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JUMP-START MAIL
Can't wait to check your mail when you launch Netscape? You can configure Navigator to open Mail first, if you like. This is a good option for highly organized people--the less organized among us, those with packed In boxes, could miss a message here and there. From the Options menu, choose General Preferences and click the Appearance tab. Under Startup, where it says On Startup Launch, click the Mail check box. As you see, you can also set News to open at Startup. You can turn off the browser if you like, or set it to launch simultaneously with Mail and/or News. When you're finished making your changes, click OK.

THE BRASS RING
A search engine is a good way to track down information on the Web, but it's not the only way, nor is it always the best way. Over the next few tips, we'll explore a few alternatives to search engines that are suitable for return visits.

http://www.webring.com

GOLD DIGGERS
The Mining Co. is a service that brings together hundreds of people who serve as guides to various subject areas. Each subject area gets a distinct domain (such as genealogy.miningco.com, telecommuting.miningco.com, or usnews.miningco.com), and each guide presents annotated links to Web sites in his or her subject areas, along with original content and extras like bulletin boards and chat rooms. Some sites are definitely better than others, but overall, the service works because the guides get opinionated about the sites they review; so it's easier to make up your mind what to hit and what to avoid.

http://www.miningco.com

GETTING AROUND TOWN
Geocities has improved an already good service by adding features to make the neighborhoods more accessible to its outside visitors. For example, in the old days, aside from a few highlighted sites, the contents of those zillions of individual sites remained something of a mystery. But now, when you visit the Geocities home page, you'll find a familiar-looking subject-based index to help you explore the neighborhoods.

http://www.geocities.com

JUST A LITTLE OFF THE TOP
Cut and paste is great, but there's an even more convenient way to copy the URL of the page you're on to the Clipboard, so that it's ready to paste anywhere. Just double-click the little chain link icon to the left of the Location box, and that URL is automatically routed to storage and ready to paste. Don't believe it? Open a new Message Composition window and press Ctrl-V to paste. Ta-da!

GET TO THE BOTTOM OF IT
Once you memorize them, keyboard combinations make life easier. Here are two to commit to memory:

* To get to the very bottom of a Web page, press Ctrl-End.
* To return to the top of the page, press Ctrl-Home.

SYNCHRONIZE YOUR CLOCKS
Speaking of time, Navigator really relies on your system clock to time- and date-stamp your Mail and News messages. Ever wonder if your system clock is off? You can check your computer's system clock against the U.S. Navy's Master Clock. Go to

http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/Timecheck.html
and a Java applet will run the check for you. Give it a minute.

GEE WYSIWYG!
Many--perhaps most--Netscape Navigator 3.x users are running Navigator Gold, which comes with a useful HTML editor. Using this editor, you (yes, you!) can design and build your own Web pages. If you've never explored this aspect of your Netscape software before, why not give it a try? Over the next few days, we'll explore the fundamentals of Web page design.

The editor in Navigator Gold isn't particularly intimidating. You may know that Web pages are created by means of (sometimes elaborate) code, HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language. But you don't need to know any HTML to create Web pages using the Navigator HTML editor. That's because it is what's known as a WYSIWYG editor. Pronounced "wiz-ee-wig," WYSIWYG stands for "what you see is what you get." That means you don't have to work with code at all--instead, the Navigator Gold editor lets you see the results of what you're doing while the editor sorts out the code in the background. But enough acronyms already. With our next tip, we'll start building a Web page.

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
Today we're going to start building a Web page using Netscape Navigator Gold's HTML editor. If you're the creative type, at this point your imagination may be overflowing with visions of sugarplums. That's fine, but do give yourself a chance to learn the basics before you reach for the stars.

That's it--you just created a Web page. If it felt a bit anticlimactic, wait until tomorrow, when we start jazzing up your page a bit.

PRIVATE VIEWING
You've got a Web page, all right, but it's not quite ready for prime time. You need CONTENT, as they say in the Web biz. (You know, what the "creatives" used to call words and pictures.) To create text from scratch, just start typing it in. No big whoop. The words you type will appear in whatever font you've designated as your default for page viewing. Remember that eventually, after you publish your page on the Web, other people will see the page in whatever font THEY'VE designated as the default for their browser. So don't put too much stock in the way the page looks in a particular font. (Note: there ARE ways to force other people to see things your way, in your favorite font, but it requires pretty good grasp of HTML--unless, of course, you want to download Netscape Communicator and use its HTML editor, Composer.)

GET BOLD, CENTERED--WITHOUT TAKING A COURSE IN SELF-IMPROVEMENT
To change the way text looks on your Web page, highlight the text you want to modify and click the appropriate toolbar buttons. The five "A's" on your toolbar represent the following text modification options: Decrease font size, Increase font size, Bold, Italic, and Fixed Width (this one just makes your text look as if it were typed on a typewriter). Experiment with these to get the hang of them.

Type something at the top of your new home page, such as "Welcome to My Home Page." Highlight the phrase and click the Increase Font Size button (the one that looks like an A+) two or three times. Bam, bam, bam! Now that's a header! Next, click the Center button (this one's a little harder to spot, but it looks like a few centered lines) to center your header in the middle of your page.

WHO CAN MAKE A RAINBOW? SPRINKLE IT WITH DEW?
To render Web page text in color, highlight the text and click the Color button on the toolbar (it's the one that looks like a tiny Rubik's Cube). You'll see a grid of Basic colors and, below that, a grid for Custom colors. To use basic colors, just click once on the color you like and click OK. The text you highlighted will now appear in that color.

Let's try to recreate this year's most popular decorating color: moss green. You see that big box full of rainbow colors? Click your cursor smack in the middle of the field of green. Now click to grab that little black arrow on the far right side of the Color box. Drag it up and, while you do so, keep an eye on that smaller Color/Solid box. That's the actual color you're making. See how the tone lightens as you drag the arrow up and darkens as you pull it down? Now let go of the arrow for a moment and try clicking up and down in the big green field. You'll see even more variants, from bright to muted. Try going sideways closer to the yellow stripe, then closer to the blue, to see how your shade of green looks when it's being more heavily influenced by these colors. Now try to achieve that moss green we talked about, both by changing the position of your cursor and dragging the black arrow. When the perfect shade appears in that Color/Solid box, stop! Click Add to Custom Colors! and click OK to save your changes and close the Color box. Back at your Web page, the text you highlighted now appears in marvelous moss green.

SCENERY CHEWING
Now that you know how to use the Color box to create custom colors, try using it to create a custom background color for your Web page. Even if you plan to use a graphic image as your Web page background, it's not a bad idea to specify a custom background color anyway. Why? Because when people visit your site for the first time, it may take a while for that background image to render (depending on how big the file is). While waiting for the image to load, and while the text is already visible, the viewer will see either his or her own default background color (for many people, this is white or a nasty shade of battleship gray) or the custom background color you've assigned. A shade that complements your eventual background makes for a more aesthetically pleasing and subtle transition once your background image finally arrives.

Anyway, here's how to create a custom background color. While working on your page in the HTML editor, choose Properties, Document. In the Document Properties box, click the Appearance tab. Now click the Background button. There's that Color box again! Choose a basic color and click OK, or click Define Custom Colors to mix up a custom background (if you do, be sure to click Add to Custom Colors before you click OK; otherwise you won't be able to easily reproduce that color elsewhere).

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
Since we're on the subject of backgrounds, let's talk about how to incorporate an image as a background. Officially, you can use any sort of image as a background, but most people use a relatively small image, which is then duplicated, or tiled, a great number of times to fill in the background. It's difficult to use a single image as a background, because the image won't fill out the screen the way you'd like it to--instead, the image will always start to fold over on itself again on the outside edge. (Try it if you don't believe us).

Now you should see your background image assert itself.

DEEP BACKGROUND
Coming up a little short on suitable background images? Not to worry. There are lots of Internet resources supplying great backgrounds for free (or for the small price of acknowledging the background as a contribution by the graphic artist who created it). Some background designers stick to artistic patterns and textures; others create thematic arrangements suitable for, say, holidays or a particular interest. You ought to be able to locate such sites using any search engine. The Mining Company's Web Clip Art site also has a huge list of these (not to mention other Web page graphic elements); go to

http://webclipart.miningco.com
and, under Net Links, click on Backgrounds.

Important: To download a background image, right-click the image and choose Save Image As from the pop-up menu. Save the image to a suitable folder. Then, when it's time to incorporate the background image into your page, you can browse to that folder and select the file. Whatever you do, don't link back to the originating background site where you downloaded the image. That's a big mistake some folks make (but we know YOU won't).