i/s Back Issues

Volume 13

No. 5  May/June 1998

Navigator 4 Offers Style Sheets and Enhanced User Interface

Albert Willis

Netscape Communications Corporation continues its quest to create the ultimate Web browser. With Navigator 4, the company is closing in on its goal.

Navigator 4 supports just about every important Internet standard and runs on 17 different platforms, including Windows 3.x, 95, and NT, Mac OS (68K and PowerPC) and several flavors of Unix, including Solaris, SunOS, IRIX, and Linux for Intel and PowerPC machines. This translates into a consistent user experience regardless of platform.

New Options for Developers
Navigator 4 supports several new technologies that provide a lot more flexibility for Web page developers. Cascading style sheets (CSS) are similar in concept to templates in word processors or page layout programs. They enable a designer to create a consistent look for Web pages on a site. For example, the designer can specify that every <H1> tag be displayed as 24-point Helvetica Bold. CSS level 1 was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standards-setting body for the Web. The W3C recently released a recommendation for CSS level 2, which is backwards compatible with CSS1. However, CSS2 isn't supported in Navigator 4. Netscape says that Navigator 5, due for release by the end of this year, will support CSS1 and CSS2.

Navigator also supports Dynamic HTML (DHTML). DHTML is a combination of technologies: CSS1, JavaScript, Document Object Model, and HTML positioning. It lets Web developers add interactivity to their pages, and gives designers more flexibility in placing page elements.

Right now, DHTML isn't standardized. Navigator and Internet Explorer have competing versions, so what works in one may not work in the other. To find out more about what DHTML has to offer, check out Webmonkey at http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey/.

Usability Changes
While Navigator 4 doesn't look much different than version 3, Netscape has made a few key changes to the user interface. Preferences are now all in one location ‚ the Edit menu. Support for multiuser profiles enables people to share a machine, but keep their bookmarks and preferences separate. It also enables a single user to create different profiles for home, work, or school.

Toolbars have been enhanced. They now have open/close tabs so that you can close them easily to see more of the screen. If you press the back or forward buttons and hold down the mouse button, you get a list of recently visited Web sites that you can return to.

Windows-Only Enhancements
The Windows version of Navigator 4 has several new features that enhance bookmark management.

  A custom toolbar provides immediate access to favorite Web sites.

  The Bookmark Quickfile, on the location bar, allows for drag-and-drop filing of bookmarks.

  The Bookmark menu, accessible from the location bar, lets you file and edit bookmarks easily.

The Windows version also supports auto-completion of URLs: if you start to type a URL in the location field and it's one you've visited before, Navigator automatically completes it for you.

Security
Navigator 4 supports certificates, an electronic document used to identify an individual, server, company, or some other entity. The browser also supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), versions 2 and 3. SSL is a set of rules governing server authentication, client authentication, and encrypted communications between servers and clients.

When it comes to encryption, Navigator 4 offers support for 40-bit-long keys and stronger 128-bit-long keys. The stronger version is available only to citizens and permanent residents of the U.S. and Canada.

More about Netscape Versions
You can get Navigator in a stand-alone edition (Web browser only) or as part of the Communicator suite, which also has newsgroup and email capabilities. The newsgroup functions work fine at MIT; the email program does not, though it does work with Internet service providers who use the POP or IMAP protocols.

The current version of Navigator, 4.05, is free. You can download it directly from Netscape at http://home.netscape.com/download/. (If you are using Navigator 4.04 or 4.04.1, you should upgrade to version 4.05, which fixes assorted bugs.)

By August 1, Navigator 4.05 should be the default browser on Athena. As this issue was going to press, Netscape announced Communicator 4.5. A beta version is due in July, with a full release expected by the fall.

In addition to improved reliability and filtering capabilities, Communicator 4.5 will offer

  Smart browsing. This feature adds intelligence to navigation. Users can type search terms in the location bar and be taken to relevant Web sites.

  Flexible roaming access. Users can access the same Netscape environment at work, home, or on the road ‚ from computers, laptops, or PalmPilots.

For an overview of 4.5 features, see http://home.netscape.com/communicator/v4.5/index.html.

Support
Navigator 4 comes with online release notes. If you need help downloading or using Navigator, contact the Computing Help Desk (x3-1101 for Macintosh users; x3-1102 for PC users).

IS offers basic and intermediate courses on Navigator. For course descriptions and schedules, go to IS Computer Training Courses.

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