Netscape Browser is highly customizable, and includes many different features that you can use to personalize how your browser looks and behaves. These features include:
| Themes | The entire look of Netscape Browser can be changed by changing your theme. Themes work as a plug-in to Netscape Browser, and they can serve to change your default colours, fonts, buttons, toolbars—in short, the entire look of the browser. (Themes are sometimes referred to as skins.) |
| My Sidebar | My Sidebar is a collection of toolbar applications that are stored in a series of tabs along the left-hand side of the window. You can customize My Sidebar to include web searching (for example, instead of navigating to a search engine to do a search, you can search right from My Sidebar), news headlines, your bookmarks, browsing history, and more. Rather than open multiple web pages, programs, and windows to perform common tasks, My Sidebar is an easy, efficient way to store these features all in one place. Netscape Browser includes a number of default My Sidebar tabs, but you can also search for and add new tabs, or even create your own! |
| Personal toolbar | Your personal toolbar is yours to customize the way you see fit. Use it to add features such as:
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| Multibar | A multibar is a specialized toolbar that you can use to combine several personal toolbars into one. A multibar consists of a series of trays, each of which contain a separate personal toolbar. Simply click on the tray arrows to display your different toolbars. |
Besides these features, this chapter also describes other methods for personalizing your browser, such as setting default colours and fonts for web sites, managing your bookmarks, and using extensions (which are add-ons that you can use to enhance the functionality of Netscape Browser).
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In this section: |
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My Sidebar is a collection of toolbar applications that are stored in a series of tabs along the left-hand side of the window. Clicking a tab displays a panel that is essentially a small web page that performs a specific function. Rather than open multiple web pages, programs, and windows to perform common tasks, My Sidebar is an easy, efficient way to store these features all in one place. You can customize My Sidebar to include features such as web searching, news headlines, maps, and more. Netscape Browser includes a number of default My Sidebar panel, but you can also search for and add new tabs, or even create your own! |
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In this section: Opening, Closing, and Resizing My Sidebar Viewing and Hiding My Sidebar Panels |
You can open My Sidebar in a number of different ways:
To close My Sidebar:
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The right-side edge of My Sidebar includes an area called a handle that you can click to open, close, or resize the My Sidebar frame. Notice that, as you hover your mouse over the handle, your cursor changes to a hand, as shown in the figure. Click once on the handle to either open or close My Sidebar (as appropriate). To resize the frame, click and drag on the handle.
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My Sidebar consists of a list of tabs, as displayed in the following figure. These tabs are called sliding tabs, meaning that, when you select one tab, the others slide out of the way to display the contents of the tab you select. For example, when you click the Search tab, the tab underneath it ("Bookmarks") moves down.
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Notice how the Search panel is currently open and displays the results of a search for the words "netscape navigator". |
| The Bookmarks and Latest News tabs have slid out of the way to the bottom of My SideBar. |
There are several ways to view the contents of a tab:
Note: If you add more tabs than My Sidebar can display at a time, Netscape Browser hides the remaining tabs to reduce clutter, and places an up and down arrow button at the bottom of My Sidebar. To scroll through the hidden tabs, click the up or down arrow button until you see the desired tab.
To hide a tab:
Tip: To refresh the contents of a My Sidebar tab, right-click on the tab title and choose Reload from the context menu.
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To change the order in which My Sidebar tabs appear:
Shortcut: You can also access this menu by right-clicking on a tab and selecting Customize My Sidebar from the context menu.
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Netscape Browser comes configured with a number of default My Sidebar tabs, but you can select from dozens of other tabs, with new ones being added all the time. To do this:
Note: Click the Find More Tabs button to select from even more tabs on Netscape's web site. Also, if you have experience in designing web pages, this site describes how you can create your own tabs.

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To remove a panel from My Sidebar:
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Depending on the panel you are using and how it was designed, it may included customizable options that you can change. If so, you can use the Customize Tab button to change these options. To do this:
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Netscape Browser comes with a number of default My Sidebar panels. Some of these panels display web sites, for example news and stock sites. Other panels provide more specialized functions, which are described here.
You use the Bookmarks tab to quickly access, manage bookmarks that you have added in Netscape Browser (these are the same bookmarks that appear in the Bookmarks menu). For help on using bookmarks, refer to Managing Bookmarks.
The Buddy List gives you easy access to AOL Instant Messaging (AIM). For more information about AIM, refer to Using AOL Instant Messenger for Netscape Browser.

You use the History tab to list pages that you have previously viewed. This is an easy way to find a page that you know you have viewed before. You can organize the pages in different ways by clicking on the View menu:
| By Date and Site | Pages are grouped into folders according to when when you visited them. Within a folder, pages from the same site are grouped into their own folder. |
| By Site | Pages from the same site are grouped into a folder for that site. |
| By Date | Pages are grouped into folders according to when when you visited them. (Within a folder, pages are not grouped by site.) |
| By Most Visited | Pages are listed according to which ones you have visited most frequently. |
| By Last Visited | Pages are listed in the order that you viewed them, with the most recent pages shown first. |
You can search for a web page in the history list by typing a keyword in the Search field. Netscape Browser automatically displays a list of pages that contain the keyword.
Notes:
The Search tab in My Sidebar is a quick way to use your favourite search engine without having to leave the page you are currently viewing. You can search using a number of pre-configured search engines, or you can add others.
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Search results are shown in the results list. Click on a page to view it in the main browser window. As you view each page, the search results remain listed in My Sidebar—no more jumping back and forth between the results and your search engine! |
To search from My Sidebar:
What's Related
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The What's Related panel displays a list of sites that are related to the site displayed in the active tab. For example, if you are looking at the Yellow Pages in your browser, the What's Related panel displays a list of other Internet directories. This panel also displays information about the site such as the site publisher and their privacy policy. |
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This section describes personalization options that you can use to change the overall appearance of your browser, including how to install different browser themes, and also how to set default fonts and colours for web pages.
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Themes are a way to change the look and feel of the browser and personalize it to your taste. A theme (sometimes called a skin) is simply a list of graphics and formatting commands that Netscape Browser uses to "dress" its toolbars, tabs, buttons, and almost all parts of the browser (outside of that part of the window which you use to view web pages). Some themes are included with Netscape Browser when you install it, while you can download and install others (new ones are continually being added) from the web.
To change your theme, you use the Themes window, which you can access by selecting Tools > Themes. From this window, you can change your current theme, or download and install new ones.

To change your current theme, select the Tools menu and then select Themes. This displays the Themes window, which lists your currently installed themes.
Note: You need to quit and restart Netscape Browser after you apply a new theme in order for the change to take effect.
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To uninstall a theme, simply select it in the Themes window and click Uninstall. This removes the theme from your computer.
Note: You cannot uninstall the default theme.
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Normally, web pages are displayed in the font chosen by the web pages' authors. However, if fonts are not defined by a web page, Netscape Browser instead uses the default fonts that you define in the Options window. To set your default fonts:
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Normally, the background and text colours on web pages are determined by the default colours set by your browser or by the pages' authors, however, for pages where it is not already set, Netscape Browser uses the settings that you have defined in your browser options. To change your default colours:
For more information on the individual fields on this window, refer to the help for the Fonts & Colours window.
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You can change the appearance of unvisited and visited hyperlinks as follows:
Note: Many sites specify their own link styling rules. The "Underline links" option has no effect on those sites.
For more information on the individual fields on this window, refer to the help for the Fonts & Colours window.
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The navigation and personal toolbars include common browsing features, including navigational buttons, pop-up blocking, web searching, news headlines, and more. This chapter describes how you can customize these toolbars to add, remove, and re-organize your toolbar buttons.
For general information on your toolbars and how to use the various toolbar buttons, refer to Using Toolbars to Browse the Web.
The navigation bar includes basic buttons that you need to get around on the web, include the Back, Forward, and Refresh buttons; the home button; the address bar, and so on:
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Personal Toolbars and Multibars
Personal toolbars are customizable toolbars that you can modify to include a wide range of buttons, including news feeds, email, bookmarks, and more. By creating a multibar, you can condense multiple toolbars into single buttons, creating a more spacious, media-rich browser. This enables you to add up to ten different toolbars to a single multibar without having to stack toolbars on top of each other.
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In this section: Adding Bookmarks to Your Toolbar Adding RSS Feeds to Your Toolbar Displaying or Hiding a Toolbar |
This section explains how you can add, remove, or rearrange items on your toolbars.

Note: The toolbar customization dialog includes the following special features you can use for arranging toolbar items:
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To add a new toolbar:
Tips:
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In addition to toolbar icons, you can also add bookmarks and bookmark folders to your personal toolbar. To do this:
For more information on using the Bookmark Manager, refer to Managing Bookmarks.
Note: When you click on a bookmark folder from the toolbar, Netscape Browser displays a pull-down listing all bookmarks in that folder.
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Many news websites and personal weblogs use a format called Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Using an RSS is an easy way to receive automatic updates on new information from a website: instead of having to check for updates, you can use RSS to notify you of updates directly in your toolbar.
To add an RSS feed to one of your toolbars:
| By displaying the RSS icon in the location bar: | |
By notifying you about the feed in the message bar: |
Note: The above figure shows a site that has a single RSS feed. Some sites may have many different feeds that you can select from, for example, they may have different feeds for news, entertainment, sports, and so on. In these cases, the pull-down will include multiple feeds from which you can select.
Netscape adds the feed to your toolbar.
You can display or hide the following toolbars:
To display or hide a toolbar:

Shortcut: You can also right-click on a toolbar to display a list of available toolbars. Click its menu item to display or hide a toolbar. This option is not available on the Personal toolbar.
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You can choose if toolbar items should display as icons and text, icons only, or text only. To do this:
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In general, you customize the buttons on a multibar in the same way as you would a personal toolbar: simply display the tray that you want to modify and drag the buttons that you want onto the toolbar.
This section describes how to add new multibars, add and delete trays from a multibar, rename trays, and change the order of trays.
To make changes to an existing multibar, select the multibar pull-down menu, as shown in the following figure:

From this menu you can select the following commands:
| Add Tray to Multibar | Add a new blank tray to the multibar. When you select this command, Netscape Browser first prompts you for the name of the tray, and adds it to the end of the tray selection. You can then use the customize window to add buttons to the tray as usual. |
| Rename Tray | When you click on a tray to display it, the name of that tray appears just above the tray arrows. (In the above figure, the "Local" tray is selected.) Use the Rename Tray command to change this label. |
| Customize All Toolbars | Open the Customize toolbar window, which you can use to change where the multibar appears, modify buttons on the trays, and so on. |
You add a new multibar in much the same way as you add a personal toolbar:
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Unlike most Windows applications, the Netscape Browser menu bar, by default, appears on the right-hand side of the window in the title bar:

Positioning the menu bar in this way helps save desktop space, leaving you with more screen space for viewing web pages. However, if you would prefer to display the menu bar in the conventional location, right-click on any toolbar and select Toggle Menu Bar Position from the context menu:

Selecting this command returns the menu bar to its usual location.
Bookmarks are shortcuts to your favourite and most-visited web pages. Rather than typing in long URLs (web addresses), you can create bookmarks that take you directly to the pages you want to see.
Netscape Browser makes it easy for you to access and manage bookmarks. Not only can you access bookmarks through the Bookmarks menu, you can also use your Personal Toolbar and the Bookmarks tab in My Sidebar. Your favourite web sites don't have to stay hidden in a list; in Netscape Browser you can have them at your fingertips all the time.
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Netscape Browser comes with some bookmarks already available. To use a bookmark:
From the Bookmarks menu:
Using the Bookmark Manager
Using My Sidebar:
Open the Bookmarks tab in My Sidebar:
Using the Personal Toolbar:
Tip: The file displays either in the current tab or a new tab, depending on your options setup. However, you can also right-click on the file or folder and choose how to display it. For more information, refer to Using Tabs to Browse the Web.
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You can bookmark your favourite web sites to make it easy to return to them. To bookmark the page currently displayed in your browser window:

Shortcut: When you are in the browser window, right click and select "Bookmark this page" to display the Add Bookmark window. You can do the same by right-clicking on a tab. For more information, refer to Bookmarking Tabs.
Creating New Bookmarks using Bookmarks Manager
To create bookmarks from within Bookmarks Manager:
- From the Bookmarks menu, select Manage Bookmarks.
- From the Bookmarks panel in My Sidebar, click Manage.

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To organize your bookmarks, open the Bookmarks menu and select Manage Bookmarks. Bookmarks Manager displays, which you use to move, group, sort, rename, and delete bookmarks.
Tip: You can also open the Manage Bookmarks window from the Bookmarks tab in My Sidebar. Click "Manage" at the top of the Bookmarks panel.

To move a bookmark or a folder to another location in the list:
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You can group bookmarks by placing them in a folder or by separating bookmarks in a list with a separator.
Click New Folder at the top of the Manage Bookmark window to group bookmarks in a folder. |
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Click New Separator at the top of the Manage Bookmark window to insert a separator in a list. |
You sort your bookmarks in the Manage Bookmarks window by clicking on the column headings: Name, Location, or Description. For example, if you click Name, the bookmark files and folders are sorted by alphabetically by bookmark name. You have the option to sort the files in ascending or descending order using the arrow that appears next to each header. In addition, you can access the complete list of column headers (and sort on any of these) from the View menu in Bookmarks Manager.
Tip: You can define which column headings display and which
ones remain hidden by selecting View>Show Columns from the Bookmarks Manager
window, or by using the Sort button
on the right side of the header bar. Check the column headings you want to display.
Rename bookmarks and folders in the Manage Bookmark window using the Rename button. Highlight a file and click this button to display the Properties window, then type a new name and description for the file or folder. For more information, refer to Changing Bookmark Properties. |
To delete a bookmark:
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Use the Properties window to change information such as a bookmark's name, add descriptive information, or set a keyword. (You can type a bookmark's keyword into the location field to go to the bookmarked site.)
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You search for bookmarks using the Bookmarks Manager. To do this:
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Your bookmarks are stored in a file named bookmarks.html. You can export a copy of this file and save it in a folder of your choosing. You can then edit it and treat it as you would any HTML file.
Note: Your bookmarks are not altered by this procedure.
You can also import bookmarks files from other sources. For example, you can import bookmark files from earlier versions of Netscape Browser, other browsers, or from bookmark files that your friends send you.
Before you start, make sure that the bookmark file you want to import is an HTML file (.HTML or .HTM format). If you're importing a bookmark file from another browser, you may first have to export your bookmarks from that browser before you can import them into Netscape Browser. When you export bookmarks from another browser, remember where you saved the exported bookmark file, so that you can locate it when you want to import it into Netscape Browser.
The imported bookmark file is treated as a group of new bookmarks and added to the bottom of your bookmarks list. If you have designated a new bookmark folder, the imported bookmarks are added to that folder.
Note: Importing a bookmark file imports the bookmarks and folders from that file. It does not create two bookmark files.
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Extensions are add-ons that enhance the functionality of Netscape Browser. Extensions can add anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature. Using extensions, you can customize Netscape Browser to suit your personal tastes and needs, without having to install features that you do not want or require.
| In this section: |
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To add, update, or uninstall extensions, open the Tools menu and select Extensions. This displays the Extensions window, which lists all extensions that you currently have installed.

To add extensions:
Note: If you get an error message, the extension may not have been configured for your version of Netscape Browser, and you cannot install it.
To update extensions:
Tip: You can also set Netscape Browser to periodically check and notify you if any updates to your extensions are available, and to automatically install the updates. Refer to window help.
To uninstall extensions:
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DOM Inspector is an extension that comes with the browser. You use it to inspect and edit the live DOM of any web document or XUL application. You can launch DOM Inspector from the Tools menu.
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June, 2005
Copyright 1994-2005 Netscape Communications Corporation.