Using Netscape Navigator 7.2 to Access SharePoint 2003 Sites


Netscape has maintained a loyal following, and many organizations have users who prefer to use Navigator. This section compares Navigator's basic features to those of Internet Explorer 6.0 and points out some features of Navigator that make it attractive as a browser.

Figure 7.7 shows a SharePoint 2003 site from the Netscape Navigator view. Netscape provides many built-in tools to the browser that Internet Explorer does not offer by default, including Mail and Newsgroups, AOL Instant Messenger, Composer, and Address Book. Netscape allows several websites to be active, as shown by the two different tabs in Figure 7.7Home ProServices Team Web Site and Home - Sales. This arrangement makes it easy to click from tab to tab within the same Navigator application. Some users find this an easier way to handle several open websites than in Internet Explorer when multiple websites are open and the user has to Alt+Tab between them.

Figure 7.7. Netscape Navigator 7.2 sample interface.


As mentioned previously, Navigator does not support all the features that Internet Explorer 6.0 does in SharePoint 2003, and the title bar of the Web Parts Announcements, Links, Events and Web Capture Web Part have three icons on the right-hand side instead of just the down arrow that brings up a drop-down menu for the Web Part in Internet Explorer 6.0. The Web Parts can still be modified, minimized, or closed in Navigator; the interface is just slightly different, and this needs to be explained to users to avoid confusion.

Note also on the left-hand side of the page that the My Sidebar feature is displayed, with several tabs selected from the default list and downloaded from Netscapes website: Latest News, History, Stocks, CNN, Mapquest, Internet Product Watch, Jokes2Go.com, and National Geographic.

Navigator bookmarks are similar to Internet Explorer 6.0 Favorites. Navigator does not offer the capability to download website content and use it offline, which may be a drawback for some organizations.

Using Netscape Composer to Create Web Pages

Netscape 7.2 provides a good set of tools called Composer that enable the user to create a web page that can be posted to a SharePoint 2003 site. This is a good alternative to users who don't have a package such as FrontPage and want to create basic sites.

Figure 7.8 shows a sample Web page that can be developed in a few minutes in Navigator and published to a SharePoint 2003 site. The tabs along the bottom of the windowNormal, HTML Tags, Source, and Previewallow the user to preview her work, or look at the HTML code if the user is more experienced and wants to fine-tune or add code to the page.

Figure 7.8. Netscape Navigator Composer page.


Although these tools aren't as complete as Microsoft FrontPage, they are included with Navigator 7.1, so are free tools that can be used by individuals who need to create basic pages and learn to work with HTML code.




Microsoft SharePoint 2003 Unleashed
Microsoft SharePoint 2003 Unleashed (2nd Edition) (Unleashed)
ISBN: 0672328038
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 288

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