Hi Paula,

Nope I'm not clear on this so lets try to resolve it together.

First some terminology...

Operating System: This is in reference to the software program that manages the information on your computer. Recent operating systems are somewhat advanced as they provide various tools that allow us to accomplish tasks using a Graphic User Interface (GUI). Microsoft Windows XP (most popular), Mac Os X (Apple Computers) by and Linux (Free open source and growing in popularity) are examples of operating systems.

Browser: This the the software program that provides a GUI used to view files and content on your computer or on a computer that your computer is networked to.

Web Browser: is used for the type of browsers that are used specifically to look at files on the internet. Some examples of web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (not our favorite) and Firefox (preferred). Some people also use Netscape Navigator, WebTv, Konqueror and Opera. Other popular names used for browser is navigator or simply browser. These web browsers provide a GUI that allows us to see the information in a organised and structured format. This web page is an example of information provided in a structured format.

In order for this information to be provided to the user/reader in an easily accessible and readible format, designers and programmers work behind the scenes creating graphical elements and images, encoding rules that tell the browser where to put what, and developing code to store the information in databases and to quickly pull out the information from the database. This website is an example of an open source platform that has most of the information storage/retrieval functionality built into it.

Windows: These are usually in reference to the boxes/frames/windows that open up when viewing files/content that is stored on different directories on your computer or a networked computer. The popular software company, Microsoft associates the term Windows with most of the operating systems they sell. The popularity of using windows to view and manage information/data on a computer led to many other operating system vendors to include this feature in their product as well.

The terms above can be used together, for example: You are viewing this post in your web browser window.

Recently there has been a new feature in web browsers that allow the user to have more than one web page open in the same web browser window. This allows the user to have various websites and pages open at the same time and to easily toggle between the view of each page using tabs. Tabbed Browsing is alot more organised than having a whole lot of windows opened all over the place.

Paula, can you tell me what operating system and what web browser you are using? I have tested the site on Internet Explorer and Firefox recently, and all the links open in the same window. Can you also try pressing f5 on your keyboard when looking at this webpage, then click any link. Does the link open in a new window?

One Love