Technology Tips Archive: Internet/Web Browsers

• Changing your homepage
• Organizing your Favorites
• Saving images from a web page
• Using the keyboard to scroll in your browser
• Saving linked documents
• Removing the Headers & Footers on pages printed from your browser
• Open link in new browser window
• Tips and Tricks for Popular Search Engines (open in new window)
• Opening linked documents in Carmen
• Moving around in the browser's address bar

When you open Internet Explorer, do you have a web page coming up first that you wish you could change?
Here's how you do it:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Navigate to the page you want to use as your home page
3. Choose Tools from the menu bar
4. Select Internet Options
5. You will see a box that is labeled Home page. In that box, click the button that says Use Current.

That will set the page you are currently on to be your home page.
Just click OK and you're done.

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Have you saved so many links in your Favorites in Internet Explorer that you can never find the ones you want? You can organize these into folders that will make finding the ones you want easier.

Internet Explorer on the PC:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Favorites
3. Click Organize Favorites

In the window that opens you can create folders for the different types of sites you have saved (i.e. school, work, hobbies, etc.) by clicking the Create Folder button. You can also rename those links that have really long titles.

Then click and drag the links on top of the folder you want them to go into and release the mouse button.

Now whenever you save a new site as a Favorite you will:

• Click Favorites
• Select add to Favorites
• Click the Create in button
• Click on the folder you want to save that link in
• Click OK 

Internet Explorer on the Mac:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Favorites
3. Click Organize Favorites

To add a new folder:

• Click Favorites
• Select Organize Favorites and let the menu expand
• Select New Folder

Now click and drag the links on top of the folder they should go into and release the mouse button.

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Saving images from a web page:
So you're surfing around on the web and you find a picture that you like. You think to yourself, that would be perfect for my PowerPoint lecture but how do I save it on my disk so I can use it later?

Internet Explorer on the PC:

1. Right click on the image/picture
2. Select Save Picture As...
3. Pick a place to save it and click Save

Internet Explorer on the Mac:

1. Press and hold the Control key
2. Click on the image/picture
3. Select Download Image to Disk
4. Pick a place to save it and click Save

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Using the keyboard to scroll in your browser
Have you have scrolled down a long web page only to find you would rather be back up at the top?  Then you find yourself making mouse-click after mouse-click or using that little wheel until you’re back to the top.  Well, there is a better way.  With the press of a single button on the keyboard your back to the top.  Let’s focus on that set of keys between the main part of the keyboard and the number pad.

• Home – moves you to the top of a web page with one press of the button.
• End – moves you to the bottom of a web page with one press of the button.
• Page Up – moves you up one full screen’s worth of material on a web page (i.e. moves up the page in increments equal to the size of your browser window).
• Page Down – moves you down one full screen’s worth of material on a web page (i.e. moves down the page in increments equal to the size of your browser window).
• Up Arrow – scrolls up a web page one line at a time.
• Down Arrow – scrolls down a web page one line at a time.

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Saving linked documents
So you're surfing around on the web and you come across a document that you would like to save to your disk. This document might be a Word file, spreadsheet, PDF, PowerPoint file or whatever.  There has to be an easy way to do this without having to click on the link and wait for the file to open.  Well, there is...

Internet Explorer on the PC:

1. Right click on the image/picture
2. Select Save Target As...
3. Pick a place to save it and click Save

Internet Explorer on the Mac:

1. Press and hold the Control key
2. Click on the link to the document
3. Select Download Link to Disk
4. Pick a place to save it and click Save

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Removing the Headers & Footers on pages printed from your browser
If you are like me when you print a web page from Internet Explorer you find all that extra stuff at the top and bottom of the page annoying.  There is a rather simple way to remove it...

1. Click the File menu
2. Select Page Setup
3. Select and delete the contents of the Header text box to remove the stuff at the top of the page
4. Select and delete the contents of the Footer text box to remove the stuff at the bottom of the page
5. Click Ok

Click here to see a demo of how this is done.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn't admit that some of the stuff is useful sometimes.  With that in mind, the table below should demystify what those funny codes mean and allow you to put them back or customize them.

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Open link in new browser window
There are occasions when you are browsing the Internet where you would prefer to open a link in a new window thereby keeping the current window on the same page.  This process is very simple.

Internet Explorer on the PC: Press and hold the shift button on the keyboard then click on the link.

Internet Explorer on the Mac: Press and hold the command (apple) button on the keyboard then click on the link.

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Opening linked documents in Carmen
The default security settings in Internet Explorer on computers running Windows XP (SP2) are far different from any previous version of windows.   When you click on a linked file (Word document, PowerPoint presentation, Excel spreadsheet, or the like) from Carmen or any other website you may think the link just isn't working because the file doesn't open.  Many users, however, fail to notice the yellow Information Bar that appears at the top of the page.  The following tutorial demonstrates this scenario and how to continue opening the file.

Click here to see how to use the Information Bar to open linked files.

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Moving around in the browser's address bar
So you entered at URL in the browser's address bar (seen highlighted in the picture below) and hit enter but no page is found. Then you noticed you misspelled something in the address. So, you click in the address bar, maneuver you cursor and so on and so on and so on. What's even move frustrating is when that misspelled word in right in the middle of a long address. You ever wonder if there's an easier way? Well, here are a couple tricks that may take the frustration out of it. They work on in Internet Explorer on the PC and both Netscape and Firefox on the PC and Mac.

• Press F6 to quickly highlight the entire URL in the address bar (you don't have to click in the box first, just press F6 from wherever your mouse is)
• Hold the Control key (Option key on the Mac) and use the right or left arrows to move the cursor word by word through the URL
• BONUS TIP: Easily navigate back to your browser's default homepage by holding the Alt key (Command/Apple button on the Mac) and press the Home button on the keyboard.

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