Internet Explorer Tips and Tricks
Set a New Home Page
To change your home page go to the top of your browser and click Tools / Internet Options. When the dialog box appears you will see different tabs at the top. Click the General tab. Type in the URL that you wish to use for your homepage in the address field. For example, if you wanted to set google as your homepage you would type http://www.google.com in the address field. Once you have typed in the address of your choice, click apply and then ok. The next time you open your browser it will automatically go to the website you typed in. You can also drag the icon from the address bar onto the homepage button and Internet Explorer will set the current page as your home page.
Change Text Size
Can’t read that small text? Is the text to big? Not a problem. The first thing you need to do is set Internet Explorer to override web page settings. To override Internet Explorer click Tools / Internet Options, click the General tab, then click on Accessibility. A dialog box will appear, check the top three boxes in the Accessibility dialog box. Once you have checked the boxes, click ok. Click ok on the Internet Options box. At the top of your browser click View / Text Size and click the size of your choice. If you have a scrolling mouse, you can also hold down ctrl key and scroll will increase and decrease text size on most pages (not all).
Navigate Easily
Do you ever get tired of typing the whole address in? For example, www.google.com.. Then this shortcut is for you. Type in google in the address window and press Ctrl/Enter. That will automatically add the www. and .com to the name you typed in.
Enabling Auto Complete
If you fill out forms a lot, chances are you get tired of having to fill in everything. By enabling Auto Complete you won’t need to fill in the same things every time. Auto Complete will fill in forms for you after you type the first letter in the box. To turn Auto Complete on, at the top of your browser click Tools / Internet Options. When the dialog box appears click the Content tab. In the Personal Information box you will see Auto Complete. Click that button and check all the boxes that appear in the new dialog box. Then click ok in that dialog box and ok in the Internet Options box. Now you can quickly fill out forms of the internet.
Clearing Your History
Did you know that Internet Explorer stores records of every website you visit on your hard drive? Anyone can get on your computer and see where you have been and what you have been doing. So you may want to clear your history often. To clear your history, click Tools / Internet Options. When the dialog box appears, click on Clear History. Then click ok. That is all there is to it. Now your history has been erased.
Clearing Your Cookies
In the above tip I showed you how to clear your history. However, the history folder is not the only place Internet Explorer stores records. It also stores records in your Cookies folder. To clear your cookies, click Tools / Internet Options. When the dialog box appears, click on Clear Cookies. Then click ok. Now you have erased the cookies off of your computer.
Opening A New Window
Instead of going through the Start / Programs / Internet Explorer option to open a new browser, just press Ctrl N on your keyboard. This will quickly open a new browser.
Printing A Page
Are you looking at a web page that you would like to print out? Don’t spend all that time trying to get it to print. Instead, simply press Ctrl P on your keyboard. Ctrl P will print the page out that you are viewing.
Organizing Your Favorites
Do you have so many book marked sites that you can’t sort through them? Then you need to organize them. Organizing your favorites into folders makes it easier to find what you are looking for. To organize your favorites, click Favorites at the top of your browser, then click Organize Favorites. A dialog box will appear with all your favorites in the right hand window. On the left you will see four buttons: Create Folder, Move to Folder, Rename, and Delete. Click Create Folder, a folder will appear in the right hand window. Type in the name you want this folder to be called. For example, Lyrics. Now click one time on one of your lyrics sites and drag it over the lyrics folder. Release the mouse and this will place this site inside the lyrics folder. You can make as many folders as you need. Once you have organized your favorites the way you want them, simply click close and your favorites are organized to your liking.
Finding Something On A Web Page
Are you looking for a particular name or title on a web page but don’t want to read the entire page? Then click Ctrl F. This will bring up a dialog box with a field for you to type in what you are looking for. In the Find What Box, type in what you are looking for and click find next. This will highlight the word on the webpage that you typed in the Find box. Once you have found what you are looking for, click cancel.
Now fire up that browser and try a few out. For more information on Internet Explorer tips, tricks, and features visit Microsoft’s home page located at: http://www.microsoft.com.
