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Suggested Browser Configurations
The course pages put up by the College of Engineering and Applied Science require some special tools to be used properly. This document gives a brief overview of what tools are required and instructions on how to configure your personal computer to use this site. Areas that this will cover are:
Browser Requirements
A recent version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Mozilla's Firefox are recommended. You can download these browsers from the following sites:
These pages were designed using version 4.0 or later of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator and version 2.0 or later of Mozilla Firefox. Older versions of each browser should work to some degree. Specifically, your browser will need to support the following features:
- Frames
- Javascript version 1.2 or later
- Style Sheets (CSS1) (optional, but strongly recommended)
( IE and Netscape 4.0 or later or FF 2.0 or later support everything they need to.)
Follow the instructions with the browser's installation program to set up the browser. If you already have a browser installed, tell the installer that it's okay to use that browser's configuration if it asks.
Browser Plug-Ins
Your browser will need several plug-ins installed to increase its functionality. Plug-ins allow your browser to view the PDF files and QuickTime VR panoramas. If you're not sure what plug-ins are currently installed in Netscape or Firefox, type this into the browser, "about:plugins" for a description of what plug-ins are installed and what file types they will handle. In Internet Explorer for the Macintosh, check About Internet Explorer... from the Apple menu, then click Support...Follow this link for Internet Explorer Plugin Detection
To access all of the College of Engineering and Applied Science's site, you will need the following plug-ins:
- Adobe Acrobat Free Reader
- http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
from Adobe Systems Incorporated (http://www.adobe.com/)
Although you will need Acrobat Reader to view PDF files, installing the Acrobat Reader plug-in is optional. Installing the plug-in will let you view the PDFs in the same window as the rest of the web site. If you do not install the plug-in, you will view the PDFs in a separate window.
Installing the Acrobat Reader Plug-In to view the PDF files in the browser window will work best if your monitor is set to 800 by 600 pixels or higher. At lower resolutions, the plug-in is not recommended, and Acrobat Reader should just be used as a helper application.
Note that this download is the same as the download for the Acrobat Reader under Helper Application. The same download will install both the Acrobat Reader and the Acrobat Reader plug-in. Whether the PDFs will be viewed in the browser or in Acrobat Reader will be set under Browser Settings.
- QuickTime
- http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
from Apple Computer, Inc. (http://www.apple.com/)
QuickTime is the multi-platform industry-standard multimedia architecture used by software tool vendors and content creators to create and deliver synchronized graphics, sound, video, text and music.
In other words, QuickTime lets you see sounds and hear movies and pictures over the internet. The QuickTime plug-in also lets you view QuickTime VR panoramas, like those in the College of Engineering and Applied Science's QuickTime VR Tour. It's not essential (at this time, anyway) for accessing the class sites, but it's still a useful plug-in to have.
Browser Settings
Most of the default settings used by the browser or a plug-in should be correct. There are a couple key settings that you will need to verify if something doesn't seem to be working right. (These steps aren't necessarily related.)
- Make sure that JavaScript is enabled.
- Check for background windows.
- Check the area on your hard disk where downloads are stored to see if a file you were trying to download was received but not post-processed.
Our Browser FAQ has instructions on how to check these and other settings.
Helper Applications
- Adobe Acrobat Free Reader
- http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
from Adobe Systems Incorporated (http://www.adobe.com/)
Although you will need Acrobat Reader to view PDF files, installing the Acrobat Reader plug-in is optional. Installing the plug-in will let you view the PDFs in the same window as the rest of the web site. If you do not install the plug-in, you will view the PDFs in a separate window.
Installing the Acrobat Reader Plug-In to view the PDF files in the browser window will work best if your monitor is set to 800 by 600 pixels or higher. At lower resolutions, the plug-in is not recommended, and Acrobat Reader should just be used as a helper application.
Note that this download is the same as the download for the Acrobat Reader under Browser Plug-Ins. The same download will install both the Acrobat Reader and the Acrobat Reader plug-in. Whether the PDFs will be viewed in the browser or in Acrobat Reader will be set under Browser Settings.
- StuffIt Expander
- http://my.smithmicro.com/win/stuffitexpander/download.html
from Aladdin Systems, Inc. (http://www.aladdinsys.com/)
Aladdin Expander 12.0 for Windows expands files from the most popular archiving and compression formats found online, including StuffIt (.sit) and ZIP (.zip). Aladdin Expander will also expand files in uuencoded (.uue), BinHex (.hqx), and MacBinary (.bin) formats, such as those commonly found on the Internet. Other archive formats supported include ARC (.arc), Arj (.arj), and gzip (.gz).
When files are distributed over the internet, they are often compressed first. This allows large files to be made smaller and many files to be distributed together as a single file. While many decompression utilities are available, I recommend Aladdin's Expanders because they're free and they will decompress most of the popular compression formats.
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