• Platforms and System Requirements
• Netscape Navigator
• My Sidebar
• Netscape Mail
• Netscape Instant Messenger
• Netscape Composer
• Netscape Client Customization Kit

Netscape 6 - the most customizable, convenient and connected browser

Netscape 6 is the first Internet software to seamlessly integrate browsing, email and instant messaging, keeping you connected to what’s most important to you on the Web. New features, such as My Sidebar and improved Search capabilities, will enhance your Internet experience. Netscape 6 offers industry-leading standards support, enabling cross platform development of rich Web content and applications.

Product Overview

The Internet has evolved at an extraordinary pace, and browsing software has brought easy information access to millions of people. While early browsers revolutionized the Internet, browsers have grown in size and complexity with every release and have failed to implement Web standards consistently, holding back the development of richer web applications and content.

Netscape is fulfilling its promise to deliver a new browser that is small in size, leads the industry in standards compliance and can run across a wide variety of platforms from traditional PC desktops to new computing devices. This new groundbreaking browser is Netscape 6.

Netscape 6 offers users unmatched convenience features and the ability to stay connected to important information, while offering users the flexibility to deeply customize the browser to fit their individual needs and personality.

Netscape Navigator

The most customizable, convenient and connected browser
Netscape Navigator, the browser people choose when given the choice, has just taken a major leap forward. Built on the innovative Netscape Gecko browser engine and sporting a new look, Navigator is now smaller, faster and fully standards compliant. Netscape Navigator has innovative new features to help you find things and stay connected to important information. Netscape has also added innovations to make Navigator more private and secure, as well as exciting new translation functionality.

A new, clean look
The first thing that you will notice when you start Navigator is that it has a clean new look. The interface is pared down to the make the most important tasks easy to find, while at the same time freeing up more space, allowing you to see more of what’s on the page.

Best standards support for content and applications
The most important task of a "browser" is just what the name says -- to browse web pages. For this reason, Netscape has based Navigator on the innovative Netscape Gecko, its new, fully standards compliant layout engine. For years, industry groups and content developers have been clamoring for a browser that adheres to currently accepted and approved standards for web content, and with Navigator, Netscape is delivering.

For web developers, Navigator will simplify the task of developing content by allowing them to adhere to a standardized set of rules, rather than learning a myriad of proprietary tags and implementations. For end users, Navigator offers a platform for the delivery of more powerful and interactive web content, services and applications.

With the new standards support provided by Netscape Navigator, the content, services and applications that the Web delivers can be far more powerful. Unsurpassed support for HTML 4, CSS, XML, RDF and the DOM means that richer and more compelling web applications can be developed. For the first time, web applications can have the kind of speed and functionality previously reserved only for client side applications.

Powerful new Search – fast and convenient
Searching is the number one activity while browsing the Web, and Netscape gives you new tools to finish your searches faster.

The main toolbar URL field in the new Netscape Navigator now doubles as a search field. That means that at any time, from anywhere on the Web, you can type what you want and click "Search" – you no longer have to take the time to load a search page.

Navigator continues its support of the popular Internet Keywords feature. This feature helps you get to the site you want quickly without having to remember complicated URLs. For example, simply type "sports illustrated" in the Search / URL field, press enter, and you are taken directly to http://www.cnnsi.com. You can also receive stock quotes, weather reports, movie listings and more, all by using a keyword.

So whether you have a web address, an Internet Keyword or search query, enter it here and get what you want quickly. If you are looking for a specific type of information, such as an email address or business phone number and street address, use the new Netscape Search menu. With just one click, you can access reference books (dictionary, thesaurus or encyclopedia), get directions, find a person or business, search for a product, or check a stock quote.

• Great search results
  By default, Navigator uses Netscape Search, provided by Netscape Netcenter. In a recent test by Search Engine Watch, Netscape Search outperformed all other directory search offerings in delivering relevant results quickly and easily.

  In general, people are not looking for more results but more accurate results. Netscape achieves this by using Netscape's Open Directory; the largest human edited directory on the Web. In addition, Netscape integrates its Smart Browsing service and its First Page Results system to deliver accurate and relevant search results on the first page.

  Netscape’s service also features next-generation search technology from Google Inc. While Netscape has been ranked #1 for directory based searches, Google has been ranked #1 among search engines by search engine watch. And you get both with Netscape Search.

  Netscape Navigator presents search results in multiple formats for maximum efficiency and usability. Netscape Search delivers its results in the main window of the browser. This way you can immediately view details about each search result to help you quickly decide which to use.

  In addition to presenting search results in the main window, My Sidebar automatically opens with a quick list of these same results so you can easily access them later (until you do another search). After clicking a particular search result and perusing that site, you may want to try a different search result. Simply click another result in My Sidebar or click the "Full Results Page" link to view all the results once again in the main window. The search query also appears in My Sidebar so you can edit it or repeat the search using a different search engine.

• Search for more than just a web page
  When the Internet was young, searching was about finding the right web page. Now we expect to find more then just web pages. From the Search menu or from My Sidebar, you can immediately choose to search for jobs, software, maps, a definition, music, an old friend, travel reservations, stock quotes, products to buy and more. All without having to go to a new web site just to start the search.

• Search with any engine, or several engines at one time
  Netscape understands that sometimes people prefer a different search engine. Navigator lets you pick from a variety of search engines, so that when you click the Search button, Navigator uses the engine you prefer.

  And if one engine isn’t enough, you can choose to use several search engines simultaneously. Netscape automatically aggregates the results from each engine into one list that you can sort in a variety of ways. For example, you may want to find the best price for a book. Search using several engines at once and sort your results by price to find the best deal. Click a tab to see a single engine’s search results quickly.

Another example of My Sidebar’s value is the integration of your Netscape Instant Messenger Buddy List. You have instant access to your friends, family and co-workers online through the Buddy List without ever having to leave what you are doing.

You also have instant access to stock prices, news items and much more. My Sidebar is completely customizable, so you can add any of the hundreds of tabs offered from Netscape or through the My Netscape Network or tabs offered directly from other web sites such as CNN.

Services and powerful applications
The real power of the Web comes from the content, services and applications that can be found online – if you know where to look. With Netscape 6, you no longer have to be an expert or know where to look to take advantage of the best of what the Web has to offer.

The Task Bar gives you convenient access to all the components of Netscape 6 as well as a host of other services. With one click, you can quickly access Navigator, Mail, Netscape Instant Messenger, Composer, Address Book, calendar, fax, radio, stock portfolios, travel services, games, shopping, local information, the Computing and Internet Channel, and much more.

Navigator gives you more control over privacy

• Password Manager
  Netscape 6 features a Password Manager that solves a problem everybody faces -- how to keep track of all your login names and passwords for different sites. The Password Manager addresses this problem by remembering login names and passwords for you and automatically filling them in on future visits to the sites.

  You have complete control over which login names and passwords you want the Password Manager to remember. You can choose on which sites to use the feature and which sites not to use it.

  A Master Password, which you create, prevents others from using your login names and passwords.

  [Note: The login name and password information is only obscured for Preview Release 1. The information will be strongly encrypted in subsequent releases].

• Cookie Manager
  Cookie Manager in Netscape 6 is an easy-to-use, breakthrough feature that gives you more control over your privacy. It allows you to control how cookies are set and modified on a site-by-site and cookie-by-cookie basis. This control is important because you may want to permit the use of cookies on familiar and trusted sites, since cookies allow a site to provide you with custom, personalized content. But you might not want to enable cookies on sites with which you are not familiar or do not trust.

  Only Netscape 6 gives you such easy and powerful control over cookies to better protect your privacy.

Automatic translation of web pages for access to the global Internet Translate web pages in a single click to your native language with the AutoTranslate feature in Navigator, based on Alis Technologies, Inc.’s Gist-In-Time service for the Internet. Currently the majority of web content is in English, yet the non-English population on the Internet is exploding. That makes the translation functionality in Netscape 6 especially valuable to users in a global marketplace.

• How AutoTranslate works
  Simply browse to the web page that interests you and choose the Translate option from Navigator’s View menu. The language of the web page you were viewing will be automatically selected for you as the source language. You then choose the language you’d like the web page to be translated into, and the service remembers this for future translation requests. Click the button to start AutoTranslate and in seconds the text in the browser window will appear, translated into the language you selected. Click any link in the translated page and the service will translate that page for you into the target language you chose in the setup screen. It’s that easy.

  
  

• Languages supported by AutoTranslate
  Netscape AutoTranslate offers you a wide selection of languages to choose from, and new languages will be added as they become available. AutoTranslate will initially offer translation:
  • TO English from: Portuguese, Italian, German, Spanish, French and Japanese
  • FROM English to: Portuguese, Italian, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.

My Sidebar

Keeps you connected to what is important to you

It’s yours, do what you want
Everyone is different, and everyone’s My Sidebar can be different too. Working parents might watch their kids at day care, a student might listen to music while doing homework, a journalist might keep tabs on breaking news articles from various online sites, and an investor might track stock prices for a personal portfolio throughout the day.

• Easy to customize with hundreds of options Just click the Tabs button in My Sidebar to choose from hundreds of tabs. Select tabs that you may already know from My Netscape, such as stocks, news, horoscope, calendar and weather. Choose tabs that give you immediate access to client features such as bookmarks, search results and your Buddy List. Include tabs from other companies including Real,eBay CNN and CBS. The list is still growing – local events, calculator, Sci-Fi News, JavaWorld, Professional Bartender Potent Potables, Delaware Fly Fishing, the ACLU Freedom Network, and Kinderview (to watch your kids at daycare).

  The tabs themselves can also be customized to fit your needs. For example, choose a tab to customize your stock portfolio. Then click through a simple interface to list which stocks to track. Customize your horoscope to your own birthday, or get weather for your local area.

  You can also add tabs directly from web sites. Just look for the "Add Tab to Netscape 6" button. It only takes one click.

• Always connected and up-to-date
  My Sidebar tabs also automatically update themselves throughout the day, so you know you are getting current news, weather, and stock information. Your Buddy List updates itself as your buddies go on and off line. The What’s Related tab refreshes itself automatically when you visit new web sites so you can view related information for the web sites you visit.

Fast and easy for content developers

• Easy to Create
  It’s just a web page. Technically, My Sidebar tabs are just a skinny web page. And just like a web page, you can develop and host a My Sidebar tab yourself – there is no need for special instructions or permission to develop something for this entirely open platform. Any web site content can be delivered as a tab, enabling content developers to leverage their existing web content.

  To include an "Add Tab to Netscape 6" button for end users, the content developer can simply copy the JavaScript button available from Netscape. That’s all there is to it.

  With the new standards compliant platform in Netscape 6, a web page can also be extremely powerful. Use XML, CSS, DOM, HTML 4 and RDF to develop powerful web applications for My Sidebar.

  For more information on how to create Tabs for My Sidebar, click here.

  These robust applications don’t have to come from the Web, but can also run from the user’s computer. For example, the Netscape Buddy List tab is actually delivered from the Netscape Instant Messaging application. Companies that create applications like music players (RioPort and WinAmp) or a variety of other applications can create them to work within My Sidebar.

Netscape Mail

The best place to manage all your Internet communications

Overview
Netscape Mail lets you conveniently manage all your Internet communications from one place. With support for multiple accounts – including AOL email accounts – you can easily keep track of your business and personal email accounts and Internet newsgroups, all from one window. Integrated instant messaging lets you see when friends and colleagues are online and instantly communicate with them, and the new My Sidebar keeps you connected to the information that is most important to you while you’re managing email. The redesigned Netscape Address Book keeps important contact information at your fingertips, and the new Email Address Collection feature automatically stores email addresses so you can more easily keep track of the people you communicate with. Netscape Mail is the best place to manage all your Internet communication.

Manage all your email and news accounts, including Netscape WebMail and AOL email accounts
More and more people have multiple email and news accounts, so Netscape Mail now provides support for multiple POP3, IMAP, and news accounts. You can access all of these accounts from the left-hand pane of Netscape Mail.

Now, Netscape Web Mail users can access their free email accounts directly from Netscape Mail. Setting up WebMail in Netscape 6 is easy. When you first launch Netscape 6, you will be asked to supply your Netscape user name. This process, called Activation, automatically configures WebMail for you. If you don't have a Netscape user name, signing up is simple and offers benefits above and beyond a free email account.

In addition, millions of AOL users will be able to access their AOL email accounts from within Netscape Mail. Just type your AOL Screen Name into the Netscape Mail Account Setup wizard and Netscape Mail is automatically set up for you to send and receive email from your AOL account. If you have multiple email accounts, you most likely want to keep your business and personal correspondence separated. Unlike other messaging products, Netscape Mail provides a separate Inbox and folders for each of your email accounts so that email from separate accounts stays separated. Netscape Mail also allows you to send email using different "identities" making it easy to maintain this separation when sending email.

Managing email is easy with Netscape Mail’s customization features
Creating a new email or news account in Netscape Mail is easy. The new Netscape Mail Account Setup wizard walks you through the process of adding additional AOL, POP3, IMAP or news accounts to Netscape Mail. Netscape Mail’s three-pane interface makes managing email simple – all email accounts, email folders and newsgroups appear in a third pane on the left for convenient access and message management. You can easily collapse or expand any pane on the fly to maximize screen space.

Netscape Mail lets you create folders (and folders within folders) so you can store messages exactly the way that you want.

Integrated instant messaging
Netscape Instant Messenger, which lets you instantly communicate with your online friends and business associates, is tightly integrated with Netscape Mail. Netscape Instant Messenger is always available to you as a tab in My Sidebar, so you can keep track of online friends and colleagues while managing email. In addition, when reading a message in Netscape Mail, an instant messaging icon in the envelope of the message indicates whether the sender and other recipients are online (see below). Simply click the icon to begin sending and receiving instant messages.

Netscape Address Book automatically collects addresses
The Netscape Address Book has been redesigned to make it easier than ever to keep track of important contact information. The new three-pane design allows you to quickly view all your important contact information for a person by simply selecting an Address Book card.

Now, Netscape Web Mail users can access their free email accounts directly from Netscape Mail. Setting up WebMail in Netscape 6 is easy. When you first launch Netscape 6, you will be asked to supply your Netscape user name. This process, called Activation, automatically configures WebMail for you. If you don't have a Netscape user name, signing up is simple and offers benefits above and beyond a free email account.

In addition, Netscape Mail’s new Email Address Collection feature automatically stores the email addresses of the people you correspond with. Whenever you read an email message, the name of the sender is automatically stored in a "Collected Addresses" address book, separate from your personal address book. When writing an email message, simply begin typing the recipient’s name to address the message. Netscape Mail automatically looks up the name in the "Collected Addresses" address book and fills in the recipient’s email address for you.

High performance Internet messaging
In addition to these new features, Netscape Mail continues to deliver high performance Internet messaging, with full support for key Internet messaging standards such as POP3, IMAP, SMTP and NNTP. Netscape Mail provides all this with a new look – redesigned for increased usability. Netscape Mail is speedy too: it’s built on the same high performance Gecko engine as Netscape Navigator. Also, Netscape Mail is small, adding only about 1 MB to the Netscape 6 download size on Windows machines. Yet even with this small size, Netscape Mail delivers all the features you need in an Internet messaging product, including richly formatted HTML message composition with improved attachment handling.

Address Book Sync
Now it's easier than ever to access your important contact information from any computer connected to the Internet. With Netscape's new Address Book Sync feature, you can synchronize your Netscape 6 Personal Address Book with the Netscape Web Address Book and access your contact information on the web, using any web browser.

Netscape Instant Messenger

Stay connected to the people who are important to you
Netscape Instant Messenger lets you stay in touch and instantly communicate with your online friends and business associates. Instant messaging is integrated with mail and browsing, and is also available as a standalone component.

With Netscape Instant Messenger, you can instantly send private, one-to-one messages to people in the world’s largest online community. You can also see when your friends and business associates are online using your personalized Buddy List, which provides you continuous updates of their online status. Using Netscape Instant Messenger, you can see if a colleague is online and, for example, send them an instant message to invite them to lunch. A window appears on your colleague’s monitor and displays your lunch invitation.

Instant messaging is the third killer app of the Web after email and browsing. There are currently over 70 million instant messaging users worldwide.

• Instant messaging is also becoming an important business tool for negotiations, real-time reminders, or any time email isn't fast enough

• New and innovative uses for instant messaging are being discovered every day. For example, IM has been a boon for hearing impaired students at Gallaudet University where 70% of the students and faculty use it on a regular basis

• Instant messaging is also being tested clinically to send vital information from angina, diabetes, and asthma patients directly to their doctors during medical emergencies.

Keep track of online friends with your Buddy List
Netscape Instant Messenger provides the Buddy List feature so you can see when your friends and business associates are online.

• Use the List Setup feature to personalize your Buddy List by adding, deleting, or modifying the group of online friends and colleagues you want to keep in touch with.

• Customize your own Buddy List groups in addition to the default groups. Place buddies into groups, which can be expanded or collapsed for easier viewing.

• Check Buddy List icons and highlighting to find out whether your buddies have logged into the Instant Messenger service, and if they are working at their computers.

• Access the Buddy List from other Netscape 6 components, such as Netscape Navigator, by selecting Instant Messenger from the Netscape 6 Tasks menu item, or by clicking on the Instant Messenger icon in the Netscape 6 Task Bar. You can also have your Buddy List available in any other Netscape 6 component as a tab in My Sidebar.

• Netscape Instant Messenger users are a part of the 45 million registered users of the AOL Instant Messenger service, who send more than 470 million messages a day. In fact, you can send instant messages to 1.7 million different people at peak hours. You don’t have to subscribe to AOL to use Netscape Instant Messenger – access to the service is free.

• You can format text and paragraphs, and add color and web links in your messages.

• Easily add a buddy to your Buddy List from the message window by clicking the Add Buddy button.

Buddy presence everywhere
Access your buddy list from other Netscape 6 components, including Navigator, Mail and Address Book.

Chat with One or More Buddies
Initiate a Buddy Chat session with one or more online buddies by clicking the Chat button. Invite more buddies to join your chat as you see them come online.

Support for Multiple Screen Names
With Netscape Instant Messenger, you can switch screen names between sessions. If you work at home, you may have a work screen name to communicate with your business associates during the day and a home screen name to send instant messages to friends and family in the evenings.

Automatic Importing of Previous Buddy List
Netscape Instant Messenger initially displays the Migration Wizard to help set up your instant messaging account with information such as your screen name and password. In addition, you can choose to import your buddy list from any existing AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) clients on your computer.

Netscape Composer

The easiest way to create web documents
Netscape Composer lets you easily and quickly create standards-compliant web documents. You do not have to know HTML to use Composer. You can add lists, tables, images, links, and font styles to your document by clicking on a toolbar button. Composer can be used to create common documents such as memos, resumes, and status reports.

Standards-compliant WYSIWYG web document editing
Since Netscape Composer is built on the Netscape Gecko layout engine technology, you get the first standards-compliant WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editor. There’s no need to switch back and forth from Netscape Composer to Netscape Navigator to make sure the images, links, tables, and other document objects display correctly. As you type, you will see exactly what others will see when reading your document.

Create web documents as you would in a word processor
Composer provides a toolbar with quick and easy access to the most common editing features:

• Inserting bullets and numbered lists
• Changing font styles, color, and size
• Bolding, italicizing and underlining characters
• Including links, images, and tables
• Checking the spelling
• You can create an HTML document as if you were using a word processor without knowing or writing a single line of HTML.

Easily share web documents with others
Web documents created with Netscape Composer are ideal for sharing:

• The file size for a web document is typically 90% smaller than a similar document created with a word processing application such as Microsoft Word® or WordPerfect®.
• Recipients who read email messages from you with Composer created web documents don’t have to waste time downloading large word processing file attachments anymore!
• Recipients of an attached web document can read the document in their HTML capable email application (such as Netscape Mail). They do not need to save the file and launch a separate application.

Standards-based web documents created using Composer can be viewed through any standards-compliant browser (e.g., Netscape Navigator) across platforms including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

System Requirements and Supported Platforms

• Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000, Pentium 233 MHz, 64 MB of RAM
• Mac OS 8.6 or later, PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or G3, 64 MB of RAM
• Red Hat Linux 6.0, 6.1., and 7.0 with X11 R6, Pentium 233 MHz, 64 MB of RAM