5 Advanced Features Introduction Many advanced features such as hierarchical hotlists and annotations are cov- ered in this chapter. Specific information about using these features is included. Window History NCSA Mosaic keeps track of recently viewed documents allowing you to jump back and forth between documents. (It does not record the documents seen with external viewers such as xv.) The list of documents you viewed is main- tained in the Window History window (select Window History... on the Navigate menu). Using Window History is often the quickest way to return to a docu- ment you viewed many hyperlinks ago. The Forward and Back buttons on the bottom control panel let you go back to pre- vious documents you’ve visited and then return to your current location. The Back and Forward items in the Navigate menu offer the same functions. The history list is not a comprehensive list of visited documents. Rather, it is the “shortest path” between your current document and your home page. For example, suppose from your home page, you browsed through documents A, B, and C (sequence 1 below). Your history list consists of four documents: your home page, A, B, and C. Sup- pose that you return to document A via the history list. At this point, the his- tory list still consists of the four documents. If you then follow a different link on document A to document D (sequence 2), then the history list is truncated to follow just this new path. The history list now consists of the home page and D (sequence 3). Figure 5.1 Window History Window Global History NCSA Mosaic not only keeps track of documents you view in the current ses- sion but also the documents you viewed in all your NCSA Mosaic sessions to date. This information is stored in the .mosaic-global-history file (the default name) in your home directory. By maintaining the history list, NCSA Mosaic knows which hyperlinks to show as visited (in the viewed color or with broken underlining). Your global history file, obviously, grows with each NCSA Mosaic session. You may want to clear the history file periodically to save disk space or to refresh all the hyperlinks. Selecting Clear Global History... from the Options menu and con- firming your choice clears the .mosaic-global-history file. All visited hyperlinks change from viewed to unviewed. Hotlists What is a Hotlist? A hotlist is your compendium of URLs for documents you found useful or inter- esting. The hotlist function helps you build lists of documents on the Web that you can move to quickly. Adding or deleting documents is easy. Hotlists are now hierarchical, which means you can have as many hotlists as you want, and you can categorize your entries however you wish. For example, you might put all URLs that pertain to each work assignment in separate hot- lists and to a hobby in another. You assign each hotlist a name and file the URLs under that name. Open the Hotlist View window by selecting Hotlist... from the Navigate menu. The hotlist is empty until you add items. Figure 5.2 Hotlist View Window Adding Documents To add a document to your hotlist: 1. Go to the document you want to add. 2. Select Add Current to Hotlist from the Navigate menu. This appends the document’s URL to the top level of the hierarchy of the hotlist and displays the document title in the Hotlist window. The other way to add a document is to: 1. Go to the document you want to add. 2. Choose Hotlist from the Navigate menu. 3. Click Add Current. Removing Documents To remove a document from your hotlist: 1. Choose Hotlist from the Navigate menu. 2. Select the entry to be deleted. 3. Click Remove. Making Nested Hotlists To setup a directory to hold related URLs (e.g., documents on HTML): 1. Choose Hotlist from the Navigate menu. 2. Click Insert to open the Insert Hotlist Entry window. 3. Click on the List button. In the Entry Title field, enter the name of your hotlist (e.g., HTML Info). Click Commit. 4. The Hotlist View window reappears. The name you gave your hotlist is dis- played preceded by -> that designates subdirectories (-> HTML Info). 5. To nest a hotlist under the HTML Info directory already created, double- click on the hotlist name and follow steps 2 and 3. NOTE: Nested hotlists do not display in the Hotlist View window. This window shows all unnested URL titles and all top-level hotlists, but not hotlists nested under the main hotlists. Making Entries to Nested Hotlists When you find a document you want to save to a nested hotlist, you have two ways to proceed. The first method saves the URL directly to the nested hotlist. The second method saves the URL to the main hotlist. You must then move the URL to the appropriate nested hotlist. 1. Select Hotlist... from the Navigate menu. 2. Doubleclick on the nested hotlist where you want to save the current docu- ment URL. 3. Click Add Current. If you select Add Current To Hotlist from the Navigate menu, the document URL is added to the top level of your hotlist hierarchy. To move the document into a nested hotlist: 1. Select Hotlist... from the Navigate menu. 2. From the Hotlist View window, highlight the document you want to put in a nested hotlist. 3. Click Copy. 4. Doubleclick the nested hotlist where you want to place the information to open the hotlist. 5. Click Insert. 6. Remove the listing of the URL in the original location (unless you want it in both places). Editing Hotlist Information Edit the title of any entry in the hotlist by selecting the entry and clicking Edit. The Edit Hotlist Entry window opens. Enter additional information or modify the default information as you like (e.g., you might add a more descriptive title or the author’s name). Click Commit to save the changes. Linking to Other Documents Move to any document in the hotlist by doubleclicking on the entry, or by selecting the entry and clicking on the Go To button. Sharing Your Hotlist Use the Mail To... button at the bottom of the Hotlist View window to send your hotlist via electronic mail to a colleague. The electronic mail is an HTML docu- ment. Mailing your hotlist to a colleague is a way to share your favorite or frequently- used URLs. The recipient saves the hotlist to a file (with a .html extension) and opens the hotlist as a local document with NCSA Mosaic. The hotlist hyperlinks can then be used. NOTE: If you mail the top level of your hotlist, all URLs in all your hotlists are mailed. If you only want the recipient to receive a subset (i.e., only one hotlist), go to that hotlist and then send mail. Annotations Annotate Window Elements The elements of the Annotate window displayed when you select Annotate... from the Annotate menu are described below. Annotation Author The account being used with NCSA Mosaic is considered the default author of a notation. You can change the information in the Annotation Author field if you want. Annotation Title If desired, enter a brief title for the annotation. Default setting is “Annotation by your account name”. The title appears at the bottom of the source document’s Docu- ment View window as a hyperlink under the heading “Personal Annotations.” Also listed are the day, date, and time the anno- tation was created. Personal Annotation button The default and the only option currently implemented. Anno- tations are saved in the .mosaic-personal-annotations directory in your home directory. You are the only person who can access your annotations unless you share the file or your workstation or account. Enter the annotation text Enter your annotation. (You might want to insert carriage returns to keep the line length short. If your lines are long, use the horizontal bar to read the annotation text.) Click Commit to save it, creating a hyperlink in the annotated document to your comment. When the hyperlink in the original document is activated, the annotation text is displayed in a new window. There are no restrictions on annotation length. Annotation text buttons Clean Slate Clears the contents of the annotation text entry box. Include File... Opens the Include File in the Annotation window. Either enter the path and filename in the Name of file to include field or locate the file to include by using the Filter, Directories, and Files fields. Click OK to enter the file in your annotation, Filter to select direc- tories from the scroll list, or Cancel to cancel the dialog box. Delete Dimmed unless an annotation is in the Enter the annotation text field. Annotate Window buttons Click Commit to include the annotation in the source document, Dismiss to cancel the window, or Help for additional information. An Annotated Document Once you commit your annotation, you are returned to the document view win- dow. Your annotation is displayed at the bottom of the document (scroll down if necessary) under the heading “Personal Annotations.” Figure 5.3 An annotated document CCI CCI stands for Common Client Interface. CCI lets external applications com- municate with running sessions of NCSA Mosaic using TCP/IP (a software communications protocol). These applications programs use Mosaic to retrieve URLs or to report the URL selected by the user. By collecting data from the World Wide Web to local program space the client program can itself become a browser. Some examples of CCI are given in the URL listed below: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/CCI/cci-spec.html NOTE: Unless you use the sample programs given in hyperlinks off the above URL, this feature requires programming. Contact your local system adminis- trator for help and additional information. Access Authentication Access authentication restricts access to a server based on one of the following: • username- or password-level access authorization • connection rejection or acceptance based on Internet address • a combination of the above two methods The NCSA httpd software (which establishes and runs a World Wide Web server) lets you restrict two aspects of your Web document tree. You do not know that a server is running access authentication until you try to connect to the server. A dialog box from the server appears in your window requesting your login name and a password. If you do not pass the authentica- tion test(s) you are denied access to the server. For more information about access authentication, refer to the URL below: http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/setup/access/overview.html Kiosk Mode You can set up a session of NSCA Mosaic to run in kiosk mode. A kiosk is a Web display that restricts the movement of users. This is useful, for example, for organizations that want to keep users within a set of files. By removing most menu options a user cannot, for example, select Open URL... to open another docu- ment. The -kiosk command flag removes most NCSA Mosaic menu and control bar options, restricting users to the Back, Forward, Home, and Close buttons. The -kioskNoExit command flag removes the Close button from the four remaining buttons. Users therefore can only move Back, Forward, or Home. For additional information, open the URL below: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/XMosaic/help-on-version-2.6.html