Though it can be used standalone, NoteView is intended primarily for use with a browser on the Internet’s World Wide Web. As of this writing, Netscape and NCSA Mosaic are probably the most popular Web browsers on the Macintosh. The Netscape instructions below apply to both Netscape 1.0 and 1.1; the Mosaic instructions apply to both Mosaic 1.0.3 and 2.0B12. Other browsers should require similar procedures.
NoteView files in online archives should always have names ending “.nvu”. This provides a means for a browser to find the program on your Macintosh and automatically open the scores as soon as you download them. In order to do this, you have to configure your browser to recognize the files and locate NoteView. IF YOU ARE USING NETSCAPE, follow these steps carefully:
• Choose ‘Preferences...’ from Netscape's Options menu. From the popup menu at the top of the dialog box, select “Helper Applications”. Click on the “New...” button.
• Type “application” into the field marked “Mime type:”. Hit the tab key once and type “x-noteview” into the field marked “Mime subtype:”. Click on OK or hit the return key, which will return you to the Netscape Preferences dialog box.
• You will see the new Helper Application listed as “Unknown”, with Action “Unknown” and no extensions listed. Next, click in the box to the right of “Extensions:” in the middle of the dialog box, and type “nvu”.
• To tell Netscape where to find NoteView, click on the button marked “Browse...”, and locate the copy of NoteView you have installed. When you have done so, click OK or hit the return key, which will return you to the Netscape Preferences dialog box.
• The popup menu to the right of “Browse...” automatically lists the Macintosh file-types that NoteView recognizes. Make sure that the file-type “SCOV” is showing; if not, select it from the popup menu. THIS IS VITAL: if you don’t select “SCOV”, NoteView will probably not be able to open your scores, and it may crash!
• Finally, click on the radio button “Launch Application”.
• If you are sure that you have followed these steps correctly, click on OK or hit the return key to return to Netscape. If you are not sure, click on Cancel and try again.
Next time you select a NoteView file from any web page which has been correctly set up, Netscape will automatically find NoteView and open the score for you.
IF YOU ARE USING NCSA MOSAIC INSTEAD OF NETSCAPE, the procedure is very similar. Like Netscape, Mosaic has a “Preferences...” command in its Options menu; in Mosaic that leads to a dialog with a button labelled “Helper Applications”. Click on that button. There's one tricky thing in the resulting dialog: you must add “application/x-noteview” to the Document Type->Application list (on the right) BEFORE adding “nvu” to the Extension->Document Type list (on the left)!
