Lesson 4: Navigating Web Pages and Web Site

This section will help you understand common terms and tools of the internet: Hyperlinks, Underlined Link, Hand Icon, Graphics, Links in Menus, Using Wheel Mouse, Using Arrow Keys.

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 and often is indicated by a color different from the rest of the text on the page. When you click this underlined word, you will instantly jump from one place to another. Once you click on a hyperlink, it changes color to indicate that you have previously used the hyperlink.

Hand Icon

Hand Icon
If you want to see if an item on the page you are viewing is a hyperlink, move the mouse pointer over the item. If the pointer changes to a hand, the item is a link. This hand icon is a symbol letting you know that that word, picture, or graphic is a hyperlink.
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.





Graphics Used as Links

AARP Logo
Yes, a graphic or picture can also be a hyperlink. Position your cursor over the graphic on a page. If the hand icon appears, you have found a link that will move you to another area on the Internet.



Links in Menus

Compukiss®
Sometimes you will find a Web page which has a list of items, generally called a Menu of items. Although the words themselves may not be underlined, these items may still be hyperlinks. A good example is my own Compu-KISS® Web site.



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.

Apply Your Knowledge.
A common practice in the Web World is to make a logo a hyperlink that will transport you to the site's home page.

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