Menus and Controls in Web Browsers

Web Browsers | Menus and Controls

Menus and Controls

Browsers have menus and control buttons that can be accessed using mouse buttons. The following image shows typical menus and a set of control buttons (and the present URL address that the browser is accessing):

These menus are called "pull-down menus", because when you hold the mouse button down on an item in the main menu a sub-menu is "pulled down" displaying a variety of choices.

Pulldown Menus for Browser Functions

For example, the adjacent image from Netscape 4.7 for Macintosh shows the pulldown submenu associated with the "View" menu item. One selects a choice from the submenu by holding the mouse key down and moving the pointer to the desired item, and then releasing the mouse key.
Actions on the submenu that are possible at a given time are in dark print; actions that cannot be performed at that time are shown in lighter or "grayed out" print. In the adjacent example, "Show", "Page Source", and "Page Info", for example, are available actions, while "Show Images," and "Stop Loading" are not possible at present for the document being displayed.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Notice that browser functions may also have a keyboard shortcut defined. It is useful to memorize some of these keyboard shortcuts, since they can usually be implemented faster than using the mouse to select from the menu. However, the exact keyboard shortcut for a command is often browser and platform specific.
For example, in the adjacent image for the Netscape 4.7 Macintosh browser, the keyboard shortcut for the reload command is "apple+R," where "apple" represents the key with the clover-leaf symbol on Macintosh keyboards. That is, holding down the "apple key" and simultaneously pressing the "r" key will have the same effect as selecting "Reload" from the menu. (Note that although the letter "R" appears uppercase in the menu you do not have to press the shift key while pressing the apple and "r" keys.) Check the menus for your browser to determine the keyboard shortcuts; memorizing the more useful ones will make your browsing more efficient.


			Web Browsers \| Menus and Controls
		Menus and Controls Browsers have menus and control buttons that can be accessed using mouse buttons. The following image shows typical menus and a set of control buttons (and the present URL address that the browser is accessing): These menus are called "pull-down menus", because when you hold the mouse button down on an item in the main menu a sub-menu is "pulled down" displaying a variety of choices. Pulldown Menus for Browser Functions For example, the adjacent image from `Netscape` `4.7` for Macintosh shows the pulldown submenu associated with the "View" menu item. One selects a choice from the submenu by holding the mouse key down and moving the pointer to the desired item, and then releasing the mouse key. Actions on the submenu that are possible at a given time are in dark print; actions that cannot be performed at that time are shown in lighter or "grayed out" print. In the adjacent example, "Show", "Page Source", and "Page Info", for example, are available actions, while "Show Images," and "Stop Loading" are not possible at present for the document being displayed. Keyboard Shortcuts Notice that browser functions may also have a keyboard shortcut defined. It is useful to memorize some of these keyboard shortcuts, since they can usually be implemented faster than using the mouse to select from the menu. However, the exact keyboard shortcut for a command is often browser and platform specific. For example, in the adjacent image for the `Netscape` `4.7` Macintosh browser, the keyboard shortcut for the reload command is "apple+R," where "apple" represents the key with the clover-leaf symbol on Macintosh keyboards. That is, holding down the "apple key" and simultaneously pressing the "r" key will have the same effect as selecting "Reload" from the menu. (Note that although the letter "R" appears uppercase in the menu you do not have to press the shift key while pressing the apple and "r" keys.) Check the menus for your browser to determine the keyboard shortcuts; memorizing the more useful ones will make your browsing more efficient.