Browser Special Features How-To

Using Some Browser Special Features

There are a few browser special features that can be utilized along with Saugus.net facilities to make surfing the Internet a more pleasant experience. Instructions are provided here for utilizing some of these features on a couple different browsers. These features are usually more advanced than bookmarking or setting a home page, and often there will be far greater differences between different versions of browser, and in particular some versions will lack the capabilities listed here. We apologize for the vagueness of some of the listed instructions, but it is unfortunately necessary. Do you know of some other browser specific tricks we don't have listed here that can be used to good advantage with Saugus.net facilities? Please let us know so we can share it with others.

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MSIE Special Features: MSIE has two particular noteworthy features that will be described here. The first is the "Links Bar" -- a facility similar to bookmarks but at once easier to use and more limited. Its behavior is unfortunately quite different from version to version of MSIE. The second is the ability to assign the "Search" button to a particular URL. This one is unfortunately not available on many versions of MSIE.

Adding Saugus.net to the "Links Bar"

1. Go to the Saugus.net main page. (If you skip this step, these directions will instead get added to the links bar.)
2. Drag the contents of the "Address" window into the "Links" window (note that some versions of MSIE do not label the "Links" window, and that the method of dragging the contents of the "Address" window will be different for different MSIE versions).

Later, when you want to go back to Saugus.net, just click on the new entry in the "Links" bar. You will be brought directly to Saugus.net.

Assigning the Saugus.net "Search the Internet" page to the "Search" button

1. Select the "Preferences" item from the "Edit" menu (note that some versions of MSIE use different combinations of "View" menu and "Internet Options" item).
2. Select the "Home/Search" item from the "Web Browser" section (some versions of MSIE lack this facility).
3. Enter "http://www.saugus.net/General/Search/" (without the quotes) in the "Search Page Address" field.

Later, when you click the "Search" button, you will get the Saugus.net "Search the Internet" page and have your choice of search methods.

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Lynx Special Features: Lynx has a special feature that's worthy of note. It's called the "Jump File" and is analogous to the "Links Bar" found on MSIE. It exists in virtually every version of Lynx, but it can be enabled or disabled on a site-by-site basis so may not be available at a particular location (or you may have to ask your site administrator or ISP technical person for help).

1. Enable (or ask your site administrator to enable) jumps in your "lynx.cfg" file.
2. Add an entry (or ask your site administrator to add an entry) to the default jumpfile similar to:

   <dt>s</dt><dd><a href="http://www.saugus.net/">Saugus.net</a></dd>

Later, when you want to go back to Saugus.net, press the "j" key followed by the "s" key. You will be brought directly to Saugus.net.