Stamp Column Archives

Glassine Surfer August 2004

Most times this column is about stamp places and helpful things around the Web. It's always been geared to surfers comfortable with most things-internet, but it's time to throttle back and get back to basics for those who have just picked up their keyboards and mice. So, the next few columns will be about stamps on the Web for beginners.

The first order of business will be to go over a few instructions. "Double click" is two quick mouse clicks with the left-button. "Right click" is one mouse click with the right-button. "Alt+X" means depress and hold the ALT key while you press X. "Clt+C" means depress and hold the CLT key while you press C.

The internet means the electronic information infrastructure of computers and wires, through which many information services flow, such as the World Wide Web. The WWW is an internet method of exchanging data from one user to another. The Web uses a web browser to display its data, and the big browsers today are Microsoft's Internet Explorer and following at a distant second by Netscape's Navigator.

Both browser makers have slipped in their own little operational quirks, which doesn't seem to affect many sites, but you will find some that use little add-on programming files that might not support the browser you're using. Because of the dominance of the IE, everyone designs with it in mind, and some overlook how it will look in Netscape. It's not a problem, but keep it in mind.

Internet Explorer

Next, I'll assume you have internet access, an e-mail account, and a browser like Microsoft Internet Explorer 6+, IE6. (The plus simply means any version of IE 6.0 and above.) I'll also assume that you'll want to access the stamp sites you like more quickly the second time around. So, the first stop is the browser.

Open Explorer to full screen. Along the top bar click "View" - then Toolbars - and then Links. You should have a checkmark on Links and a new bar at the top of your browser. You should also have checkmarks on Standard Buttons, and Address Bar, if not, click and change them. Click OK to close this box.

Next click "Tools" - Internet Options. In the Options box find the "History" options, and put in a number like 7 or 14 days to save your browser's history. It'll make relocating sites later easier.

In the browser's address bar display, that's the white box on top, type in www.glassinesurfer.com without anything else. Press Enter.

When the page displays, the address box will add "http://" which only means hyper text transfer protocol, and the task bar at the bottom of the browser will tell you "Done" and then go blank.

Many sites place their navigation on the left-hand side, each page's  unique content in the middle, and ads or promotions on the right. If you run your mouse over the left-hand column your cursor will change to a pointing-finger and the words under it light up. Anything like that is saying it's a link to another page.

Cursor

As you drag your mouse over the left-hand links, the task bar will display the address that the link will take you to. That can be helpful in some cases.

Click on "Stamp Directory" and you'll be taken to a page with many, many more categories within the stamp directory. Now click "United States" in the box marked "American Stamps (USA)."

Link Bar

All the entries are links to websites about United States stamp in general. Now, let's save this page to the Link bar at the top of your browser by clicking and holding down the mouse button on the icon in the address bar's left side. Then while holding down the button, drag it to the Link bar and release the button. The link to this page should then be on your Link bar.  

You'll notice the page's title in the Link bar is too long, so let's rename it by right-clicking on the title and selecting "Rename" from the dialog box. Just give it a short catchy name, then click OK.

You'll also notice that the icon in the Address and Link bar have changed from the generic IE icon to a red GS. That's an IE-thing called a Favicon, or favorites icon. Some sites have them. Some don't.