To connect to the Internet you need:

1. A computer and a modem (or access to an Internet connected Local Area Network).

2. Access to either a phone line (or in the case of large organizations, a Local Area Network, which in turn allows connection to the Internet).

3. You will need an Internet account.  In the case of an individual computer connected to the Internet via a phone line, this will normally come as a package allowing you to access the Internet via an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and usually also includes an email account, which allows you to send and receive email via the Internet.

4. Lastly you will require an Internet browser, which is a type of software that allows you to view Web pages.

A hyperlink is a piece of text (or a graphic) on a Web page, that when clicked on, will automatically do one of the following:

Take you to a different part of the same page

Take you to a different page within the Web site

Take you to a page in a different Web site

Enable you to download a file

Launch an application, video or sound.

The illustration below displays a fragment of a Web page. The words that are underlined indicate a hyperlink. By default these text links are normally displayed in blue.

If you want to connect to the Internet, you need to subscribe via an Internet Service Provider. The ISP gives you a connection to the Internet either via your telephone line or via a special digital high-speed line.

Web browsing applications include ‘Internet Explorer’ and ‘Netscape Navigator’. In both cases there are many different versions, and you will find that the later versions offer much more versatility, as well as a better range of built-in features. The web browser allows you to view web pages.

A search engine holds information about pages on web sites throughout the Internet. It only has information about web sites that have been reported to it, or ones that it has found out about automatically. It is important to realize that a search engine does not have complete information about all web sites on the Internet. There are a number of different search engines, run by different organisations. Within a search engine you can enter a search phrase, such as ECDL courseware, and the search engine will then search through its database and after a short pause, should display a list of sites that fit your search parameters. The illustration below shows the search engine MSN with the search phrase computer courseware.

After clicking on the Search button the following pages of results was displayed.

Clicking on any of the items found, would take you to that organisation’s web site.

Double click on the Internet Explorer icon displayed on your Desktop.

The Internet Explorer automatically loads the ‘Skola’ portal shown below.

Click on the application close icon (the X at the top-right of the application window).

Open the Internet Explorer program.

In the Address section of the program window enter the full URL (http://www/etc Web address) that you wish to display.

Press Enter key.

Right click on the hyperlink.

From the popup menu displayed, select the Open in New Window command.

TIP: Another way to do this is to press the Shift key while clicking on a hyperlink. This may not always work however, it depends on what version of Internet Explorer you are using.

A web page may start loading within your web browser and take so long to display anything that you may wish to stop the download and look at something else.

Click on the Stop icon to stop the download.

There are two reasons for refreshing web pages:

1. Many web pages change their content rapidly. However your web browser may download the page once and display the information and not then go back to see if the page has changed. Refreshing the web page forces to web browser to see if there is an updated version of the page.

2. Many web browsers will cache pages that you have visited. This means that the web browser will store a copy of that web page on your hard disk. The reason for this is that if you wish to revisit that page again then the page can be quickly loaded from your hard disk rather than having to be slowly downloaded to your computer via the net.

Click on the Refresh icon.

If clicking on the Refresh icon does not seem to do what you want, try pressing the Shift key while clicking on the Refresh icon.

Click on the hyperlink and the page you are viewing will be replaced by the page that you have just linked to.

 NOTE: In some cases, when you click on a hyperlink, a second copy of the web browser program will be started, and the linked page will be displayed within the second window. When you close the second window you will see the original page displayed.

By default, text that is displayed as underlined blue text indicates a hyperlink. Clicking on one of these hyperlinks will take you to another page on the Web site. A well-designed Web site should always have a text or button link called Home that will take you back to the home page (i.e. the starting page) of that Web site.

In the example shown there is a graphic displaying the words "The Business Internet" (shown on next page). When you move the mouse pointer to this graphic the pointer changes to the shape of a hand, indicating that this is a button or graphical hyperlink. 

A quick way to go back to the last Web page you visited is to use the Internet Explorer Back button.

TIP: Clicking on the down arrow to the right of the Back button will display a short list of recently visited pages, allowing you to jump back to a previous page.

If you have been navigating forwards and backwards through the pages of a web site, the Forward button will, as the name implies, take you forward a page.

Some of the major search engines include:

To use any of these:

Enter the Search Engine URL into the address bar of your browser.

Press the Enter key.

Alternatively, click on the Search icon within your browser to see a list of search engines.

A search engine will only search through a list of sites that it maintains and that have been registered with that particular search engine. This accounts in part for the widely differing results you sometimes get when you search using different search engines.

The search results are often displayed 10 per page, with a brief description about each site that it has found matching your requirements.

In general it is better to use two or more words, or a short phrase when searching for information.

Click on the File drop down menu.

Select the Print Preview command. The web page will be displayed on screen as it would be printed. Use the arrows on the toolbar to view other pages.

Once finished, click on the Close button to leave Print Preview mode.

Click on the File drop down menu.

Select the Page Setup command to display the Page Setup dialog box.

From here you can set paper size, orientation, margins and also choose whether to use headers and footers.

Click on the File drop down menu.

Select the Page Setup command to display the Page Setup dialog box.

Within the Margins section of the dialog box, select the required, top, bottom, left or right margins.

Click on the Print icon located in the application toolbar.

 If you want more control over printing:

Click on the File drop down menu.

Select the Print command. This will display the Print dialog box.

From here you can select options such as the number of pages that you wish to print, which physical printer you wish to use.

Many Web sites use what are called frames. This is done so that while part (a frame) of the screen changes other parts (frames) stay on the screen.  Printing from sites like this can be problematic.

If you open the Print dialog box, you will see you have the ability to Print frame … As laid out on the screen or All frames individually. You should experiment using both options as different sites use different frame layouts.

Move the mouse pointer to the start of the text.

Hold down the left mouse button and move (drag) your mouse across the text to be printed. The text will be highlighted.

Release the mouse button and the text will remain highlighted.

Click on the File drop down menu.

Select the Print command. The Print dialog box will be displayed.

From the Print Range section of the dialog box select the Selection option.

Click on the OK button to print the selected text.

Take a typical email address:   jane.magro@schoolnet.gov.mt

The first part of the address 'jane.magro', indicates the person to whom the email is addressed.
The second part of the address 'schoolnet.gov.mt' indicates the email address of the organization.

In some cases you may use an email address such as peter@yahoo.com, which normally indicates a private email address, one that is hosted by a company called Yahoo.

High speed: One of the great things about email is that you can send messages and files to anyone in the world, almost instantly.

Low cost: The cost of sending information by email is a fraction of that involved when using the traditional mail system, especially when emailing to a different country.

Worldwide portability: Once you have an email account set up, you should be able to access your email from anywhere that has an Internet connection.

Time zone friendly: The great thing about sending an email is that you can send it anytime you want and the recipient will read the mail when they want. You would not wake up your recipient in the middle of the night if they live in other continent!

These are good manners when using email:

Use short, accurate subject descriptions: Prior to opening the email the only indication that an email might be relevant to that person is the email subject header. Keep this simple, short and to the point. Avoid using all upper case letters in a message (considered as shouting). Use of all upper case (or all lower case) can also make the message difficult to read.

Be brief: People tend to 'skim read' email messages. If they are too long the chances are that the recipient will miss important information buried within the message.

Use the spell checker: Never send an email without spell checking the contents first. This can give a really poor impression about your organization.

Respect privacy and confidentially: Never quote part of one persons email without permission. In many cases there may be a message stating that the contents of the email are confidential.

Don't 'Flame': If some idiot emails you over something that is inappropriate, do not respond and get into a series of increasingly hostile email exchanges. This is called flaming. Never reply to unsolicited email (spam), unless you want to receive even more rubbish in your email inbox.

Click on the Internet Explorer icon and the ‘Skola’ portal, as illustrated, appears on the screen.

Click on the hyperlink ‘mail’.

From the Welcome to Skola Mail screen:

Type your email identity in your email, such as jane01234@skola.gov.mt

Type your password and click on Enter.

NOTE: It is very important to type your email address and your password exactly as your teacher has given them to you.

Examine the screen and get familiar with the various elements.

Mailbox – Used for storing your received mail, copies of sent mail, etc.

Inbox – Used for storing mail that you have received

Message area – Used for reading the selected mail.

The email toolbar displays a row of commands.

Some of the important commands are:

Mailboxes: To return to your mailbox

(New) Message: To compose and send an email message.

Settings: Used for making adjustments to the program such as changing the password, etc.

Log Out: To close your email session.

Click on the Log Out button.

By default the Inbox folder is the selected folder. If not click on Inbox to show the list of  received mail, as shown below.

The program displays the contents of the Inbox as a list of messages one per line down the screen, as illustrated above. Other information displayed for each message is, the message status, senders email address, the size and the date the message was received.

• If necessary, open the Inbox folder.
  
  
• Click on the appropriate message in the message list.

• If necessary open the Inbox folder
  
  
• Double click on the message you wish to read. This opens the message header (illustrated below) and the message contents.

To close a message:

EITHER – Click the Next Unread icon

OR – Deselect the message from the Inbox

If necessary, open the Inbox folder.

•  From the list of message, select the message you wish to delete.
  
  
• EITHER - click the Delete icon from the Inbox
• OR – click the Delete icon above the message.

 
NOTE: An email deleted using this method is not removed from the system, it is moved to the trash folder.

If necessary, log on to the email program by typing your User name and Password.

• From the Email toolbar shown below select New/Message icon

The Compose Message dialogue box shown below appears.

• Enter your message into the message text area in the lower half of the dialog box.

Type the email address of the person you wish to send the message to into the To text box of the message header.

If you want to send the same message to a group of persons, type their email addresses in the To text box, separating them by commas.

Type a short overview of the message into the Subject text box of the message header.

Click on the File drop down menu

Select the Print command. This will display the dialog box shown below.

You can select the required options in the normal way.

• If necessary, open the Inbox folder.
  
  
• Click on the message you wish to preview.
  
  
• Click on the File drop down menu and select the Print Preview command. The message will be displayed as it would be printed.
  
  
• When you have finished previewing the message, click the Close button on the toolbar.

• If necessary, open the Inbox folder.

• Click on the message you wish to print to open it.

• Click the Print icon.