Internet Explorer Tips & Tricks
Dual-pane Web searchesUsing search engines can be a hassle, you have to enter a search, click a link, and then, if the link doesn't turn out to be what you wanted, browse backwards to return to your search results page. Internet Explorer solves the problem with its Search Bar. When you click the Internet Explorer Search icon, a narrow window appears in the left-hand side of the browser. Select a search engine, then type in your search terms. Click Search, and your result appears in the left window without affecting the right side of the screen. Click a result's link, and the target page appears in the right-hand window, leaving your list of results in the left hand window. Once you find a page that has the info you want, click the Search button again to toggle the Search Bar off. You can click the Search button at any time to toggle the Search Bar on again.
Internet Explorer's Search Bar is cool, but the narrow left-hand window doesn't have room for descriptions of the sites returned by your searches. Instead, you get a title-only list of search results. But you can find out more about each result. Just move the cursor over a link in the left-hand Search Bar window and hold it there. A pop-up tip appears, listing the URL and other relevant information about the page, including some sample text, as long as the search engine you are using supports this feature.
Open Link in New WindowThe more experienced Web Surfers would have recognized this title and know you can find it by right-clicking a link and choosing Open in New Window from the menu.
But now there is a faster way:
Hold down the Shift key, then click any link with the left mouse button. A new Internet Explorer browser window pops up (with the Web page for the link).
Organize Your FavoritesYou start by selecting Favorites > Organize Favorites from the menu.
Here is a description of what the buttons do:
Create Folder: Clicking here is a obvious. This will create a new folder in your favorites. If you've already selected a folder, it will create a sub-folder
Rename: This lets you rename any of your folders or a
favoriteMove to Folder: This lets you move selected items to an other folder
Delete: This will either let you delete a whole folder, or simply delete a single favorite, depending on your selection.
When you select a favorite, you will see a new option on the left - Make available offline - This will make Internet Explorer 5 download all of your favorites that you have selected to make sure you have the most up-to date information available to you (for offline reading). If you select the Make available offline box, you'll see a button (called Properties) which lets you customize the connection, schedule frequency & time and the amount of data to download.
Mail - Send PageClick the Mail button on the Internet Explorer toolbar, and you will notice something new in addition to the long-standing "Read Mail", "New Message" and "Send a Link" choices you may remember from earlier versions of Mail. The Send Page option lets you ship off the entire HTML source code of the page you are viewing. If your recipients have e-mail clients that can view HTML files directly, they won't have to connect to the Web to view the page.
Before you send the message select Send Pictures with message From the Tools menu. This will show the pictures as inline images, not as attachments!
Removing the Internet Explorer icon from your desktop
If you like to like to keep your desktop free from unnecessary clutter, you may have wondered if you could remove the Internet Explorer icon from your desktop. After all it's much easier to launch Internet Explorer by clicking its icon in the Quick Launch tool bar.
To remove the Internet Explorer icon from your desktop, launch Internet Explorer, pull down the Tools menu, and select the Internet Options command. When you see the Internet Options dialog box, select the Advanced tab. Then, scroll though the Settings list until you locate the Show Internet Explorer On the Desktop check box. Now, click the check box to clear it. Finally, click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.