For Up-to-date
Online WebZinger Information, Bug lists and FAQ
WebZinger Help
Version 4.00
8 - Feb 1998
CONTENTS
Installing
Netscape Communicator
What is WebZinger?
Unique Benefits
System Requirements
Installing WebZinger
WebZinger and Network
Firewalls
Uninstalling WebZinger
Using WebZinger
RECORD
SETTINGS -- Simple & Advanced
DETAILS
PLAYBACK WHILE RECORDING
PLAY SELECTED SLIDESHOW
EDIT PLAYLIST
TIPS FOR SEARCHES
TIPS BY OPERATING SYSTEM
ImaginOn Contact Information
Installing
Netscape Communicator
Before you install WebZinger, you must have an internet World Wide Web
browser. The ones known to work with WebZinger are Netscape Navigator
3.01 and 4.04 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01 and 4.01. If you
do not have any of these, please use this CD to install Netscape Communicator,
which includes Netscape Navigator 4.04.
For Win 95 PCs, install Communicator by locating the file named
"cb32e404.exe" on this CD and double-clicking on the filename. Follow
the installation procedure. Reboot your computer when you are done.
Test Navigator 4.04 by connecting to the internet and browsing the World
Wide Web. Then, install WebZinger.
For Macintosh Power PCs, install Communicator by locating the
file named "Com4_04_PPC_base.bin" on this CD and double-clicking on the
filename. Follow the installation procedure. Reboot your computer
when you are done. Test Navigator 4.04 by connecting to the internet
and browsing the World Wide Web. Then, install WebZinger
What is WebZinger?
WebZinger, a new personal Web Bot, does the searching and waiting for information
and graphics to download automatically, saving a tremendous amount of your
time. WebZinger locates Web sites by topic, visits and analyzes the
sites, then downloads a picture and one paragraph of text. Once recorded,
these Web "snapshots" play back like a slideshow. During playback,
you can click-through instantly from the snapshot to the live Web site!
WebZinger’s unique benefits
include:
-works in the background, consuming a minimum of system resources
-other programs run in parallel without perceptible slowdown
-eliminates time spent sorting through cryptic search engine results
-reduces or eliminates time spent waiting for complex graphics to download
-slideshows of captured sites are ideal for quick, efficient review
and selection
-enables quicker, more productive searches
-also runs on HTML-based intranets and extranets
System Requirements
To run WebZinger, you need at least the following:
Windows 95/NT:
Windows 95 Pentium PC at 75 MHz
14.4 Modem
640 by 480 by 8-bit pixel 256-color SVGA display
32 MB of RAM
5 MB free hard disk space
Netscape Navigator 3.01 or 4.04 or Netscape Communicator
or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01 or 4.0
Internet access
Mac OS:
Mac OS 8.0
14.4 Modem
32 MB Memory
640 by 480 by 8-bit pixel 256-color SVGA display
7 MB free hard disk space
Netscape Navigator 4.04 or Netscape Communicator or
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0
Internet access
Solaris and other Workstation Environments:
Netscape 4.04 or Higher Browser or other browser
Java Runtime JRE 1.1.3 or higher. (Solaris users may get this at http://java.sun.com)
64 MB Memory Recommended
100 Mhz processor recommended
Internet Access
Installing WebZinger
Installation for Microsoft Windows 95
Place the WebZinger disk in your CD ROM drive. Locate the file named
"wz400j.exe" and double-click it to install the software. Drag the
WebZinger icon onto your desktop. Reboot your PC. To start
WebZinger, either double-click the desktop icon of WebZinger, or click
the Win 95 Start Button on your desktop, then click the Programs entry
on the pop-up menu, then double-click on the WebZinger icon.
Installation for Apple Macintosh
Place the disk in your CD ROM drive. Copy the Personal Computer folder
to your hard drive. From the hard drive, open this folder.
Locate the file named "webzinger.sea.hqx". Double-click on this file.
It will automatically decompress and create a folder named webzinger.
Open the webzinger folder and double-click on the application WebZinger.
You may create
an alias for your desktop of this file if you want.
Installation for Workstations
Place the disk in your CD ROM drive. Copy the folder named Workstation
to your hard drive. From the hard drive, open the folder and unzip
the file named "wz108c.zip". Unzipping will create a folder named
webzinger.
To run WebZinger as an application, type java WebZinger from a command
line, or create an alias to do this. You will
need the JDK 1.1.3 or higher to run this. Solaris users can get this
at http://java.sun.com.
Opening webzinger.html from a browser will start WebZinger. Select
the type of WebZinger based on the browser you use from the list offered
by the program. Once WebZinger starts, there will be five security
notices. Grant all of these, and WebZinger will run.
WebZinger and Network Firewalls
If your PC or workstation is running behind a network firewall, contact
your sysop, IT or MIS manager and ask them to grant the Java security certificates
WebZinger requests during its initial startup. The firewall software
may also require security approvals to enable Java applets.
Uninstalling WebZinger from Windows
95/NT
Locate the folder named WebZinger. Delete it along with all its contents.
Locate the folder named Wzmedia. Delete it along with all its contents.
Once those two folders and their contents are removed from your hard disk
drive, WebZinger is completely uninstalled, since there are no Win 95 Registry
entries or any Apple Mac OS 8 plugins.
Using WebZinger
When first started, WebZinger will display a copyright notice, then ask
you to agree to the Web browser it found in your PC. Either agree
to the highlighted browser, or select another. WebZinger playback
will not work unless you have designated a browser! Then,WebZinger
will ask if you want to run the demo. Run the demo. When the
demo recording displays "DONE", click on the Stop Button. You will
be returned to the WebZinger Home Window. In the Home Window, you
will see the WebZinger logo, an "Exit" button, a "Help" button, an empty
scroll box with the words "Please Choose:" above it, a "Record Mode" button,
a "Play Selected Slideshow" button and an "Edit Playlist" button.
The scroll box will contain only the demo slideshow, "sailing", unless
you declined the demo, in which case the scroll box will be empty.
RECORD Mode Quick Start
Select the "Record Mode" button on WebZinger's Home Window. Once
the Recorder Screen is displayed, type the topic you are interested in
within the Find Window. Use plain English, without any punctuation
marks or Boolean operators between words. Select "Record" to start
your search.
When the Recording Status Bar display changes from "Recording" to "Done",
select the "Stop" button on the Record Screen. You will return to
WebZinger's Home Window. Select the new slideshow by name from within
the scroll box. Then, select the "Play Selected Slideshow" button
to start playback.
More About Recording
To run other applications while recording, minimize the Record Screen and
the browser window.
Select "Stop" to quit recording at any time.
To seed the search from a search engine other than WebCrawler, use the
pull-down menu located at the right edge of the On Window.
To search starting from a single website, select "Start at URL" from
the On Window's pull down menu, then enter the URL in the URL Window.
To prevent your search from fanning out to other servers, select "Only
this Server" on the Advanced Settings Screen.
To give your search a name different from the words of the topic you
entered, enter the name you prefer in the Name Window. Otherwise,
leave the Name Window empty.
To run multiple searches in parallel, select Record in the WebZinger
Home Window while the first search is running. The only limit to
number of searches in parallel is the amount of memory and communications
bandwidth your computer has.
SETTINGS
Simple Settings
Use Simple Settings to select:
-The number of snapshots to download. (number of slides in the
show)
-The minimum size of each graphic file to download. If you want
text-only, select OK (zero K).
Advanced Settings
Use Advanced Settings to select:
-Specific graphics file size
-Maximum recording time
-Time limit per visited site
-Number of URLs (seeds) to get from the initial search engine
-Maximum search layers (how far WebZinger should "drill down" on each
server)
DETAILS
Selecting this button on the Record Screen will cause WebZinger to display
more details about the recording process during your recording.
PLAYBACK WHILE RECORDING
To view a partial slideshow during recording, wait until WebZinger has
entered the new slideshow name in its scroll box list, select the new slideshow,
then select "Play Selected Slideshow".
PLAY SELECTED SLIDESHOW
On the WebZinger Home Window, highlight the name of the slideshow you want
to see by clicking on it, then select "Play Selected Slideshow".
The slideshow begins automatically. To connect to a website, select
"Go To:". A new browser window will open. After viewing the
site, close that browser window and select "Play" to continue.
To change the number of seconds each slide is held on screen, click
within the blue bar beneath "Playback Speed:". Clicking to the right
of the black portion of the bar increases the number of seconds.
Clicking on the left side of the black portion decreases the number of
seconds. The minimum display time per slide is two seconds and the maximum
is eleven seconds.
Select "Pause" to view a slide longer. Select "Play" to start
the show again. Select "Stop" to quit the slideshow. The Play
Screen will close and you will return to the WebZinger Home Window.
Clicking on the currently displayed slide will cause the Play Screen
to be minimized.
EDIT PLAYLIST
On the WebZinger Home Window, select "Edit Playlist" to display all the
folders WebZinger has created. Open any folder to view its contents.
Copies may be made of any file in a folder. Deleting a folder will
cause WebZinger to remove that folder name from the scroll box's list of
slideshows after the next recording.
Do NOT delete any files within a slideshow folder. Delete the
entire folder.
Tips For Searches
During playback, you can run a deeper search starting from the URL of the
presently displayed slide, automatically. The new slideshow initiated
this way will be entered into the scroll box list of slideshows with the
name of the current search followed by the number of the slide within the
slideshow being displayed. For example, if you pause on slide number
6 of the Ski Resort slideshow, the new search will be named Ski Resort_6.
To initiate a search in this manner, select "Pause" when the slide whose
URL you want to start from is on the screen. Then select "To Record
Mode". Recording will start by itself. You may resume playback
while recording by selecting "Resume".
Searches for larger graphics may take longer, but they can deliver more
interesting websites.
Choose the singular form of a word instead of the plural. For
example, "alligator" and not "alligators".
To find more non-commerical sites, try putting "my" or "our" in front
of your subject. For example, "our Siamese cat".
Tips by Operating System
The following operating systems currently have specific instructions for
them. Please review
http://www.webzinger.com for
additions of new systems and tips.
Windows 95/NT
MacOS
Solaris
ImaginOn Contact Information
Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Our Website address is
http://www.imaginon.com. Email
us at info@imaginon.com, or telephone
650-596-9300. Fax 650-596-9350.
For Up-to-date Online
WebZinger Information and FAQ
864 Laurel Street
San Carlos, CA 94070
phone: 650-596-9300
fax: 650-596-9350
info@imaginon.com