All about Website Addresses
At today’s Computer Club meeting, I showed members some basic features
about how website addresses (aka URLs) are made up.
The full website address for Tesco, for example, is …
http://www.tesco.com.
(where the www.tesco.com is known as the domain name)
The prefix: https denotes a secure webpage, such as a webpage for an
internet bank or supermarket checkout, where you’re being asked to enter
your personal details. Also look out for a gold padlock icon on such
a page.
Beware of email links to bogus websites, where you’re asked for personal
info by criminals. These website pages can look identical to the real ones.
It's a good idea to type your bank website address straight into the top
URL box ~ I showed members how to partially delete the Google one (back to
the www. and then add the name of a bank).
I showed ways of copying and pasting website addresses into address/URL
boxes, onto Word documents and onto emails. I talked about saving URLs
onto your list of favourites, and how to organise these into folders.
You can tidy up your favourites list by a drag & drop technique (putting
them into the yellow folders).
If you’re researching a topic such as your family history, I suggested
putting all the URLs onto a Word document, instead of saving them onto
your Favourites list, to reduce cluttering it up. You could then save
the Word document onto a CD-Rom or flash drive. (I use this method to
back up my entire Favourites list).
To access a website from the URL listed on a Word document, simply hover
your mouse pointer over the link. Windows will then tell you what to do.
If you’re sending someone an email containing a link say to your Flickr
site, you must include the http:// prefix in the address, to create a
link that works.
I also mentioned how to create a hyperlink … how to create a link from
a particular word (eg HERE) to a website. Check out the Help section,
on your Word document or search on Google for information on how to do
this.
To change your home page (which appears when you click onto the internet),
go to Tools > Internet Options > Use “current page”, such as Google or
the BBC.
Some of the websites I mentioned today included:
Café Nomad (one of our favourite vegetarian restaurants in Nottm)
Free BMD (free info on births, marriages & deaths)
Nigella’s meat balls in tomato sauce (we use Quorn balls & we omit adding
the cold water in making the sauce)
Rachel Allen’s chocolate amaretti cake
Multimap
http://www.multimap.com/maps/
Multimap page for the ICC in Nottm ~ postcode NG1 3FN
http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=ng1+3fn&countryCode=GB&mapData=&zoom=16&moveMap=0,0
To shorten long email addresses like the above,
try out TinyURL dot com and Bit.ly dot com
http://tinyurl.com/
http://bit.ly./
Inside Multimap are Ordnance Survey maps, which I find difficult to access.
Click on Interactive Maps > Basic Maps > Lake District.
To see the latter, I had to click on the minus icon twice (zooming out), before an OS Map of the Lake District appeared. Using both the navigation & zoom tools, it’s possible to move around the UK, to where you wish to go.
Here is a link to an OS map of Newstead Abbey, which you can zoom in on to see more detail, if you wish.
http://tinyurl.com/c9s7r3
Something you might find useful when sending someone an email say with 2 or more recipes on it, is to open a second internet page to search for the recipe information.
Start > Internet Explorer > Google … search for the webpage, copy the URL, and then paste it into your email.
This will work if you’re on Broadband, by the way.
In the discussion afterwards, Graham mentioned Google's new Streetview.
Have a look at the introductory video on how to use it, & on the map page,
zoom into a city centre and have a look around it (with the help of the
little orange man). I wandered up Mansfield Road from the Victoria Centre
as far as Aura, using Streetview.
Jo asked about buying a domain name, so we had a quick look at one of the
many sites that sell these (and offer web hosting too) ... Easily.co.uk.
You can buy a UK domain name for just over £5 a year, and Easily offers
you up to 3 email addresses with that name eg .. info AT nottu3a.co.uk,
whereby you can hide your personal email address(es). Your internet service
provider may offer you some free webspace to host your site, otherwise
you can pay a company like Easily to host it for you.
Check out Webs dot com for free or inexpensive websites, which are very easy
to set up.
