Apr '01 Tools

It pays to know your history! Both the Netscape Navigator and the Internet Explorer Browsers keep track of the sites you have recently visited. This can be very helpful if you need to relocate a site you've visited before.

Viewing and using the Netscape Navigator History:

Go to the browser menu bar and click on Communicator, choose Tools, then History (or type Ctrl + H on your keyboard). To view a page, double-click its line in the list.

To make locating a site easier, you can sort the History list:
Click one of the categories (Title, Location, etc). Click again to reverse the order (ascending or descending by date, number, or alphabetical order).

It's also possible to search the History list:
1. From the menu bar click on Edit choose Search History List.
2. Click the first pop-up menu and choose a search category.
3. Click the second pop-up menu and choose an option. Choose "is" if you know exactly what you're searching for; "contains" if you know only part. Choose "isn't" or "doesn't contain" to exclude pages.
4. Click the third field and type all or part of the title, location, or other information you want to search for (or exclude).
5. To narrow the search further, click More one or more times and enter additional search criteria. To reverse this action, click Fewer.
6.Click Search. Pages matching your search criteria are listed.

To use the search results:
1. Double-click a page in the list to go to it.
2. Click Save As to save the list as an HTML page.
3. Click Clear to delete your search criteria.

You can specify how long history is saved:
1. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
2. Click the Navigator category.
3. Type a number of days in the field labeled "Pages in history expire after" ("Visited links expire" on Mac OS).
On Windows and Unix, page visits are recorded in the History window for the specified number of days. On Mac OS, page visits are recorded in the History window only for the current session (until you exit from the application).

To clear the History window in Netscape:
1. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
2. Click the Navigator category.
3. Click Clear History (Expire Now on Mac OS).
Clearing the History will temporarily free up disk space on your computer. It will also help protect privacy, but makes it harder for you to retrace your steps.

Viewing and using the Internet Explorer History:

Go to the browser menu bar and click the History button.

The History bar appears, containing links for Web sites and pages visited in previous days and weeks.

In the History bar, click a week or day, click a Web site folder to display individual pages, and then click the page icon to display the Web page.

To sort or search the History bar:
Click the arrow next to the View button at the top of the History bar.

To specify how many pages are saved in the History list:
On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options.
Click the General tab.
In the History area, change the number of days that the History list keeps track of your pages.

To empty the History folder:
Click Clear History.
Clearing the History will temporarily free up disk space on your computer. It will also help protect privacy, but makes it harder for you to retrace your steps.

Tech note: why you may not get the newest version of a page:

One of the reasons your computer stores sites that you have visited is to make it quicker and easier to reload a page when you return to it. It takes much less time to load a page that's stored on your computer's hard drive than to have to send a request all the way back the computer it is stored on out there in cyber space (commonly known as the "Host" computer).

An unexpected result of the practical way your computer functions is that you sometimes may not get the most recent version of a page when you go to it. Let's say you visited a site 5 days ago and your computer stored it on your hard drive. Yesterday, the web designer updated the site, but when you try to go there, you get the old page.

What you need to do is force you computer to send a request to the "Host" computer for an updated version. You can do this with a "Power Reload"... while holding down the shift key on your keyboard, click the Reload (in Netscape) or Refresh (in Explorer) button on your menu bar at the top of your browser.