Netscape Communicator

Netscape Communicator

Conference

Easy Bookmarks

Add a URL to your bookmarks by dragging a URL from a page to the blue Bookmark Quickfile button. But don't let go of the mouse quite yet. To save an extra step, drop the URL directly into the appropriate folder.

Create a Personal Toolbar

You can drag and drop favorite sites into the Personal Toolbar. Drag the tiny icon next to the word Netsite down to the Personal Toolbar. Now you're a click away from a favorite site without going through the Bookmarks file. You can edit the contents of this toolbar by clicking the Bookmarks button and selecting Edit Bookmarks. The Toolbar folder is like any other Bookmark folder, so you can delete, move, rename, or do whatever you want with its contents.

URL Shortcuts

If you're a Navigator 3 user, you probably know that typing http:// at the address field is unnecessary (Navigator fills that in for you), and if you type anysite, you will go to www.anysite.com. But now you can also add a path name such as pcworld/games to go to www.pcworld.com/games.

Search Keywords From Within Navigator

If Navigator can't find www.anysite.com, it goes to a search page on Netscape's site and looks up the site on one of the randomly selected search engines. If you type more than one word, such as "rock and hard place," Navigator will automatically go to a search engine and run a query on those keywords. If you have a single-word query, type a space and a period after that word (i.e., "dilbert .").

Let Your Taskbar Run Free

The new taskbar on the status bar can be undocked and used as a floating palette. Watch out, though, because it tends to get lost behind windows. Click on the top far left of the taskbar to undock it. To bring it back into the fold, click the miniature N icon on the floating taskbar. If it's hidden behind a window, select Window, Dock Taskbar. Note that this taskbar is available in all Communicator modules.

Smarter Back and Forward

If you click and hold the Back or Forward buttons, you get a drop-down list of the sites you've visited since starting the current session.

About:Stuff

By typing about:x in the location field, you can bring up useful and not-so-useful information about your browsing habits:

•about:cache gives a list of all files in the disk cache. •about:global lists all the places you've visited and when. •about:image-cache lists all image files in the cache. •about:memory-cache lists all files in the memory cache.

To see more about the creators of Communicator try "about:" and the following names: ari, atotic, blythe, chouck, dmose, dp, ebina, hagan, jeff, jg, jsw, jwz, karlton, kipp, marca, mlm, montulli, mozilla, mtoy, paquin, robm, sharoni, terry, timm.

Rest Your Mouse

Press <Tab> to jump between hyperlinks on a page. <Shift>-<Tab> takes you backward between links.

Lose the Scrolling Javascript

Winner of the Most Annoying Web Feature award is the s-c-r-o-l-l-i-n-g Javascript in your status bar. To lose the bottom panel altogether, type <CTRL>-<ALT>-<S>, and enjoy the silence.

Bookmark Items From Your History

The History window is a new Communicator feature that you can reach from the browser by selecting Communicator**History. From there you can right-click any of the sites you have visited and select Add to Bookmarks.

Conference

Send Multiple Files

To select multiple files for transfer drag them into the "File(s) to send" area of the File Transfer tool. Click the button directly below the File menu to transfer your list of files in the background.

Flip Your Image

Almost any type of image on your hard disk will serve for your Conference Business Card, though some .bmp files will display upside down. To correct this, open Microsoft Paint and "flip" the image. Select File**Open and choose the .bmp image you want to use. Select Image, Flip**Rotate, then check Flip vertical and click OK. Save the file under a different name so you won't lose the original, then open Conference. Choose Call**Preferences and click the Business Card tab. Click the button at the right of the Photo field at the bottom of the window and select the bitmap to import. Don't want to deal with Paint? Convert the image to .jpg if you have a graphics conversion program, such as PaintShop Pro.

Composer

Resize Images

Images for Web pages or mail messages can now be resized without launching an external image editor. Once you've dragged an image from Navigator into the Composer Window, click its border, then drag to resize.

Keep It Simple

Keep It Simple With all its bells and whistles, Composer may be overkill for your e-mail needs, especially if most of your recipients don't use Netscape's software and can't see your rich text or inline images. To disable the HTML and formatting buttons, select Edit**Mail and Discussion Preferences, then click on the Messages tab. Check off the By default, send rich text messages option.

Get Noticed

If you want search spiders like Hotbot and Infoseek to notice your Web page, use Composer to set META tags. Select Format**Page Properties. Click the Advanced tab, then the User variables box. In the Name field, type "contents." In the Variable field, type keywords that people might use to find your site, separated by commas. Then click the Set button.

Collabra/Messenger

See What's New

The default setting for newsgroups views all messages, which means loading roughly 7,000 postings, many of which are expired. To see only new and unread postings, choose View**Messages**Threads with New. If you find a particular thread particularly annoying, click the first message and select Message**Ignore Thread (or press <Ctrl>-<I>).

Get the Message

Do you constantly have to adjust your window's width or rearrange columns so you can read an entire subject line or sender name truncated within a narrow column? You don't need to. Right-click anywhere in the Inbox and select Title Tips (or just make sure it has a check mark next to it). Now position the mouse over the Sender, Subject, or Date line of any message and a "tooltip" will pop up with the complete text.

Preview Messages With Multiple Panes

Double-clicking message headers to open mail grows tiresome, doesn't it? At the bottom left of the in-box (above the status bar), you'll find a blue double-triangle. Click that tiny icon to preview messages by dividing the in-box into two panes (the bottom one is the preview pane). To return the window to one pane, click the double-triangle again.

Drag Images to Your Mail

Want to mail an image you see on a Web page? From the Message Center, select File**Compose Message. After the message window opens, switch to Navigator, and drag an image into the open mail window. If your recipients use Netscape, they'll see the inline image without having to launch a viewer. Others will receive HTML code.

Search for an E-mail Address Without Leaving Messenger

When composing e-mail, you can search e-mail directories such as Four 11 or Bigfoot without leaving the mail window. Select Edit**Search Addresses. Drop-down menus allow searches by organization or phonetically. You can add any LDAP directory , such as the one at the University of Michigan, to your search list.

Saving Attachments

The default setting for viewing attachments is inline, leaving you no way to save them. But there's a simple fix: To save an attachment to your hard disk, select View**Attachments**As Links.

Find a Thread Quickly

Finding that conspiracy theory you read last week no longer means wading through postings. While viewing a message, select Communicator**Bookmark**Add Bookmark. Now you can find messages quickly and view them in the browser window instead of opening the Message Center.

Delay Mail Delivery

If you compose mail offline, say on a notebook away from an Internet connection, you can put messages in the out-box and send them later. After composing a message, select File**Send Later. When you are ready to send it, select Message**Send Messages in Outbox.

Sort Messages in Ascending and Descending Order

In keeping with the Windows 95 Explorer, now you can sort messages in ascending and descending order by clicking the Sender, Subject, or Date column headings; one click is for ascending, two is for descending.

Sort E-mail by Thread

The best sort option is the one that groups messages by common threads. There's a thread button to the left of the Subject column heading, which looks like four lines stacked on top of each other. Click to group the responses together. To expand a thread, click the + sign, just as you would expand a folder in the Windows Explorer.