Internet Explorer

Now that your computer is configured to dial into the Internet, you're ready to "Surf the Web!" First, log on to the Internet and then launch your Web browser.

In order to become familiar with the various options that exist with Microsoft Internet Explorer, it is important to understand how it is configured. The Internet Explorer window is set up as follows (from top to bottom) the Title Bar shows you the name of the Web page you are currently viewing, the Menu Bar lists Internet Explorer's menus, the Toolbar provides quick access to the most commonly used commands and options and the Address Bar gives you the address (URL) of the Web document you are viewing in the bottom pane. To see where a link will take you, hold your mouse pointer over a link without clicking and a URL will appear in the bottom left corner of your browser window.

Back - Takes you to the preceding page

Forward - Takes you to the next page

Stop - Stops downloading the current page
Refresh - Reloads the page you are viewing

Home - Reloads your default Home Page

Search - Allows you to search the Internet

Mail - Allows you to access Email

News - Allows you to access Usenet

Favorites - Bookmarks a URL that you want to return to later

Larger - Increases the browser text size

Smaller - Decreases the browser text size

Preferences - Allows you to customize features of your browser

NAVIGATING THE WEB

To go to another page, either click hyper linked text or graphics on the Web page you are viewing, or manually type it in to the Address Bar (for example "http://www.microsoft.com") and hit Enter. Once you have visited several Web pages, you can quickly return to them by using the Back and Forward buttons, or by selecting a website from the Go menu.

SAVING YOUR FAVORITE PAGES

If you find a Web page that you think you would like to return to often, you can bookmark it by selecting Add Favorites from the Favorites Menu. Then, if you want to return to the site in the future, you only need to go to Favorites and pull down until you highlight the site name. Once you add a site to your Favorites list, you can organize them into folders, for example "Sports", "News" or "Music."

CUSTOMIZING YOUR DISPLAY

1. Fonts: HTML, the Web's descriptive language, is font-independent. That means the viewer of a page, not the creator, determines the fonts used. There are two classes of fonts: proportional and fixed. Proportional fonts (a good example is this book) allocate a different size space for each letter. For instance an "i" takes up less space than an "m." With a fixed font (a good example is a typewriter), each letter takes up the same amount of space. By selecting Tools then Internet Options from the menu bar and then clicking the Fonts button, you, the user, get to specify a font of your choice for each class. Just keep in mind that the text on every Web page you see will be displayed in these fonts.

2. Colors: Anyone with a color monitor should take advantage of modifying Internet Explorer's colors to suit their own needs. Select Tools then Internet Options from the menu bar and click the Colors button. From here you can change the color of text, links and followed links (links that you've already visited). So if you've had it with black, blue and purple, feel free to invent your own color scheme! You can also change the background color of Web pages. To change colors, just click the colored boxes and select a new color from the color wheel. And if you think underlined links are a bit redundant, feel free to remove them. You can also adjust the base font size from this menu. Users with smaller monitors (13" or 14") might want to select a smaller font size.

3. The Browser Window: To customize your browser window, hold your mouse pointer over one of the shaded areas to the left of the Tool Bar, Menu Bar and Address Bar at the top. Your pointer should turn into a hand. Now you can grab and drag the Bars so that they are hidden or rearranged to suit your taste. If you have a small screen, eliminating them will add almost another vertical inch to your browser window.

4. Default Home Page: Feel free to change your default home page, i.e. the page that loads every time you start your Web browser. If you are visiting a page and you would like to make it your default page, select Tools then Internet Options from the menu bar and click the General Tab. Then click the Use Current button.

5. Images: If you find Web pages are loading too slowly, you can surf faster by turning off images. Select Tools the Internet Options from the Tool Bar and click the Advanced Tab. Scroll down till you see Multimedia and uncheck Show Pictures. If you really want to see the image behind the broken link box, just click on it to load the image manually. You can also adjust the quality of the images loaded by checking Dither Colors and Best Quality.

6. Opening Multiple Windows: Just because Microsoft Internet Explorer starts you off with one browser window, there's no reason to stop there. Go to File and select New Window. You will now have two windows open, each displaying a separate Web page.

DOWNLOADING UPDATED VERSIONS

Microsoft comes out with a new version of Internet Explorer every few months. To download a new version, just visit http://www.microsoft.com . Note the file is very large and may take a few hours to download to your hard drive.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

A detailed manual comes with Internet Explorer. To read it, just launch Internet Explorer, and select "Open File" from the File menu. Then locate the "Help" folder within your Internet Explorer folder. Select "topics.htm" and begin reading!