Jan's Working with the Web

   IE9, Firefox, Google Chrome, & Notepad

The speed with which the Internet has developed is truly astounding. In the blink of History's eye we have gone from the Stone Age of writing with quills and carrying notes by hand to the Information Age of email and live video over the Internet. The pace is not slowing down yet. Businesses have dived into electronic commerce even though the waters are still cold and dark. While some businesses are still having trouble making money online, there is no turning back from the glories of meeting and greeting electronically. Once you have surfed the Web or exchanged messages with folks halfway around the world, you will be hooked.

The projects in this tutorial will take you a long way toward understanding and working with the Internet, and with the World Wide Web in particular. You will learn how to surf the Web, visiting web sites around the world. You will learn to search the world's web pages for specific information and for general topics. You will even learn how to create a simple web page.

What You Need

These lessons are written with the assumption that you have already worked though the Working with Windows lessons.  Below is a summary of what you are expected to already understand. The Windows skills are very important. The Word skills are needed when you create your own simple web page.

• Browser:  Internet Explorer 9+ or Google Chrome 15+ or FireFox 8+
  IE9 is not available for WinXP.
  
  The general discussions will be useful no matter what browser you use.  The Step-by-Step directions may not work for a different browser or even an different version. They are updating faster than I can revise!

  You can, of course, use any recent browser to just view the lesson pages. If you want to use a different browser in the Step-by-Step sections, you will have to figure out how to adapt the directions. Some features are probably different in your browser. Not necessarily worse!

• Connection to Internet:
  

  Project 1: Browser Basics: 
       If you download the resource files, you can work through the main project offline (without being connected)
       Exercises  for Project 1- A connection is required.

  Project 2: HTML Basics:
      A connection is required for checking some URLs and for uploading your pages to web space, if you wish to do that.

• Basic Windows skills: The skills covered in the Windows unit - 
  • using a mouse to click, double-click, drag, & right click
  • parts of a window
  • moving, resizing, maximizing, & minimizing a window
  • scrolling
  • using the folder tree
  • creating and managing folders
  • naming files
  • opening and closing a program
  • opening and saving files
  • using dialog boxes
  • using Help
  • printing
• Typing skills: You need to be familiar with the computer keyboard and have some skill in typing. Basic editing skills - deleting, inserting, selecting.
  
• Resource files:
  

  Browser Basics: Web pages for practicing browsing and searching.
  Nothing is quite the same as being on the Internet yourself. If you have slow connection or are in a classroom where not all the computers can connect to the Internet at the same time, you may want to install the resource files to your hard drive. That way you could learn and practice without being connected to the Internet.  Your instructor may have put these files on your computer already.  They are also available in the download and the CD of this site.

  HTML Basics: The images and documents you need for the project and the exercises

  Detailed directions about downloading the resource files.
  

• Removable File Storage: USB drive

  You need removable storage for a working copy and a backup copy of your documents. These lessons direct you to save your work to a removable drive instead of to a folder on the hard disk. Students in classrooms often do not have their own password-protected storage folders.

  If you have a computer of your own, keep an up-to-date copy of your work on your home computer, too. Start good backup habits early and you won't kick yourself later when your files are lost or corrupted.

  USB drive: Recommended
  Called by many different names: flash drive, flash pen,  thumb drive,  key drive, jump drive, and mini-USB drive. A USB drive is an excellent choice for storing your class work. 

  Before you buy:
  Check the following for both the classroom computer AND your home computer-
  

  • Computer does have USB ports.
  • You are allowed to use one of the USB ports.
  • You can physically get to the USB port.
    Some are on the the back of the computer case.
  • Operating system will recognize a USB drive.
    Windows 2000, XP, and Me will automatically recognize your USB drive. For Win95 and Win98, you must install drivers. I sincerely hope you do not have to use old Windows versions as they no longer get security updates.
  • Physical arrangement of USB ports - Are they side by side? one above the other?
    Some USB drives are wider or thicker than others and may not fit all port arrangements, especially if a neighboring USB port has something plugged into it. Some drives come with a short extension cable.

  If you do not have a computer at home, consider buying 2 USB drives so that you can use one to keep a backup copy of your work. Don't lose them both at the same time!

  How to handle a full disk
  

• Software: 

  Browser Basics: 

  • Browser
    (Internet Explorer 9+, Google Chrome 15+, Firefox 9+).
    Or, you can use your own favorite browser, as long as you are willing to figure out what to do when there are differences. Note that IE9 is not available for WinXP.

  • Anti-virus software - Should be up and running every time you connect to the Internet!

  HTML Basics:

  • Browser
    (Internet Explorer 9+, Google Chrome 15+, Firefox 9+).
    Or, you can use your own favorite browser, as long as you are willing to figure out what to do when there are differences. Note that IE9 is not available for WinXP.

  • Plain text editor
    The lessons will use Notepad. It is NOT REQUIRED that you use an advanced text editor! You can do these lessons with Notepad alone. Or, if you wish, you can use an advanced text editor like EditPad Pro 7 (which I use) or even an advanced WYSIWYG HTML editor like Microsoft Expression Web (which I use) or Adobe Dreamweaver. The directions, however, will assume that you are using plain old Notepad.

    The old version of this material was written to use FrontPage or FrontPage Express. Those are both obsolete now. The new programs for creating HTML pages are so flexible and complicated that I have decided to return to basics and work directly with the HTML code. After all, you will need to know what is supposed to be on the page when your fancy software messes things up!

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Icons

     Hands-on topic, (in menu) where you will have Step-by-Step directions.

marks a tip - something you might find useful to know.

marks a warning about possible problems.

marks a comment about Internet Explorer

 marks a comment about Google Chrome 

marks a comment about Firefox

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