Navigation with Your Web Browser

The tutorials you are reading are displayed with a Web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. The following is a brief overview of some of the navigation features of these browsers. These instructions do not apply if you are using Lynx.

Moving around on the page

One way to move the page up and down is to use the vertical scrollbar on the right side of the browser window. To use the scrollbar you can do one or more of the following

• Click on the arrows at each end of it to move one line up or down.
• Click once above or below the slider to move one screen up or down.
• Drag the slider up or down.

The following keys may also move the page:

  Up and Down arrow keys           Scroll up/down one line
  Left and Right arrow keys        Scroll left/right 
  Page Up/Prior                    Scroll up one page
  Page Down/Next/Space             Scroll down one page

Following links

When you look at a page you will see some words, phrases or pictures that are underlined or highlighted. These are links. Clicking once on a link will take you to a document that has more information about that topic. To get back to where you were before you followed the link, click the Back button that is located somewhere in the browser window, usually at the upper left.

When you return to a page that you have visited before, you will notice that some of the links are a different color or have a dashed line under them. This tells you that you have already followed that link.

Using the Back and Forward buttons

The Web browser keeps track of what pages you have seen. You can follow your own path by using the Back and Forward buttons:

• Back: Click once on the Back button to move back one page. If you have followed several links in a document, clicking the back button repeatedly will eventually take you back to the first page you visited during your current session with the browser.

• Forward: Click once on the Forward button to move forward one page.

Using hotkeys

While the mouse pointer is inside the browser window, the following hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts for common actions) may be active. Note that some of these keys are case-sensitive.

• Back (Alt+Left Arrow) moves you to the previous page if there is one.
• Forward (Alt+Right Arrow) moves you to the next page in the history of your movements.
• Reload (Ctrl+R) will retrieve the information again if the text or graphics become muddled.
• Open (Ctrl+Shift+L) brings up a dialog box for you to enter a URL.

There are several more hotkeys available, but most implement advanced features that are not discussed here.

Go to the Unix Workstation Guide.

Content last updated May, 2004, by daniel
Page last modified June 15, 2005 by cawalker