Download Accessing Websites

Accessing Websites
Mac/PC Compatibility:
QuickStart Guide for Business
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Accessing Websites
QuickStart Guide for Business
The Basics
People use the web for research, entertainment, and business. And it’s only getting
more prevalent with access to the web increasing on mobile phones and PDAs.
User benefit: Productivity. Your employees can conduct crucial business quickly and
easily over the Internet. For example, they can order products online, then use online
tracking to find out when shipments will arrive. On-demand news sites keep managers
and other employees informed about their industry.
Business benefit: Competitiveness. When your employees are more informed and
productive, your company stays more competitive. You also can use the web to let
people know about your products or services—whether those prospective customers
and business partners are down the street or around the world.
Standards and Buzzwords
Here are some common terms associated with the World Wide Web.
Web browser. Software application that is used to view web pages. Apple’s web
browser is called Safari, and it’s available for both Mac and Windows.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Extension to websites that lets users find out about
important website updates (such as the latest news) without having to repeatedly
check the website manually. Using a standalone RSS program, like Mail in Leopard, or
an RSS-compatible web browser such as Safari, you can subscribe to RSS feeds. Your
RSS application checks periodically for new information in any of your subscribed
feeds and will alert you when new content becomes available.
Cookies. Text files placed on your computer by websites to store information about
your interaction with those sites. For example, cookies can keep track of which items
you’ve put into an online shopping basket, or which language version of the website
you want to see. Cookies also can be used for tasks that benefit the website operator,
such as recording which pages you’ve visited or verifying that you clicked over to the
website directly from an e-mail marketing message. Because cookies can raise privacy
concerns, any well-designed web browser (such as Safari) will enable you to control
which cookies can be placed on your computer, and to delete those you no longer
wish to have. See “Adjusting Your Security Settings” below for details.
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Pop-up windows. Small web browser windows that appear without your direct
request. Pop-ups usually contain advertising, although they also can be used for
surveys and other purposes. A variation, the pop-under window, comes up under
the existing browser window(s), so it is not visible until the other windows are closed
or moved. Web browsers such as Safari let you block the display of pop-up and
pop-under windows; see the sidebar for instructions.
QuickTime. Apple’s standards-based, cross-platform multimedia technology for
creation, delivery, and playback of media content. QuickTime is used on websites to
offer audio and video that can be accessed by users of both Mac OS X and Windowsbased systems.
Java. Computer programming language used to incorporate dynamic content into
web pages. For example, small Java programs called “applets” can be used to display
animations or validate content in forms.
Flash. Technology used to display animated and interactive graphics on web pages.
Some websites often display Flash animations before they take visitors to the home
page that links to the rest of the site.
PDF. Portable Document Format file that displays a document as it would appear
on a printed page. Some PDFs are displayed “inline”—within a browser window—just
as if it’s another web page, rather than requiring the user to download the PDF file
and view it in an external application such as Adobe Reader. Inline PDFs are more
convenient and often a faster way to view PDFs that come from websites.
Blog (short for “web log”). Online journal kept current on a website by an individual,
group, or organization. Blogs are typically more informal than other website content,
and are thus becoming a popular means for companies to keep customers informed
about day-to-day happenings.
Streaming. Delivery of audio and/or video data in real time. Streaming often is used
to allow website visitors to view live news events or listen to live music. The alternative
to streaming is downloading the entire file to your computer before viewing it (with
QuickTime Player or iTunes, for example).
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How the Mac Does It
Mac OS X includes Safari: the fastest, easiest-to-use web browser in the world1—and
it’s now available for Windows systems, too. Safari combines the latest web protocols
and technologies with an easy-to-use interface to give you superb web-browsing
performance.
Built-in Google Search
Google’s popular search engine helps you find the exact information you need from
the world’s websites. Apple has built a Google search field right into the address bar of
Safari windows, so you can perform Google searches instantly. Just type your search
terms into the field, then press return to send your query to Google. If you later want
to rerun any recent searches, click on the magnifying glass to bring up a list of them.
Built-in RSS Reader
Because Safari has RSS support built right in, it lets you view RSS news feeds as well as
web pages. Many major news organizations, community websites, and blogs now offer
headlines and article summaries as RSS feeds. Safari lets you take these news feeds
and view them together in a simple, ad-free list, so you can quickly find all the articles
that interest you from across the web. A number of RSS feeds already are included for
you in the Bookmarks list of Safari.
Look for the RSS icon in the address bar in Safari on websites and in bookmark lists
to find available news feeds. RSS feeds may also be viewed in Mail which is useful for
timely business information.
Tabbed Browsing
Use the Tabs window in Safari Preferences to activate tabbed browsing. This window
also allows you to indicate how Safari handles new tabs and new windows.
With tabbed browsing, your favorite web pages are only a click away—without
multiple browser windows cluttering up your Mac Desktop. Just click on a tab to
switch from site to site. Also, reorder your tabs by simply dragging, or “tear them off”
to create new browser windows.
Mac and Windows Compatibility
Safari supports all popular web standards—HTML, CSS, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SSL, XML,
RSS, QuickTime, JavaScript, Java™ applets, and many others—so web pages written to
industry standards will display quickly and correctly. Safari in Mac OS X also supports
Flash. You also can add additional plug-ins that enables Safari to display other
proprietary multimedia content.
Do you already have bookmarks in another web browser that you can’t live without?
The first time you open Safari, it automatically imports your favorites from Microsoft
Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Netscape Navigator.
In addition to Safari, excellent third-party browsers are available for the Mac, such as
Firefox and Opera. If you subscribe to AOL or MSN, those companies offer versions of
their client applications for the Mac.
If your office has Windows as well as Mac, know that your Windows users can enjoy
the blazing performance and elegant interface of Safari. Safari is available for Microsoft
Windows XP and Vista.
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How Do I Get Started?
Safari is ready to use in the Dock at the bottom of your Mac screen. Just click it to
launch the application. Alternatively, you can launch Safari from the Applications
folder of your Mac.
To download Safari for Windows, visit http://www.apple.com/safari
Basic Safari Settings
If you choose Preferences from the Safari menu, the following window is displayed.
Here you can select a web page to be your default home page (the one that Safari
displays each time you launch the program or open a new window). From this window,
you also can change your default web browser, select a default location on your Mac
for downloaded files, and set other preferences. Of course, you can always override
the defaults in specific instances, such as choosing a different destination when you
actually download a file.
One option turned on by default is automatic opening of certain types of files after
they are downloaded. If you prefer, you can uncheck the “Open ‘safe’ files after
downloading” box. This provides even greater security against malicious files
by allowing you to determine which downloaded files you open and when you
open them.
Need to See a Pop-up Blocker?
Safari ships with pop-up blocking activated, but not all pop-up windows are
unwanted. If you visit a website that uses pop-up windows you want to see,
there’s an easy way to turn pop-up blocking off without having to open the Safari
Preferences window. You can use this method to reactivate blocking before you
visit other websites.
Simply go into the Safari menu, scroll down to “Block Pop-Up Windows,” and release
the mouse button. If blocking was on, it will now be deactivated. (You will need to
reload the web page for the pop-up window to display.) If blocking was turned off,
it’s activated. A check next to the “Block Pop-Up Windows” menu item indicates that
it’s enabled.
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Viewing RSS Feeds
Safari makes it easy to keep up on the latest news that interests you. A number of RSS
feeds already are included in the bookmarks that come with Safari. You can access
others by clicking on the RSS icon on any website that offers a news feed. If you want
to change your RSS preferences, simply choose Preferences from the Safari menu, then
click on the RSS tab.
In this window, you can edit which RSS feeds Safari should update, how often it should
look for RSS news feed updates, and other preferences.
Adjusting Your Security Settings
Safari gives you extensive control over the types of programs that can run within
Safari, whether websites can display pop-up windows, and under what circumstances
a website can place cookies on your computer. These preferences are in the Security
tab of the Safari Preferences window.
The Security window lets you accept all cookies, block all cookies, or accept cookies
only from websites you have intentionally visited.
Saving Web Pages
Safari makes saving web pages very easy. Every day, you and your staff perform
important online transactions that you need records of, or run across online articles
that would be useful to keep for future reference.
If you want to preserve the text and graphics of a web page along with its underlying
HTML code (so that the links in the page still work), select Save As from the File menu,
then choose the Web Archive format.
If you need only an image of the page without clickable links, select Print from the
File menu, then choose the “Save as PDF” option from the PDF pop-up menu.
By clicking on the Show Cookies button, you can view the cookies stored on your Mac
and delete selected cookies or all of them.
If you have administrative privileges, you can even enable parental controls and
define which websites each user of a specific Mac system is able to view with Safari.
Users can access only those websites in the bookmarks bar. They are not able to enter
web addresses in the address field, use the Google search field, or modify any of the
bookmarks. Choose Safari Help from the Help menu for more information.
Creating Web Clips
You also can create automatically updating Dashboard Widgets based on a web page,
or portion of a given web page. Just click the Web Clip button, select the portion of the
page you wish to make into a Dashboard Widget, and click Add.
Importing Bookmarks
If you use a different web browser, Safari makes it easy to switch by letting you keep
your existing bookmarks.
If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Mozilla on your Mac, Safari looks for
bookmark files from those programs and automatically imports them into your Safari
bookmarks. If you use a different program on your Mac, or if your bookmarks are on a
different computer, you still can import them. Go to the File menu in Safari and choose
Import Bookmarks.
In the Import Bookmarks window, browse to the location of the desired bookmark file
(either on your Mac or across a network to another system) and click Import.
Safari creates a folder for the imported bookmarks within its bookmark file. If you wish,
you can rename the folder or move the new bookmarks into other folders in your
bookmark file.
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Beyond the Office
Planning a trip? Buying gifts for colleagues or friends? The “Save PDF to Web Receipts”
option in the Mac OS X print dialog window lets you keep copies of your reservations
and purchases in one easy-to-find place on your Mac.
This option is the same as “Save as PDF,” except that it automatically puts saved PDFs
into a Web Receipts folder inside the Documents folder of your home directory.
When you need to retrieve a saved PDF receipt, you know exactly where to look.
For More Information
To learn more about Safari, visit www.apple.com/safari
To learn more about Macs in business, visit www.apple.com/business
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Performance measured in seconds. Testing conducted by Apple in March 2008 on a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based
iMac system running Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.2, configured with 1GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 with 256MB
of VRAM. HTML and JavaScript benchmarks based on VeriTest’s iBench Version 5.0 using default settings. Testing
conducted with a beta version of Safari; all other browsers were shipping versions. Performance will vary based on
system configuration, network connection, and other factors.
© 2008 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Leopard, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, and QuickTime are
trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Adobe is a trademark or registered trademark
of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the U.S. and/or other countries. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other product and
company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Product specifications are
subject to change without notice. This material is provided for information purposes only; Apple assumes no liability
reliability related to its use.
April 2008
L369478A-US