Communicator

Communicator
Navigator
Composer
Messenger

The word "Communicator"

As mentioned earlier, the word "Communicator" does not refer to a single application, but to a suite of applications that includes Navigator, Composer, and Messenger.  These three applications share a number of features, which we will look at in this section.  For sake of convenience, I refer to these applications collectively as "Communicator," even though, strictly speaking, there is no application called Communicator.  

The menu bar

The menu bar is the horizontal strip which sits just below the window's title bar.   Communicator's menu bar is similar to those produced by other software companies, such as Microsoft and Adobe.  It has the standard "File" and "Edit" items, which contain links to a program's basic operations.  Unlike most other menu bars, however, Communicator does not have a "Window" item, at least not on the menu bar itself.  The "Windows" item on a standard menu contains a list of all application windows open at a given time, and commands for arranging the windows in various set patterns, such as "Tile" and "Cascade".  Instead, Communicator has a "Communicator" menu item that contains links to all of Communicator's applications as well as various tools (each of which we will take a look at).  On the bottom of the list you'll see an item called "Window".  When clicked, it produces a list of open windows.  

Note that the contents of the menu bar, and of each of the items on the menu bar, change with each application. 

Toolbars

In addition to a menu bar, Communicator comes with various toolbars.  Each application has its own set of toolbars.  You have the option of adding or removing toolbars by choosing MENU: View --> Show.  This gives you a list of toolbars, tells you which are viewable by showing a checkmark next to open toolbars, and allows you to toggle this setting by clicking on the toolbar.  You can also expand and collapse the toolbars by clicking on the stippled strip on the far left of each toolbar.  These are pretty useful features on small monitors, since they allow to free up "real estate" by getting rid of superfluous toolbars like the Personal Toolbar in Navigator.

Toolbars can also be configured to display both icons and text labels or just one of these.  Most folks prefer one or the other alone since this too saves space and looks more elegant.

The Component Bar

You may have noticed the little set of icons sitting on the lower right hand corner of Communicator's window.  Netscape calls this the Component Bar.  If you click on the notched protion on the left side of the bar, it will "float" on stay above any window so that you can access any Communicator application at any time.  Since you can also get to these applications from the Menu Bar or from the "docked" Component Bar, its use is limited.  You can stop the menu bar from floating and dock it by closing down the window itself (by the means appropriate to your operating system)..

MENU: Communicator

The Menu item "Communicator" contains links to all of the applications and most of the tools that Communicator provides.  In addition to the three applications, it points to Bookmarks, Address Book, History, and the Java Console, which tools I refer to as "applets" -- not to be confused with Java applets.  (The word "applet" means "little application" and has been around much longer than the Java programming language has.)  We will look at each of the these applets in the context of the application where it makes sense to use them.

MENU: Edit --> Preferences

This option allows you to configure Communicator in various ways. The following describes the most useful options.

Preferences: Appearance --> Show toolbars as

This allows you  to select from three options: "Pictures and Text", "Pictures Only", "Text Only".  The Text Only option saves the most space, but the Pictures Only option looks cooler.

 

Preferences: Appearance --> Fonts

Choose the default font face and size fom.  This is very useful for configuring your browser for different contexts.  For example, if you are showing a website from an overhead projector, it helps to bump up the font size for the audience.

 

Preferences: Navigator

This section contains a number of useful things to configure, such as what page Netscape starts with.  It also allows you to determine how many days of surfing "history" to keep in the history file.  Netscape keeps track of where you've been -- every single link you've selected -- and stores that in a file that you can browse using the History applet, which we'll talk about later.  Note that you can also empty this file at any time, in order to save space or cover your tracks :)

 

Preferences: Mail & Newsgroups

Use this section to tell Communicator where you get your email and newsgroups from.   At Princeton, the default information is as follows:

Preferences:
    Mail & Newsgroups -->
    Identity -->
    Your name: = "<your name in plain English>"
    Email address: = "<your email address>"

Preferences:
    Mail & Newsgroups -->
    Mail Servers -->
    Incoming Mail Servers -->
    Add... -->
    Mail Server Properties:
        Server name = "imap.princeton.edu"
        Server type = "IMAP Server"
        User name = "<put your Unix netid here>"

Preferences:
    Mail & Newsgroups -->
    Mail Servers -->
    Outgoing Mail Server -->
    Outgoing mail (SMTP) server = "smpt.cit.princeton.edu"

Preferences:
    Mail & Newsgroups -->
    Newsgroup Servers -->
    Add: -->
    Newsgroup Server Properties:
        Server: = "news.princeton.edu"
        Port: = "119" (the default setting)

You can mess with some of the other settings, but these are the essential ones to set.   Of course, you should enter the name, email address, etc., to match whomever you are configuring Communicator for. You might also want to make sure that Preferences: Mail & Newsgroups --> Formatting --> Message formatting = "Use the plain text editor to compose messages" is set if your are sending email to people using a text-based email reader, such as Pine, which many people are.   It is better to select the html editor when you need it.  More on that later.

 

Preferences: Advanced

The stuff in this section is pretty important for security reasons.  It is sometimes a good idea to disable JavaScript or Java, and you can do that here.  You should also make sure that Preferences: Advanced --> Cookies --> Warn me before accepting a cookie = "checked" if you choose to accept cookies.  Cookies are small files that a remote server stores on your machine so that it can remember information about you.  (They are generally harmless, but have been known to pose a security threat since other programs can sometimes read these cookies, which may contain personal information.  Usually, though, such info is encrypted.)

 

Preferences: Advanced --> Cache

This stuff is pretty important, too.  In order to improve performance, Navigator saves images and other files on your local disk so that it doesn't have to retrieve these file each time they are called by a remote page.  This is fine, except for two things: sometimes these files, many of which you do not need, take up a lot of room, and sometimes you may not want others to see what files you have downloaded.  Use Preferences: Advanced --> Cache --> Clear Disk Cache --> OK to remove these files.

© 1998 Rafael C. Alvarado, McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, Princeton University.
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This site was last updated on Tuesday, August 25, 1998.