Browser Options

Internet Explorer is the most useful free browser on the net. Here are a few Explorer tips I find useful.

To search for a particular word or phrase on a web page just press CTRL + F to open the Find dialog.

Hold down the shift key when you click a link to have it open in a new window. If you know you're coming back to the same page, a new window is faster to open and close than backtracking pages.

Hit the Backspace key on your keyboard to go back a page, or press ALT + the Left Arrow. ALT + the Right Arrow goes forward a page, and ALT + Home take you to your home page.

Hit the Spacebar to jump down the page one screen length. Hold the shift key down as you press the Spacebar to jump UP the page. Use the Up and Down Arrows to scroll slower.

In IE 5.5, in most cases you can just type "domain_Name.com" instead of typing the "www" first. IE knows to search for it on the web. Works for most sites, but a few can't be found without the www - that's a server issue, not an IE issue.

CTRL + O opens the dialog to type in a web address.

Press the F11 key to open your browser into full screen mode. Press it again to leave full screen mode.

Right-click the tool bar and select Auto-hide. This hides the tool bar for true full screen surfing. To use the hidden tool bar, just move your mouse to the top edge of the screen. Move your mouse away and it disappears again. You can do this with your taskbar too, by clicking the Start button, pointing to settings, and clicking Taskbar & Start Menu. Then place a check by the Autohide feature and click Apply.

Press the F5 key to reload the page. Press F4 & F5 at the same time to have the page reloaded at the page top instead of wherever you had scrolled to.

Press the Esc key to stop the current page from loading.

Press CTRL + N to open the current page in a new window.

All the usual shortcuts work too. CTRL + P opens the print dialog, CTRL + A highlights everything on the page, CTRL + C copies what you have highlighted.

Have you ever come across a web page where the text was too large or too small to read easily? If you have a mouse with a wheel and use Internet Explorer, just hold down the Ctrl key and roll the wheel. The text will get smaller or larger depending which way you roll the wheel. Neat!

Netscape users and users without a wheel mouse will have to go to the view menu to change text sizes. Netscape reloads the entire page, IE resizes the text without reloading the page.

About the author: Rick Yost is a free lance author both online and off. Being involved as publisher and editor of the local community paper where he resides for over two years has given Rick the knowledge and experience that enables him to put to paper his delicious sense of humour as well as his ability to keep the reader reading. The honest and straight to the point methods he incorporates into his style of writing are a joy to read. Now online! http://www.abetterlover.com