Browser tips

[JDArt]

Since we all spend a lot of time in our web browsers, here are some tips I believe make life easier:

Quicker tabs
Firefox's original claim to fame was its tabbed interface. But now that Internet Explorer 7 has tabs as well, everyone can enjoy looking through multiple web sites without spawning a plethora of browser windows.

Most people use the slow way to open a new page in a tab. In In Internet Explorer, instead of clicking a new tab and then opening a web page, hold down the Ctrl key and click a link you'd like to appear in a new tab. The page will open in a new tab while leaving focus on the current page. Hold down Shift and Ctrl at the same time while clicking a link to open the page in a foreground tab, stealing the focus from any page already displayed.

In Firefox, instead of righ-clicking a link and choosing Open Link in New Tab, click a link with your mouse scrool wheel button to open it immediately in a new tab. You can also use the Ctrl and Shift-Ctrl keyboard shortcuts that apply to IE7

Shorthand searches
Many people spend a lot of time typing the "www" and ".com" of web addresses. In both Firefox and IE7, that's unnecessary.

Instead, just click in the Address bar of either web browser, type the root of the URL --for example, just "microsoft"--and press Ctrl-Enter. Either browser will automatically insert the "www" in front of the word and ".com" at the end, giving you the complete address you need to reach the web site.

In Firefox, you can also press Shift-Enter to have the browser append ".net" to the word, and Ctrl-Shift-Enter will take you to ".org" addresses.

Nifty zooms
Having trouble reading text on a web page? Both IE7 and Firefox have handy zoom features with which you can quickly increase and decrease the size of text on a page.

In either browser, hold down the Ctrl key and click the plus (+) symbol on the numeric keypad of your keyboard to increase the size of text. Use Ctrl in conjunction with the minus symbol to decrease the size. To reset the text size, hold down the Ctrl key and press the zero (0) key.

In IE7, you can also do the same thing if you have a scroll wheel on your mouse. Hold down the Ctrl key and move the scroll wheel forward or backward to increase or decrease the text size. If you don't have a scroll wheel.

Living with AutoComplete
The AutoComplete features of IE7 and Firefox are great if you don't want to retype data constantly into form fields and if you have no concerns about privacy on the PC you use. But plenty of people forego the advantages of AutoComplete for fear that their histories can be used against them somehow.

No problem. IE7 makes removing AutoComplete history simple. From the Tools menu, click Delete Browsing History. You'll then have the option of which types of browsing history to remove. At any time in IE, you can press Ctrl-H to get see exactly which sites you've visited. Right-clicking any of them will present a pop-up menu from which you can select Delete.

Firefox is just as effective at helping you stay secure. To eliminate AutoComplete history in Firefox, open the Tools menu, and click Options, Privacy. Explore the options in the Private Data area to determine exactly which AutoComplete information and history data you'd like to remove--and when.