Accountant Application Research Guide

Author: David A. Pbert
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-03-16
Features:
General: In this tab, you can choose whether to download sounds, images, or videos, or change the colors of links that have or have not been clicked. Through it, you can also change the background and text colors in the browser window, as well as the toolbars and buttons.
Connections: If you are dial-up, you can automatically dial when the browser opens by selecting the radio button. When needed, you can also access the internet through a proxy server. A proxy server can serve one or more servers and generally acts as a shield or firewall. For example, a company's proxy server can gather all requests for internet access within the company and forward them to a computer directly connected to the internet. When this computer receives information from the internet, the process reverses.
Navigation: The "Custom" section in this tab allows you to set up websites to automatically connect to each time the browser opens. The default homepage for Internet Explorer is Microsoft's homepage during installation. To change the homepage settings, you can directly enter the full HTTP address in the address bar or click the "Use Current Page" command while viewing a page. Clicking "Apply" or "OK" saves your changes. The "History" feature is very useful when you forget to add an important website to "Favorites" (see the discussion below). In the "History" section, you can also change the number of days to retain information about visited pages in the browser's history folder. The retention period can range from 0 to 999 days. Related options include "View History" and "Clear History." Clicking "View History" opens a new window in the browser to display the addresses of all visited pages within the retention period. Double-clicking an address directly links to that page. Clicking "Clear History" clears the history folder. The cleared history folder starts retaining new history records when the browser opens the next page.
Programs: The "Mail and News" option in this tab allows you to set up software for receiving email or newsgroups, which can be found in a series of dropdown menus. The "View" section allows you to set the types of files the browser can handle. Most file types are already set during the installation of this software. For example, if you visit a website with a financial report in Excel format, such as `fin-data.xls`, the browser will open the Excel program to display the file when you start downloading it. You can perform various operations within it.
Security: This tab has three sections: "Content Settings," "Certificates," and "Activation." You may not need to change the existing settings. They become important when you need to ensure the quality of information downloaded from web pages or the reliability of software.
Advanced: This includes other settings, such as information transmitted over the network, Internet temporary files, and other advanced options, with the most important being Internet temporary files. The Internet temporary folder is Internet Explorer's cache. It is part of your hard drive and is used to store web pages you have visited in the current session. If they are still recently accessed, their addresses are also saved to the history folder. The "Capacity" refers to the proportion of the folder's space on your hard drive. Clicking "Settings" allows you to choose whether to update these temporary files each time you visit a page, each time you start the browser, or never. If you choose "Never," the browser will always display the old pages stored on your local hard drive, regardless of any changes to the web pages, as long as they are still within the retention period or the temporary folder has not been cleared (which can be set in the tab). This is not ideal for frequently updated sites. Choosing "Check for Updates Each Time You Visit This Page" means the browser needs to visit each site one by one to check if the pages have been updated, which is time-consuming but ensures that the temporary folder contains the latest pages. Relatively speaking, choosing "Check for Updates Each Time You Start the Browser" is more economical.
Go: The commands in this section allow for quick access to the history folder. The "Back" and "Forward" buttons also appear on the toolbar. The most important feature is the ability to directly access pages visited in the current session without using the "Back" or "Forward" keys step by step, which saves time.
Favorites: If you need to frequently visit a site, you can add it to your favorites through the commands in this section. The button includes "Add to Favorites" and "Organize Favorites." If you need to categorize site information by theme or source to save time later, you should frequently organize them. Clicking "Organize Favorites" opens a dialog box with buttons like "Create Folder" and "Move to Folder." After selecting a site, you can drag it to the target folder.
Help: Clicking "Help Topics" opens a dialog box where you can search for the help you need by keyword.
Netscape Navigator 3.x (Standard or Deluxe Edition)
Double-click the Netscape icon to open the program. The menu bar has nine menu items: File, Edit, View, Go, Bookmarks, Options, Guides, Window, and Help. As mentioned earlier, we will only discuss the important items.
File: Many commands are similar to Internet Explorer, with the "Save" and "Print" commands being the most important. The Deluxe Edition also includes an HTML editor, so there are a few more commands.
Edit: Refer to the relevant section in Internet Explorer.
View: This differs from Internet Explorer, as there is no "Options" (it is now a standalone button). The most important commands are "View Source" and "Document Info." Clicking "View Source" opens Netscape's built-in or external editor to display the source code of the web page. "Document Info" includes the network address of the web page and the addresses of its components, such as images, sounds, and video clips. It also provides information about the page's last updated time, file type, and security details. These functions are broader than those in Internet Explorer.
Go: Refer to the relevant section in Internet Explorer.
Bookmarks: This includes "Add Bookmark" and "Link Bookmark." You can create bookmarks for important websites to access them directly.
Options: The commands in this section allow you to change various browser functions to suit your needs. This includes security settings, network, HTML editor, mail and newsgroups, and general options. Although this article does not cover all the details, you should know how to set up helper applications and functions related to information retrieval. In the "General" section, the "Helper Applications" and "Applications" tabs allow you to set up helper applications for remote connections and viewing source files. Similar to Internet Explorer, the default file types and applications are usually sufficient for general research. In the "Helper Applications" section, you can decide how to display certain file types, such as displaying them in the browser window, in another application window, or asking the user to decide.
Guides, Window, and Help: The functions of these buttons are similar to those in Internet Explorer. Readers should be able to handle them themselves.
Browser Errors
Sometimes you may not be able to access a site or retrieve the information you need. The problem may occur when initially connecting to the site or during subsequent data transfer. Some issues are caused by local reasons, while others are due to problems with the remote site. Distinguishing between problems you can solve and those you cannot help with can save a lot of unnecessary waiting and frustration. Below are some common issues.
Cannot Find Server or DNS Error: There are two possible reasons for this issue. One is that the browser cannot connect to the domain name server. This may be because the server providing domain name services is not connected to the network or is.