stands for Multimedia
Internet Mail Extension, and was developed to help e-mail software handle a
variety of file types. For example, a document created in Microsoft Word can be
attached to an e-mail message and retrieved by the recipient with the
appropriate e-mail program. Many e-mail programs, including Eudora, Netscape
Messenger, and Microsoft Outlook, offer the ability to read files written in
HTML, which is itself a MIME type [11].
Telnet
Telnet is a program that allows you to log into
computers on the Internet and use online databases, library catalogs, chat
services, and more. There are no graphics in Telnet sessions, just text. To
Telnet to a computer, you must know its address [11]. This can consist of words (locis.loc.gov) or numbers
(140.147.254.3). Some services require you to connect to a specific port on the
remote computer. In this case, type the port number after the Internet address.
Example: telnet nri.reston.va.us 185.
Telnet is available on the
World Wide Web. Probably the most common Web-based resources available through
Telnet have been library catalogs, though most catalogs have since migrated to
the Web. A link to a Telnet resource may look like any other link, but it will
launch a Telnet session to make the connection. A Telnet program must be
installed on your local computer and configured to your Web browser in order to
work.
With the increasing
popularity of the Web, Telnet has become less frequently used as a means of
access to information on the Internet.
FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is
both a program and the method used to transfer files between computers.
Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer files from thousands
of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account. FTP sites
contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, course
work, data sets, and more [11].
If your computer is
directly connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, you can use one of
several PC software programs, such as WS_FTP for Windows, to conduct a file
transfer.
FTP transfers can be performed
on the World Wide Web without the need for special software. In this case, the
Web browser will suffice. Whenever you download software from a Web site to
your local machine, you are using FTP.
E-mail
discussion groups
One of the benefits of the
Internet is the opportunity it offers to people worldwide to communicate via
e-mail. The Internet is home to a large community of individuals who carry out
active discussions organized around topic-oriented forums distributed by
e-mail. These are administered by software programs. Probably the most common
program is the listserv.
A great variety of topics
are covered by listservs, many of them academic in nature. When you subscribe
to a listserv, messages from other subscribers are automatically sent to your
electronic mailbox. You subscribe to a listserv by sending an e-mail message to
a computer program called a listserver. Listservers are located on computer
networks throughout the world. This program handles subscription information
and distributes messages to and from subscribers. You must have a e-mail
account to participate in a listserv discussion group.
Usenet
news
Usenet News is a global electronic bulletin board system
in which millions of computer users exchange information on a vast range of
topics. The major difference between Usenet News and e-mail discussion groups
is the fact that Usenet messages are stored on central computers, and users
must connect to these computers to read or download the messages posted to
these groups. This is distinct from e-mail distribution, in which messages
arrive in the electronic mailboxes of each list member [11].
Usenet itself is a set of
machines that exchanges messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums,
called newsgroups. Usenet administrators control their own sites, and decide
which (if any) newsgroups to sponsor and which remote newsgroups to allow into
the system.
There are thousands of
Usenet newsgroups in existence. While many are academic in nature, numerous
newsgroups are organized around recreational topics. Much serious
computer-related work takes place in Usenet discussions. A small number of
e-mail discussion groups also exist as Usenet newsgroups.
The Usenet newsfeed can be
read by a variety of newsreader software programs. For example, the Netscape
suite comes with a newsreader program called Messenger. Newsreaders are also
available as standalone products.
Usenet is not as popular
nowadays as it once was. Blogs and RSS feeds are newer modes of communication
that have caught the interest of Internet users.
Chat
& Instant messaging
Chat programs allow users on the Internet to
communicate with each other by typing in real time. They are sometimes included
as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the "chat room"
to exchange comments and information about the topics addressed on the site.
Chat may take other, more wide-ranging forms. For example, America Online is
well known for sponsoring a number of topical chat rooms.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
is a service through which participants can communicate to each other on
hundreds of channels. These channels are usually based on specific topics.
While many topics are frivolous, substantive conversations are also taking
place. To access IRC, you must use an IRC software program.
A variation of chat is the
phenomenon of instant messaging. With instant messaging,
a user on the Web can contact another user currently logged in and type a
conversation. Most famous is America Online's Instant Messenger. ICQ, MSN and
Yahoo also offer chat programs [11].
Connection to the Internet
There are several
different ways of being connected to the Internet. At its heart are the
computers that offer some service or other to other Internet users. These
computers are a permanent part of the Internet. They are connected to the net
24 hours a day, so they can always be used. These computers are called servers or hosts and are usually owned by
companies or organizations. Servers can contain web pages, transport electronic
mail, or carry out a number of other functions [10].
Figure 191. End-user Internet connection
The majority of computers
are not servers, but computers that are only connected to the Internet when the
user wishes. These computers do not contain anything that other users can
access. By far the largest number of private Internet users are in this group.
To use the Internet in
this way, you need to attach a modem or LAN to your
computer. A modem allows a computer to communicate with another computer using
the telephone system. Via your modem you call your Internet service provider
(ISP), which is a firm you have paid to give you a connection to the Internet.
If an ordinary telephone does not give you a fast enough connection, there are
many other options: ISDN, ADSL, cable modems that connect via cable TV,
satellite connections or even a permanent Internet connection. All of these
give much better and faster net access than is possible via an ordinary modem.
The Computer for Internet user
Of course the first thing
you need is a computer, like a PC or a Macintosh. In theory, you can access the
Internet with other types of computer, but in practice doing so is likely to be
problematic as it will probably be difficult to find the appropriate software.
Ideally you should have a
graphical user interface on your computer. For the PC this usually means that
you are using either Windows or Linux operation systems. As with everything else, the bigger and faster your
computer is the better, but you do not have to have the newest and smartest
machine. As long as it is powerful enough to run Windows, you will enjoy
yourself roaming around the Internet.
The connection to the Internet
You’ll need a device that
can connect your computer to the Internet. This can be a normal modem or a
so-called ISDN modem – both of these devices use the normal telephone
connection [10]. But you could also
use a so-called cable modem, which uses the TV cable network. Finally, there is
the DSL technology – in this case the telephone connection is specially configured
so that it offers you a particular and extremely fast connection to the
Internet.
The
normal modem
A modem
is a device that allows your computer to use the telephone system. A modem is
an absolute necessity because the signals from the computer need to be changed
into a type that can be transported over telephone lines. A normal modem is
also called an analog modem, in contrast to other types of modems that use
digital technology, like the ISDN devices described below.
The connection with the
Internet is activated when your computer calls the telephone number of your
Internet provider. This is how your computer gets connected to the provider,
which is immediately connected to the Internet.
There are two types of
modem. An internal modem is an expansion card that is
built into the computer. An external modem is a small box
that sits next to your computer. Both types of modem have a cable to a plug
that should be put into the telephone socket in your wall.
While you’re connected to
the Internet, you can’t use the telephone, since your modem is using the
telephone line. Also, nobody will be able to call you. Modems come with
different speeds, measured in BPS (bits per seconds). A slower modem means a larger telephone bill
for the same result. The 56.600
BPS modems are the fastest.
ISDN
modem
An ISDN modem is a piece
of equipment which, if you have an ISDN subscription, can be an alternative to
an ordinary modem.
Using an ISDN modem and
line gives you a much faster Internet connection, and most systems also give
you two telephone connections, so you can still use your ordinary telephone to
call out or receive calls while you are on the Internet.
ISDN modems are more
expensive than ordinary modems, and an ISDN telephone line costs more than an
ordinary (analogue) line.
Cable
modems
More and more cable TV
companies are offering Internet access via the cable that brings your TV signal
into the house and a cable modem, which connects your PC to this cable [10]. Your cable-TV signal has nothing to do with
your telephone line, so you can call in and out while you are on the Internet.
This type of connection is much faster than either ordinary or ISDN modems, and
no more expensive to use, even though it may be expensive to set up. If the
service is available in your area, it is well worth investigating it.
When you open your
Internet connection, it runs from your computer into the cable modem and then
over the cable network to the Internet provider, whose concern is the further
connection to the Internet.
Often, it’s the case that
you won’t have to buy the cable modem, but instead, you’ll rent it as part of
your Internet subscription with the cable network provider.
The advantages of a cable
modem are its high speed and the fact that it leaves your telephone connection
free. The disadvantage is that you must have a contract with a cable network
provider; most of the time, there is a regional monopoly, so you’ll only be
able to find one provider.
There are also cable
connections that only do the deed “halfway.” Here, you get data over the cable
from the Internet, but you must send your own data to the Internet using a
normal modem. This solution is not nearly as good as a true cable solution,
especially as it requires both normal and cable modems. Don’t choose it unless
you really need a fast Internet connection and you don’t have any other choice.
ADSL-modem
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
is a new type of Internet connection, which is much faster than either analog
or ISDN. The DSL technology modifies the telephone connection so that it
becomes new kind of connection that can
process telephone calls and fast Internet connections simultaneously. A DSL
connection requires a special DSL modem.
Not everyone can use DSL.
In general, only customers who don’t live too far from the central telephone
station can use it. It’s unlikely, therefore, that you’ll find DSL connections
in rural areas.
There are different
versions of DSL connections: ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line), SDSL,
HDSL, etc [10]. However, the
details are not so important – what’s important is which products are available
where you live. Sometimes, these technologies are called xDSL – the x signifies
that you’re talking about one of these many different technologies.
A DSL connection means a
very fast connection from the Internet to your computer, but often, the
connection from your computer to the net is somewhat slower. This is not so
important as you might think, as most of the traffic is from the net to your
computer.
In contrast to the other
types of connections, a DSL connection is permanent. That is, you’re on the net
as soon as you turn your computer on – you don’t have to dial up an access
provider. There are no further telephone charges, but for that, the DSL
subscription is quite expensive. It’s also possible that there will be a charge
for traffic over and above a certain limit – whatever goes over that limit must
be paid for separately. So if you fetch many programs or a lot of film and
music files from the Internet, your usage will probably drive up the
subscription charge.
DSL has the advantages
that whenever your computer is turned on, you’re on the Internet, and you don’t
have to pay any telephone charges. The disadvantages are that it may not be
offered where you live, and installation and subscription charges tend to be
quite high.
Fixed
(dedicated) Internet access.
The best Internet
connection is a fixed or dedicated line. Instead of using the telephone or TV
cable, you install a cable that connects you directly to the Internet. You
never have to ‘connect to the Internet’; as soon as you switch on your computer
you are on. This is the type of Internet connection most businesses use. There
are no charges per minute, nor any hassle with using the telephone at the same
time.
If you forget about the
price, there is no doubt that a dedicated line is better than any other
alternative. Unfortunately, such lines are usually very expensive, both to set
up and in monthly charges, so usually only commercial operations can afford
them.
Individual users are better
off with a DSL connection – if they can get one – since it offers nearly all of
the advantages of a dedicated connection.
What
should I choose?
For most people, the
choice is simpler than it might seem from what you have just read. In practice,
the majority of people can only choose between an ordinary, analog modem or
ISDN. ISDN is better, but a little more expensive. If you surf the net a lot,
ISDN is a good choice. The third alternative is a cable modem, and if this
option is available in your area, then use it. It is may be slightly more
expensive to set up than analog or ISDN, but it is much better to use.
At the time of writing a
dedicated line is not a realistic alternative for individual users, but this
could easily change, so keep your eye on the news.
Understanding Internet Service Providers
The next step is an
Internet account with an Internet service provider (ISP).
An Internet account is like your telephone account: you pay a firm to provide
you with a connection to the Internet, just as you pay a telephone company to
provide you with a telephone connection [10].
Today, there are many
ISPs, which can vary significantly in price and quality.
If you’re using a cable modem, you probably won’t have a choice between various
providers – in this case, the local cable company is the only possible
provider. The question then is whether it’s worth the price.
If you’re using DSL, then your computer is permanently connected to the Internet
– at least whenever it’s turned on. Only a few providers offer this type of
connection – so a price comparison shouldn’t be too difficult. When making your
decision, consider the subscription price, connection speed, and potential
restrictions on data traffic.
If you’re using a normal modem or ISDN, then you have many possibilities
to choose from – beware, it’s a jungle out there!
A number of ISPs are also
telephone companies, and use their own lines for Internet access, so you use
them instead of your usual telephone company. In practice this means that you
use a special number prefix in front of the number you call for your Internet
access. You pay a special ‘Internet’ minute charge for use of the line, and get
a bill from your ISP instead of the telephone company. This charge is usually
lower than the price your ordinary telephone company would have charged you for
the same amount of telephone usage.
Some ISPs offer you
totally free Internet access. But then you have to use
their lines to call up the Internet. This is actually an excellent way of doing
things for some people. It costs you nothing to get going, you can change your
ISP any time you like, and you have only paid for the time you have actually
spent on the net.
The price is not the only
thing to be taken into consideration. It is also a good idea to see what your
subscription includes. Does your ISP supply any programs? Is there a manual? Is
there telephone support? If you do not already have a modem, it can be a good
idea to buy a package that includes modem, Internet account and a program pack.
And it is always a good idea to ask others about the experiences they have had
with their ISP. Some have too few modems and a low capacity, making it
difficult to connect to them, and slow to use the Internet when you eventually
do get through.
Understanding the World Wide Web
The World
Wide Web (usually known as ‘the web’) is a system
of Internet servers that supports hypertext to access several Internet
protocols on a single interface. The World Wide Web is often abbreviated as the
Web or WWW.
The World Wide Web was developed
in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee of the European Particle Physics Lab (CERN) in
Switzerland. The initial purpose of the Web was to use networked hypertext to
facilitate communication among its members, who were located in several
countries. Word was soon spread beyond CERN, and a rapid growth in the number
of both developers and users ensued. In addition to hypertext, the Web began to
incorporate graphics, video, and sound. The use of the Web has reached global
proportions and has become a defining aspect of human culture in an amazingly
short period of time.
The
internet protocols series
Almost every protocol type
available on the Internet is accessible on the Web. Internet protocols are sets of rules that allow for intermachine
communication on the Internet. The following is a sample of major protocols
accessible on the Web [10]:
·
E-mail (Simple Mail Transport Protocol or SMTP) -
Distributes electronic messages and files to one or more electronic mailboxes
·
Telnet (Telnet Protocol) - Facilitates login to a
computer host to execute commands
·
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - Transfers text or
binary files between an FTP server and client
·
Usenet (Network News Transfer Protocol or NNTP) -
Distributes Usenet news articles derived from topical discussions on newsgroups
·
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) - Transmits
hyptertext over networks. This is the protocol of the Web.
Many other protocols are
available on the Web. To name just one example, the Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) allows users to place a telephone call over the Web.
The World Wide Web
provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This creates a
convenient and user-friendly environment. Once upon a time, it was necessary to
be conversant in these protocols within separate, command-level environments.
The Web gathers these protocols together into a single system. Because of this
feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with multimedia and advanced
programming languages, the Web is by far the most popular component of the Internet.
Hypertext
and Links: the motion of the Web
The operation of the Web
relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information
retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other
documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A
single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context
of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images,
video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection
is created by the author of the source document. Overall, the Web contains a
complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of documents, graphics,
videos, and sounds.
Producing hypertext for
the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText
Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to
accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and
bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics may also be incorporated
into an HTML document.
Pages on
the Web
The World Wide Web
consists of files, called pages or Web
pages, containing information and links to resources throughout the
Internet.
Web pages can be created
by user activity. For example, if you visit a Web search engine and enter
keywords on the topic of your choice, a page will be created containing the
results of your search. In fact, a growing amount of information found on the
Web today is served from databases, creating temporary Web pages "on the fly"
in response to user queries.
Access to Web pages may be
accomplished by [10]:
1.
Entering
an Internet address and retrieving a page directly
2.
Browsing
through pages and selecting links to move from one page to another
3.
Searching
through subject directories linked to organized collections of Web pages
4.
Entering
a search statement at a search engine to retrieve pages on the topic of your
choice
A web site
is a collection of pages centred around a particular subject, company,
organisation, service or person. A web site can be many thousands of pages, or
very few. The web pages are usually all located on one web server. A web site
always has an entrance page, presenting the site and working as a starting
point for navigating around the pages on the site. This kind of entrance page
is usually called a home page. This home page is usually some sort of welcome,
perhaps containing a map of the entire web site together with buttons or links
to navigate around the pages, and information on who owns the site. The home
page is usually the page that is sent if you just type in the address of the
web server without giving a file name. Some examples of web sites include
Microsoft at (www.microsoft.com), Buckingham palace (www.royal.gov.uk), and the web directory Yahoo (www.yahoo.com).
A web page does not look
the same for every user. Its appearance depends upon:
·
The user’s computer.
The size of their screen and the different options they have chosen can have a
huge effect on the appearance of a web page. Colors and objects like buttons
and text fields can appear different according to whether the computer is a PC
or a Macintosh.
·
The preferences chosen in the web browser. The user has a lot of control over how a web page
should be shown. They can choose between different colors and fonts (letter
styles), and specify that pictures should not be displayed. They can also alter
the height and width of the browser window, forcing the web page to be
displayed within these measurements.
·
Web browser. The
three most used browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox.
There are certain differences between these browsers, which mean that a web
page does not appear the same in both. There can also be a huge difference
between the appearance of a web page in a new and an old version of a browser.
·
Web browser accessories. There are certain special accessories for browsers, called plugins, which allow the browser to display special types of
file, which they otherwise could not show. There can be a huge difference
between the appearance of a web page depending on which plug-ins the user has
installed.
Figure 192. Simple web-site
structure
Web pages
come from a web server
When you tell your web
browser to display a page, it connects to the web server containing
that particular page. A web server is a computer containing web pages and a
program that administers users’ access to them.
The browser asks the
server for a particular page, and if the server has that page, it is sent from
the server to the browser. In technical terms, the web browser downloads
the web page. As the elements that make up the page (text, pictures and
so on) arrive at the browser, it displays them. As soon as everything is
collected, the connection to the server is broken. If the user wants to see
another web page on the same server, the browser connects again. Several users
can collect the same web page simultaneously without any problem.
Retrieving
documents on the Web: the URL and Domain Name System
To be able to see a
particular web page, you have to be able to find it among the many millions of
others spread around the Internet. This is done using a URL (stands for Uniform Resource Locator) [10]. The URL
specifies the Internet address of a file stored on a host computer connected to
the Internet. Every file on the Internet, no matter what its access protocol,
has a unique URL. Web browsers use the URL to retrieve the file from the host
computer and the specific directory in which it resides. This file is
downloaded to the user's client computer and displayed on the monitor connected
to the machine.
URLs are translated into
numeric addresses using the Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS is a worldwide system of servers that
stores location pointers to Web sites. The numeric address, called the IP
(Internet Protocol) address, is actually the "real" URL. Since
numeric strings are difficult for humans to use, alphneumeric addresses are
employed by end users. Once the translation is made by the DNS, the browser can
contact the Web server and ask for a specific file located on its site.
Anatomy
of a URL
This is the format of the
URL
[10]:
protocol://host/path/filename
Here is an example of an URL address:
http://www.lego.com/gb/login.html
The first time you see a
URL, it looks very confusing, but in fact it is built up very logically. It
contains the abbreviation http followed by the name of the computer containing
the web page, and then the name and location of the page.
|
http:// |
This is the name of the protocol used to send the information between
the server and your computer. A protocol is a set of rules specifying how
communication between computers should take place. Ordinary web pages are
sent using Hy-perText Transport Protocol, so most URLs start with the
abbreviation http. The name of the protocol is always followed by a colon and
two slashes (//). As nearly all addresses start with http://, it is often
left out when an address is given. It is unnecessary to include it when you
type an address in most browsers. |
|
www.lego.com |
The address of a web server. Most computers that have permanent access
to the Internet -- so this includes web servers - have an address consisting
of a number of words, separated by full stops (called dots). In this case,
the address of the computer is www.lego.com. See below for how the computer’s
address is built up. |
|
/gb/ |
The position of the web page’s folder (directory) on the server. Names
of folders are separated by slashes (not back-slashes as in DOS). In this
case, the web page is contained in a folder called gb. There is a difference between large and small
letters. |
|
login.html |
The file name of the web page. The .html extension shows that it is
just an ordi-nary web page. Most web pages have either a .html or .htm.
extension. This stands for HyperText Mark-up Language and shows that the file
is in that for-mat. There is a difference between large and small letters, so
login.htmlis NOT the same file as Login.HTML. |
Computer
addresses
Computers with a direct
connection to the Internet have an address consisting of two or more words or
abbreviations, separated by dots. In the URL shown above, the computer’s
address looks like this [10]:
www.lego.com
Here are some more
examples of addresses of computers:
www.dr.dk
imv.aau.dk
herx1.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de
www.cnn.com
home.netscape.com
|
www. |
Addresses are read from left to right. The first part of the address
is the name of the particular computer. As many computers on the Internet are
part of the World Wide Web, it is very usual that they are called www, but
there can also be other names, as shown in the examples above. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
lego. |
The next part of the name shows which organization owns or operates
the com-puter. There is usually only one part, but sometimes there are
several parts, sepa-rated by dots to localize the address still further. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
com |
The last part of an address is usually a country code, showing in
which country the computer is. Here are some of the most common country
codes:
You might imagine that the country code for the
The com and org extensions
are not limited to the |
How to access the World Wide Web: Web Browsers
To access the World Wide
Web, you must use a Web browser. A browser is a software program that allows
users to access and navigate the World Wide Web. A browser
is a program that allows you to view documents which are written in HTML (HyperText Markup Language). There are two types of
browsers:
Graphical: Text, images, audio, and video are retrievable
through a graphical software program such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and
Netscape. These browsers are available for Windows, Apple, Linux and other
operating systems. Navigation is accomplished by pointing and clicking with a
mouse on highlighted words and graphics.
You can install a
graphical browser on your computer. For example, Internet Explorer is a part of
the Windows operating system, and is also available on the Microsoft site. Firefox
is available for downloading from http://www.mozilla.org and Netscape is
available from http://home.netscape.com/.
Text: Lynx is a browser that provides access to the Web in text-only mode.
Navigation is accomplished by highlighting emphasized words in the screen with
the arrow up and down keys, and then pressing the forward arrow (or Enter) key
to follow the link. In these days of graphical browsers, it may be hard to
believe that Lynx was once very popular.
Extending
the Browser: Plug-Ins
Software programs may be
configured to a Web browser in order to enhance its capabilities. When the
browser encounters a sound, image or video file, it hands off the data to other
programs, called plug-ins, to run or display the file [11]. Working in conjunction with plug-ins, browsers can offer a seamless
multimedia experience. Many plug-ins are available for free.
File formats requiring
plug-ins are known as MIME types. MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension,
and was originally developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of binary
(non-ASCII) file attachments. The use of MIME has expanded to the Web. For
example, the basic MIME type handled by Web browsers is text/html associated
with the file extention .html.
A common plug-in utilized
on the Web is the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Acrobat Reader allows you to view
documents created in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). These documents
are the MIME type "application/pdf" and are associated with the file
extension .pdf. When the Acrobat Reader has been downloaded to your computer,
the program will open and display the file requested when you click on a
hyperlinked file name with the suffix .pdf. The latest versions of the Acrobat
Reader allow for the viewing of documents within the browser window.
Web browsers are often
standardized with a small suite of plug-ins, especially for playing multimedia
content. Additional plug-ins may be obtained at the browser's Web site, at
special download sites on the Web, or from the Web sites of the companies that
created the programs.
Once a plug-in is
configured to your browser, it will automatically launch when you choose to
access a file type that it uses.
The experience of the Web
Today's World Wide Web
presents an ever-diversified experience of multimedia, programming languages,
and real-time communication. There is no question that it is a challenge to
keep up with the rapid pace of developments. The following presents a brief
description of some of the more important trends to watch.
Multimedia
The Web has become a
broadcast medium. It is possible to listen to audio and video over the Web,
both pre-recorded and live. For example, you can visit the sites of news
organizations and view the same videos shown on the nightly news. Several
plug-ins are available for viewing these videos.
At one time, the entire
multimedia file had to be downloaded before viewing. Since these types of files
tend to be quite large, download times can be lengthy. This problem has been
answered by a revolutionary development in multimedia capability: streaming
media. In this case, audio or video files are played as they are downloading,
or streaming, into your computer. Only a small wait, called buffering, is
necessary before the file begins to play.
The Windows Media Player,
RealPlayer and QuickTime plug-ins play streaming audio and video files [11]. Extensive files such as interviews, speeches and hearings work very
well with these players. They are also ideal for the broadcast of real-time
events. These may include live radio and television broadcasts, concerts,
Web-only broadcasts, and so on.
Shockwave and Flash are plug-ins that provide another multimedia
experience. They offer the creation and implementation of an entire multimedia
display combining graphics, animation and sound.
Sound files, including
music, are also a part of the Web experience. Sound files may be incorporated
into Web sites, and are also available for downloading independent of Web site
visits.
Live cams are another aspect of the multimedia experience available on the Web.
Live cams are video cameras that send their data in real time to a Web server.
These cams may appear in all kinds of locations, both serious and whimsical: an
office, on top of a building, a scenic locale, a special event, and so on.
Real-Time Communication
Text, audio and video
communication can occur in real time on the Web. This capability allows people
to conference and collaborate in real time. In general, the faster the Internet
connection, the more successful the experience.
At its simplest, chat programs allow multiple users to type to each
other in real time [11]. Internet Relay Chat
and America Online's Instant Messenger are prime examples of this type of
program. The development of a messenging protocols is underway. Such a protocol
would allow for the expansion of this capability throughout the Internet.
More enhanced real-time
communication offers an audio and/or video component. CU-See Me is a sotware
programs of this type. Even more elaborate are programs that allow for true real-time
collaboration. Microsoft's
NetMeeting and Netscape's Conference (available with Communicator) are good
examples of this.
Current Trends: Blogs and RSS
The Web is a welcoming
medium for experimentation and user participation. It is becoming easier to
post Web content and share comments with other users. The idea of the Web site
is still very much alive, but Web participation is taking new forms and being
driven by new technologies. Here are two of the latest trends.
Blogs: A blog is an easy-to-create Web site that allows users to share their
thoughts with the world managed by a lightweight content management system [11]. The word "blog" comes from
"Weblog" because a blog consists of a signed and dated log of
individual postings. The topic of the blog can be anything, from the personal
to the professional. A blog is what you make of it.
What is important about
blogs is the content management system that manages the content. This system
can offer a variety of features that can make the blog a useful tool. Examples
include a calendar view of postings, organization of postings into categories,
archived postings, options to send e-mail notification of new postings, and so
on.
Blogging can be an
interactive activity. Readers can add comments to a blogger's postings, other
can respond, and a conversation ensues. Lately, bloggers have become well-known
commentators on the political scene, but blogging can encompass any topic or no
topic at all. If the blogging software allows it, bloggers can use RSS to
distribute their postings.
RSS:
RSS allows people to place news and other announcement-type items into a simple
XML format that can then be pushed to RSS readers and Web pages [11]. The initials RSS can stand for different
things, including Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. Users can
subscribe to the RSS newsfeeds of their choice, and then have access to the
updated information as it comes in. RSS is used for all kinds of purposes,
including the news itself and announcing new content on Web sites.
RSS content may be read by
using an RSS reader, or aggregator. This is usually free software that you can
install on your computer that posts new items and stores old ones in a
graphical interface. An RSS reader similar to e-mail software in that it
displays incoming items and can store content for offline reading. Subscribing
to a newsfeed is usually as simple as entering the address of the RSS document.
It is also possible to
subscribe to and read your own collection of RSS feeds on Web sites devoted to
this purpose. Bloglines is one such example. The
advantage here is that you can access your RSS feeds from any computer that is
connected to the Web.
Using and Customizing Internet Explorer.
Basic questions
1.
What is
the browser? Now browser software you know?
2.
Now user
can start the Internet Explore?
3.
Describe
the main parts of the Internet Explore user interface.
4.
How
buttons present on the IE toolbar?
5.
How users
can shange the settings of the Internet Explorer? How many main sections are
present on the General tab of the IE Settings dialodue box?
6.
What is
the Favorites in IE? How user can add the site saddress to the Favorites?
Starting Internet Explorer
You have quite a number of
choices of how to start up your browser (Figure 193) [1].
·
Quick Launch:
Starting with IE4+ and Win98+ a new area appears on the Taskbar.
This area contains shortcuts to several programs, including Internet Explorer.
·
Desktop icon:
Somewhere on your Desktop there is an icon for IE, by
default.
·
Start menu: Open
the Start menu and then Programs.
The icon for IE is probably in the area below the folders and also in the
folder named Internet Explorer.
Figure 193. Different ways
for the Internet Exlorer launching
Since you are reading this
page in a browser, you probably already have your favorite method of opening
it! However, you should at least read through the steps below. Your particular
situation is not the only way to connect to the Internet. You need to be aware
of other situations so you won't be totally confused when you use a different
computer!
Internet Explorer window
Figure 194. Tne Internet
Explorer window
The Title
Bar shows the title of the page and the browser's name at the left. At
the right are the standard buttons: Minimize, Maximize, and Close.
The Menu
Bar contains cascading lists of commands.
Address Bar
Figure 195. The Address and
Links bars
The Address
bar shows the URL (Universal Resource Location), also
called the address, for the web page that is showing in
the browser's window. The Links bar is usually shown to
the right of the Address bar (Figure
195).
You can type a URL in the Address bar and press the ENTER key to display the page whose
location you typed.
The Go button is added to the
right of the Address bar in IE5. If you like the mouse
better than the keyboard, you can click the Go button
instead of pressing the ENTER key to open the page at the address in the Address bar.
The actual web page is shown
in the bottom part of the browser window. The
browser will put up scrollbars if the page is too wide or too tall to fit in
the window.
A link
to another web page, image, or file should look special. The default for a text
link is to underline it and color the text blue.
You click on a link to open its target in the browser.
Links Bar
The Links
bar is a convenient spot for shortcuts to your most frequently accessed
web pages. IE comes with some Microsoft sites already showing on the Links bar. Different versions will have somewhat different
sites listed. You can delete those and add your own sites [1].
You can see the links that
aren't visible to the right by scrolling the bar. Click on 
the
arrow at its right end.
To see links that are not
visible, click on 
the
double arrow at the right edge of the Links bar. A drop list appears.
Status
Bar
The Status
Bar talks back to you. On its left side you will see messages about what
browser is doing (Figure 196). The
most common message is "Done", which means that
the browser thinks it has finished downloading a web page.
Figure 196. The Internet
Explorer Status bar
Message
Area. The primary use of
the message area is to tell you what is happening as a web page loads. There
are several stages in the process and sometimes it seems to take forever!
Also, when the mouse
pointer hovers over a link, the message area will show what address is attached
to that link.
Some web authors use Javascript
to put their own message in the Status Bar. This can be helpful, but it is
often quite annoying since you can no longer see the link addresses.
|
When you see: |
the browser is: |
|
|
Looking for a site. You see this if the site is slow to respond, it
does not exist, or you are not connected to the Internet after all. In this
example the URL is mis-spelled, so the site does not exist. |
|
|
Contacting the site that it found. (Yeah!
it exists!!) |
|
|
Waiting for the site to send the data to the browser. |
|
|
Receiving data from the site. The progress bar will now show the
percent completed. |
|
|
Downloading parts of the page. Counts images and objects that have not
yet been received |
|
|
Finished loading. |
The message area is often
too short to completely show many of the messages completely. Use a large
resolution and run the browser maximized to get the best view of the messages.
In IE5 the Status Bar is
much smarter about how to use the space. The message area includes the progress
bar space until the progress bar is needed.
Progress
Bar. The dark blue area
expands as the page loads [1].
This gives you a visual indication that something is actually happening. The progress bar is only a rough indicator of
how much of a page the browser has received. Sometimes it grows longer while
nothing is actually downloaded. It is acting like a timer. Eventually, you'll
see an error message, if nothing is really happening.
Status
Icons. Various status
icons keep you informed of special circumstances.
The icon in the left status bar box shows a network drive with the
small red x shows. This means that you are working offline.
That is, your browser is not talking to the Internet. That is usually because
you are not connected, but you could choose to work
offline with File | Work offline.
This square is blank when you are connected.
The padlock in the right status bar box shows that a secure
transaction is going on. This means that the web site has taken special
precautions so that you can safely send them information like your credit card
number or other personal information. Of course you would not normally see both
of these icons at the same time!
Other special icons appear
more rarely. Each version of IE seems to add new status icons.
Privacy: The status bar shows an eye with the international sign for NO in the
middle status bar box when your privacy controls block something from an
Internet site. If you double-click the icon, a dialog appears that tells you
what was blocked.
Security
Zone. 
The
security zone refers to how trustworthy you feel a site is. You can adjust
settings at View | Internet Options...
| Security to help ensure that the browser does not load
pages that you think may be dangerous to your computer or your data [1]. There are 4 different zones and 4 levels of
security to choose from for each zone. The icons in IE4, IE5, and IE6 are
sometimes different.
The Internet Zone with Medium level security is
the default for all web pages. The browser will warn you before loading a page
with certain kinds of code in it.
The Intranet Zone is for pages inside your own
network. You would certainly trust these more than pages written by strangers!
The Trusted Zone is for sites you always trust.
IE won't warn you about actions that might be dangerous.
The Restricted Zone is for sites that you think
might damage your computer or your data.
IE
Toolbar
The toolbar
has buttons for the most commonly used
commands (Figure 197). When
the mouse is over a button, it will gain colors and look raised. Some buttons
won't show if the window size is small.
Figure 197. Toolbars in
different Inrenet Explorer version
|
Button |
Describe |
|
|
Back and Forward. These buttons move you back and forth, in
order, through pages you have visited during your current session with
Internet Explorer. The buttons will be grayed out if you haven't been
anywhere yet. Each has a drop list attached that shows the pages you have
visited, with respect to the page you are on right now. There are some pages where the Back button does not
seem to work. This problem is caused by script (a small computer program)
which ran when you left the previous page. In fact, you may never have even
seen the previous page if all it did was send you on to a page written for
your particular browser. When you use the Back button to return to the
previous page, the script runs again and sends you to the page you are trying
to leave! |
|
|
The Stop button stops the
browser from doing whatever it is doing, usually trying to load a web page. This is very useful when a page is taking too long
to display or if you just changed your mind about seeing the page. This
button won't stop all actions, like submitting a form that you filled out. |
|
|
The Refresh button loads the
displayed page again. Sometimes a page does not load completely the first
time. Or it may be a page that changes frequently, like one that gives news
or sports scores or stock market prices. When you return to a page you
have already seen, IE normally uses the copy it stored in a temporary storage
area, called the cache. Using the copy stored on the hard drive speeds up the
display. You can use the Refresh button to force the browser to look for a
newer version. The page should blank out and then reload from scratch. If you suspect that your browser is using an old
copy of a page, hold down the SHIFT key while you click the Refresh button.
This should force IE to look at the original page instead of the copy in the
cache. If a page has definitely changed (perhaps when you
are editing one of your own HTML pages), but the browser refuses to show the
new version, you should clear the browser's cache and then Refresh to make IE
go find the newest version of the page. ( Tools |
Internet Options... | General tab | Delete
Files... ) |
|
|
The Home button returns you to
the page that IE shows when it first opens. The default home page is one of Microsoft's own
pages, but you can change that to any page on the Internet or to one on your
own computer. It is handy to have a page of your own that has
links to the pages that you visit often. Your ISP or online service may have
a page for you to use as a Homepage. Often you can customize such a page by
choosing the background, style of buttons, and links to show. |
|
|
The Search button opens a pane
in the left of the browser which shows the search engine that you used last
from this window. |
|
The results are shown in the left pane. To see the
results you may have to widen the pane by dragging the right edge of the
pane. Or you can use the horizontal scrollbar at the bottom of the pane.
|
|
|
|
The Favorites button opens a
pane on the left of the browser of shortcuts to web pages. Clicking a
shortcut for a page opens the page in the browser. |
|
|
|
|
|
The History button opens a
pane in the left of the window which lists the web pages you have visited
recently. They are grouped by date. Click on a day and then on a folder for a
particular site. Click one of the links to see that page again. You must, of
course, be connected to the Internet unless the shortcut is to a file on your
own computer. This list is kept in the folder
|
|
|
Toggles the window to cover the entire
screen and back to the smaller size. This button was on the IE4 toolbar by default but is
not in later versions. You can add it to the toolbar in the Customize
dialog. [ View | Toolbars | Customize ] |
|
|
Opens your mail program, which
by default is Outlook Express. You can change what
program is opened with a setting in View |
Internet Options... | Programs |
|
|
Prints the current page. To get a dialog where you
can make some choices of what and how to print, use the Print...
command on the File menu. Starting with
IE5.5, you can preview what will print before you actually have to print. [ File | Print
Preview ] |
|
|
Opens the program that is associated with HTM and HTML
files for the command Edit. Notepad is the program
associated with editing HTML pages, by default. To change the program that opens the page for
editing, you must change the association. You change an association in
Windows from a My Computer or Explorer
window View | Folder
Options... | File Types . It can be tricky. |
|
|
The Messenger button opens MSN's Messenger Service in early versions and AOL Instant
Messenger in IE6. The messaging program notifies you when people you know are
online. You can send and receive messages. This button shows only if you have installed the
messaging software. |
C:\Windows\History
or C:\Documents and Settings\[yourusername]\Local Settings\History
Browser General Settings
The Internet
Options dialog View | Internet Options... or Tools | Internet Options... contains many different settings that
affect the way Internet Explorer (IE) behaves (Figure 198). Most
of these are not often changed from the default settings. In the Step-by-Step sections that follows, you will verify only those
settings that will allow IE to respond in the way the directions say that it
will
[1].
The General
tab has three main sections plus some buttons to optional areas:
Home page: sets what page will be displayed when IE
first opens. The default is a page from Microsoft.
The Use
Default button will restore this default setting. You can type in an
address to a different page or load a page and click the button Use
Current to use the page currently displayed in the browser as the new
Home page. If you don't want the assistance of a Home page, you can have IE
open a blank page by clicking the button Use blank.
A portal
can be a good choice for your home page. What makes a page a portal? It
contains services and links for the most common Internet tasks in a convenient
layout. Many major Internet sites are trying to become portals. They show news
headlines, weather, sports scores, a search box, and whatever else they think
you might want. These pages can get quite messy since they try to do so many
different things.
Temporary
Internet files: the files
that IE must store on your hard drive to display a web page. These files are
also called the browser's cache. The page will display
faster on a second visit if the files are already in the cache on the hard
drive. You normally want to keep these files around
for a few days at least. Too large a cache will slow down your browser. It can
take longer for the browser to check what it already has than it would have
taken to just download everything all over again.
Delete
Files: deletes all the
temporary files. You will need use this button if IE gets confused and
continues to load an old version of a page that you know has been changed.
If the browser seems
slower than usual, cleaning out these files may speed things up.
Figure 198. Internet Explorer
Browser General Settings
Settings...
allows you to control how
often IE checks for new versions of the files, how much space on the hard drive
can be used for these files, and where they are kept. If you have more than one
hard drive, it can speed loading to have the temporary files on a small drive.
More is not always better here! Too large a setting for the disk space will let
your cache build up too large, slowing down your browser.
History: a list of the pages you have seen recently.
The list can get very long very quickly. You should clear it from time to time.
You can clear the list manually here with the Clear History
button. You set the number of days for the computer to remember where you have
been here also.
Buttons for
defaults: give you some
control of the browser's default settings (what you will see if the web page
does not give specific directions).
The Accessibility button
has choices that let you override parts of the HTML code. This lets people with
visual handicaps force pages to use very large font sizes or high contrast
colors.
Font size settings are moved
to the menu View | Text Size
in Internet Explorer 5/6. You can choose between Largest, Larger,
Medium, Smaller, Smallest.
How to access resources on the Web with IE 6
1. If you
have the URL (address) of a Web page
Type the URL to go
directly to the page. IE 6 gives you two ways of doing this.
Type the URL in the Address bar at the top of the screen. To accomplish
this, click on the Address bar to highlight the current URL. Then type in the
new URL and press the Enter key.
Click on File/Open at the top left of the screen. A pop-up
window will appear with a text entry window. Within that window, type the URL
of the file you wish to retrieve. Press the Enter key [11].
2. If you
are on a Web page
Click on:
·
words or
images which change the shape of the mouse pointer from an arrow to a hand and
display a URL on the bottom of the screen when the mouse pointer is placed over
it
·
the blue
words on the display screen
·
the
purple words on the display screen (the purple color indicates that the
resource has been recently accessed on your terminal)
Note:
The color blue is generally the default color for text that contains a link,
and purple is the default color for text representing a link that has been
visited in the recent past. Nowadays, Web page creators are coloring their
links in all sorts of ways. The best way to figure out which text represents a
link is to position your mouse over the words and see if the pointer shape
changes from an arrow to a hand. The hand represents a link.
3. If you
want to use pre-installed links
IE 6 offers a collection
of Web sites in its Favorites collection. Click on Favorites on either the text bar or the tool bar at the
top of the screen to access these resources.
Navigating the Web with IE 6
IE 6 allows you to move
back and forth among the Web pages that you visit during a session.
To go
back to previous sites:
Click on the small Back left arrow on the navigation bar near the top
left corner of your screen. Each time you click on this arrow, you will return
to the next previous site that you visited. If you hold your mouse over the Back arrow, the title of the upcoming page will
briefly appear (Figure 199).
To skip farther back,
click on the small black triangle to the right of the word Back. This will bring up a list of pages you have
visited. Click on any one of these choices to return to the desired page. This
is the equivalent of clicking on the Back arrow several times [11].
To move
forward:
When you have returned to
previous sites with the Back arrow, you can go forward again by clicking
on the small right-pointing arrow next to the Back arrow. If you hold your mouse over this
arrow, the title of the upcoming page will briefly appear.
To move farther ahead,
click on the small black triangle to the right of the Forward arrow in the menu
bar at the top of the screen. This presents a list of several sites you have
visited. Click on any of the choices to return to the desired site. This is the
equivalent of clicking on the Forward arrow several times.
Figure 199. Using Back and
Forward buttons
Useful options on the menu bar
The menu bar at the top of
the screen includes some useful options. Here are a few highlights [11].
File/New/Window: You can open up a second copy of IE 6 by using this
feature. This allows you to visit more than one Web page at a time.
File/Edit with...: You can edit the current Web page using the editor of
your choice. Select the editor by going back to the Menu Bar and choosing Tools/Internet
Options/Programs. You
choices will be determined by software installed on your computer.
Edit/Find (on This Page): IE 6 allows you to do a text search of the document
on your screen. Choose this option and type in the word or phrase you wish to
search.
Tools/Show Related Links: IE 6 will display pages that are related in content
to the current page. This is a service of Alexa, a Web content and traffic
analysis company.
The Tools menu offers you many ways to customize IE 6.
Saving web documents for later use: download and print
You can download to disk,
email, or print the Web page on the IE 6 screen [11].
To
DOWNLOAD
1.
Click on File/Save
As (top left of screen). A
pop-up window will appear.
2.
Save in: Choose the desired drive.
3.
Save as type: Make sure you save the page to the file type
that will be useful to you. If you save the page as a Web page, you will need a
Web browser or HTML editor to view it. A text file (txt) can be viewed in a
word processing program such a Word or WordPerfect.
4.
Click on Save
To PRINT the entire document:
1.
Click on
the Print icon on the
Tool Bar.
2.
Click on OK.
Favorites
If you browse the Web very
much, you will find many sites that you might want to go back to someday.
Remembering the web addresses is entirely too hard for the normal brain! Your
web browser can keep a list for you that will keep the strain off your brain.
Most browsers record these bookmarks with an HTML file,
but not Internet Explorer.
You have the choice of
viewing your Favorites as cascading menus from the IE menu or as a hierarchy of
folders in the Favorites pane. You will no doubt find that you prefer one
method over the other.
Note. When using a shared computer, keep in mind
that other users may change your bookmarks. Copy your bookmarks.htm file or
your Favorites folder to a floppy disk as a backup.
View
Favorites
Pane: Click on the Favorites button
on the toolbar. A new pane appears on the left of the display area. Your
computer may have already folders besides the ones that come with IE. The advantage of this pane is that the links stay visible so you can
quickly choose a different one. The disadvantage is that
it reduces the space available for the page.
Menu:
Select the menu Favorites. A cascading menu opens. Do not click
on any of the choices. The menu has the advantage of
displaying quickly and it does not take up screen space after you choose a
link. Having to open and maneuver through the menu each time is its disadvantage.
Add to
Favorites: Drag and Drop to pane
1.
With the
any site displayed in the viewing area, drag the icon next to its address in the Address Bar down to the
Favorites pane. Do not drop yet.
2.
Hover over the Links folder until it opens and then move the pointer onto the
list. A heavy black line appears to show where the link will be dropped.
3.
Drop the link at the top of the list under Links. A new item appears, but not
at the top of the list.
4.
You can rename this link. For this, Right click on the new link and choose Rename.
5.
Type the name and press ENTER
Add to
Favorites: Right click menu
1.
In the left frame (not the left pane), right click on the any link.
2.
From the
popup menu select Add to Favorites...
The dialog Add Favorite opens.
3. Click on the button Create
in>>. The dialog box expands to let you choose a folder from the
folder tree or use the button to make a new folder.
4.
Click the button New Folder… and type a new folder nam.
5.
Click on OK.
With the new folder
selected, click on OK in the Add Favorite dialog. The dialog closes.
Note. Many framed documents don't work well outside
of their frames. There may be no way to get to other pages on the
original site. The page by itself may not make much sense.
Organize
Favorites
Once you have several
folders and shortcuts, you will want to reorganize them from time to time. A single
list gets too long to manage very quickly.
Using Favorites | Organize Favorites... you can create, move, and delete
folders and shortcuts (Figure 200). You
can also make these changes from Explorer or My Computer. After all, Organize Favorites
is actually a specialized My Computer window. The
shortcuts are stored in C:\Windows\Favorites.
You can drag or delete
shortcuts directly in the left pane in Internet Explorer or on the Favorites
menu, but you cannot create a folder directly on the menu.
Some special folders are
created inside Favorites when IE is installed. Of special
interest is the folder Links, which contains the links
that are shown on the Links bar. You can personalize this
bar simply by adding links to the sites you visit the most [1].
You can make a backup of
your Favorites by copying the folders and shortcuts to
another folder or to a floppy disk. You can select and copy several folders (or
all of them) at a time in an Explorer or My
Computer window. Then open an Explorer or My Computer window to your destination (folder or floppy drive)
and paste.
Figure 200. The Favorites
tool in the Internet Explorer
Electronic mail. Email software. Web-based mail.
Basic questions
1.
What is
the e-mail?
2.
Now user
can send and receive the e-mail messages?
3.
How
reliable is e-mail?
4.
How parts
contain Internet e-mail addresses?
5.
How use
the e-mail software to send, receive, and manage electronic messages?
6.
How user
can send files as Attachments and open it?
7.
What is
the web-based e-mail? It is advantages and disadvantages.
How It Works
Electronic mail, or e-mail, is the most
frequently used service on the Internet. You can send a message any time, any
where and the recipient can read it at his or her convenience. You can send the
same message to several people at the same time. You cn save time. E-mail is
fast, usually taking no more than a few minutes to be received. You can e-mail
electronic documents and the recipients can then edit and return revised
versions.
It
can take days to send a letter across the country and weeks to go around the
world. To save time and money, more and more people are using electronic mail.
It's fast, easy and much cheaper than the using the post office.
What is
e-mail? In its simplest form, e-mail is an electronic message sent from one
computer to another (Figure 201). You can send or receive personal and
business-related messages with attachments, such as pictures or formatted documents.
You can even send music and computer programs [12].
Let's
say you have a small business with sales reps working around the country. How
do you keep in contact without running up a huge phone bill? Or what about
keeping in touch with far-flung family members? E-mail is the way to go. It's
no wonder e-mail has become the most popular service on the Internet.
Follow
the Trail
Just
as a letter makes stops at different postal stations along its way, e-mail
passes from one computer, known as a mail server, to
another as it travels over the Internet. Once it arrives at the destination
mail server, it's stored in an electronic mailbox until the recipient retrieves
it. This whole process can take seconds, allowing you to quickly communicate
with people around the world at any time of the day or night.
Sending
and Receiving Messages
To
receive e-mail, you must have an account on a mail server. This is similar to
having an address where you receive letters. One advantage over regular mail is
that you can retrieve your e-mail from anywhere location. Once you connect to
your mail server, you download your messages to your computer.
To
send e-mail, you need a connection to the Internet and access to a mail server
that forwards your mail. The standard protocol used for sending Internet e-mail
is called SMTP, short for Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol. It works in conjunction with POP
servers. POP stands for Post Office Protocol.
When
you send an e-mail message, your computer routes it to an SMTP server. The
server looks at the e-mail address (similar to the address on an envelope),
then forwards it to the recipient's mail server, where it is stored until the
addressee retrieves it. You can send e-mail anywhere in the world to anyone who
has an e-mail address. Remember, almost all Internet service providers and all
major online services offer at least one e-mail address with every account
[12].
How
Reliable Is E-Mail?
E-mail
reaches the recipient most of the time, but delivery is not
guaranteed.
If
the message doesn't reach its destination the first time, the mail
server sends it again.
If
the message is not delivered, you usually receive a message
explaining the problem, along with the full text of the original
message. You can correct the problem-usually an incorrect e-mail address--and
resend it.
Anatomy of an E-Mail Message
E-mail
messages are similar to letters, with two main parts [12]:
The
header contains the name and address of the recipient,
the name and address of anyone who is being copied, and the subject of the
message. Some e-mail programs also display your name and address and the date
of the message.
The
body contains the message itself.
Just
like when sending a letter, you need the correct address. If you use the wrong
address or mistype it, your message will bounce back to you--the old Return to
Sender, Address Unknown routine.
When
you receive an e-mail, the header tells you where it came from, how it was
sent, and when. It's like an electronic postmark.
Unlike
a letter, which is sealed in an envelope, e-mail is not as private. It's more
like a post card. Messages can be intercepted and read by people who really
shouldn't be looking at it.
Understanding
E-Mail Addresses
Internet
e-mail addresses typically have two main parts:
First
there is the user name (professor) that refers to the
recipient's mailbox. Then there's an at sign (@). Next
comes the host name (learnthenet), also called the domain name. This refers to the mail server,
the computer where the recipient has an electronic mailbox. It's usually the
name of a company or organization.
The
end of the domain name consists of a dot (".") followed by three or more letters (such as .com and .gov) that indicate the top-level domain (TLD). This part of the domain name indicates
the type of organization or the country where the host server is located.
Here
are the top-level domains currently in use:
The
chart below (Figure 202) shows the difference between an e-mail address and
the address of a website, also known as a URL.
![[E-mail and Web Addresses]](Lesson_17%20Using%20Microsoft%20Internet%20Explorer%20to%20view%20Web-pages.files/image082.gif)
Figure 202. Difference
between an e-mail address and the address of a website
Using E-mail Software
The
software you use to send, receive, and manage electronic messages is called an e-mail client. (Most web browsers have with this software.) To
send an e-mail, you enter information similar to the heading of a typical
interoffice memo.
Sending
an E-Mail Message
Most
e-mail programs have many features in common. Once you
know one program, you can easily use others.
Launching
your e-mail program depends on which software you use. In some cases, you click
on the e-mail icon (often an envelope), or the Mail button on the browser toolbar, or choose the Send To option from one of the menus. To write a message, click
on the Compose Mail, New Message,
or similar button [12].
In
the new message window, type the e-mail addresses of the
recipients in the To field, or use the address book (a component of your e-mail program where you can
store frequently used e-mail addresses) to select one or more e-mail addresses
(Figure 203).
Figure 203. The E-mail
Message header
In
the CC field, enter the address of anyone you want to
receive a copy of the message. Type the e-mail address or choose it from your
address book. Enter the appropriate information into the BCC
field, if you want to send a blind copy and your program has this feature.
Type
the subject of the message now or wait until after you
have composed your message.
Then
type your message. You can edit it as you would modify a
word-processing document. You can also copy text from
another document and paste it into the message box.
Finally,
click on the Send button.
Reading
When
you launch your e-mail program, it usually shows you the messages you have
received. From here you can read, reply to, and manage your e-mail.
Messages
are organized in folders or boxes.
Received mail is typically kept in an Inbox; outgoing
mail is stored in an Outbox; sent mail is filed in a Sent box, and discarded mail may be kept in a Deleted
Mail box (Figure 204).
To
read an e-mail, you typically double-click on the envelope icon
or the Subject line of the message. This opens a new
window containing the header and body
of the message [12].
To
review mail in other folders or boxes, click or (double-click) on the folder.
Then click the message that interests you (Figure 205).
Replying
to E-mail Messages
After
you have read a message, you may decide to reply.
The
window with the e-mail you are reading typically has a Reply
or Re button. Click on this button to open a new window.
The To and Subject lines are
automatically filled in with the e-mail address of the sender and the subject
of the message.
You
might also have a Reply To All or similar button that
also opens a new window. In this case, all the addresses in the CC
list are included in the To and CC
lines.
|
Figure 204. The inbox folder in the E-mail application |
Figure 205. Typical e-mail message |
In
some programs, the original message appears automatically. Other programs have
a Quote or Include Original Message
button. By clicking on this button, the text of the original e-mail appears in
the body of the reply, usually marked in a different font or
color, or with a special character, such as the
greater than sign (>) at the beginning of each line.
You
can choose to place your reply before or after the original text.
To
respond to a series of ideas or questions, you can intersperse
your reply with the original text. Typically, your replies appear in a
different color or font.
Deciphering
Error Messages
If
an e-mail is returned to you, most likely it will contain an explanation.
User unknown: The message arrived at the
mail server, but the server couldn't find the recipient. Check the user name part of the e-mail address for errors and try sending
the message again. Also, double check the domain name to
ensure that you are sending it to the right organization.
Host unknown: Your mail server could not
find out the server's computer address based on the domain name.
Check the domain name in the e-mail address for errors and try again.
Message hasn't been delivered, but will try again. Your mail server
failed to deliver the message, but will continue to resend it. This error
message indicates a temporary communications problem that may clear up by
itself. For example, this message is generated when the recipient's mail server
is not functioning or is disconnected from the Internet.
Sending
Files As Attachments
In
addition to sending text messages, most e-mail programs allow you to attach
word-processing documents, spreadsheets, graphics, audio, video, and other
electronic files to your message.
To
attach a file (Figure 206) [12]:
1. Click on the Attachment or Include File icon, often
represented by a paper clip. This feature is often
located on the toolbar or on a pull-down menu.
2. Locate the file on
your computer's hard drive or other storage device from the window that
typically opens requesting the name of the file.
3. Select the file you
want from the file attachment window. An icon representing the file may appear
in the body of your message, or the name of the file appears in the Attachment line of your message window.
Files
sent as attachments usually need to be encoded. E-mail
software usually does this automatically. Encoding is not
the same as encryption. Encoding adds no security.
There
are several encoding schemes, such as MIME, UUencode, and BinHex. The recipient's
software must support the same encoding scheme in order
to decode your attachment.
Figure 206 . The e-mail message with attachment
Opening
Attachments
To
view an attached file, you can often click on the file icon or save the file to
your hard drive, then use the appropriate software application to open it.
Attached
files must be decoded. This usually happens
automatically.
With
some e-mail software, you open or save an attached file by double-clicking
on the icon for the file. This typically brings up a dialog box allowing
you to decide how you want to process the file.
Should
you open an attachment that looks like random characters and
symbols, it probably has not been decoded correctly. Alternatively, you
may be viewing it with the wrong software application.
If
decoding from your e-mail program doesn't work, you may need decoder
software, which is available at Simtel.Net. Save
the file to your hard drive, then run the decoder software to extract the file
from its MIME, UUencode, or BinHex form.
After
decoding, you may need to decompress the file. Some
e-mail programs do this automatically. Decompression software is also available
at Simtel.Net.
Caution: Your computer can contract a
virus when you decode an attached file. If you do not
know or trust the person who sent the e-mail, delete the
attachment to avoid infection [12].
Web-based E-Mail
Once
e-mail becomes an essential part of your life, you will want to check it often.
With a Web-based
e-mail account, you can do it from any computer connected to the Net, anywhere
on earth [13]. There's no need to lug around a laptop when you're traveling,
because you can access your e-mail from a computer at a friend's house, a hotel
business center or at one of the thousands of cybercafés that have sprung up
around the world.
Another
benefit of Web-based e-mail is that you can keep the same address for life.
Once you have an account, even if you change companies or switch Internet
service providers, the address remains yours.
How It
Works
With
client-based e-mail, like Outlook Express or Eudora, a software program running on your computer
accesses a remote mail server. With Web-based e-mail, to
send and receive messages, you access a website, so all you need is Internet access
and a web browser (Figure 207). Here's how to access your e-mail:
First,
log on to the site by entering your account name and password. Now you can read
your messages, send replies, forward messages, and send and view attachments.
Most services offer online address books to store your e-mail addresses and
contact information. You can also set up folders to manage your messages.
One
thing to keep in mind is that many free Web-based e-mail services limit the amount
of storage that they provide. For instance, Yahoo! Mail has a 1Gb limit. This may
sound like a lot, but if you receive loads of mail, particularly if it includes
attachments like photos and video clips, you will have to delete them
periodically to stay below the limit or pay for additional storage [13].
Setting
Up an Account
Establishing
a new e-mail account takes only a few minutes and couldn't be easier. You'll
have to provide information about yourself and choose an account name and
password. Your account name or ID becomes part of your e-mail address. If you
open a Hotmail account and choose "wiseguy" as your ID, your address
becomes "[email protected]." Account names can use letters and
numbers, such as "professor2000," can't contain any spaces, and are
limited in length, depending on the service.
Hundreds
of websites now offer free Web-based e-mail, so how do you decide which one to
go with? Think about this: We expect the postal service to deliver our letters
reliably every day and we trust it to keep our communications private. As you
come to depend more on e-mail for business and personal communications, having
reliable, trustworthy access is critical. You will have to evaluate each
service on its track record.
A
few services stand out for their longevity, reliability and friendliness. Our
top recommendations are [13]:
·
Gmail, from the popular search site: http://mail.google.com
·
Mail.com, which offers a
choice of addresses, such as europe.com and doctor.com: http://www.mail.com
·
Yahoo! Mail, from the popular
portal: http://mail.yahoo.com
Figure 207. The mailbox
window on the Yahoo!
Practical
example – How work with account on the Yahoo! Mail.
1. Run your web-browser (for example,
Microsoft Internet Explorer).
2. Open the web-portal Yahoo! For this in the address bar of the your web-browser type text www.yahoo.com and press Enter key. Some second
later the start page of the web-portal Yahoo! will be loaded.
3. Create an own mailbox on the Yahoo server.
Click on the reference Check Email on the start page of Yahoo! A new page will be opened. To create a new
mailbox, click on the reference Sign Up. A server will suggest to choose one of three possible variants of
mailbox:
Free of charge (Free Edition). Example of such address: you@ yahoo.com;
Custom Edition -
payment of such mailbox is $35 on a year. You will be able to have a home
address, for example: [email protected]:
Business Edition -
payment is $9.95 on a month, addresses givens for the different subsections of
firms, for example, [email protected].
Choose the first variant and click on the reference
Sign Me Up! A page will appear with a
form-questionnaire, where it is needed to fill follow information [13]:
|
Yahoo! ID |
Enter name of your mailbox |
|
Password |
Enter your password |
|
Password Re-type |
Retype a password to avoid of the error |
|
Question Security |
Choose from the list or enter the question which is associated with
your password. This question will be put to you when you lost password |
|
Answer Your |
Give an answer to the question |
|
Birthday |
Enter the date of the your birthday |
|
Current Email (Optional) |
Enter existent e-mail address (optional parameter) |
|
First Name |
Enter your name |
|
Last Name |
Enter your last name |
|
Language & Content |
Choose from the list the language and parameters of the information
delivery |
|
Code Zip/Postal |
Enter Zip code of the your city |
|
Gender |
Enter your gender |
|
Industry |
Choose from the list the name of the industry in which your activity |
|
Title |
Choose from the list the kind of the address to you, for example, Mr.,
professor and others |
|
Specialization |
Enter your speciality |
|
Send of me special offers from selected of Yahoo!
partners through of Yahoo! Delivers |
Put a small flag near this point, if you wish to subscribe to some
groups of news, for example, music, business, shops, trips and others like
that |
|
Enter of the word as it is shown in the box below |
In this field enter a word which will be represented on the screen.
(It is need, to do impossible access for the children). |
After you fill all fields, click on the button Submit. If all information is entered correctly, on the Yahoo! server will be
created your mailbox. Sometimes happens so, that the name, which you select for
the mailbox, already exists. Then the system will suggest enter the new name or
choose the new name from automatically created list. You need execute these
requirements and again click on the button Submit.
4. Check the new mailbox.
Open the web-portal Yahoo! For this in the address bar of the your web-browser type text www.yahoo.com and press Enter key. Click on the reference Check Email on the start page of Yahoo! Enter the name and password and click on the reference Sign
In. A new page will be opened. In the section
5. Send the letter to your friend.
For this click on reference Compose. A new page with the blank letter form will be opened. In the field Òî: enter the address of the mailbox of your friend. In the field Subject type "Test". In the field of the message body type any text.
When the message will be ready, send it’s, by the clicking on the button Send.
7. Create
any files with the picture and save it in the your folder on the disk.
8. Send the letter to the your friend with the
attached file.
Create the new letter, as show above. Fill the all
fields in the blank: "To", "Subject",
"Message".
To create the letter attachment, click on the reference Add/Delete
Attachments. Choose the file which you want to send together
with the message, and click on the button Send.
Using The Bat! as Internet e-mail program.
Basic questions
1.
What is
the e-mail? Now user can send and receive the e-mail messages?
2. What are the primary purposes of The Bat!?
3.
Now user
can quick configure The Bat!?
4.
Now user
can change settings of the E-mail Account?
5.
What the SMTP and POP
servers are using for?
6.
What is
IMAP? It is advantages and in-advantages in compare to the POP server.
7.
How user
can check the e-mail? What is the Message Dispatcher?
8.
How user
can create and edit the e-mail message?
9.
How user
can address the e-mail message? What is the Address Book?
10.
How user
can send the e-mail message using The Bat!?
General Information
The Bat! (Figure 208) is an
Internet e-mail program. The primary purposes of The Bat! are [14]:
·
Providing
an efficient way of processing large numbers of messages;
·
An
easy-to-use user interface;
·
Allowing
users to work easily with several mail accounts and to ease the exchange of
messages between them;
·
Keeping
working delays to a minimum. The Bat! makes extensive use of Windows'
multitasking capabilities. This means that the user can send and receive e-mail
while reading or writing other mail;
·
Providing
a truly multi-lingual interface. The Bat! communicates with the user in various
languages - the interface's language can be chosen on-the-fly from the main
program menu.
The Bat! also allows the
user to pre-process mail on the mail server - without actually downloading
messages to the local hard drive. The Bat! has a versatile and comfortable
built in message editor with many useful functions, an Address Book and it
provides an extensive set of tools for processing your mail.
The program has been
developed mainly for business messaging, which is why we have tried to provide
as comfortable an interface as possible, without cluttering the workplace with
an excessive quantity of rarely used or "just for fun" interface elements.
Configuring The Bat!
After you have installed
The Bat!, the program starts automatically. If you are installing The Bat! for
the first time, you will be prompted for a working directory.
The working directory is the most important directory for the main functions of
The Bat! - all of your account home directories, the account data and address
books will be stored in there by default. You also will be prompted about
adding The Bat!'s icon to your Desktop, Start Menu and Send-To menu. If an
account list file is found in the directory you have specified, The Bat! will
automatically add the listed accounts to the configuration details of your copy
of The Bat!, otherwise the New Account Wizard will open [14].
Figure 208.
The Bat! Main window
Enter a name for the
account you want to create and specify the home directory for this account. If
the home directory contains account configuration files (file names begin with
'ACCOUNT'), the data from those files will be used as the defaults for your
newly created account. If you choose <default> as
the home directory, The Bat! creates a sub-directory in the working directory
with the same name as the account.
After you have entered a
new account name and the home directory has been selected, click Next. The New Account Wizard begins
walking you through the fields for which you need to enter setup information [14].
You will need to supply
the following items in the panels of the New Account Wizard
(click Next after filling out each page):
Your Name - Enter your name as you would like it to
appear in the From field of all of your outgoing messages from this e-mail
account, indicating to your recipients who the mail is from.
E-mail
Address - Enter the e-mail
address that has been assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider or your
organisation's e-mail administrator. This is the address that other people will
use to send you e-mail.
Organisation - The name of the organisation that you
represent (if any). This information about the name of your organisation is
placed in the header of all of the messages you write. 'Mythical Software, Inc'
is an example. If you do not want to identify your organisation, leave this
field blank.
In the next window you are
prompted to choose which protocol to use to access your mail server. You can
choose either POP3 (Post Office Protocol v3) or IMAP (Internet Messages Access Protocol).
POP3 Server - All of your incoming e-mail messages are
delivered to your incoming e-mail account, which resides on a computer that runs
your incoming e-mail server. Once your messages arrive at your mail account,
The Bat! picks them up and transfers them to your PC.
IMAP Server - Accessing your e-mail messages directly on
the on e-mail server. It permits a client email program to access a remote
message store as if it was local. By using IMAP you can manipulate your
messages from a desktop computer at home, a workstation at the office, and a
notebook computer while traveling, without the need to transfer messages or
files back and forth between these computers.
In the incoming edit box,
type the full host name (or IP numeric address, e.g. 193.219.214.39) of the
computer that runs your incoming e-mail server: mail.ritlabs.com is an example.
SMTP Server - To send messages in The Bat!, you must have
access to a computer running an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol) server. Your outgoing messages are sent to the SMTP server,
which delivers them to your recipients. The address may be represented as a
traditional Internet host name (e.g.: mail.ritlabs.com) or as an IP numeric
address (e.g. 193.219.214.38). Check My Server requires
authentication for sending mail to allow The Bat! making authentication
on the server before sending messages.
Username - Enter the name that you will use to log in
to this e-mail account. This name is provided by your Internet Service Provider
or your organisation's e-mail administrator, and it usually consists of the
text that appears before the at sign (@) in your return e-mail address. In the
example [email protected], the login name is john.smith.
Password - Enter the password you use to access your
mail server. You may leave this field blank - in this case you will be prompted
to enter the password each time you try to retrieve mail.
Use secure
login method (APOP) -
check it if you need to perform a secured login using APOP authentication
protocol
Leave copy
of messages on the server
- You can use your account from different places. In this case, you may want to
leave messages on the server to make it possible to retrieve them from other
places from which you use your mail account. If you do not want to leave copies
of messages on the server, the messages will be deleted from the server mailbox
after their successful retrieval.
Once you have completed
setting up your account via the New Account Wizard, you
are now ready to send and receive messages. However, you may need to take an
additional step in order to send messages.
If the computer that runs
your POP3 or IMAP server (incoming e-mail account) also runs an SMTP server,
then no additional setup action is required. You are completely ready to send
and receive messages in The Bat!.
If you ever wish to change
the settings of your e-mail account, you can do so from the Account
Properties dialog.
Setting up an
E-mail Account
This is the set of options
available for the account properties.
It is available from the "Account | Properties"
menu option (<Shift+Ctrl+P>).
Each e-mail account (Figure 209) set-up
in The Bat! has its own folder structure which is used for storing incoming,
outgoing and sent messages. Other folders may have any name (depending on their
use) but there are always four default folders, which cannot be deleted or
renamed.
These four default folders
are
[14]:
·
Inbox the default incoming mail folder
·
Outbox the outgoing mail folder
·
Sent default folder for sent mail
·
Trash folder for storing deleted messages before
they are removed permanently
Each account also has its
own Sorting Office / Filters settings.
Account
General Settings
This section is for
setting up the title of an e-mail account, as it appears in The Bat!'s account
list. This is also where you define the data that is used to generate the
sender's data in outgoing message headers.
Name - the name of the e-mail account. It may be
any combination of characters. The only limitation is that the name must be
unique within the program; in other words, there must not be another account
with the same name
Edit
personal certificate - use
this feature to import any S/MIME or security certificates with which you have
been issued.
Edit
personal vCard - Invokes
"Edit Address Entry" dialog box to edit your
"vCard", which is like an electronic ID card
which you can attach to outgoing messages. It can contain things like your
name, address, contact details (personal and business), a photo and more. When
you create a new messageyou can attach your personal vCard to that message from
the message editor "Utilities" menu.
From name - the originator's name, which will be put in
the header of each message created for the account
From
address - originator's
e-mail address
Organisation - organisation to which the originator
belongs (if any)
Reply name - the name of the person to whom replies must
be sent. Usually it is the same as the originator's name
Reply
address - the e-mail
address to be used for replies to an original e-mail. (the return address, and
the address to which confirmations should be sent)
Default
address book - The Bat!
can use multiple address books. You can select an address book to be associated
with this account or simply leave it set to "<default>"
if you only intend to use one.
This account is the
default for "mailto:" URLs - when you click on
a "mailto:" link in your browser, you will want
The Bat! to pick up that "mailto:" click and respond to it by
creating a new message to that email address. Use this option to predetermine
which account will be selected to create a message when you click on such a
"mailto:" link.
Account
Transport Settings
SMTP server - the address of your SMTP server to which
all outgoing e-mail messages from the account will be sent [14]. The address may be represented as a
traditional URL (e.g.: mail.ritlabs.com) or as a numeric IP address (e.g.
193.219.214.38); if an IP address is used you should be aware that it could be
subject to change. The advantage of using IP addresses in this context is that
a DNS lookup is not used, thus it is slightly faster on connecting to the
server. Generally speaking, if there are several mail accounts set in the
program, it is possible to use just one SMTP server for sending messages from
all accounts.
In some cases, depending
on the actual SMTP server you've chosen, you may need to perform SMTP
authentication.
Authentication - To access the SMTP Authentication options
press the 'Authentication' button. From there you can choose which
authentication method you wish to use:
Perform SMPT
Authentication (RFC 2554) - you can opt to Use settings of Mail
Retrieval, to Use specific settings,
for which fields appear in which you can enter your user name and password, or
to Store password on iKey, for which an iKey device is
used to store the SMTP authentication password. Finally, there is an option to
use MD5 security with Require secure (MD5) authentication. Use "POP before SMTP"
authentication - you can opt to use this SMTP authentication method depending
on your ISP's requirements.
Mail server - the address of your POP3 or IMAP4 server on
which the account's mailbox is located. The address may be represented as a
traditional URL (e.g.: mail.ritlabs.com) or as a numeric IP address (e.g.
193.219.214.38); if an IP address is used you should be aware that it could be
subject to change. The advantage of using IP addresses in this context is that
a DNS lookup is not used, thus it is slightly faster on connecting to the
server.
User - the POP3 user name for access to your
mailbox on the server. Usually, it is the same as the part of the account's
e-mail address before the "@" symbol.
Password - the password for logging on to the POP3
server. You may leave this field blank - in this case you will be prompted to
enter the password every time you try to receive mail.
Authentication - if the log in on your POP3 server allows a
secure authentication mechanism, you can configure it by pressing the
Authentication button, which invokes a special window. You can use the
following authentication methods:
·
Regular
·
MD5 APOP
Challenge/Response (RFC 1734)
·
MD5
CRAM-HMAC Challenge/Response (RFC 2095)
There is a further option Do not store password, prompt on mail retrieval, which is
especially useful in insecure environments as an extra security layer. If you
enable this option, the Password field will be replaced
by a Change Password button, which leads to the 'Authentication' dialog box.
8-bit
characters are treated -
this group of options allows you to set the method used to handle 8-bit
(non-ASCII) characters. If you are using only the English alphabet, this
feature is not very significant to you because all English characters are ASCII
characters and will be sent through the net without a problem. However, if you
are using accented characters or character sets other than English, you should
choose the method carefully because there still are some mail servers which do
not allow 8-bit characters to appear in e-mail messages. If you are not certain
that the servers your messages will be passing through are capable of handling
the character set you use to write your messages, it is better to choose either
Base64 or Quoted-printable encoding. The difference between these two encoding
methods is that Base64 produces totally unreadable text. Quoted-printable
encoding can still be read if your character set is mostly Latin, in which case
only accented characters are encoded. If your recipients are using The Bat! or
another program which can recognise Base64 and quoted-printable encoding
automatically, you may choose either of these two methods.
Delivery - the default delivery method. This is
implemented mostly for defining the function of the <F2> and
<Shift+F2> keystrokes for the message editor. If the delivery method is Immediate,
pressing <F2> within the editor will send the message immediately,
whereas if Deferred is selected, the message will be
queued in Outbox.
Combined
delivery - if this check
box is ticked, using the "Get new mail" command
will also result in the sending of queued messages from Outbox,
while using the "Send queued mail" command will
also result in new mail being retrieved at the same time.
Mail
management Settings
Message
management
Delete
received messages from server
- if this method is selected, The Bat! does not leave copies of the received
messages on the server. This will certainly save disk storage on your service
provider's server (especially when your mailbox size is limited)
Leave
messages on server - the
direct opposite to the above method. This method is useful when you are
accessing the server from several places and want to be able to get copies of
your messages from each of those places
Keep
messages on server for n days
- the maximum age of messages left on the server. When a message is older than
the age stated, it will be automatically deleted from the server. This means
that when you opt to leave messages on the server for two days, retrieved messages
will be deleted on the third day.
Delete
message from server when it is removed from Trash - use this option if you want your messages to be
kept on the server until you delete them and they are removed from the trash
folder.
Receive
header only if message size if greater than n K bytes - use this option if you do not want to
receive large messages from the account. This may be useful when you are away
from your usual home base and want to read only significant messages (messages
of such kind are usually relatively short).
A word of warning: if you
use this option in conjunction with the "Delete received
messages from server" option you will not get another chance to
retrieve the large message. It will be deleted without being read. It is better
to use the "Keep messages on server for n days" option and then use
the Message Dispatcher to retrieve the message when it is more convenient.
Message
Dispatcher
Message
lines to download with header
- this setting determines how many lines of the message to download with the
message header when viewing within the Mail Dispatcher. This allows you to read
a part of a message to decide whether or not you wish to download it this
session
Invoke
automatically at each mail check - if this check box is ticked, the Mail Dispatcher will be invoked for
each "Get new mail" command when there are new messages in the
mailbox
Show all
messages left on server -
This option is available only if the previous option is set. If it is set, the
Mail Dispatcher will show all messages left on the server, otherwise only new
messages will be shown
Ports
Mail service port numbers
are sometimes changed to prevent other systems from the outside world from
connecting to servers used within the given network. In this case, you must
re-define the port numbers [14].
·
SMTP the port number used by SMTP protocol
(default 25)
·
POP3 the port number used by POP3 protocol
(default 110)
·
IMAP4 the port number used by IMAP4 protocol
(default 143)
Account
Preferences
POP
Account
Check
mailbox at startup - if ticked,
the "Get new mail" command is invoked
automatically each time The Bat! Starts
Periodical
checking each n minutes -
The Bat! will automatically examine your mailbox for new mail at intervals of
the defined number of minutes, if this check box is ticked. If you want to
check mail even more frequently than this, you can change the drop down combo
box to specify seconds instead of minutes.
Mark
message as read when it is being read for - within this time period, unread messages will
retain their unread status. Once an unread message has been marked as read,
some actions may follow (e.g. Read Mail sorting rules, generation of Reading
confirmation). These actions only take place once the newly read message is no
longer being viewed.
Mark
message as read only when it is open in a separate window - Use this option to restrict the previous
option to only apply to messages opened in a separate window rather than the
preview window.
Maximum Log
file size - the account's
activity Log file is stored in the account's home directory and is called
ACCOUNT.LOG. To prevent this file from getting too big, you can limit its size
with this parameter
Ignore
"Check All Accounts" request - use this option
to prevent this account from being checked along with all your other mailboxes
when you use the "Check mail for all" function (for example, when
your POP3 server only works within a specific time interval).
Allow 8 bit
characters in message header
- use this option to enable the transmission of raw 8 bit characters (e.g.
accented and umlaut characters) within message headers. Leave this unchecked to
force these characters to be encoded before transmission.
Allow
send/fetch without entering the access password (if any) - allows use of send / fetch functions without first entering
any account access password, i.e. for using the "Check mailbox at
startup" option.
Empty Trash
folder on exit - the trash
folder of the account will be automatically emptied every time you exit The
Bat!
IMAP
Account
Root folder is a path to the root folder on your IMAP
server. If empty, the default value for your account set up by server's
administrator is used.
Pre-defined folders give
you the flexibility to change the default folders for Outbox,
Sent mail and Trash. To set up a
predefined box, check the one you want to change and in the edit box enter the
full path to the new folder, for example Inbox/Temp for Outbox. Note: Don't put a slash sign "/" at the end
of the path
Automatically
connect to server options
allow you to connect automatically. You can choose from the following:
At startup invoke the Connection Centre
automatically for this account when The Bat! is starting.
When
account is selected
connect you when you switch to your IMAP account. You can just select the
account or any of the folders in it.
For
managing folders connect
when Manage IMAP Folders dialog is invoked
By any
command enable to stay
connected while you are working in your IMAP account. If you close the
connection but continue working in the account, you will be connected again.
When
inactive, disconnect after
disconnect when you have not done any work for
a while.
The Advanced
Mail Management dialog allows you to precisely set up your IMAP Mail
Management. There is a Deletion tab for setting up
deletion settings and an IMAP tab for IMAP related
advanced options
Deletion
tab
Use the following options
when you are deleting your messages using <Del> or the toolbar button:
Move
messages to the Trash folder
is default option that, if checked, moves your messages to the Trash folder.
Mark as
deleted, do not use the Trash folder deletes messages from the server without using the
Trash folder.
Move to the
specified folder here you
can choose another folder to be used as Trash when messages are being deleted.
You can use the same options
for alternative deletion. Use <Shift+Del> or the
toolbar button for it.
IMAP tab
The Quick
configure drop down list allows you to pick the best setting for either
fast or slow connections. For example, when you are online with a fast
connection it sets the refresh setting for every minute. For a slow connection
it allows you not to refresh at all until except by user.
Retrieve
message structures together with message headers if checked, flags such as attachments and PGP
signatures in the messages preview pane will be available.
When
browsing messages, retrieve only message text use this option to download only the text of messages
without any attachments.
Except
message smaller than if
checked, you will not download messages smaller than the set size.
Compress
folders when switching to another folder compresses the folder every time you switch to
another
Automatically
disconnect after synchronisation use this if you want to close your IMAP connection every time after
you synchronise messages with the local storage.
When
on-line, refresh folders every here you can set a period of time after which folders will be
repeatedly synchronised.
Cookies
Cookies are typically funny phrases (aphorisms,
quotations etc.) that can be inserted randomly in your messages when you use
the %cookie macro in a message template [14]. Use of cookies can lighten the tone of your messages
and (hopefully) entertain your correspondents. The more cookies you use - the
more colourful your messages can become.
Account
Files and Directories
Home
Directory - the path to
the directory where all files related to the given account are stored. This
directory is also used for creating the default sub-directories (each mail
folder keeps its messages in the MESSAGES.MSB file in its mail-folder directory,
which by default is placed in the home directory of the account it belongs to)
Attachment
management
Default
encoding - the default
encoding type for attachments (used by the "Attach a file" button on
the toolbar of the message editor). It can be either Base64 (MIME standard) or
UU-encode
You can also choose the
storage method for received file attachments. They may be either kept in a
separate directory (so that you can copy them from there using Windows
Explorer, or the Command Prompt. This method is the most appropriate if you
receive large files), or in the message bodies. If you choose to store attached
files in the <default> directory, files will be stored in a sub-directory
named ATTACH in the account's home directory. Attachments stored separately
from message bodies may not get moved between account folders if a message body
is moved.
The Delete
attached files when the message is deleted from Trash option helps The
Bat! to keep your disk storage tidy, and ensures that you don't end up keeping
file attachments for messages you no longer need.
Folders
Folders are the place
where messages are kept. There are two types of folder in The Bat!: standard
(or system) and user-defined (or custom). The general purpose of folders is for
the classification of messages so that you may easily find messages related to
a particular topic.
Each account has its own
folder hierarchy. Folders can be named and nested depending on their use, but
any account has four standard folders [14]:
·
Inbox the default folder for incoming mail
·
Outbox the folder for outgoing messages
·
Sent the default folder for sent messages
·
Trash all deleted messages from other folders are
stored here, when a message is deleted from the Trash folder, it will be erased
permanently (unless you keep a copy on the server).
Standard folders cannot be
deleted. They can be moved within the hierarchy but only at the root level.
With sorting rules (Account | Sorting Office/Filters), you can determine in which
folder messages should be placed after they have been received, sent, read or
replied to.
For example, you may have
a contact from whom you often receive messages and you might want to keep track
of mails from him/her. You can create a folder with a relevant name, which
gives you a clue that the folder holds messages from this contact (his/her
name, for instance). You can then create a sorting rule in the Incoming Mail
group with the person's e-mail address or name as a signal string, located in
the "sender" information for the sorting rule. Once done, all
incoming messages from this contact will be moved into the folder that you have
created as soon as they arrive.
A User-defined
folder may also have its own templates for new messages, replies to
messages from this folder and for message forwarding and confirmation, as well
as sounds for notification about new messages. You can also define an
"identity" for yourself when writing messages while this folder is
selected. The "identity" settings allow you to override the
"From" and "Reply-to" information that appears in the General Account Details.
It is possible to move and
copy messages from one folder to another by a simple drag-and-drop operation:
if no keys are pressed while the message is being dragged, a Move operation is
performed, if the <Ctrl> key is held down while
dragging, the message is copied.
A folder can have
sub-folders.
To re-position a folder
within the account's hierarchy, press and hold the Alt key and then use
drag-and-drop to move the desired folder. This will move a folder next to the
folder onto which it is dropped in the account folder tree. To drop a folder
into another folder and make it appear as a sub-folder, use <Ctrl+Alt>
while dragging the folder.
Receiving and sending e-mail
Checking
mail
Once you have your
account(s) configured, you can check your mail.
Manual
checking
To check mail for a
specific account manually, you should select that account in the account's tree
of the main window. If you have multiple accounts, you can use the Tools|Check Mail For All menu command to invoke mail checking
for all accounts (N.B. you can define accounts that won't be checked using that command by using the "Ignore Check All Accounts request" option at the Options page of the Account Properties dialogue)
POP3
accounts:
You can retrieve mail from
the mail server by clicking the Get New Mail button on
the main window's toolbar. When the connection with the server is finished, you
should see the result (whether new messages were received or there was an error
during connection) in the log page of the main window. By default, all mail
fetched from the server will be stored in the Inbox folder [14]. You can change the way received messages are
stored using rules in the Sorting Office.
You may also want to use
the Message Dispatcher to preview messages on the server
and selecting of messages you want to download or delete.
IMAP
accounts:
Clicking the Get New Mail button initiates synchronisation of the account's
folders, once synchronisation is finished, The Bat! either disconnects from the
server or stays on-line - this is configured in the transport properties of the
account. To configure the way folders of an IMAP account
should be synchronised, use the IMAP Folder Manager (Account|IMAP Commands|Manage IMAP folders menu command).
Use the Account|IMAP
Commands|Connect to the server menu command to simply get connected to
the IMAP server and stay on-line.
Automatic
checking
Fetching new mail for POP
accounts or synchronisation of IMAP folders may also be performed
automatically.
There are three ways of
doing that, each of them can be used no matter whether others are used:
·
Checking
mail when The Bat! starts - enable the Check mailbox at startup
option at the Options page of the Account
Properties dialogue
·
Periodical
checking - enable the corresponding option and specify
the period of checking at the Options page of the Account Properties dialogue
·
Scheduled
checking - create a new event in the Scheduler (or use an
existing one), configure time parameters and add a Send/Check
Mail action to the start or finish action list.
Message
Dispatcher
The message
dispatcher (Figure 210) is
special feature of The Bat!, which lets you look at the messages stored on your
POP3 mail server without downloading them [14]. This is very useful for managing your mail remotely,
for example leaving "that copy of the huge document" on the server
until you get home but retrieving and reading the urgent memos while still on
the mobile connection.
The message dispatcher
gets a list of the messages currently available on the server (You can choose
to list all messages using <Shift+Ctrl+F2> or just
new messages <Ctrl+F2>). Once you have retrieved a
list of messages from the server, they are listed for you and, using the check
boxes provided, you can elect to do the following to each message:
·
Read Mark the message as read without
downloading it
·
Receive Retrieve the message into the Inbox as you
would in a normal download session
·
Delete Delete the message from the server without
downloading it
·
Open Retrieve the message into the Inbox as you
would in a normal download session and then open the message in a folder view
window
Once you have selected the
fate of the messages in the list, press the "Execute"
button or the <F2> key and the selected operation will be performed on
the messages as specified.
The Bat! lets you do this
by retrieving just the headers from the mail on the server and displaying a
list of the messages like this:
Figure 210.
The Bat! Message Dispatcher
Reading
Reading
Your Mail
Received messages can be
read in the message auto-view panel located of the bottom of the main program
window, or in a separate "folder view" window, which allows you to
read subsequent messages from the folder. It is possible to scroll messages by
pressing the <Space> key. If you use this method
you will read messages from page to page, and when you reach the bottom of the
current message, the first page of the next message in the folder will be shown
(this applies to both the preview and the folder view windows).
When a folder message list
is active, it is possible to view the message using <Alt+Arrow>
and <Alt+PgUp or Alt+PgDn>
keys to scroll the message text up and down in the window. <Alt+Left>
and <Alt+Right> keys allow you to navigate back and
forth through a remembered chain of previously viewed messages. You can use the
<Del> key to remove messages you do not want to
keep in your message base. Press <Enter> to open
the separate "folder view" window with the current message shown. To
sort messages within a folder view, with the message list showing (enabled with
the "View | Message list" menu option) you can use the mouse to click
on the appropriate header section or the "View | Sort by" menu option [14].
There are many different
navigation keys with which to move around and between messages. <Ctrl+]>
or Ctrl+Left Arrow (Ctrl+Alt+Left
in the message preview pane) will allow you to jump to the next unread message,
wherever it may be in the account.
Message lists can be
"threaded".
You can set the amount of
time that must pass while reading a message after which the message is marked
as read (note that this setting may differ from account to account).
Any URLs in the messages
you are reading will appear as highlighted URLs
Colour groups can be used
to add colour to your message lists to simplify visual detection of messages of
different kind.
Some messages you receive
may require a Reading Confirmation message to be sent. You will optionally be
asked to do so before moving to the next unread message. This will only occur
when the message is read for the first time.
The
Message List
The message list is a list
of the messages in the currently selected or currently open folder.
The font / colour used in
the message list is determined by the message list colour group settings. The
"default" setting is used for general list entries.
Left click on any column
header to sort the message list using the entries in that column. Click a
second time to reverse the sort order.
Right click on the column
header bar to select the columns to be shown and the format of those columns.
<Alt+LeftClick> on any text in the message list to quickly
filter the message list to include only items matching the text clicked on.
Press <Ctrl+=> to remove the filter and return to a
full list of messages.
Right click on any entry
in the message list to access the Messages context menu.
Type any key to begin a
Quick Search of the Message list.
Composing messages
Creating
a New Message
There are five main ways in
which to create a new message [14]:
1.
By
clicking on New message button or invoking the New message command in the main program window menu. In this
case you will have to enter the addressee manually or use the address pop-up
menu.
2.
By
selecting the address required from the Address Book and
invoking the New message command from there.
3.
When
viewing a message, if an e-mail address is highlighted, click the right mouse
button and choose Write a message... command - the
highlighted address will automatically be placed in the "To:"
field. Alternatively, you can simply double-click on the highlighted email
address.
4.
By
pressing <Ctrl+N>
5.
By
pressing a user defined "System wide hot-key"
which you have previously defined to start a new mail. This keystroke is
available even when The Bat! does not have the focus or is minimised in the
tool-tray.
You can assign a priority
to outgoing messages and request a Confirm Receipt and Reading Confirmation. You
should also be aware of the email standard "cut mark"
which indicates the end of the message text and the beginning of a removable
signature.
Using the
Message Editor
The message editor window (Figure 211) is
invoked whenever you use edit/reply/forward to create a new e-mail message. The
message editor window consists of a menu bar, a Toolbar, the message header
block, the Status bar, an attachment window and the message body (text editor
with Spell Checking)
Figure 211.
The Bat! Message Editor window
Menu Bar
The menu bar provides
access to the common commands that can be used while you are editing messages
including [14]:
·
saving
messages in various ways
·
attaching
files
·
standard
editing functions such as Copy/Cut/Paste operations as well as additional functions
to Paste/Copy text from/to disk files, pasting as Quotation, pasting as
"formatted" text;
·
special
operations like block mode switching, inserting current date/time;
·
spell
checking functions;
·
OpenPGP
functions and options;
·
changing
view options (switching on/off header fields, original message text when
replying, toolbar and header fields visibility);
·
changing
message preferences such as priority, character encoding, confirmation receipt
requests and the active account from which the message should be sent.
Toolbar
The toolbar consists of a
series of buttons that are displayed just under the title bar. It allows you to
perform more frequently used functions with
just one mouse click.
Message
header
By default, Outgoing mail headers consist of six fields: From,
Reply-To, To, CC, BCC, Subject and Follow up. All
of these fields can be directly edited. To move the cursor from field to field,
press the Tab key, use Up/Down
arrows or click in the desired field with the mouse. Most header fields have a
drop-down history list, which can be used for auto-complete and also can be
activated by the <Alt+Down> keystroke. The history
lists can be edited when on screen using the <Del>
key to remove unwanted entries and the <Space> key
to "Park" entries in the list.
Addressee fields (To, CC and BCC) have quick buttons to
invoke the address selection dialog. You can also use the <Shift+Enter>
keystroke for this. Another feature is the quick address pop-up menu which can
be invoked either by pressing <Alt+Enter> or by
using a right mouse click - the context menu contains addresses from the
address book which have the "Add to pop-up menu"
option set. When you type an address, you can press <Ctrl+Plus>
to let The Bat! find an addressee with the name or address beginning with whatever
you have typed, pressing <Ctrl+Plus> again takes
you to the next addressee with a matching name or address.
The From
and Reply-To fields contain the sender's identity and the
address to which replies will be sent. These fields can be edited either directly,
by choosing an alternate addresses from their drop-down lists or by selecting a
different Active account from the Options
menu.
The Follow
up field contains the identifier of the message for which the reply has
been created (empty for a new message) - this field should not usually be
edited. Follow up information is used for threading. The only time when you
should certainly edit the Follow up information is when
you are using "Reply" to start a new topic of
conversation, particularly in a public discussion mailing list. In such cases
you should change the Subject and remove the Follow up information completely.
The Subject
is a short piece of text indicating the contents of the message. This field can
be left blank, although it is considered a point of e-mail etiquette to include
a Subject with each message.
Status
bar
The status
bar is the line below the message body. It shows the current status of
the editor and the selected message editing preferences. These are (left to
right): Caret position, Modified flag, current Block mode, current Input mode, the
message priority any receipt requests flags and the currently active account.
The last item is the message's character set). If you click with right mouse
button on any section except the first two, you'll get a pop-up menu which will
allow you to change an option within a particular status panel.
Addressing Your Message
The Bat! needs an address
to be able to send your messages the same way as the postal service needs an
address to be able to deliver a letter. The destination e-mail addresses are
entered in "To:", "CC:"
or "BCC:" fields. This is possible to do using
"direct" typing, Address Book aliases or the Address Pop-Up menu (available on the right mouse button click
or clicking the button at the extreme right of the input field). Multiple
addresses should be separated by a semicolon.
When typing an address in
the address fields, there are other ways for you to hook into the Address Book [14]:
·
You can
type the complete "Handle" of the entry as defined in the Address Book "Handle" field. When you press the Tab key to move to the next header field or click into the
message editor to being typing your message.
·
You can
type a part of the name of a person and then press <Ctrl+Plus>.
This will fill in the address using the first address in the Address Book which
part matches the address you have begun typing. Press <Ctrl+Plus>
again to retrieve the next and subsequent matches.
·
You can
use the "favourites menu" to access your most commonly used address book
entries. This is available before you start the new message (from the "Create a new message" toolbar button) and by right
clicking in the address fields of the message editor once you have created it.
Once you have learned
these tricks, writing and addressing new messages becomes a very quick process.
Sending mail
When you have mail ready
for sending out, you can...
·
click the
Send Queued Mail button on the main window's Toolbar or
...
·
wait
until your mail gets sent automatically. There are two ways to achieve that:
1.
Select
the Combined Delivery option at the Transport
page of the Account Properties dialogue, then go
to the Options page and make sure periodical mailbox checking is enabled. Close
the dialogue by cliking the OK button. Now, whenever your
mailbox will be checked, all queued mail found in the Outbox folder of your
account will get sent.
2.
Create a
new event in the Scheduler (or use an existing one),
configure time parameters and add a Send/Check Mail
action to the start or finish action list, then configure the accounts you wish
to send mail from for that event.
Sending
messages to multiple recipients
To send messages addressed
to multiple recipients so the recipients do not see each other's addresses, it
is possible to use either the "BCC:" field
(switch it on with the "View|BCC" menu option
in the message editor) or Mass Mailing.
When you send to a BCC list, you should put an address into the TO
field anyway because some SMTP servers require it (otherwise, they make all BCC addresses visible). To address to a group from the address
book, you should type the group's handle and add "<list>",
e.g.: MyTestGroup <list>
While using BCC fields creates a single message sent to multiple people,
Mass Mailing can create personalised messages. A recipient can see his/her name
and address in the TO field and the message text contains recipient-specific
information like his/her title, a greeting according to the gender defined in
your address book, company name, etc. To use the Mass Mailing
feature, you should create a Quick template and set the option to use it for
new messages/Mass mailing. Then, select addresses from your address book and
use the "File | Mass mailing using template"
menu command of the address book window...
Note that using Mass Mailing for extensive lists of recipients may use a lot of
your system resources.
File Attachments
This is used to send files
attached to an e-mail message [14]:
·
Open the
message editor and enter all the information you need (i.e. addressee
information, subject, and message text)
·
From the Utilities | Attach a file sub-menu choose the encoding type, or
click the right mouse button on the attachments panel and choose the encoding
type (UUE or MIME/base 64) from there. Alternatively click the "attach a
file" button on the editor window toolbar. In this case the encoding will
be the one you set as default for the account you are writing from. You can
also use the shortcut keys: <Alt+PgUp> (attach a
file using MIME/Base 64) and <Alt+PgDn> (attach a
file using UUE).
·
In the
subsequent dialog, select the file you would like to send, and press the Open button.
You can drag and drop a
file from the Windows Explorer onto a newly created
message. Also, dragging a file to The Bat! will result in a new message being
created with the file already attached.
The Bat! is also capable
of responding to Simple MAPI "Send file"
commands from other applications and will create a blank new message with the
file attached when it receives such a command.
In all of these cases the
encoding will also be the one you set as default for the account you are
writing from.
Address Book
The Address
Book (Figure 212) provides
you with an easy way to maintain the list of contacts you have. It is possible
to create groups dedicated to a particular classification or for use as a
mailing list. There are many ways to add a record to the Address Book. Here are
the top four ways of doing this manually:
1.
When you
see an e-mail address highlighted while viewing a message, click the right
mouse button and then choose Add to Address Book command
in the pop-up menu.
2.
When you
are filling in the "To:" field in the message
editor, press the button with an arrow on it - the e-mail addresses contained
in the "To:" field will be added to Address
Book.
3.
When
using the message list, there is an Add to address Book
command in the "Specials" sub menu in the local
pop-up menu. This is available for both Sender and Recipient addresses. You can also use the shortcut keys to add Sender (<Ctrl+W>) or Recipient
(<Shift+Ctrl+W>) to the address book.
4.
Using the
New address entry menu command (or the toolbar icon) in
Address Book.
It is possible to sort
Address Book entries automatically using the "Edit | Sort"
sub-menu of the Address book or manually using drag-and-drop operations.
You can also use address
book Import and Export functions to
interchange lists of addresses between different systems and different formats.
Addresses can also be
added to the address book using the Sorting Office Filters
to automatically add sender and recipient addresses to the address book during
the filter process.
Figure 212.
The Bat! Address Book
Address
Book Groups
The addresses in your
address book can be organised into Address Book Groups.
Each group can have its own specific templates, allowing you to customise how
message sent to members of that group will appear.
Any entry in the Address
Book can belong to any number of groups. There
are a number of different ways to add an address to a group [14].
·
Open the
properties of the entry in the address book. To the right of the "Groups" field of the main properties panel is a … button. Press this. You
will be presented with a checklist of available groups. Put ticks in the boxes
against the groups you want the name to belong to.
·
You can
just type the group handles into the "Groups" field separated by '+'
signs.
·
You can
also use <Ctrl+Drag/Drop> to copy names into other groups from the main
list.
Note the Group property
which says "Hide items unless explicitly selected".
This makes names not appear in the root when they are in that group. By default
this option is turned on, so don't be alarmed when addresses you have added to
groups disappear from the main list.
If you want to write to
every member of an address book group then you can use the Mass Mailing
feature. This will create a personal mail to every member of the group.
Alternatively you can type "Handle <list>" into the address
field of a message, where "Handle" is the handle of the Address book
group. The Bat! will resolve this at the point of sending and will create an
identical message to every member of the group. The advantage of Mass mailing
over Group mailing is that Mass mailing will create an individual mail to every
member of the group, resolving personalising touches at the point of creation.
Group mailing will not do this.