Internet Explorer 5 Tips and Tricks

More IE 5 Tips

Stop IE 5 From Nagging About Connections

IE 5 Beta II always asks you if you want to close your connection after closing IE 5. To stop this annoyance open Internet Explorer 5. On your toolbar at the top you'll find Tools. Click on it and select Internet options. Select the tab that says: Connections. Along the right is the Settings button (make sure your internet provider(or default DUN) is highlighted in the "Dial-Up Settings" section). Hit the Settings button. Along the right of this screen is the Advanced button. Click it. You should see "Disconnect when all Internet applications exit"--now, uncheck the box there.

Disabling The Friendly http Error Messages

Internet Explorer 5 recognizes http error messages (such as "Error 404: Page not found" etc.) and displays a friendly version in the browser. If you would prefer to see the proper error pages for the particular web server you're using, go to Tools/Internet Options and select the Advanced tab. Then uncheck the Show friendly http errors box.

Printing Tip

It is possible to change the headers and footers that Internet Explorer adds when you print a page, though it's a little hidden! In Internet Explorer, go to File, Page Setup... and click the question mark button in the top right corner, next to the close button. Then click on either the Header or Footer text box. It will give you a list of all the codes that you can put in those boxes. Of course, if you don't want any headers or footers, leave the boxes empty.

Internet Explorer 5.0 Favorites Organization

The interface itself is neat and tidy, and it is controlled from Favorites | Organize Favorites. Here's where it all starts:

ie50favoritb2.gif (11079 bytes)

Here's a description of what they all mean:

Create Folder - Clicking here is a pretty obvious one. This will create a new folder for you in your favorites.

Delete - this option will either let you delete a whole folder, or simply delete a single favorite.

Rename - this lets you rename any of your folders or single favorites.

Move to Folder - Simply lets you move folders and favorites to different positions in the menu.

Now then, along the bottom of the menu are the newer options, here is what they do...Once you have selected a favorite or a folder that is.

Make Available Offline - Synchronize means that Internet Explorer 5 will download all of your favorites that you have selected to make sure you have the most up-to date information available to you.

IE 5 Tip

To assign a page as your homepage just drag its link from the address bar to the Home toolbar button or if you already on the page drag the little icon with the "e" on it to to Home toolbar button. This works on IE 4 too.

IE 5 Keyboard Shortcuts

[Backspace]
Pressing [Backspace] takes you from the current document to the previous document you accessed.
[Shift]+[Backspace]
This key combination takes you forward one document.
[Esc]
The [Esc] key operates just like the Stop button and lets you stop loading the current document. This function is helpful when a document is taking too long to load. When you press [Esc], Internet Explorer will display the page data it has already loaded.
[F5]
Pressing [F5] reloads a Web page. This key can be helpful if Internet Explorer has to load a Web page from its cache (which it will do if it has trouble getting through to the host server). Pressing [F5] tells Internet Explorer to retrieve the most recent copy of the current page from the host server.
[Ctrl]+P
This key combination prints the current document. If the document contains frames, pressing [Ctrl]P prints the current frame.
[Ctrl]+S
This key combination will save the current document as an HTML file.
[Home]
Pressing [Home] will quickly take you to the top of a Web page.
[End]
Pressing [End] lets you quickly move to the bottom of a Web page.
[Page Up] and [Page Down]
You can use the [Page Up] and [Page Down] keys as alternatives to the scroll bar. Pressing these keys will let you scroll up or down a Web page one screen at a time. You can also use + or [ to scroll up or down one line at a time.
[Ctrl]+A
Pressing [Ctrl]A lets you highlight all the text on a Web page so you can quickly copy it.
[Ctrl]+O
This key combination displays a dialog box for opening files from your hard drive.
[Ctrl]+N
The [Ctrl]N key combination lets you open a new Internet Explorer browser window.
[Ctrl]+W
This key combination closes the current browser window.
[Shift]+[mouse click]
This key-and-mouse combination lets you copy sections of text from a Web page. Place the cursor at the beginning of a text section, and press the [Shift] key as you click the mouse button. Next, place the cursor at the end of the section, and press the [Shift] key as you click the mouse button again. Internet Explorer will highlight the section for copying. All of these work on IE 4 too.

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Some of the tips posted here were originally posted on Active IE.