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Removing Old Favorites Links
IE Favorites is a great way to mark a quick link to web sites, however, sometimes the links become dead due to the site being remove. Or maybe you just want to clean out your Favorites of links you just don't use anymore. Here is an easy way. First, click on the Favorites button in the Internet Explorer menu.

Go to the link you want to remove. Right click on the link and a context menu will appear.

In this menu, left click on delete, and the link is gone.

 

Finding My Neighbors On The Net
Got this request sent in from Mike in Rotterdam. We must admit this was a little challenge, but here is what we came up with. Mike wanted to know if there was an easy way using the Net to find the names and phone numbers for all those who lived on his street so he could contact them pertaining an important issue effecting his neighborhood.

For this, you use Any Who service. First click on this Any Who link. At the site, click on the Reverse Lookup tab.

Enter your area code and phone number, and click the Find It button. Your name and address will appear. You will notice that your street name is a link. Click on your street link, and you will get a name, address and phone listing for everyone who is on your street or road. The only draw back is that unpublished numbers are not searchable, but Any Who does offer both free and paid services for locating people by last names.

 

Creating Shortcuts In IE Links Bar
This tip actually deals with putting a link to Outlook Express in your Internet Explorer Links Bar, but you can use the same method to put a link to any program. Having Outlook Express in your browser links bar saves time when you want to check or send mail when Outlook is not already open.

First, click the Restore button in the top right of Internet Explorer.

This will reduce IE to a window view giving you a view of your desktop. Next drag and drop the Outlook Express icon from the desktop to the Links Bar of Internet Explorer. Be sure to place it between any of the existing links. This will put a copy of the link in the bar. You can place the link any where in the bar, or move it later if you want.

 

Keystrokes For Better Browsing
If you have a current version of Internet Explorer, here are some keystroke features you may not know about. First, have you ever wanted to search for a specific word on a web page? Well, simply hold down the Ctrl key and hit the "F" key. In the search box, type the work you need to search for and click on Find Next.

Internet Explorer also has a full screen mode, but is not available on your IE bar by default. But simply press the "F11" key to toggle between full view and the regular screen. Try it now!

Here are some other IE keystrokes that you may find useful.
UP ARROW -- Scroll toward the beginning of a page
DOWN ARROW -- Scroll toward the end of a page
CTRL+N -- Open new browser window
CTRL+W -- Close current window (good for cleaning up pop-ups)
CTRL + E -- Open the Search bar

 

Research The Net With Related Links
If you have a current version of Internet Explorer and like to research using the Internet, or just want to find similar information, try using the related links option. First, goto the web site that you want to research related information. Now click on Tools, then click on Show Related Links.

A side search window will appear with web sites that contain related information. Try it out! (Note: just click the X in the upper right corner of the search window to close it if you want)

 

Broadband Abuse
 This is more of an etiquette tip than a system tip but we felt this was important. With many of you opting for Road Runner in place of dialup, it's easy to forget that not everyone has a high speed Internet connection. When sending a file or a picture as an e-mail attachment, keep in mind who you are sending it to. What may take a few seconds or minutes for a Road Runner customer to send or receive, may take many minutes or hours for someone with a dial up connection to receive.

Keep your e-mail attachments small when sending them to dial up friends and family. Pictures should be kept under 50K in size, and don't try to send large file attachments like video's unless your sending them to someone who has high speed access.

 

Making A Web Site Your IE Home Page
 Sue wants to know how to set a particular web site page to open whenever you start Internet Explorer. Many web site offer the option of customizing information or news you want to track, or there may be a site that you like to check out each day. My favorite site is MSNBC. Here is how you can set Internet Explorer to go to a particular web site when ever you log on.

First, go to the site you wish to save as your start up page. Next, click on Tools in the tool bar of Internet Explorer. Then click on Internet Options.

In the Home Page section of Internet Options, click on Use Current, then click OK at the bottom. Now when you open Internet Explorer and log on, you will go directly to the site page you selected.

To return to your IE home page at anytime, just click the little home icon in the IE menu bar.

 

Formatting Web Pages For Printing
 If you have the need to print Web pages that you view, Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher has a great feature for viewing and formatting the page prior to printing. When you get to the Web page you have to print, click on File, then Print Preview, and the print preview menu will appear. Tip, if the Web page you have to print takes up more than one page of paper, set the zoom to 50% for a side by side preview. Next click on the page set up icon next to the word Print.

This will open the page setup menu shown below.

From here you can set up your margins, header and footer. The default margins as shown work best with no footer specified. The header code shown in the above example will print the current page number and total pages. To specify your own custom header and footer, click the question mark in the top right corner of this menu. Then move your mouse over the header of footer text bar and left click. You will now have a complete list of footer and header formats that you can enter into the header or footer text bar to customize your page. Tip, Web pages usually print best with Orientation set to Portrait. When done, click OK and then click the Print button to print your Web page or pages.

 

Correct Internet Disconnects
This ASW Quick Tip is a result from a question submitted by Judy from Gloversville. She likes to stay connected to the Internet for long periods so she can check her e-mail during the day, and to surf the web without having to connect each time. But she gets disconnected about every 20 minutes. Now some ISP's automatically disconnect your connection during a long period of no activity, but in her case the Dial Up setting was causing the disconnect. Here is how to change or disable this feature.

When using Internet Explorer, click on Tools and then Internet Options. Click on the Connections tab to go to the connections properties. Click the Settings button, then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Dial Up options.

Here you can either check the box to disconnect if idle, and set the time up to 59 minutes, or uncheck the Disconnect if idle box to disable the feature all together. Disconnect when connection may no longer be needed should always be checked.

Now just click the OK's to get back to Internet Explorer and set the changes active. Next time you connect, you will not be disconnected when idle, unless you have specified a time.

 

Organizing Your Favorites
For those of you who's IE Favorites list is longer than your arm, you may want to consider organizing your url links in separate folders in your Favorites list. If you have a current version of Internet Explorer, here's how to do it.

Click on Favorites in IE, in the context menu, click on Organize Favorites. In the Organize Favorites menu, you can click on Create Folder to do just that. Create categorized folders for your different favorites. Next, you can drag and drop the favorites into their respective folders. When you click on a folder it will expand to show what's in it. When your done organizing, click Close.

Now, the next time you click on Favorites, you will have a categorize Favorites listing that will operate just like the Windows Start Menu.

 

Saving Web Page Links To Favorites
Most of you know how to save a page to your favorites. But what if you have several links on a Web page and would like to save them to your favorites without having to go to each page. Just right click on the link and a context menu will appear. Then left click on Add To Favorites. Now just save the favorite as you normally would.

 

Changing Font Size In Internet Explorer
This is for those of you who use Internet Explorer as your web browser. If you find that the text is just a little too small to easily read on sites that you visit, here's an easy way to increase text font for your viewing pleasure. While on the Net, click on View located at the top of Internet Explorer. Select Text Size and a context menu will appear. Here you can click on your choice to make text larger or smaller. Great for making hard to read web sites easier for those of you like me who's eyes are not what they used to be.

 

Saving A Picture From The Internet 
If you find a picture or logo on the Net that you would like to save for later use in a document or other project, here is a simple method for doing so. Right click on the picture you want to save. In the context menu, left click on "save picture as". Select the file type you would like to save it in, jpg or bmp is suggested. Give the file a name you can easily remember, and select the destination folder in the "save in" box where you want to store it. Then click OK to save. My recommendation is that you create a photo folder on your hard drive to save all pictures to. Once you set the "save in" path, this will be the default folder on any future picture saves.

 

Sending A Web Page Using Internet Explorer
While Net surfing have you ever found a web page that you would like to share with someone? Well here's how. While viewing the page you want to send, click the File menu, point to Send, and then click either Page by E-mail to send a copy of the page or Link by E-mail to send a shortcut to it. This will open a new E-mail message with the page or shortcut already attached. Select who you want to send it to, included a message if you like, and click send. The message with attachment will be delivered the next time you send and receive E-mail.

 

IE Return Index
This is a handy feature for Internet Explorer 4.0 and higher users. When surfing the Internet, you may want to return to a page you were at previously, that you did not save to your Favorites. Instead of repeatedly clicking on the Back Arrow or having to re-type the site address, just click on the little Down Arrow that is to the right of the Back Arrow. An index of your previously visited sites will appear. Click on the site you want to return to, and your there.

 

Internet Explorer New Window
Right click on a link, left click on "Open In New Window". This allows you to view the new link in another browser window without closing the page you were on. You can do this many times, and is great for viewing multiple pages without having to find your way back to the original web page you were on.

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