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Browser Basics

What is a Browser?

A browser is the window you open to access Internet sites. Some examples of browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.

At WSU Global Campus:

  • Students must use Chrome for Global Campus online proctoring sessions. Download Chrome here.
  • Chrome and Firefox are the recommended browsers for Blackboard Learn.

Things to Know

Once in the browser, there are some areas you should be familiar with:

Address Bar

Address line in a browser window, with wsu.edu as the address.
The address bar is where you type in a URL, or web address, to navigate to the location you wish to view. In this example, the URL for the Washington State University home page is listed: https://wsu.edu

Common Browser Buttons 

Shown below are Chrome’s browser buttons

Home icon.
Home: Takes you to the browser’s home page, or the first page you see when you open the browser

Back icon - left arrow.
Back: Takes you back to pages previously viewed during the session

Forward icon - right arrow.
Forward: After you have used the back button, takes you ahead to pages previously viewed

Refresh icon.
Refresh: Reloads the page you are currently on

PC browser buttons: minus, stacked windows, x.
Minimize/Maximize – PC Browsers: This set of buttons is located in the upper right hand corner of PC browsers: The button on the left (looks like a horizontal line) minimizes the browser to the bottom of your computer screen, the middle button (overlapping squares) maximizes the screen so it fits the entire computer monitor, and the right hand button (X) closes the browser page.

Mac browser buttons - red, yellow, green dots.
Minimize/Maximize – Mac Browsers: This set of buttons is located in the upper left hand corner of MAC browsers. The red dot will close the browser page, the yellow dot will minimize the browser to the bottom of your computer screen, and the green dot will maximize the page to fill the monitor.

Hamburger menu icon. 
Menu: Menu allows you to view settings and make changes to your browser

Browser Tabs

Tabs in a browser, with the new tab button circled in red.
Tabs allow you to have multiple web pages open at the same time within the same browser.

To open a new page, click in the small tab to the right of all open tabs (circled above in red). On some browsers, you’ll see a plus sign (+) in the small tab.

Bookmarks

URLs kept in the bookmarks bar.
For easy access to websites you visit often, you can keep web addresses in the Bookmarks Bar.