The Online World resources handbook

Using online services http://home.eunet.no/~presno/bok/3.html
The World Wide
Web
Web documents
Navigating by menus
The Online World resources handbook
Chapter 3:
Using online services
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Test drive
Selecting an expert
level
Tailoring your services
Displaying information on the
screen
Connecting the first time
The term 'user interface' refers to how information is displayed on your screen when you
call an online service. It is about graphics, menus and help screens, and various options
to tailor the service to your personal preferences.
The World Wide Web
is essentially a vast repository of files (or documents) stored on computers (often called
Web sites) connected to the Internet. The service that lets you get to these files is built
to be used by a computer running in a windows environment, but it can also be accessed
by non graphics programs (like Lynx), and by electronic mail.
Most of the things you can do on the Internet take place in two places at once
your computer and the computer it is connected to over the network.
In general, the software program that you are running on your computer is called
the client (or, browser), and that on the remote computer is the server. Do something
on your computer, and the client software translates it into a form that the server can
understand.
Tell your client to retrieve information at a given World Wide Web server address,
and it will go get it for you. A World Wide Web page can look like anything. It can be a
text, like the one you read now, with some words highlighted in a special way. You can
"click" on these emphasized words with your mouse to jump off to another track.
Example: If the term "World Wide Web" in the paragraph above is highlighted, and
you click on this term, then you will receive a definition of this Internet service. Many
people think this method is easier than having to "page forward to appendix 6 for a
definition." (Yes, appendix 6 does contain general information about the Web.)
In the online hypertext version of this handbook, the term "appendix 6" above is
highlighted. Click on it to get there. When you are done browsing the appendix, you can
"click back" to this chapter to continue reading. In most browsers, you can do this either
by clicking at an arrow pointing leftwards or a similar icon, or by using the browsers'
menus.
Some World Wide Web services have hypertext links imbedded in pictures or other
graphics. These pointers are impossible to see unless you use a windows program to
access the service. However, they work in the same way. Click on these pointers to get
to the other tracks, which may be serving text, video, sound, a picture, or whatever.
Web documents
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