ECN No Name Newsletter: September, 1994

The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.

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MOSAIC Brings You A World Of Information

No Name Newsletter Article -- September 1994

Marian Delp

Easy discovery and retrieval of information from the Internet is the reason the World Wide Web (WWW) exists and is creating such a stir on campuses throughout our country and the world. The WWW uses a client/server model for information distribution. A server which resides on a machine at an Internet site, fulfills queries sent by WWW clients located anywhere on the Internet. The Web encompasses interfaces to a wide variety of protocols, data formats, and information archives. This built-in flexibility makes it possible for a world of diverse sites to share, exchange and use vast stores of data.

MOSAIC, one of the more popular WWW clients (or browsers), was designed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Champaign, Illinois. The popularity of this browser has exploded because of its easy-to-use graphic interface. It is currently available on ECN machines running X Windows and OpenWindows. Future installation is planned for Macintosh and IBM PC compatibles running Microsoft Windows.

So, how does MOSAIC work here at the ECN? How can you use it to serve you? On a graphical display workstation (i.e. Sun or HP workstation) bring up your windowing system. In a window type Mosaic .

The Top Of The Mosaic Window

A new window with the titlebar stating NCSA Mosaic: Document View will be created. A sample is shown below of the upper section of a Mosaic window.

Below the titlebar is a menu bar: File, Options, Navigate, Annotate and Help.

To find out more about how to use all the menu items:

  1. Click on the Help button to bring up the menu.
  2. Click on the second option Manuals.
  3. Click on Using NSCA Mosaic .
  4. Click on button link you are interested in.

Below the menu buttons are two mini-windows. The upper one next to the words Document Title shows the <title> line from the <head> section of the HTML document you are seeing in the viewing area. Immediately below is a Document URL mini-window; the URL for the document your are examining appears here.

WORLD ICON

The world icon serves two purposes for MOSAIC users:
  1. When a hyperlink is activated by clicking on it, the globe spins and beams of light travel along the segments of the S toward the globe. This movement signifies that your document is being retrieved.
  2. You can abort the document retrieval process by clicking on the globe.

The Bottom Of The MOSAIC Window

The point & click buttons along the bottom of the screen offer some of the most frequently used options from the menus at the top of the screen.

SCREENDUMP 

Back          trace viewing history in backward direction


Forward       trace viewing history in forward direction


Home          returns you to HOME screen


Reload        reread current file; handy when you are
                     creating an HTML file and wish to see
                     if your coding is correct


Open...       brings up window to type in URL


Save As...    save current file in named file


Clone         open a duplicate screen--current location


New Window    open a duplicate screen--HOME location


Close Window  exit Mosaic program

Hotkeys

While the mouse pointer is in the hypertext viewing area, hotkeys are active. Hotkeys, until you realize they exist, seem to make "crazy" things happen in the viewing area. When you forget to move the mouse to another window before you begin keyboarding, MOSAIC will try to translate all your keystrokes into hotkey instructions which results in a variety of unwanted sub-windows flashing on the screen.

After trying out the options available under the menu buttons, experiment with the hotkeys. They call the most commonly used options. As an example, move the mouse into the viewing area and press the H (Hotlist) key. 

a A   Annotate          m M   Mail to
b B   Back              n N   New window
c C   Clone             o O   Open URL
d D   Document source   p P   Print
f F   Forward           r     Reload
h     window History      R   Refresh
H     Hotlist           s S   find in document (Search)
l L   open Local        ESC   Close the current window

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Last modified: Saturday, 13-Sep-97 00:05:22 EST

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