The Web Settings dialog (new in Active Worlds 3.2) allows you to control how Active Worlds displays the web pages you may encounter within a 3D world. To change your web settings, go to the Options menu, select Settings..., and then click on the Web tab:

Web Content

This is where you choose what window Active Worlds sends web pages to. By default, web pages are sent to the built-in web window. This is usually the best option, since the built-in web window does not require you to switch between different applications if you are looking at both 2D and 3D content at the same time.

The external web browser option causes Active Worlds to launch your default external web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, or any other third party web browser) and send web pages to that browser instead. If you view web content in this manner, you will need to switch back and forth between Active Worlds and your external web browser depending on which type of content you want to view.

External Web Browser

These choices influence what type of links Active Worlds sends to your external web browser. These choices are only enabled if you have chosen the external web browser option above. There are two types of links you can encounter while using Active Worlds: "implicit" links and "explicit" links. "Explicit" links are web links that you deliberately trigger, such as by clicking on an object with a link on it, or by clicking on a URL highlighted in the chat text. "Implicit" links are links that get triggered indirectly, such as a by bumping an object that has a link on it, or by entering a world that has a Home Page set.

When you are using an external web browser, the external web browser will always make itself the foreground application automatically whenever Active Worlds sends it a new link. For this reason, it is often desirable to disable "implicit" links by choosing the only links I explicitly select option. Otherwise, your external web browser will be frequently popping itself into the foreground as you use Active Worlds.