Netscape Navigator browser preferences 4 6 7

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Netscape Navigator Script Preference Settings - versions 4, 6 & 7

Netscape is still around, just about. There are, therefore, items in this article which are meant to be of interest both to users of the Netscape browser and to web page designers who want to ensure their pages will work satisfactorily for those who still use Netscape. This is particularly relevant because operability in Netscape ensures the same in the increasingly popular Mozilla Firefox browser, since they share the same Gecko rendering engine.

Netscape is now in the hands of AOL. Version 7.2 actually included ads for AOL, and had AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) integrated. As of June 2005, there was yet another version (vers. 8). It is extremely doubtful we will bother looking at it. AOL refer to version 8 as a 'hybrid' browser. Apparently it uses the Firefox engine by default but automatically switches over to the Internet Explorer engine when encountering sites which the inflexible Firefox is not up to handling. What idiot dreamed that one up?!

Nevertheless, when the preceding Netscape version 7 came out, we observed that it introduced a new section in Netscape's Preferences which was not in versions 4.x nor 6.x. This new section defaulted the behaviour of some JavaScripts in web pages to the complete opposite of what happens by default in Internet Explorer and, hence, the opposite of what web designers assume to be the norm in viewers' browsers. This could result, therefore, for users of later Netscape browsers, in viewers experiencing some features of some websites failing to work as the designers intended. The new section is called 'Scripts & Plugins', and is hidden deep down in version 7's Advanced Preferences menu (see Fig 1 right).

Fig 1 shows how we actually suggest users should set up the new Scripts' section. The first five boxes relate to web page functionality, and ticks in all five boxes are probably desirable. The sixth and seventh boxes relate to script cookies and should not need ticking except in the unlikely event that some interference is caused to the operation of any pages that the user needs to see. In the case of web designers, they have no control over the way this section will be set up by users. Therefore, designers with pages using scripts, including popup pages, are advised to check them in Netscape, online, with the various boxes ticked and unticked, to assess if any adverse consequences need to be catered for.

Users are advised to jot down the original settings, before altering anything, because there is no button in the dialog to restore the defaults if you wanted to restart from scratch. A small oversight perhaps, but typical of the kind of nice touch that Internet Explorer users take for granted.

Fig. 1 (below) This is a screengrab, from Netscape 7.1, on a Windows XP machine, showing the user settings we suggest for the 'Scripts & Plugins' section of the Advanced Preferences menu.

Netscape 7.x, and its main predecessor 6.2, were vastly superior to Netscape Navigator 4 at rendering web pages, so it seemed ironic that version 4 hung on as the most-used version of Netscape for quite some time afterwards. This might have been because some of the later versions could take ages to start up, and even the version 7 still required the filling-in of a series of tiresome, off-putting registration screens before one could even get to see what the browser looked like. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot at a time when the browser was already in its death throes!

One of the great things about Netscape, however, at least for web designers, is that several different versions of Netscape can readily be installed on the same computer, and can be opened and run at the same time, off-line, to test pages for cross-browser compatibility, before the pages are uploaded. That is something which cannot be done anywhere near as easily with different versions of Internet Explorer. However, it has to be said that Internet Explorer has never suffered from backwards compatibility issues in the same way that Netscape did. This is because the IE program has always possessed greater flexibility and versatility. That was, still is and, presumably, will remain... cont/. in RH col (1)

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its dominant strength.

Netscape 7.x renders pages very quickly. You will not be tormented by any of those frustrating "Transmission interrupted" error messages that used to plague the earlier, cache-dependant, CSS-challenged 4.x versions when trying to fetch websites, especially for the first-time. Speedwise, on PCs, Netscape is now fully on a par with Internet Explorer, Opera, and Netscape's open source sister Firefox. The latter has, of course, been making inroads into Internet Explorer's dominant market share ever since its release in October 2004. This is something which web designers need to take note of. This is especially relevant to all those lazy designers who have long since given up bothering to check their pages for duality in Netscape. The emergent Firefox definitely means the need is back for designers to systematically check for browser compatibility. Especially because there are still a few things which a designer can automatically assume will work as intended in IE that will still not work properly or fully in Netscape or Firefox.

Surfing statistics show that the antiquated Netscape 4.x, for reasons which are beyond our comprehension, still has a small number of long-suffering, die-hard users. Fig 2 shows the Advanced Preferences menu for 4.76. There is an option in there (see the 5th check-box down in the screenshot) that allows users to permanently disable cascading style sheets (CSS). That undesirable option was, in fact, only intended for use by partially-sighted surfers who, otherwise, had no way of increasing the size of fonts on sites formatted with the then new CSS techniques. Netscape 6 (there was no version 5) gave users a new option under View > Increase Font. This meant, thankfully, that the ability for a viewer to disable style sheets in Advanced Preferences could be, and was, dispensed with. If you still use version 4, and have normal eyesight, ensure the 'Enable style sheets' option remains ticked.

According to some browser-usage statistics published on the internet in early 2004, 13% of surfers were doing so with JavaScript disabled (up from 10% in 2002). However, we suspect that figure must also include users with Java disabled (as the similar names of these unconnected programming languages are easily confused by computer users). We think this because the only PCs we have ever come across with JavaScript disabled (as opposed to Java) are the free-to-use but tightly-restricted ones in public libraries. As far as Internet Explorer users are concerned, who, at that time, accounted for some 97% of all surfers, few of them, in our experience, would even know how to disable JavaScript - let alone actually do so. So, where the 13% figure comes from we can't imagine unless, of course, it does include Java. However, even if the real number were only half the figure stated it would still be a sizeable chunk. And the figure is, evidently, growing, for whatever reason. This implies it is a good idea for web designers to check how their pages will behave in a browser with JavaScript disabled. And there is no easier way to do that than with any version of Netscape, be it 4, 6 or 7. You would do that simply by toggling on or off the JavaScript option in Advanced Preferences, followed by clicking the Reload button on the browser's toolbar. We should mention, though, that disabling JavaScript in Netscape 4 also disables style sheets, even if the 5th check-box down (in Fig 2) is ticked, so the page being tested will look pretty ugly until you toggle JavaScript back on. This bug was fixed in version 6.

Fig. 2 (below) This is a screengrab, from Netscape 4.76, on a Windows 98 machine using XP colours, which shows the Advanced Preferences area referred to in the column left.

To summarise:-

For surfers, we suggest i) if you use Netscape 7, set up the Script preferences as per Fig 1, ii) if you use Netscape 4, set up as per Fig 2 (it's fairly similar for Netscape 6.2) and, iii) if you are a visually impaired surfer using Netscape 4, change to Netscape 6.2 or 7.1 and be prepared to wait appreciably longer for the browser to start, but then enjoy all the popular websites that have standardised on a smallish font (usually Arial 13 px) in a larger size that suits you.

For web page designers, we suggest i) use Netscape 4.76, 6.2 or 7.1 as an easy way to test off-line how your pages (and the NOSCRIPT message) will look to users with JavaScript disabled ii) do not be afraid of installing, and running, several versions of Netscape / Firefox side-by-side, as conflicts do not occur, and iii) take the precaution of checking all aspects of your pages work properly not only in IE but also in a late version of Netscape and/or in Firefox.

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