The user interface in Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer is called a browser window. It is like other windows in your system; you can resize it, move it, and open up others. Its contents are web pages from various addresses on the Internet.
All browsers come with a set of navigation buttons (Back, Forward, Reload, Home, etc.) across the top of the main browser window. Do NOT use these buttons to move through the OWL system. Always use the buttons on the menu bar on the left-hand side of the page instead.
Depending on the size of your browser window and the contents of the web page, you may see a thin gray vertical bar with arrowheads on the right side of your page. This is the vertical scroll bar, and you can use it to quickly move up and down the page. Simply click the arrowhead that points in the direction you want to go, or grab the floating gray square with your mouse pointer and move it up or down until you reach your destination. Similarly, you can use the horizontal scroll bar to move left or right on the page.
You can control the size of a window making it wider/narrower or taller/shorter. You can hide a window (to get it out of the way of other windows) or close it. You can also move a window to another position on your screen (if it isn’t taking up the full view of the monitor). Depending on the type of machine that you are using (PC, Macintosh, Unix), these window controls will vary. In general you can move a window by clicking and holding the mouse button on the bar at the top of the window, then dragging it to a new position, and then letting go of the mouse button. The controls for sizing and closing a window are at the various corners of the window.
PC Window Controls
If you place your mouse on one of the edges or corners of the window, you’ll see that the cursor changes to a double arrowhead. If you click and hold, you can move your mouse and drag the window into another size.
If you look in the upper right hand corner of the browser window, you’ll see a group of symbols that are the window controls 
. (The middle button may look different depending on the size of the window. See below.)
· 
– Clicking on this control "minimizes" the window. It basically puts it out of the way so that you can see other windows. To bring the window back, you can click on its toolbar button at the bottom of the page.
· 
or 
– The middle button in the window controls will be one of these two icons. The double box will appear when the window is full size. Clicking on it will change the window into less than full size. At this point the icon will change to the single box. Clicking on the single box will cause the window to expand to full size.
· 
– Clicking on this control closes/exits the window. This is a permanent operation; the window is destroyed and you cannot get it back. Do NOT close the main OWL window while you are working on your assignments. You can close any auxiliary windows, but you’ll need the main OWL one until you logout.
Whenever you encounter a page with more than one input box (the OWL User Login page, for example), you can move to the next box by pressing the Tab key on your keyboard. You can return to the previous box by pressing Shift+Tab. (Of course, you can continue to use the mouse, if you prefer.)
Secondary Windows
In the OWL system, when you click certain buttons, a new auxiliary window will appear. At times this window may hide the main window or simply be in the way. To deal with this problem, you can:
· Close the window.
· Resize or move the window using the commands noted above.
· Toggle back and forth between the two windows by clicking in either the main browser window or the secondary window with your mouse.