Lesson 4: Navigating Web Pages & Web Sites
Hyperlinks
An easy way to move around on the World Wide Web is by
hyperlinks, which are sometimes called hot links. Whatever you
call them, these links provide a connection between Web pages
that allows for amazingly easy access to other Web pages. A link
or hyperlink can be text, an icon, a picture, or an icon that
moves a user from one Web page or Web site to another. A
hyperlink has an unseen Web address imbedded in it.
Positioning your cursor on a hyperlink and clicking your mouse
will take you to the Web page whose address is embedded in the
hyperlink. So, if I am writing something about The Encyclopedia
Britannica, I can simply add a hyperlink to the text and it will
become The Encyclopedia Britannica. You can tell that this text
has a hyperlink hidden in it because it is a different color and
because it is underlined. Just click on the hyperlinked word and
presto—you go off to the world of the underlined word, in this
case, the Encyclopedia Britannica Web site. Hyperlinks are a
great way to easily find out more about a particular word or
concept. There seems to be no end to the information on this
Information Highway!
Underlined Link
A text link appears as an underlined word on the web page. When
you click this underlined word, you will instantly jump from one
place to another.
Navigating Within a Web Page
So far, our main focus has been moving from Web page to Web page
or navigating between Web sites, but that is only half the
picture. Once you have moved from Web site to Web site and
selected a Web page you want to concentrate on, there are
convenient ways to move around that particular page itself.
Often a Web page holds more information than can fit on one
screen. A Web page appears aligned to the upper left hand corner
of your screen. There is often information that you cannot see
farther down after the last line on the screen. Sometimes there
is also more information to the right of the screen.
Slider & Arrows
Scrolling is an easy way to navigate on a Web page. You can
scroll up and down and side to side by using either the
horizontal or vertical onscreen scroll bars on the bottom and
right side of the screen. To scroll using the onscreen scroll
bars, simply position your cursor on the slider on the scroll
bar. Hold the mouse button down and drag the slider up and/or
down on the vertical scroll bar (or side to side on the
horizontal scroll bar). You can also position your cursor over
the arrows at the top and the bottom of the vertical scroll bar
(left and right sides of the horizontal scroll bar) to move one
line at a time.
Using Arrow Keys
The keyboard holds some other choices for helping you move
around a Web page. The first are the Page Up and Page Down keys
on your keyboard. Pressing these keys while on a Web page, will
move you up and/or down the screen one page at a time. The Arrow
keys on the keyboard are convenient tools for moving the focus
of your computer screen up, down, left, or right. These keys
will move the screen more slowly, moving one line at a time.
Using Wheel Mouse
I thought the scroll bars were the Cadillac of navigation until
I tried a wheel mouse. What is a wheel mouse? He is a very
helpful little critter that you will be happy you met. You can
purchase a mouse with a wheel located between the two buttons.
This wheel is programmed to move the screen; and you can
customize its movements. The most common use of the wheel mouse
is for scrolling up and down a Web page. With this little fellow
in hand you can really fly up and down the screen. All you do is
click on the page and then turn your wheel in an upward or
downward motion and you will get the same effect as using the
scroll bar, but the movement is faster and much easier. Web
pages today can be very long so a wheel mouse is a special
friend.
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