Getting Connected to Your Online Classroom

Opening a second window in your browser

You are reading this page in a browser. We recommend Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher. You can check your version by going up to the tool bar on top of the page and clicking on Help and then About..(either Internet Explorer or Communicator).

In this orientation, it will help you to have one browser window open with the instructions and another browser window open to the place where you are doing something (like accessing your WKU email account). This is also a good skill to have as you take online courses.

It works differently in different browsers. In Internet Explorer, the second window will open on the same page that you were looking at in the first window. This is sometimes confusing if you have the pages maximized. In Netscape, however, it will open a new window at your homepage (the website that you see when you open your browser). If you are using Netscape, you should print the instructions before you try this! Otherwise, I will lose you!

To open a second window, click on File in the menu bar at the top of the page. Rest your mouse on New until the menu options pop up and then slide your mouse to the right and click on Window (in IE) or Navigator Window (in Netscape).

Now you can use the middle button in the upper right corner to make the window smaller so you can see both pages at the same time. You can grab the lower right corner with your mouse and drag it to a shape that you like. You can drag the whole window by grabbing the blue bar at the top of the window and holding the left mouse button down to drag it over so you can see both windows at the same time. Then use the buttons across the very bottom of your screen to switch from page to page OR hold down ALT and click TAB to switch from one to the other, or if you can see both windows, you can activate one by simply clicking in it.

Try this now so you can do the activities in this orientation while reading the instructions. Did you get it? Great! If not, keep trying!

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