Research on the Internet
by Ursula Hoffmann, Languages & Literatures -- November 9, 1998
When using computers on campus, you have to save your
work on a floppy disk. (Disks for PCs and Macs look alike, but are formatted
differently. New Macs can read PC disks but none of the PCs on campus can
read Mac disks.)
Start a bookmark file on your diskette:
Open Netscape, click on Bookmarks (upper left of the screen).
Click on Edit Bookmarks: this opens a new window. Click on File, Save as:
this opens a new window. In the File name box, type mybkmks.htm or any
other filename (except "bookmark.htm"). In the Save in box, click on the
downarrow, then on the uparrow and select Drive A. Click Save.
Use the bookmark file on your diskette:
Whenever you start a session on the Web, you want to load
your own bookmark file into the memory of the computer. Open Netscape,
click on Bookmarks, click on Edit bookmarks, click on File, click on Open
Bookmarks File, select your file on your diskette. Note that the title
bar of the little window shows the name of your own file. (If it says Bookmark.htm,
you made a mistake and you will not save bookmarks to your disk.) You can
close or minimize the bookmark window.
Now, when you find a site which you may wish to return
to later, click on Bookmark, then on Add Bookmark. The bookmark is added
at the end of your file. Click it to revisit the site.
Instead of printing or taking notes while reading pages on the Web,
I suggest copying and pasting.
If any application is open, close or minimize it. Click
the X or the Underline in the upper right corner of the screen.
Open Word, start a new document, title it My Notes, save
it as mynotes.doc to your diskette. Minimize Word (click on the underline
in the upper right corner).
Open Netscape, go to the page that interests you. Select
the Location, copy it to memory (Ctrl-c). Minimize Netscape.
Maximize Word (click on it on the task bar at the bottom
of your screen). Put the cursor on a new line, paste the Location (also
called URL) by pressing Ctrl-v. Press Ctrl-s to save.
Minimize Word.
Maximize Netscape. Select material you want to use, copy,
switch to Word and paste. Save.
References: style sheets for documenting sources; copyright and
"fair use"rules:
go to http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/pages/netref.htm
Make your notes file portable:
Not every computer on campus runs the latest software
version. Therefore, if you save a file in Word Version 8, you cannot open
it with Word Version 6. (But a version 6 file can
be opened by the later version 8 software.)
Good versions: Word v.2 and WordPerfect v.5.1. Use Save
as to find the correct version. You may lose a bit of formatting but that
is no problem.
To transfer formatted text between Mac and PC, save as
.rtf. RTF files are very large but they do work on every system.
Search: go to http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/pages/searches.htm
and Search Help.
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