Tips & Tricks-February 2003

Browser Bits

In the course of using browsers (Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 7.0, I keep finding interesting little functions that I didn't know about. They may have existed in previous versions as well-I just didn't notice.

I will pass these on to you and you probably know some too. I welcome additions or corrections to the information in these columns. It is by sharing our knowledge that we gain the greatest benefit from a user group.

As most Internet users are using Internet Explorer (IE), I am going to start with it.

Moving Back and Forward

In the bar of standard buttons at the top of IE, there is a back and a forward button. As you're surfing along, you can use either button to go from the current page to the previous page or forward to the page you just left. Both buttons will display the name of the page you will go to if you keep the cursor above the button for a second or two. Notice that there is a little down arrow on the right side of each button. If you have been navigating through several pages, the down arrow will display a list of the pages you have visited. You can select the page you want to return to without having to go back through several pages. You can do the same with the forward button.

Another item on the button list is "History." You can click on "History" or use Ctrl + H to open a list of the sites you have visited on the left side of the screen. You can view the list in date order, site order, most visited, and the sites visited today. The sites included will depend on the settings you give IE in the Internet Options. When you go to Tools, Internet Options, the first tab is the "General" section. There is a box for History where you can set the number of days that will be retained. You can also clear the History-a good tool if you don't want another user to know where you've been surfing.

You can search the list of sites as well.

Viewing Tricks

Some sites in the world appear to be designed for people with very good vision as they use typefaces that are almost unreadable, particularly if your monitor is set for a higher resolution.

IE has a couple of ways to help with that problem. The first works on some, but not all web sites. If you go to "View" on the top menu and find "Text Size" you will see a list going from "Largest" to "Smallest." You can try changing these settings to get a better view of the page.

On some sites, you will need to change some additional settings. Go to Tools, Internet Options and find the Accessibility button on the bottom right. When you click on that, the following dialog box opens:

You can click on one or more of the options until you get the page to look the way you want. Usually the one the works is "Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages," but you may have to select "Ignore font styles specified." as well. Then go back to View and set the text size.

Netscape

First, I will confess that I don't use Netscape unless I have to for testing web pages.

Netscape 7.0 has essentially the same functions on its back and forward buttons as Internet Explorer. You click on an arrow on the left side of the button and you can see a list of the pages you have visited in the current session. The button does not contain a link to the History. You can edit your preferences in Netscape to designate the number of pages that you can retain on the back button. You can also access the History in a different way.

There is a left side menu that can be customized to include a number of different lists, including bookmarks. History can be added to the list in "My Sidebar" by clicking on "Tabs" on its own top menu. If you are using Netscape as your email client, you can add your address book to the Sidebar as well.

As for changing font sizes while you're browsing, Netscape can do it, too. If you go to the View menu, you will find "Text Zoom." It allows you more choices of font sizes as well as a couple of different ways to scale the change. You can specify percentage of change or simply click on "Smaller" or "Larger" until you get the size you want. You can actually change the size to any percentage you desire. If you need to view a few words at a time, set it to 2000%, the highest zoom I could get it to accept. The text remains quite clear, just very very large. Of course, graphics do not get enlarged. One other note, alt tags, which are way to display information about a graphic image do not appear to work with Netscape 7.0. Not only do the tags supply information to sighted users, but they are used by screen readers for the vision-impaired to provide information about graphics on the screen.

Netscape has one other function that looks interesting-when you fill out a form on-line, it can save the information that you provide in the form. You can then go back and view the data that you entered into the form. This is useful when you enter data for an on-line purchase. You can track what you entered without having to print a copy of the form. I was not able to test this much so you will need to take a look at it yourself. Let me know what you find out.

Other functions include a password manager to assist you with all the passwords you have for different sites, Yahoo Groups, accounts with sites, etc. Of course, you need a master password. This looked interesting as well.

I have only touched the surface of features that can make your browsing experience easier. Check out the browsers for yourself to see what you can find.