Tag-Teaming PubMed and IGM With Your Web Browser and Operating System

by Andrew Hamilton, Online Analyst, National Online Training Center

There are many features of PubMed and Internet Grateful Med (IGM) that rely on functions found within the WWW browser or operating system in which they are used. Let's look at a few features found outside of PubMed and IGM that are quite useful when used within NLM's WWW-based MEDLINE search interfaces. Please Note: Macintosh users should use the "command" key instead of the "control" key in the following examples.

  1. Printing - There are no explicit "print" commands in either PubMed or IGM. Printing is a function of the WWW browser being used to access PubMed/IGM. From the browser, you can use either the Print icon from the browser button bar, or select Print from the File menu. You can also use the operating system print command by pressing ctrl-P to print the active window (This feature can be used to print the contents of the Details Box in PubMed). The browser will print from PubMed/IGM the same way it prints from other WWW pages - What You See Is What You Get. For example, if you have citations 1-20 from a total of 115 displayed on the current WWW page in the brief format, invoking the print command will print just those 20 citations in the brief format. To print all 115 records in one of the larger formats requires that the user change both the number of documents displayed per page as well as the display format. Netscape users have the option, if there is any question about what will actually be printed, to use Print Preview from the File menu to see what would actually be sent to the printer.

  2. Finding and Highlighting - Neither PubMed nor IGM have specific features for highlighting search terms or phrases as they occur within MEDLINE records. However, virtually all up-to-date WWW browsers have the capacity to find and successively highlight a specific string of characters found within a Web page. Web-based MEDLINE searchers can take advantage of this "Find" feature (crtl-F or the Find option under the Edit menu) to enter and locate strings of characters within MEDLINE records. "Find" functions just like "Print" does in that it will not go from the brief citation format into a complete record and find words/phrases that are not actually displayed on the current page.

  3. Multi-Tasking - The operating systems found on today's computers allow users to have multiple applications running at the same time. Email, word processor, spreadsheet and WWW browser applications can all be open and running at the same time. Multiple sessions of a single application can also be used in this environment. In the PubMed/IGM setting, a user can start with one browser window and open another window using the New Window option on the File menu (or by pressing ctrl-N). The user can then navigate within the second window to a page such as the MeSH browser.

  4. Editing - Many of us are acquainted with the common text editing features of Cut (crtl-X), Copy (crtl-C), and Paste (crtl-V) seen in numerous software applications. A PubMed/IGM user can employ these functions to transfer text information between windows and applications.

  5. Viewing - Having a problem with the type on PubMed and IGM pages? Do you wish you could change the font or make it larger? You can. Some WWW pages have document-specific fonts, but in PubMed and IGM, the font and point size for displayed text is determined by the preference settings of your WWW Browser. Change how your browser displays text, and you will change how text is displayed in PubMed and IGM.

The bottom line is that if your operating system or WWW browser gives you the capability to do something - you can do it within PubMed and IGM. Start thinking beyond the realm of the specific commands available within PubMed/IGM and look to the commands and capacities found within your browser and your operating system to open up the true power and potential of PubMed and IGM.


Latitudes, May/June 1999 -- Vol. 8, Number 4

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