8 Ways to use Internet Explorer more effectively

: Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is the latest web browser from Microsoft and is the successor to IE7. It comes with added features such as accelerators, web slices and many more customising features that were not present in the older versions. IE8 is also more secure and shows improvements in many ways. I’d like to share some interesting tips for you to use. Once IE8 is installed it will over-write your existing IE and after a reboot it will give you the new version.

1. Rearranging the toolbars

The toolbar is locked in IE8. Right-click on the IE8 toolbar area and uncheck “Lock the Toolbars”. By doing this, you can move the Command bar and Favourites bar around with the mouse. You can also move the Favourites button down to the Tabs level and separate it from the Favourites bar.

You can rearrange items on your Favourites bar by dragging items from one spot on the Favourites bar to another. You can also create folders and organise your favourite links, web slices and feeds.
To create folders, right-click an existing item on the favourites bar and then click New Folder. You can then drag items from the Favourites bar into that folder. To remove old links, right-click the item on the Favourites bar, and then click Delete.

2. Change the position of Stop and refresh.

You can change the position of the Stop and Refresh button from after the Address bar to before it. To do this, ight-click on the toolbar area and go to Customize. Next check “Show Stop and Refresh Buttons before Address Bar” and you will have changed the position of those buttons.

3. Wider search bar

For those of you who want a little more space for your Search bar, or little less space for that matter, you can adjust the length of the Search bar in IE8. For this you just put your mouse in the area between the search bar and the address bar and adjust it accordingly.

4. Adding links

There are three ways to add a link to the Favourites bar in IE8: you can either drag the web page icon from the Address bar directly to the Favourites bar. Alternatively, you can drag a link located on the web page to the Favourites bar, or lastly you could just click the Add to Favourites button and then click on Add to Favourites Bar.

5. Subscribing and previewing web slices

Web slices is an interesting new feature added to IE8. It keeps you updated not with an entire web site, but a particular section or part of a web page. For example, once you subscribe to a web slice such as an auction price, you will be able to see the updated content and this appears as a link on the Favourites bar. When the Web slice is updated, the link on the Favourites bar will appear in bold.

You can then click the link to see the updated content. When a Web slice is available, the colour of the Web slice icon will change on the Command bar. The Web slice icon will also appear on the content that you can add to the Favourites bar.
To subscribe to a Web slice and add it to the Favourites bar, you can either click the Web slice button on the Command bar or click the Web slice icon on the page. Your subscribed Web slice will appear on the left side of the Favourites bar.
When there is an update on one of your subscribed web slices, that link will be high-lighted on the Favourites bar. You can also preview the Web slice that you have added to the Favourites bar without leaving the web site you are currently viewing.
Just click on the Web slice link on the Favourites bar to bring up a rich preview of the web page, which you can then click to navigate to that site if you want.

6. Compatibility view

Not all web sites on the internet have evolved to be compatible with IE8 and so Microsoft has introduced the Compatibility View option with its browser. This will allow you to view the web site as if you were viewing it on the previous version, i.e. IE7, so that no major changes need to be made on the web site’s front. This option is located next to the address bar, right before the stop and refresh buttons.

This feature, once clicked, will only work on the site you have used it with and not other sites that you will visit in the future. IE8 also allows you to maintain a list of the web sites that you want to use with the compatibility view options.

For this, go to Tools > Compatibility View Settings from the menu bar. This settings window will allow you to add or remove web sites to be viewed without all the IE8 features. There is an option that you can check “Include updated website lists from Microsoft” which will get an updated compatibility list from Microsoft itself. For those who don’t want any changes to be viewed at all, you can opt to view all the web sites in Compatibility View by putting a check next to “Display all websites in Compatibility View”.

7. Accelerators

Everyday browsing tasks like translating a word or a line, mapping an address and other such tasks are normally done by opening a new web site for each one separately. IE8 has an interesting new feature to perform all these tasks on the spot, making browsing more efficient.

When you highlight some text on the web site you are currently viewing a small icon appears — the Accelerators icon. Either click that icon or simply right-click to get a list of options that you can perform for your selection.
By default, you can add that text to your Windows Live Blog, email with Windows Live, Map with Live Search, Search with Google and even Translate with Live Search, and other such daily tasks. Some of them don’t even need you to visit another web site.

For example, a definition of the high-lighted word will be displayed in a small box when you just mouse over one of the accelerator options. You can download and add more accelerators from www ieaddons com.

8. Caret browsing

An alternative to using a mouse to select text and navigate around within a web page, you can use the navigation keys on the keyboard — Home, End, Page Up, Page Down and the arrow keys. This feature in IE8 is called caret browsing. To use this feature, you just need to hit the [F7] key. On activating caret browsing, click once on any text on the web site you are currently viewing. You will see a cursor that you can now navigate with freely.

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