Using the Cache

Many ESL teachers do not have the luxury of having enough computers for all of their students. That does not mean they cannot access the material available on the WWW. If nothing else, they can use the downtown library to take advantage of the Web.

Almost everything that loads into the Netscape browser is saved in the Netscape cache. This cache is usually located in the same directory as the Netscape program. To access the html documents, pictures, and audio (if any) files that Netscape has retained, just locate the Netscape directory and double click on the cache. A minor problem does arise as Netscape does not give user friendly names to these files; instead, names like M0034r.htm or M004eq.wav are assigned. Knowing the terminology of Web-based documents is helpful.  You will have to open each one  to find the ones you want.

Once you have located these documents, using them is a matter of opening Netscape, clicking on the File icon, scrolling down to "open file in browser" and clicking again. This is where you will be able to pick and choose the ones that you may want to use in class.

Once you find the document you want to save, open the file icon again, scroll down then click on "save as". Another screen will appear asking you where you want to save the file and what you want to name it. Be sure to keep the file extension, i.e., .html, .wav, .gif, the same as it is in the cache.