Netscape Handbook: Menu Items

New Window
Creates a new window with the same history items as the previous window while bringing the oldest page in the history (usually the home page) to screen.
Open Location...
Produces a dialog box that lets you enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to bring the specified page into the content area. Every page has a unique URL that identifies its protocol, server, and file pathname.
Open File...
Lets you select a file to open from a dialog box.
Save As...
Produces a dialog box that lets you create a file containing the content area of the current page. You can save the page in plain text format or in source (HTML) format.
Mail Document...
Produces the Send Mail/Post News dialog box that lets you send a mail message and page attachment to an e-mail address you specify. If you have not specified the name of your mail (SMTP) server and your own e-mail address in the appropriate fields of the Mail panel, you'll receive a dialog box telling you that you must do so for mail or news postings to be sent.
Document Information
Produces a read-only dialog box stating the current document's title, location (URL), date of last modification, character set encoding, and security status. Secure documents specify the type of encryption used and certificate data. The certificate states the version, serial number, issuer (identity of the certifier), and subject (identity of the server). The certificate uses abbreviations for: Country (C), State or Province (ST), Organization (O), Organizational Unit (OU), Locality (L), and Common Name (CN).
Page Setup... (On Windows: a button in the Print... dialog box)
Produces a dialog box that lets you specify printing characteristics associated with the current page.
Print...
Prints the content area of the current page. A dialog box lets you select printing characteristics. In addition to Print, the Windows platform offers a Print Preview menu item to display the layout of a printed page.
Print Preview (Windows only)
Shows a representation of a printed page on screen.
Close
Closes the current page. On Windows, exits the Netscape application when you close the last page.
Exit
Closes the current page and exits the Netscape application.

Send Mail/ Post News (File/Mail Document dialog)

This dialog box is produced by choosing the File/Mail Document menu item. The dialog may also be produced by clicking on a link or button designed to initiate e-mail, and is the same dialog used to post articles to newsgroups.

Fields in the dialog work as follows:

Your e-mail address (as stated in the Mail panel) is displayed in the From field.
Enter the e-mail address of the intended mail recipient in the Mail To field.
Enter the name of the newsgroup you wish to post to in the Post To (Newsgroup) field. If you're posting from a newsgroup listing or article, this field is preset with the name of the newsgroup.
Enter a description of the e-mail or posting in the Subject field. If you're sending mail or posting from news articles, this field is preset with the name of the current page.
Any file you've attached is shown in the Attachment field.
Enter a message or include the text of the current page in the large message field. If you're sending mail, this field is preset with the current page's URL. If the Mail panel specifies a text file containing your signature, the signature is appended.

Buttons in the dialog work as follows:

Press the Attach button to send a separate document along with the e-mail message. The button produces a dialog box with radio buttons for choosing a Document Text, Document Source, or File attachment. The File alternative offers a Browse button for selecting a local file.
Press the Quote Document button to import the text of the current page into the message field. The imported text is appended to any other content in the field and each line is preceded with a greater-than (>) symbol.
Press the Send button to distribute the mail into the network and close the dialog box.

Document Information (File/Document Information dialog)

This dialog identifies elements of a document that help you establish the document's authenticity and other security characteristics. In the upper portion of the dialog, the document's title, location, modification date, and character set encoding information are presented. The lower portion of the dialog consists of a panel detailing the particulars of a document's security status.

To interpret the security status of a document, you should verify that the information you see in the dialog box:

Is consistent with your knowledge of the party with whom you are communicating.
States that the document is secure or insecure.
Designates for secure documents the type of encryption used in the transmission and the certification of the server.

If a document is insecure, the security information panel notifies you that encryption is not used and there is no server certificate. If a document is secure, the security information panel notifies you of the encryption's grade, export control, key size, and algorithm type, and, in a scrolling field, the server certificate presents coded data identifying the:

Certificate version and serial number
Issuer of the certificate
Subject (organization) that is being certified

To ensure you are communicating with the organization you want, examine the subject of the server certificate. The organization should identify itself with the name and location you expect.

Like documents, certificate information is protected by encryption to ensure authenticity and integrity. You can interpret the coded data as follows:

Country (C): two-character country code
State or Province (ST): unabbreviated state/province name
Organization (O): legal, registered organization name
Organizational Unit (OU): optional department name
Locality (L): city the organization resides or is registered in
Common Name (CN): the server's fully qualified host name (such as: hostname.netscape.com)

Edit

Undo
Reverses the last action you performed, if possible.
Cut...
Removes the current selection and places a copy on the clipboard.
Copy
Places a copy of the current selection on the clipboard.
Paste
Puts the contents of the clipboard into the current page at the position of the selection marker.
Find...
Produces a Find dialog box that lets you specify a word or phrase to locate within the current page. Pressing the Find button begins the search. If a match is found, the text is selected and, if necessary, scrolled to a visible position in the content area. If the Match Case option is checked, a match can only occur when the use of uppercase and lowercase letters is the same; otherwise a match can occur regardless of case. If the Up option is checked, the search proceeds from the selection bar toward the beginning of the page; otherwise (Down is checked; Find Backward is unchecked) a search proceeds from the selection bar toward the end of the page. If a search reaches the end or beginning of a page (depending on the direction of the search), a dialog box asks whether or not to continue the search to the beginning or end of the document.
Find Again (Not on Windows)
Searches for another occurrence of the text specified after using Find.

View

Reload
Brings a fresh copy of the current page (from cache or, if changed, source) to replace the one originally loaded. The reloaded page displays any changes made to the source page from the time of the original loading.
Load Images
Displays the images of the current page. Typically, images automatically load into pages. However, if the Options/Auto Load Images menu item is unchecked when a page loads, a small icon is substituted at the position of each image. Choosing Load Images replaces all of the small icons with their corresponding images. Images are loaded from their source files, however the page is not reloaded (links to images are not updated from the source page).
Refresh
Brings a fresh copy of the current page from local memory to replace the one originally loaded. The refreshed page does not display changes made to the source page from the time of the original loading.
Source... Produces a View Source dialog box (or opens a viewer application) showing the current page in the textual format of HTML (HyperText Markup Language). The HTML source text includes the commands used to create the content and content style of a single page. The dialog box contains a read-only listing, though the text can be selected and copied to an application with editing capabilities. On Windows, the source text is displayed in a dialog box without the option to save. On all platforms, you can specify an application of your choice to view the source text (bypassing the dialog box or generic viewer). The Applications panel (choose Options/Preferences/Applications) offers a View Source field and Browse button to specify the location of the viewing application you wish to use as the default viewer.

Back
Brings the previous page in the history list. A history list is a reference to a hierarchy of pages you have viewed.
Forward
Brings the next page in the history list. If you have used Back or a history menu item to bring back page B, then Forward brings the page ahead of B in the history list. The Forward command is only offered after using Back or a history item.
Home
Brings the home page whose location is specified in the Window Styles panel. The default is the AT&T WorldNet(SM) Services home page.
Stop Loading
Halts the connection in progress that is bringing a page to the screen.
View History...
Produces a History dialog box that lists, in two columns, the title and URL of each page you have seen as you "most recently" descended from the home page. (For example, if you go from page Animal to page Cat to page Calico, then back to page Animal and traverse the path Animal to Dog to Spaniel, your history maintains only the most recent Animal-Dog-Spaniel lineage.) The history list is sorted with the most recently viewed pages at the top. One item in the list is always selected. Pressing the Go to button brings the selected page back to the screen. So does double-clicking on an item. Pressing the Add to Bookmark button puts the selected page into the bookmark list.
History item 1
Brings the first page in the history list (each menu item is a title of a page).
History item 2
Brings the second page in the history list (and so on, each menu item is a title of a page).

Bookmarks (for Windows)

The Bookmarks menu provides fast and easy access to your favorite pages. Initially, the menu displays two items that help you add and modify bookmarks. As you add a page to a bookmark list, the title of the page (or any other name you wish to supply as a bookmark title) is appended as a menu item. Selecting the title brings the page to your screen.

Bookmarks are maintained in lists, each list is represented by a bookmarks file. The menu item View Bookmarks produces a Netscape Bookmarks window with its own menu bar offering options that allow you to build and maintain a bookmark list. Any changes you make to the currently active bookmark list are saved and available the next time you start Netscape. You can maintain multiple bookmark lists, each with its own set of titles linked to favorite pages, though only one bookmark list can be active at a time.

In the Netscape Bookmarks window, you see bookmark icons and folders that resemble files and directories in the File Manager. A folder represents a hierarchical menu header. Icons in a folder correspond to the menu items under a header. Double-click on bookmarks to access pages, drag-and-drop icons to arrange your bookmarks, and use bookmark menu items to create and modify bookmark items.

You create a hierarchy by creating a folder in the list (choose Item/Insert Header from the bookmark window's menu bar). Once you have created a folder, you can drag an existing bookmark into the folder or choose Item/Insert Bookmark to add a new bookmark. An item in a folder appears as a submenu. An item in a folder contained in another folder appears as a submenu of a submenu, and so on.

The following are Bookmarks menu items. A subsequent section, on the View Bookmarks menu item, describes the menu items of the Netscape Bookmarks window.

Add Bookmark
Adds the title of the current page to the list of pages in the bookmark file.
View Bookmarks...
Produces a Netscape Bookmarks window that allows you to create and modify bookmark files.

Below these two menu items, the Bookmarks menu appends the title of each page you have added as a bookmark. The appended menu items correspond to the names in the Netscape Bookmarks window.

View Bookmarks (Bookmarks dialog for Windows)

The Netscape Bookmarks window produced by choosing the Bookmarks/View Bookmarks menu item allows you to manipulate bookmarks directly and also offers its own menu bar and pop-up menu.

Double click on a bookmark to bring a page.
Double click on a header to open or close a folder.
Single click on a bookmark or header item to select or unselect the item. Multiple items can be selected while holding down the Ctrl key (noncontiguous) or Shift key (contiguous). When a single bookmark is selected, the status area contains the bookmark's URL. Otherwise, the status area states the number of items selected.
When you single-click on a header, subsequent actions (such as editing and positioning) act upon all the subitems (children) of the header.
Drag and drop within a bookmarks window to position items. While dragging an item around, you'll see a box or a line indicating the position where a drop will occur. When you drag an item over a header, you'll see a box around the header (a drop positions the item first in the folder list). When you drag an item over a bookmark or separator, you'll see a horizontal line between adjacent items (a drop positions the item at the line).
Drag and drop a link from a page by clicking on the link and dragging it into the bookmarks window. The bookmark is added at the position of the drop.
On Windows 95, drag and drop a link from a page to the desktop to create an Internet shortcut for a specific page. Refer to the handbook index under Windows for more information on Windows-specific features such as shortcuts.

The Netscape Bookmarks window offers the following menu items:

File/View in Browser displays the active bookmarks file as a page. Your bookmark links become available as page links. This provides a way to view your bookmarks without using menus, to mail or publish your bookmarks for other people, or to specify your bookmarks page as your home page.
File/Preferences produces a dialog box to set how bookmarks are arranged in the Netscape Bookmarks window and the Bookmarks menu. The Add Bookmark menu command adds to pull-down menu lets you select the folder to insert newly added bookmarks (the default is the top level). The Use the header for the Bookmark menu pull-down menu lets you choose a folder to limit the bookmarks that appear under the Bookmarks menu (the default is the entire listing).
File/Import... produces a standard Open file dialog for appending the contents of a bookmarks file (an HTML-formatted page) into the active bookmarks file. Import adds bookmarks to the end of the current list. If, instead, you want to replace the list you're using, specify the location of the new list in the Bookmark File field in the Options/Preferences/Directories panel. If you try to import an HTML page that is not a bookmark file, you may get nonfunctional bookmark entries which you ought to delete. File/Save as... produces a dialog box for saving the active bookmarks file. The file is saved as an HTML-formatted page. Enter a file name of your choosing, then press OK to create a bookmarks file.
File/Close closes the bookmark window while saving the current list.
Edit/Cut removes the current selection and places a copy on the clipboard. If the selection includes a folder, the folder's contents are also included.
Edit/Copy places a copy of the current selection on the clipboard. If the selection includes a folder, the folder's contents are also included.
Edit/Paste puts the contents of the clipboard into the bookmarks list at the position after the current selection. If the selection is a folder, the new item is inserted into the folder as the first item.
Edit/Delete removes the current selection. If the selection includes a folder, the folder's contents are also removed.
Edit/Find... produces the Find Bookmark window for you to search for items in the bookmark list (both titles and URLs) that match text you enter in the Find What field. The search begins at the current selection and searches downward. The search is not case sensitive. When a match is found, the item is selected. If the match is in a URL, the URL is also selected. Pressing the Find Next button again searches for the next occurrence. If an item is found in a closed folder, the folder�s list is automatically opened and the found item selected.
Edit/Find Again performs the bookmark window's Find command again.
Item/Go to Bookmark brings the page specified by the current selection in the list (provided the current selection is a page title). This action is the same as double-clicking on a bookmark.
Item/Insert Bookmark... produces the Bookmark Properties window for inserting a new item below the current selection in the list. Enter the bookmark title that you wish to use in the Name field (temporarily titled New Item) and the new item's URL in the Location field. You have the option of adding information to the Description field. The Last Visited field contains the date you last viewed the page. The Added on field contains the current date and time. Click O to complete the insertion. Note: If the current selection is an open folder, the new item is inserted into the folder as the folder's first item. If the selection is a closed folder, the new item is inserted after the folder at the same level as the folder.
Item/Insert Header... produces the Bookmark Properties window for inserting a new folder (and hierarchical menu header) below the current selection in the list. Enter the name of the new header (temporarily titled New Header) in the Name text field. You have the option of adding information to the Description field. The Added on field contains the current date and time. (There's no information for the Location or Last Visited field.) Click OK to complete the insertion.
Item/Insert Separator creates a separator line below the current selection in the list
Item/Properties... produces the Bookmark Properties window for a selected bookmark or header.It's only possible to see one properties window at a time.

Options

Preferences...
Presents a dialog box containing tab for selecting preference items. Each tab/menu item produces a dialog box containing one or more of the following panels: Window Styles, Link Styles, Fonts, Colors, Mail, News, Cache, Network, Applications, Directories, Images, Security, Proxies, and Helper Applications.
Within a panel you can set characteristics that define Netscape's operation. Each dialog has OK and Cancel buttons. Click the OK button to close the dialog box while accepting any changes in panel settings. Click Cancel to close the dialog box without accepting any changes.
Show Toolbar
Toggles the visibility of the toolbar buttons. If checked, the toolbar buttons are visible.
Show Location
Toggles the visibility of the location (URL) field. If checked, the location is visible.
Show Directory Buttons
Toggles the visibility of the Directory menu buttons. If checked, the buttons are visible.
Auto Load Images
Toggles the presentation of inline images as a page is brought to screen. If checked, images embedded in a page are automatically loaded. If unchecked, images are not loaded and are instead represented by small icons that can loaded at a later time (by choosing the View/Load Images menu item or Images from the toolbar). Unchecking this item increases the speed for bringing the text portion of a page to your screen.
Show FTP File Information
Toggles the visibility of file information received in FTP (File Transport Protocol) format. If checked, the FTP file information is visible. If unchecked, alignment of other FTP data may improve.
Save Options
Saves any changes made to the settings of the Options menu (not including the Preferences submenu whose dialog box items are saved by pressing OK) so that the changes remain in effect for subsequent Netscape sessions.

Window Styles (Options/Preferences panel)

Select one of three radio buttons Pictures, Text, or Pictures and Text to determine the appearance of the toolbar buttons. The default is Pictures.
Select one of two radio buttons Blank Page or Home Page Location to determine the first page to appear when starting Netscape. The Home Page Location choice is followed by a text field for you to enter the location (URL) of the page you wish to designate as the startup page. The default is Home Page Location with the text field containing the URL of the Netscape application's home page. On Windows, font alternatives are offered in the Fonts panel.

Link Styles (Options/Preferences panel)

Check Links are: Underlined to make text links in the content area highlight with underlining. The default is checked.
Select one of two radio buttons Followed Links: Expire After or Expire Never, or press the Expire Now button, to determine the expiration of followed links. The color of an followed link reverts to the color of an unfollowed link at the time of expiration. The After choice is followed by a text field for you to enter the number of days after which a followed link reverts to an unfollowed link. The Never choice specifies that followed links never revert to unfollowed links. Pressing the Now button causes followed links to revert to unfollowed links immediately. The default is After with links expiring after 30 days.

Fonts (Options/Preferences panel)

(On Windows)

Netscape lets you choose a character set encoding's font display and specify a document's character set encoding. An encoding represents a mapping of glyphs (such as character symbols) to computer codes (such as hexadecimal digits).

Each character set encoding from the For the Encoding pull-down menu is associated with the display of a proportional and fixed font pair. You can view or modify the association for any encoding by choosing the encoding name from the menu, then choosing items from the proportional and fixed font pull-down menus. For example, the default encoding, Latin1, is associated with the proportional font Times 12 and the fixed font Courier 10.
Press the Use the Proportional Font button to choose a font and font size for the display of the primary type of text in the content area. Most pages display text in a proportional font. You can make a selection for each encoding.
Press the Use the Fixed Font button to choose a font and font size for the display of the secondary type of text in the content area. Fixed font text is used in editable fields and certain paragraphs preformatted by the author of a page. You can make a selection for each encoding.
Choose an item from The Default Encoding Is pull-down menu to specify the character set encoding that a document uses when the document does not specify an encoding or when the document-specified encoding is not available. The proportional and fixed fonts associated with the default encoding are designated using the other Font panel items.
The Autoselect the Default Encoding check box is enabled only when the default encoding is one of several Japanese character sets. By checking the box, Netscape automatically ascertains the most likely encoding used by a document. By unchecking the box, the default encoding is used. The check box is selected by default. If the automatic selection of an encoding is incorrect, uncheck the box and manually set the correct encoding.

Colors (Options/Preferences panel)

(On Windows)

Select one of two radio buttons Document, if Present or Preferences to determine if a page's background can be substituted for your background. Choose the default, Document, if Present, to permit the background display transmitted with a page. Choose Preferences to use your own Default, Custom, or File background only.
Check in any of the Custom boxes to specify your own color choices for links and text. Default colors are used for unchecked boxes.
Click in the Links box and press the Choose Color button to select the highlight color of text links to pages you have not yet seen. The default is blue.
Click in the Followed links box and press the Choose Color button to select the highlight color of text links to pages you have already seen. The default is purple.
Click in the Text box and press the Choose Color button to select the color of ordinary text. The default is black.
Select one of three radio buttons Default, Custom, or File to specify how the background of a document should be presented on your screen. Choose Default to use the standard gray background. Choose Custom and press the Choose Color button to select a background color of your choice. Choose File and press the Browse button to select an image file to serve as your document background.

Mail (Options/Preferences panel)

To send e-mail, the Netscape application must make the appropriate connection to a SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) server. Enter the server name in the Mail (SMTP) Server field (ideally, a local mail server if available). If you do not know the name of your SMTP server, ask your service provider or system administrator.

For others to reply to your mail, you should enter your name and e-mail address in their respective fields. This information accompanies each correspondence you send.

Text in the Mail (SMTP) Server field designates the host name of your (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) mail server.
Text in the Your Name and Your E-mail fields provides your name and e-mail address to recipients of your e-mail.
The Organization field allows you to add your company name.
The Signature File field shows the name of a file containing the signature you can have appended to your mailings and news postings. Click Browse to select this file.
The Allow 8-bit radio button (default) accommodates the widest range of e-mail servers (U.S. and Europe). If you are using a MIME mail reader where non-ASCII characters are misinterpreted, use the Mime Compliant option to enable proper character display.

News (Options/Preferences panel)

You must specify a news server to interact with Usenet newsgroups. If you don't know the name of your news server, contact the service or administrator providing you with your Internet connection.

Text in the News (NNTP) Server field designates the host name for the default news server.
Lists the location of the News RC Directory. This directory holds newsgroup subscription and information files. A News RC file is maintained for each news server you connect to. Click the Browse button to identify a new location.
The field containing 100 within Show 100 Articles at a Time can be replaced with a number that limits how many news articles are initially transferred, in a single block, from the news server. The larger the number, the more time to complete the transfer of each block of articles. Articles with more recent dates are transferred first. Articles with older dates can be transferred in blocks by clicking on links available at the start of an article listing.

Cache (Options/Preferences panel)

The Memory Cache field specifies the size in kilobytes of the memory cache. Press the Clear Memory Cache Now button to empty the cache immediately. The default is 2000K.
The Disk Cache field specifies the size in kilobytes of the disk cache. On Windows, the default is 5000K. Press the Clear Disk Cache Now button to empty the cache immediately.
Lists the disk Disk Cache Directory location. Click on buttons to change the disk cache size or clear the disk cache now.
Select one of three radio buttons to check the network for document revisions Once per Session, Every Time, or Never. By checking for revisions, Netscape knows to bring an updated page from a network server rather than a potentially stale page stored in the cache. Choosing the recommended, Once per Session, causes a network verification of any page only once during the time you start and quit the application. Choosing Every Time repeatedly checks for HTML changes when you request a page, at the cost of slower performance. Choosing Never performs no verifications, thus a page available in cache is always brought from cache.

Netscape performs cache maintenance when you exit the applications. If you find that exiting takes longer than you wish, you might remedy the problem by reducing the size of the disk cache.

If you find that pages that should be in cache are taking longer to appear than they should, make sure the Verify Documents button is not set to Every Time. The verification requires a network connection that takes time. As an alternative, you can always obtain document revisions by pressing the Reload button. A reloaded document is brought from the network server and not the cache.

Network (Options/Preferences panel)

The Connections field specifies the maximum number of network connections. The default is 4.
The Network Buffer Size field specifies the number of kilobytes allotted in memory for network data transmissions. On Windows, the default is 1K.

Applications (Options/Preferences panel)

You can also specify the folder to store applications that support Netscape. Whereas helper applications provide a page with multimedia presentation capabilities (according to MIME type), supporting applications provide Netscape with connection and page formatting utilities. Click on the field's adjacent Browse button to identify a new application location.

Lists the location of the Telnet Application. Telnet provides the means to connect to and interact with another computer using standard Internet protocols.
Lists the location of an application to View Source (if required by your platform). The source viewer application displays a page's text embedded with the HTML formatting commands.
Lists the location of the TN3270 Application. TN3270 is used for Telnet connections to IBM mainframes.

Directories (Options/Preferences panel)

Lists the location of the Temporary Directory. Before a helper application executes, Netscape temporarily stores application files onto disk. After the helper application is exited, Netscape deletes the files.
On Windows, lists the location of the Bookmark File. Click its Browse button to select a new default folder to hold the bookmark list file (bookmark.htm on Windows).

Images (Options/Preferences panel)

Select one of two radio buttons Dither to Color Cube or Use Closest Color in Color Cube to display images using dithering or substitution to most closely match the computer's available colors. Dithered images may offer a closer match to an image's intended colors, but take longer to display.
Select one of two radio buttons While Loading or After Loading to display images incrementally while the image is transmitted or all at once after the transmission. The While Loading option provides the benefit of feedback as the transmission progresses. On a fast network, the After Loading option may complete the load slightly faster. The default is While Loading.

Security (Options/Preferences panel)

The security check boxes dictate whether you receive a dialog box notification when entering a secure document space, leaving a secure document space, viewing a document with a mixed security status, or submitting a form with an insecure submit process. If a check box is checked, the notification dialog can be issued; otherwise, the dialog is bypassed.

Proxies (Options/Preferences panel)

Ordinarily, the Netscape application does not require proxies to interact with the network services of external sources. However, in some network configurations the connection between the Netscape application and a remote server is blocked by a firewall. Firewalls protect information in internal computer networks from external access. In doing so, firewalls may limit Netscape's ability to exchange information with external sources.

To overcome this limitation, Netscape can interact with proxy software. A proxy server sits atop a firewall and acts as a conduit, providing a specific connection for each network service protocol. If you are running Netscape on an internal network from behind a firewall, you will need to ascertain from your system administrator the names and associated port numbers for the server running proxy software for each network service. Proxy software retains the ability to communicate with external sources, yet is trusted to communicate with the internal network.

A single computer may run multiple servers, each server connection identified with a port number. A proxy server, like an HTTP server or a FTP server, occupies a port. Typically, a connection uses standardized port numbers for each protocol (for example, HTTP = 80 and FTP = 21). However, unlike common server protocols, the proxy server has no default port. Netscape requires that for each proxy server you specify in a Proxy text field, you also specify its port number in the Port field.

Text in each Proxy field designates the host name of each protocol's proxy server. (Often, a single proxy server handles the three major protocols: HTTP, FTP, and Gopher.) This can also be a numeric IP address of the proxy server.
A number in each adjacent Port field identifies the port number used by the proxy server.

Text fields for proxies and ports are offered for FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Gopher, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), Security (Secure Sockets Layer protocol), WAIS (Wide Area Information System), and SOCKS (firewall bypass software).

The text field No Proxy for: lets you bypass the proxy server for one or more specified local domains. For example, if you specify:

aserver.netscape.com

8080

adomain

bdomain

netscape.com

then all HTTP requests for the adomain, bdomain, and netscape.com host servers go from Netscape directly to the host (not using any proxy). All HTTP requests for other servers go from Netscape through the proxy server aserver on port 8080, then to the host. A proxy that runs on a host server outside a firewall cannot connect to server inside the firewall. To bypass the firewall's restriction, you must set the No Proxy for field to include any internal server you're using. If you use local hostnames without the domain name, you should list them the same way. Multiple hostnames are delimited by commas and the wildcard character (*) cannot be used.

Helper Applications (Options/Preferences dialog)

Note: Choose the Help/Release Notes menu item for platform-specific details and to find sites for downloading helper application software.

The Netscape application brings files to your computer using various server protocols such as HTTP, NNTP, SMTP, and FTP. Each protocol may support different file formats. Netscape has the built-in capability to read (interpret and display on your computer) several formats including the HTML format used by HTTP servers. When the Netscape application retrieves a file with a format that Netscape itself cannot read, the application attempts to use an external helper application capable of reading the file. Netscape uses a Preferences dialog box to allow you to examine and configure how a file's format maps to a helper application. The dialog box contains several fields and buttons to specify MIME file types (a method of differentiating file formats using a suffix appended to a file name), helper applications, and associated actions.

A scrolling text field lists the helper applications available to the Netscape application. Each line of the text field contains information about one helper application. By clicking on a line in the text field, you can see and modify preferences for the selected helper application in the area below the scrolling field.
Enter a File Type in a text field.
Enter a Subtype in a text field.
Enter Extensions in a text field.
Pressing the New Type button produces a New Type dialog box with two text fields for you to enter a MIME file type and MIME file subtype. Clicking the OK button of the New Type dialog verifies the data and, if valid, adds the file information to the list.
The application name and its file type is listed. Click the Browse button to select a different application.

Select one of four radio buttons Save, Launch Application, Use Browser as Viewer, or Unknown: Prompt User to designate the action performed by the helper application.

Use Browser as Viewer opens the downloaded file in the content area if the file's format is supported.
Save produces a dialog box for saving a file to disk after the file is downloaded.
Unknown: Prompt User causes a notification to the user.
Launch Application opens the selected application using the downloaded file as its document.