Using IE 4

A visual guide to using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4 Web browser

By Rose Vines

B. Menus. Most of the functions you'll want to use are conveniently located on IE's toolbars. If you need a more complete list or more options, check out the menus at the top of the screen. In particular, the Favorites Menu is useful: when you come across a site you really like and would like to re-visit, open the Favorites Menu and choose Add To Favorites. You can then revisit the site any time by opening the Favorites Menu and choosing the site from the list. It's also worth checking out Internet Options on the View Menu. This lets you adjust how Internet Explorer behaves. C. Navigation Buttons. The Back and Forward buttons let you move back and forwards between pages you've visited recently. If you let your mouse pointer linger over either button, a ToolTip will tell you the name of the next or previous page. Click the down-arrow beside either button to see a list of recently visited pages. You can go directly to a page by choosing it from the list. If a site is taking a long time to load, click the Stop button and then the Reload button to try to get it to load faster.
D. The Title Bar. Check the Title Bar for the name of the current page you're visiting.
E. Explorer Buttons. These four toolbar buttons grouped together are called the Explorer Buttons. Pressing any of these four buttons -- Search, Favorites, History or Channels -- will activate the Explorer Bar (G) on the left side of the browser screen. In the Explorer bar you can search (using a variety of search engines), rummage through your favourites, dig through your history cache (a list of all the pages you've visited in the last days or weeks) or surf through 'push' content on Webcast channels.

A. The Address Bar. This is where you type the name of the Web site you wish to visit. You usually don't need to type the http:// part of an address if the rest of the address begins with www: the browser will add the http part for you.
Click the down-arrow at the right of the box to select from previously visited sites. There's also an AutoComplete feature: start typing an address you've used before and IE will attempt to complete it for you.

For addresses in the .com domain (that is, addresses which begin with www and end with .com there's an additional shortcut: type the name of the site only and press Ctrl+Enter -- IE will add www. at the beginning and .com at the end.

You can also use the Address Bar to perform a quick search for a site by typing go, find or ? followed by one or more search keywords and pressing Enter. For instance, to do a search for Web sites about merino lambs, you could type go merino sheep in the address box.
F. Toolbars. The toolbars contain shortcuts for all the most important browser functions. There's an Address Bar, a Standard toolbar, and a Links bar. You can move these toolbars around and resize them by clicking-and-dragging on the double-bar at the left-hand end of the toolbars (including the Menu bar). You can arrange them any way you like at the top of the screen. If you'd like your toolbars to take up less space (as shown in this screenshot), choose Internet Options from the View Menu, click the Advanced tab, and in the Toolbar area select Small Icons.
The Links toolbar gives you one-click access to sites. Microsoft stocks the Links bar with its own selections. You can get rid of these by right-clicking them and choosing Delete from the pop-up menu. You can then add your own links: add the current page by dragging the icon from the Address bar onto the Links bar; add any link from the current page by dragging-and-dropping the link onto the Links bar. Rearrange links by dragging-and-dropping them anywhere on the Links bar.

G. Explorer Bar. The Explorer Bar lets you search in the left-hand side of the browser window without disturbing the contents of your main browser window. When you discover a site you want to visit, you can drag-and-drop its link from the Explorer Bar into the main window to visit it. The Explorer Bar is also used for displaying your Favorites, History or Channels. The contents of the Explorer Bar changes depending on whether you click the Search, Favorites, History or Channels button on the standard toolbar. You can make the Explorer Bar disappear by deselecting all those buttons, or by clicking the X in the top-right corner of the Bar.

H. The current site. The site you're visiting is displayed here. You can click any of the links to move to another page on the same site, or another site altogether. You'll notice your mouse pointer changes shape, or you get some other visual cue, when you point to a clickable link. You can close the Explorer Bar to see more of the current page. You can also click Full Screen button (the fourth button from the right on the standard toolbar) to clear up more space for displaying the current page. I. Security Zones. Internet Explorer uses Security Zones to set different levels of security and access for different sites. These settings provide warnings when you're about to send information to a Web site, as well as setting protection levels for receiving content. Unless you're sending sensitive information (such as your credit card number), you'll usually be able to ignore most warnings that pop up. If you are sending sensitive information, look for a little yellow padlock icon in the bottom of the Explorer window. If you see it, you're on a 'secure server' which makes it much safer to send sensitive information. If you don't see that icon, you may want to rethink what you're about to do.
You can add sites to a particular zone and adjust the security settings by choosing Internet Options from the View Menu and clicking the Security tab.