The hyper-text is a very simple language. An hyper-text document can be edited with the most poor word-processor (even the old TeachText that cames with your Mac works). But, if the hyper-text is precisely that (text), how does it have pictures, backgrounds, links, and so on? The answer is that the html is a language that tells your browser what to do. If, for example, it has a link to some picture, that picture will be read and shown on the proper location.

Another good thing about the html is that it works on every computer. I made these pages on a Macintosh, to be read in another Macintosh, but they can be read on a PC, on some WorkStation running Unix, and so on. Html is an multi-platform language.

If you want to know how the html is inside, choose "Document Source" on the Netscape's "View" menu, or choose the equivalent command on the browser you are unsig now. This page's source code will appear.

To read the WWW pages you need a dedicated program. I think there are two really good programs for the Mac. The first one, and the most popular, is Netscape. The other one, which has a very higher quality, but less functions, is Cyberdog, made by Apple. Both are very good: besides browsing the WWW, they support FTP downloads, they support news and mail (although Netscape's mail and news clients are not very good). Cyberdog supports even telnet connections, Netscape doesn't do that (it needs a separated program). You may read here some differences between the two browsers:

Netscape	Cyberdog
Supports plug-ins	The plug-ins support is still being developed, and the beta versions are still very unstable. But it will support Netscape's plug-ins in the future.
It doesn't support OpenDoc*	It supports OpenDoc* (even better: Cyberdog is a full OpenDoc-based browser)
Java support is slow, unstable and erratic.	It doesn't came with Java support. But if you download MRJ - MacOS Runtime for Java (www.applejava.apple.com) from Apple, which is an OpenDoc component that supports Java, and that allows Cyberdog to use Java. MRJ has the usual Apple's software quality, and it's a really better choice that Netscape's Java. Besides, MRJ proves again that MacOS is better than Windows, by allowing the possibility of running Java programs inside a normal window, just like if it was a simple Mac application, without the need of a running browser.
The browser is very unstable, and it crashes a lot, above all in Macs without a PowerPC (on the good old 68K Macs). When the pages you're reading have frames, at least in the 68K version, the crash is almost guaranteed.	The browser is really stable, at least on the PowerMacs (PPC). Even in critical conditions, like, for example, low memory situations, Cyberdog works just fine. Rarely a problem appears on the pages with frames, but it's nothing compared to Netscape. I didn't test it yet on a 68K Mac, but it seems to be equally stable.
Supports JavaScript.	Doesn't support JavaScript, and I think there are no plans to support it in the near future. Anyway, with the explosion of Java supporting browsers, JavaScript is slowly dying.
It's made for a lot of operating systems at the same time. So, the programming is not specially made for the Mac, and the interface is not so good as it could be.	It's made by Apple only for the Mac. The code is the best possible, and the interface is simple, powerful and nice.
The "bookmarks" support only InterNet files.	The "notebooks" support, besides the InterNet files, any file or application on your hard disk or on an AppleTalk server. So, you may launch an application from the Cyberdog's Notebook window..
It needs a lot of memory (10 or 12 Mbytes,without plug-ins).	It needs just a bit of memory (less than 2500K) to itself. OpenDoc needs some more, but you may only start OpenDoc when you open Cyberdog. Besides, any program that uses OpenDoc will use the same routines, those that were read to the memory when you opened Cyberdog. So, OpenDoc may take some Mbytes of RAM for itself, but all the other programs (that support OpenDoc) need just a bit of RAM.
It's slower than Cyberdog.	It's faster than Netscape (really faster).
It supports only the internally supported files, or the plug-in supported files. All the other files need a separated application, and can't be shown in the browser window.	It supports the internally supported files, the plug-in supported files (when the plug-ins support is ready), and even any file supported by any OpenDoc component installed on your system. OpenDoc comes with Audio and QuickTime components, so Cyberdog has the same multimedia capabilities than Netscape.

You should be thinking by now: what about Microsoft? Isn't Microsoft in this business? Well, infortunately, it is. They have a browser, Microsoft Internet Explorer. But I think you don't need to try it: one of the reasons is that this browser (at least, the Windows version) had (and still have) a lot of VERY serious security problems: for example your disk may be formatted when you download a page made by some bad guy, in that case all your files would be erased. Besides, it's so unstable as Netscape, or even more, and it has nothing new except ActiveX. ActiveX is a "technology" (if you want to call it that) developed by Microsoft, similar to OpenDoc. For the Windows users, it may be useful, because they still can't use the great OpenDoc. But for us, Mac users, it's just trash. Besides, ActiveX has a lot of security problems, some of them very serious. There are also some small browsers available, like MacWeb or NCSA Mosaic.

Back to the real browsers, saying what browser should you use (Netscape or CyberDog) is a task that I wouldn't like to do. I have both on my computer. Usually I use Cyberdog, because it's fast, stable, etc. If some site with plug-ins (like ShockWave) appears, I use Netscape, and I think to myself when will Apple finish the plug-ins software for Cyberdog.

It's very simple to get the two browsers. Netscape may be found on http://home.netscape.com. The newest version is the 3.0. This version has some inconveniences, above all the memory and hard disk requirements. If your computer doesn't have enough memory, you may use 2.02, because it's also a good browser. Or you may try a beta version of Netscape 4.0. Don't forget, this is a pre-official version: it may have serious bugs.

Cyberdog is on http://cyberdog.apple.com, in the Apple site. Download the 2.0 version, it's teh newest. Cyberdog needs OpenDoc 1.2, that may be found on http://opendoc.apple.com.

* OpenDoc is a MacOS implementation of a technology called "component software". The ideia is very simple: instead of having a giant word processor, and a giant spreadsheet program, and a giant drawing program, and so on, you may have all that software in small components. So, you may have, for example, a spelling checker component, or even a find/replace component. This component is available inside any application that uses OpenDoc. In this way, any program may check spelling, find/replace something, and so on, with no need to the programmers to do those pieces of code inside every program. This saves a lot of hard disk space (specially for spelling dictionaries), and a lot of work for the programmers. Besides you may use, for example, a particular spelling checker in every program, and not only the one that comes with that program, that may suffer from poor quality.

Netscape supports, since version 2.0, plug-ins. What is a plug-in? It's a file that works with Netscape, and that improves the capabilities of that browser. You may find a lot of plug-ins: plug-ins to listen to sound (real-time sound, MIDI, and so on...) while you read the WWW pages, plug-ins in order to have a section of the page with animation, sound, interactivity, plug-ins to make Netscape able to show a lot of files in its windows (from Post-Script, to FreeHand pictures), and so on, and so on, and so on... You may find almost every Netscape plug-in on the Netscape plug-ins page. I think that, if you have enough memory, you should install at least these two plug-ins:

ShockWave - It allows you to have a section on the window with "full multimedia", like this: a mini-program is automatically downloaded to your computer, and it will run on the Netscape's window. This program may be anything: animation, scrolling windows, sound, hot-spots for you to click with the mouse, and even games! You may see the examples page.

Crescendo (only useful with Netscape 2.0, because 3.0 has this fuction built-in) - This plug-in allows you to listen to a MIDI file while you read the WWW pages. You have a control panel that shows the time, and you may stop the music, rewind or foreward it some seconds.

Do you want to see your Bookmarks page each time you start Netscape? Are you fed up with your endless "Bookmarks" menu? If you are, do this:

• 1. Choose "Open File..." on the "File" menu.

• 2. Open your BookMarks page, that is inside of the "Netscape" folder, inside your Preferences folder, inside your System Folder.
  Your Bookmarks page will be loaded and shown on the screen.

• 3. On the top of the window, on the "Location" field, you may see the page address (in your hard disk). It's something like file:///Hard%20Disk/System%20Folder/Netscape/bookmarks.html. If you can't see that field, choose "Show Location" on the "Options" menu.

• 4. Select all the address (if it's bigger than the field, click before the first character, and drag the mouse down, without releasing the mouse button).

• 5. Choose "Copy" on the "Edit" menu.

• 6. Choose "General Preferences" on the "Options" menu. Than, choose the rectangle on the left (Appearance) in order to see the necessary configuration page.

• 7. Find the "Browser Starts With:" area and choose "Home page Location". Next, click on the field next to that button and choose "Paste" on the "Edit" menu (you may press the command key and V as well).

• 8. Click OK on the bottom to close the window.

Are you always changing your signature? And are you fed up of doing them with Eudora, and then copy it to a text file, delete the older one, and re-configuring Netscape? Now, you may stop doing all that boring work! Now you may have the Netscape signature always updated, just editing it with Eudora! How? Let's see:

• 1. Create a signature with Eudora. Just choose Signature... on the Windows... menu.
  When you close the signature edition window, Eudora automatically saves it in a text file, on the hard disk, that you may use.

• 2. Open Netscape, and choose Mail and News Preferences... on the Options... menu.

• 3. Click in Identity, to see the right configuration page.

• 4. On the signature area, choose "Browse...".
  There, you may choose the file you want to use as signature. We'll use the one created by Eudora. It's in the "Signature Folder", inside the "Eudora Folder", inside your "System Folder". The file name is Signature. Using the standard MacOS "open file" window, open that document.

Done! Now, each time you change your signature on Eudora, the Netscape one will be updated automatically!