Surfing Guide
In General
Don't use any old research engine. Get to know one or two engines really well
Each search engine has different instructions and codes which can be found under 'help'
Some engines don't accept accents
Avoid clicking on publicity messages such as 'Message Alert' and 'Important Message'

Where did I go?
Use the arrow to the right of the address box to find last-used addresses
Click on 'Go' (Aller) to find last-used addresses

Going backwards and forwards
Click on 'back' (précédent) to go back to the previous page
Click on 'next' (suivant) to go forward to the next page
Click on 'home' (accueil) to go to your home-page

Register your favourite sites
Use bookmarks (signets) to record useful sites.
When you have found an interesting site, click on 'bookmarks', then 'add to bookmarks' (ajouter aux signets).
This registers the address of the site. To find the site again, click on 'bookmarks', 'go to bookmarks' to find your site.
Click on the site.
You can organise the hierarchy of your favourite sites by using 'classify bookmarks' (modifier les signets)

Run two or more searches at the same time
Open Netscape, choose your search engine and start your search
Click on 'File' (Fichier), then 'New' (Nouveau), then 'Navigator Window' (Fenêtre de Navigateur)
You can now run two (or more) searches at the same time

A Guide to Surfing with Alta Vista
Why AltaVista? I recommend AltaVista as it is much larger than other search engines and has one of the best search code systems available allowing you to search much more accurately.

Select from the navigation bar for web, video, audio or images
Choose the language from the language box
Enter your search words in the search box (avoid capital letters except for proper nouns)

Search Codes
Code Meaning  Example Operation
None  tree nursery  Find sites that include both or only one of the words in any position and order
+  include +tree +nursery  Find sites that must include tree and  nursery
-  exclude +tree -nursery  Find sites that must include tree and must exclude nursery
*  joker nurser*  Find sites that include words beginning with nurser  - like nursery and nurseries
text-text  exact phrase tree-nursery Find sites that include the exact phrase 'tree nursery'
title:  title search title:tree-nursery  Find sites where the phrase 'tree nursery' is in the title of the page
image:  image search image:tree  Find sites where there is an image or picture entitled 'tree'
domain:  select source domain:uk tree  Find sites from the UK including the word 'tree'
domain:edu tree Find sites from an educational source (university) with the word 'tree'
Use 'domain' to select the country source of the documlent, or the type of source (company, education, government, military etc). See the full list of domain titles   Only use one of image/title/domain codes at a time. For example, you cannot use 'domain:uk title:tree' .
A search using 'domain:edu tree-nurser* will find university research about tree nurseries
A search using 'domain:com tree-nurser* will find tree nursery companies
A search using 'domain:ne tree-nurser* will find tree nurseries in Holland
A search using 'domain:gov tree-nurser* will find government documents, guidelines, laws etc about tree nurseries
After you've started your Search
Alta Vista will tell you how many sites it has found and will list the best ten titles it has found from your search.
At the bottom of the first page it will indicate (in very small print) the number of 'finds' for each word (very useful if your results are zero. You have probably  made a spelling mistake and can see which word scored zero).
Select the title that looks most appropriate.

Colossus (search engine search engine). With Colossus <http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/> you can select specific search engines related to a country of theme. Therefore, if you want information from Australia, for example, select Australia from Colossus, then see the specific search engines proposed. Select one such as AltaVista or Google and tick the box 'pages from Australia only'. You can now add the domain code (for AltaVista) and thereby have two domain sources.

Translation

There are many different online translation services available. I recommend SYSTRAN at <http://translator.dictionary.com>
At the top of the page you can select from Dictionary (definition), Thesaurus (synonyms) and Web (search web pages)
Translation: select the language to be translated. Paste or write in the translation box. It will be translated.