NWE Help: Web: Browsing: Window Parts

NWE Home :: Help :: Web :: Browsing

Let's have a look at the most critical parts of every Mozilla Firefox window.

First off, you can see that the Firefox window has the standard xwindow frame. You can use this as in any other X window application.

There are several rows of menus. Let's go over them:

1. Menu bar (File, Edit...). This controls most Firefox behavior.
2. Toolbar (Back, Forward...). These are the most often used Firefox functions. You can change the display of this toolbar under the "View: Apply Themes." We'll talk more about some of these buttons in a bit.
3. Location. This area shows the URL of the web page you are currently browsing.

Of course, the middle of the page contains the content of the web page you are viewing. In our example, it's the NWE homepage.

You should also note a few other things:

• You can see an orange "CLAS" icon for instructors (or the NWE icon if you're a student) in the upper right. When the icon is animated, the page you are looking at is still loading.
• A key in the lower right shows the security level of the current page. In most cases, the padlock looks "open" because most web pages are not encrypted.
• The lower left portion of the page displays messages about the loading status of the page you are viewing.
• The lower right part of the page has a status indicator. This indicator will "fill" as a page loads more completely.

Generally speaking, as a page loads, you can diagnose loading problems by watching the lower part of the page. If the status displays "Looking up host..." and doesn't show "Contacting host...", you may have the wrong address. If the status never shows "Transferring data..." then the server you are accessing is probably busy or offline.