Buttons

When you click on links to visit web pages it's like creating a path.

With each link you click on to, another step is added to your path.

With browser buttons you can easily retrace your steps - both backwards and forwards - along your path.

Backwards and forwards

It is the backward and forward buttons that are most useful when browsing the internet.

If you visit several pages in a website and want to return to the first page you saw, you can just click on the 'back' button until you find it.

Alternatively, if you then want to go to the last web page you were looking at, you can then click on the 'forward' button until you find the last page you viewed.

The scroll bar

Sometimes a web page might be too long to fit in the browser.

The page may be fully downloaded, but we still can't see all of it.

To see other parts of the page you need to use the up and down scroll buttons on the right-hand side of the browser window.

The reload button

Sometimes there's a problem getting a web page and it stops in the middle of loading.

If the page stops downloading for any reason, just click the 'Reload' button until it reloads.

You can do this as many times as you want until it works.

The Print button

Occasionally you may want to print a page.

But sometimes a web page can be too wide for your printer.

When this happens, parts of the web page will be missing on the printed out page.

Look out for links to printer friendly pages that will fit your printer! They can either be text links that say 'Print version' or 'Print this article' or they can simply be small printer shaped icons that you can click on.

Printer friendly pages ensure that all the information on the web page will print correctly on your printer.

The Status Bar

Sometimes a web page might download really slowly.

This can be for a number of reasons such as a temporary problem with the connection.

To find out how much of the page is left to download, check out the browser's progress bar at the bottom of the browser window. This bar shows you how much has downloaded so far.