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Internet Explorer Tips and Hints
Tidy up your toolbar
- Right click on the Standard toolbar and select Customize to add or remove button, change the button order, turn off the text labels or adjust the icon size.
Toolbar Wallpaper
- To change the look of your toolbars, download the Toolbar Wallpaper Web accessory from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/webaccess/default.asp
Clear the screen
- Press [F11] to switch to and from the minimalist full-screen mode. Right-click the top strip and select Menu bar and/or Address bar for a more workable layout.
Delete unwanted logos
- To remove spinning logos and toolbar graphics applied by your service provider, go to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Signup and delete all the
.BMP files.
Delete unwanted titles
- If the title bar says IE was 'provided by xxx', back up your Registry, then run RegEdit. Use Edit ‡ Find to hunt for xxx and keep pressing [F3] until you find a Window Title value. Edit out the extra words.
Keyboard short-cuts
- Activate the Address bar, Press [Alt]+[D] to highlight the address in the Address bar. You can then type over it.
Scroll quickly
- The easiest way to scroll down a Web page is by pressing [Spacebar].
Jump back or forward
- To go back a page, press [Alt]+[LeftArrow] or [BackSpace]. To go forward, press [Alt]+[RightArrow] or [Shift]+[BackSpace]. To skip over several pages, click the arrows next to the Back and Forward buttons.
Explorer bar short-cuts
- Press [Ctrl]+[E] to open the Search Assistant,[Ctrl]+[I] to open the Favorites bar and [Ctrl]+[H] to open the History bar.
Make favorites
- Press [Ctrl]+[D] to add the current page to your Favorites menu, or [Alt]+[A], [A] to put it in a specific folder. To rename or delete a favorite, right-click on its menu entry.
Do less typing
- To visit an http://www.xxx.com/ address, just type xxx and press [Ctrl]+[Enter]. For example, type cnn and press [Ctrl]+[Enter] to go to http://www.cnn.com/
Use AutoComplete
- When you start typing an address, IE tries to guess where you want to go. This works best if you leave out the http://www. and start with the first distinctive word.
AutoComplete in forms
- The same trick works in forms. If you make a mistake, remove it from the drop-down list by highlighting it with the mouse and pressing [Delete]. To delete everything, go to Tools ‡ Internet Options ‡ Content and click AutoComplete.
Explorer bar short-cuts
- Press [Ctrl]+[E] to open the Search Assistant, [Ctrl]+[I] to open the Favorites bar and [Ctrl]+[H] to open the History bar.
Save a whole page
- Go to File + Save As and select 'Web page, complete' to save a Web page and all its images. Even better, select 'Web archive for e-mail' to pack everything into a single file.
Locate saved files
- After downloading a multimedia or program file, click the Open Folder button. Either open the file straight away or minimise the window and come back to it later on.
Copy backgrounds
- To pinch a background from a Web page, right-click on it and select Copy Background. Switch to your graphics program and select Edit ‡ Paste. Respect other people's copyright, though.
Print individual frames
- To print a single section of a framed page, right-click on it and select Print, then click OK.
Simple searches
- Type a word or words into the Address bar and press [Enter] to conduct a quick search.
Find your keyword
- If a search engine turns up a long page, use Edit + Find (or press [Ctrl]+[F]) to zip down to the section with your keyword.
Sort the search engines
- For more sophisticated searching, click the Search button to open the Search Assistant. Click Customize and use the blue buttons to move your favourite search engine to the top of each list.
Add more engines
- To swap the Search Assistant's feeble selection of UK search engines for the much better US set, go to Tools + Internet Options + General and click Languages. Click Add, select 'English (United States) [en-us]' and click OK. Use the Move Up button to move this language to the top of the list.
Search your history
- If you're searching because you forgot to make a favorite for a site you visited recently, open the History bar and click Search to hunt through your own records.
Find related sites
- Once you've found a useful site, go to Tools + Show Related Links to find others that are similar.
Use multiple windows
- To load a linked page into a new Explorer window, right-click the link and select Open in New Window. This trick is useful when you've found a list of links and want to keep it on the screen.
Music while you browse
- To listen to Net radio, right-click on any toolbar and select Radio. To choose a broadcast, click Radio Stations and select Radio Station Guide.
Sort your favorites
- Right-click on the Favorites menu (or a subsection) and select Sort by Name to sort your favorites alphabetically. To keep particular ones at the top, start their names with 1, 2 and so on.
Drag and drop
- To move a favorite within the Favorites menu, point to it, press and hold the left mouse button, wait a couple of seconds and then drag. The same trick works in the Favorites bar.
Hide unwanted subsections
- You can't remove the Links and Channels sections from the Favorites menu, but you can hide them. Right-click on an offending entry and click Properties, then select the Hidden checkbox.
Favorites for e-mail
- Right-click on your desktop, select New + Shortcut and make the command line mailto:mailus@netmag.co.uk. Click Next and name the short-cut 'Send mail to .net', then click Finish. Drag the new short cut on to your Favorites menu to create an entry that opens a preaddressed New Message window.
Thumbnails of your favorites
- Run Windows Explorer and go to C:\Windows\Favorites. Right-click on your Favorites folder, or one of its subfolders, and select Properties. Select the 'Enable thumbnail view' checkbox. Open the folder you just altered, then select View + Thumbnails. Explorer will create mini versions of your favourite sites.
All in one file
- Go to File + Import and Export and select the Export Favorites option to pack your favorites into a single .HTM file. You can also export individual sections of the Favorites menu.
Customise the Links bar
- Keep your most-visited sites handy by adding them to the Links bar. To create a button, drag a favorite across from the Favorites bar.
Add anything you like
- You can also drag desktop short cuts on to the Links bar, or folders, or files, or even Dial-Up Networking connectoids.
Links bar icons
- To customise a Links bar icon, right-click on the button and select Properties, then click Change Icon. Click Browse for more choices.
Make temporary short cuts
- If you can't follow a link straight away, drag it on to the desktop to create a short cut you can use later on. This also works with links to files.
Even more programs
- You can restart the installation routine if you're missing a vital component. Open Control Panel and double-click Add/Remove Programs. Select 'Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools', click Add/Remove, select 'Add a component' and click OK.
Free Web Accessories
- The basic Web Accessory pack adds eight near-essential menu options and buttons. Get it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/webaccess/default.asp You’ll find other handy extras on the same page.
Third-party add-ons
- Find software for viewing fancy graphics, formatted documents, obscure multimedia files and VRML worlds in the ActiveX Arena at http://browserwatch.internet. com/activex.html
Spot secure sites
- You can be sure you/re connected to a secure server when a) the address begins with https: b) a locked padlock appears in the Status bar and c) right-clicking on the page and selecting Properties tells you the connection is secure. Item c) is the acid test on sites with frames
Change your setting
- To access your security options quickly, double-click on the zone icon (a globe) at the right-hand end of the Status bar.
Disable cookies
- To block cookies (if you must), create a Custom security level in Tools + Internet Options + Security. You can allow or disallow all sorts of things, including regular and per-session cookies.
Stay up to date
- Find out about the latest security problems and download the latest patches by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/security/default.asp
Disconnect automatically
- Make sure Internet Explorer closes the connection if you get distracted. To do this, go to Tools + Internet Options + Connection, select your service provider and click Settings. Under Dial-Up Settings, click Advanced, then select both the Disconnect options.
Use your history
- To check something you looked up recently, select File + Work Offline, then open the History bar. Use the View button to sort the pages by Date, Site, Most Visited or Order Visited, then find the one you want to see again. Internet Explorer should reload it from the Temporary Internet Files folder.
Store more pages
- If you have plenty of hard-disk space, go to Tools + Internet Options + General and increase the number of days pages are kept in your history. In the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Settings button and increase the disk space available for caching pages.
Solve cache problems
- If recently visited pages aren't available off-line, install Cache Sentry from http://www.mindspring.com/~dpoch/enigmatic/
Find image sizes
- Right-click a Web-page image and select Properties to find out its size in bytes and pixels. To check all the images on the current page, install the Web Accessories (see 'Free Web Accessories' tip on previous page ) and use the Images List command.
View source code
- To see the HTML version of a page, right-click on it and select View Source. If a small section of a long page has gone haywire, get the Web Developer Web Accessories (see 'Free Web Accessories'), which add a View Partial Source option
Change your editor
- To add an HTML editor other than Notepad or FrontPage to the drop-down list attached to the Edit button, close Internet Explorer and run Windows Explorer. Select View + Folder Options + File Types and scroll down the list until you find Microsoft HTML Document 5.0 (if you don't have that entry, select Internet Document (HTML) instead). Click the Edit button, select the 'edit' action and click Edit again. Click the Browse button and find your HTML editor's .EXE file. Close all the dialogue boxes and restart Internet Explorer.
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