Viewing Page Info

The Page Info dialogue box consists of several tabs that display different kinds of information about the page you are viewing. This section provides a brief overview of the information available in each tab.

To view Page Info for the page currently displayed by the browser, open the View menu and choose Page Info. You can then click the tab that corresponds to the kind of information you want to view.

Most of the information displayed by the General, Forms, Links and Media tabs in Page Info is taken from the HTML source for the page. This information is usually of interest only to web developers and other specialists.

For detailed information about HTML, including the tags displayed by Page Info, see the HTML 4.01 Specification.

General (Page Info Tab)

When you choose Page Info from the View menu, the General tab displays basic information about the page that you are viewing in the browser.

The top portion displays the name of the page (if it has one) and the following information:

• URL: The Uniform Resource Locator for the page—that is, the standardised address that appears in the Location Bar near the top of the browser window.
• Render mode: Indicates whether the browser is using quirks mode or standards compliance mode to lay out the page. Quirks mode takes account of nonstandard behaviour that may be used by some older web pages designed for older versions of web browsers that are not fully standards compliant. Standards compliance mode adheres strictly to standards specifications. Your browser chooses the render mode automatically according to information contained in the web page itself.
• Source: Indicates whether the source code for this page has been cached.
• Encoding: The character encoding used for this HTML document.
• Size: The size of the file, if available.
• Modified: The date the page was last modified, if available.
• Expires: The date on which the information displayed by the page expires.

The bottom portion displays the metatags specified by the page. Metatags provide information about the type of content displayed by a page, such as a general description of the page, keywords for search engines, copyright information, and so on.

Forms (Page Info Tab)

When you choose Page Info from the View menu and click the Forms tab, you see information about all the forms displayed by the page you are currently viewing in the browser.

The top portion lists basic information about the way each form in the page is specified in the HTML source:

• Name: The form's name, if any.
• Method: The HTML method used to send information captured by the form back to the web server. GET appends your filled-in values to the web site address to which it submits the form. POST sends the values to the web site as parameters that can be read by a program on the web site.
• Form Action: The URL of the program to be invoked when the form is submitted.

When you select a form listed in the top portion of the Forms tab, the bottom portion displays detailed information about the way each of that form's elements is specified in the HTML source:

• Label: The element's label (if it is tagged as such in the HTML).
• Field Name: The element's name.
• Type: The element's input type, such as TEXT (for submitting text), RADIO (for a radio button), or HIDDEN (for storing information that is submitted but not displayed on the screen).
• Current Value: The current value of the element. For example, the current value of a text element is the text it currently contains.

Links (Page Info Tab)

When you choose Page Info from the View menu and click the Links tab, you see a list of all the links available on that page. The following information is displayed for each link:

• Name: The text displayed in the browser as a link.
• Address: The URL for the page to which the link points.
• Type: The type of link, such Anchor (for a link to a specific place in an HTML document) or Form Submission.

Media (Page Info Tab)

When you choose Page Info from the View menu and click the Media tab, you see a list of all the images and other media elements displayed by the page.

The top portion lists basic information about each element, including its address (URL) and type.

When you select a media element listed in the top portion of the Media tab, the bottom portion displays available information about that element, such as description, size, or dimensions.

You can also see the selected element at the bottom of the dialogue box. To see larger images, you need to click the lower-right corner of the Page Info dialogue box and drag.

To save a media element as a separate file:

• Save As: Select the element you want to save, click Save As, and navigate to the location where you want to save it.

Privacy (Page Info Tab)

When you choose Page Info from the View menu and click the Privacy tab, you see a list of all the special elements that are part of the page.

• Page Components: Under the page URL, there are many categories. To see the list of items in any category, double-click on the name:
  • Links: Shows all of the links.
  • Java Applets: Lists the Java applets (if any).
  • Image Maps: Shows all of the image maps.
  • Form Submissions: List the script names used to gather used data on the page.
  • Frames: Shows the frames which make up the page.
  • Images: Displays all of the images used in the page.
  • External Loaded Documents: Contains the list of the external documents loaded to display the page (such as css files or images).
  • Generic Objects: Shows a list of generic objects.
  • Scripts: Lists all of the scripts in the page.
• Policy: This button will try to open the policy file for the web site whose page is currently shown.
• Summary: Select this if you want to view the Privacy Policy Viewer, showing concise data about the privacy policy of the web site you are browsing.
• Options: This will try to open the page on the remote web site that allows the user to modify his/her own personal data stored on the remote web site.

Security (Page Info Tab)

When you choose Page Info from the View menu and click the Security tab, you see information about authentication and encryption for the web page you are viewing. The top portion indicates whether the web site's identity has been verified, and the bottom portion describes whether the page was encrypted when it was received by the browser.

You can also open the Security tab directly by clicking the lock icon in the lower-right corner of any browser window.

The top portion of the Security tab can display any of these messages:

• Web Site Identity Not Verified: The web site you are viewing did not present a certificate to authenticate itself. Therefore, Certificate Manager cannot verify its identity. It is possible, though unlikely, that the web site is not what it claims to be.
• Web Site Identity Verified: The certificate that Certificate Manager has used to verify this web site's identity was issued by a certificate authority (CA) marked as one that you trust. You can be reasonably confident that the web site is what it claims to be.

The bottom portion of the Security tab can display any of these messages:

• Connection Not Encrypted: It is possible that other people can view information sent from your computer to the web site or information sent by the web site to your computer, but it is unlikely that someone is actually doing so.
• Connection Encrypted: In general, the strength of an encrypted connection depends on the length of the keys used for encryption, measured in bits. The longer the key, the stronger the encryption—that is, the harder it is to for an unauthorised person to unscramble the encrypted information.

  The Page Info window describes encryption strength in one of three ways:

  • High-grade encryption: Strongest encryption available, using 128-bit keys at a minimum.
  • Medium-grade encryption: Somewhat stronger than low-grade encryption, using 56- or 64-bit keys.
  • Low-grade encryption: Weakest encryption available, using 40-bit keys.

  Most web sites support high-grade encryption. If you are viewing an older web site that supports a weaker form of encryption, it is possible that other people can view information sent from your computer to the web site or information sent by the web site to your computer, but it is unlikely that someone is actually doing so.

Lack of any encryption or lack of strong encryption should be of concern only if you are sending or viewing confidential information, such as your credit card number.

You can quickly check the encryption status of a web page by noting the state of the lock icon at the bottom-right corner of the browser window. For more details, see Checking Security for a Web Page.