Using Internet Explorer 5.5

Internet Explorer is a Web browser produced by the Microsoft Corporation. This tutorial will cover the major features of version 5.5. For the sake of brevity, we will refer to the software as IE 5.5.

THE TOOLBARS

IE 5.5 has two toolbars at the top of of the browser window:

Menu Bar: Contains menu items that open up dropdown lists for related options. Among the items are options for printing, customizing IE 5.5, copying and pasting text, managing Favorites, and accessing Help.

Navigation Toolbar: Contains icons for a variety of features including navigating among Web pages, searching the Web using a selection of search tools, accessing and managing Favorites, viewing a History of visited pages, printing, and accessing email and newsgroups.

HOW TO ACCESS RESOURCES ON THE WEB WITH IE 5.5

1. If you have the URL (address) of a Web page

Type the URL to go directly to the page. IE 5.5 gives you two ways of doing this.

Type the URL in the Address bar at the top of the screen. To accomplish this, click on the Address bar to highlight the current URL. Then type in the new URL and press the Enter key.

Click on File/Open at the top left of the screen. A pop-up window will appear with a text entry window. Within that window, type the URL of the file you wish to retrieve. Press the Enter key.

2. If you are on a Web page

Click on

words or images which change the shape of the mouse pointer from an arrow to a hand and display a URL on the bottom of the screen when the mouse pointer is placed over it

the blue words on the display screen

the purple words on the display screen (the purple color indicates that the resource has been recently accessed on your terminal)

Note: The color blue is generally the default color for text that contains a link, and purple is the default color for text representing a link that has been visited in the recent past. Nowadays, Web page creators are coloring their links in all sorts of ways. The best way to figure out which text represents a link is to position your mouse over the words and see if the pointer shape changes from an arrow to a hand. The hand represents a link.

3. If you want to use pre-installed links

IE 5.5 offers a collection of Web sites in its Favorites collection. Click on Favorites on either the text bar or the tool bar at the top of the screen to access these resources.

NAVIGATING THE WEB WITH IE 5.5

IE 5.5 allows you to move back and forth among the Web pages that you visit during a session.

To go back to previous sites:

Click on the small Back left arrow on the navigation bar near the top left corner of your screen. Each time you click on this arrow, you will return to the next previous site that you visited. If you hold your mouse over the Back arrow, the title of the upcoming page will briefly appear.

To skip farther back, click on the small black triangle to the right of the word Back. This will bring up a list of pages you have visited. Click on any one of these choices to return to the desired page. This is the equivalent of clicking on the Back arrow several times.

To move forward:

When you have returned to previous sites with the Back arrow, you can go forward again by clicking on the small right-pointing arrow next to the Back arrow. If you hold your mouse over this arrow, the title of the upcoming page will briefly appear.

To move farther ahead, click on the small black triangle to the right of the Forward arrow in the menu bar at the top of the screen. This presents a list of several sites you have visited. Click on any of the choices to return to the desired site. This is the equivalent of clicking on the Forward arrow several times.

ADDITIONAL TOOLBAR OPTIONS

Stop: The circle containing the X will stop a page while it is in the process of loading. This is useful if a page is not successfully or speedily retrieving.

Refresh: The square containing the two curved arrows re-retrieves the page you are currently viewing. This is useful if the page does not load successfully or completely.

Home: The home icon takes you back to the page that was on the screen when you first started IE 5.5. You can customize your selection. See below under "Customizing Internet Explorer."

Search: The search button opens up a function that uses one or more Web search tools. You can choose the search tool(s) you want as your default.
You can also customize your search experience. After clicking on Search, choose the Customize option and make your selection. A pop-up window called "Customize Search Settings" will appear. If you choose to "Use the Search Assistant for Smart Searching," broad search topics will be displayed and the appropriate search tool will be queried. You can also opt to have IE 5.5 remember your last 10 searches so that you can easily repeat them.
Also notice that you can click a button called "Autosearch settings." This allows you to choose the search tool you want when you use the Address bar as a search window. You can also customize this option on the "When searching" line. You can even choose to turn off the use of the Address bar as a search window. If you do this, all words you type into the Address bar will be interpreted as URLs.

Favorites: Favorites are Web sites you have visited that you would like to store for easy access. You can add, delete and organize your Favorites.
- To add the current Web page as a favorite, click on Favorites and then Add. To choose the folder where you want to store this listing, click on Create in and choose the folder you want. At this point, you also have the option to create a new folder.
- To delete a Favorite, simply right click on the item and choose Delete. Or, you can choose Organize, select the desired item, and click on the Delete button.
- To move a favorite to another folder, click on Organize, select the desired item, and click on Move to folder. In the pop-up window, select the folder where you would like to store this listing.
History: The history function allows you to view and select Web pages you have recently visited. You can sort your items by clicking on the black triangle to the right of the word View. You can sort by size, date, the number of times visited, and the order you have visited today.

Mail: You can read email from this window. Choose the email software you wish to use by going back to the Menu Bar and choosing Tools/Internet Options/Programs.

Print: Allows you to print the current page. This option will be explained in more detail below under Printing.

Edit: You may edit the current page in the HTML editor of your choice. Choose the editor by going back to the Menu Bar and choosing Tools/Internet Options/Programs.

Discuss: You may set a default Usenet newsgroup server.

USEFUL OPTIONS ON THE MENU BAR

The menu bar at the top of the screen includes some useful options. Here are a few highlights.

File/New/Window: You can open up a second copy of IE 5.5 by using this feature. This allows you to visit more than one Web page at a time.

File/Edit with...: You can edit the current Web page using the HTML editor of your choice. Choose the editor by going back to the Menu Bar and choosing Tools/Internet Options/Programs. You choices will be determined by software installed on your computer.

Edit/Find (on This Page): IE 5.5 allows you to do a text search of the document on your screen. Choose this option and type in the word or phrase you wish to search.

Tools/Show Related Links: IE 5.5 will display pages that are related in content to the current page. This is a service of Alexa, a Web content and traffic analysis company.

Translate using Gist-In-Time: This option will take you to a translation service on the Web and offer a limited number of language translation options.

The Tools menu offers you many ways to customize IE 5.5 This will be covered below under Customizing Internet Explorer.

SAVING WEB DOCUMENTS FOR LATER USE:
HOW TO DOWNLOAD, EMAIL, AND PRINT

You can download to disk, email, or print the Web page on the IE 5.5 screen.

To DOWNLOAD

Click on File/Save As (top left of screen). A pop-up window will appear.
Save in: Choose the desired drive.
File/Save as type: Make sure you save the page to the file type that will be useful to you. If you save the page as a Web page, you will need a Web browser or HTML editor to view it. A text file (txt) can be viewed in a word processing program such a Word or WordPerfect.
Click on Save

To EMAIL

Click on File/Send (top left of screen).
You may send the current page as an email message, or you may insert the link to the current page within an email message. Once you make your selection, your email software will open. You can change the default software by going to the Menu Bar and choosing Tools/Internet Options/Programs. You choices will be determined by software installed on your computer.

To PRINT

To PRINT THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT

Click on the Print icon on the Tool Bar
Click on OK

To PRINT SELECTED PAGES

Click on File/Print Preview (top left of screen)
Click through the pages using the navigation arrows and make a note of which pages you want to print
Click on Print (top left of screen)
Click on the circle next to "Pages"
Type in the pages separate by commas, e.g., 1, 5-6, 7, 9
OR, to print the page displayed in the Print Preview window, choose Current Page.
Click on OK.

To PRINT SELECTED PORTIONS OF A WEB PAGE

See How to Copy and Paste from Netscape Navigator to Windows WordPad. The instructions in that tutorial work equally well with Internet Explorer.

THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON

The right mouse button offers a number of useful features if you are using a PC. To view the possibilities, press down on the right mouse button and hold it. Options will display in a pop-up window.

The following is a selected list of right mouse button options.

1. WHEN THE MOUSE POINTER IS ON THE SCREEN (but not on a link or an image)

Back: Moves back to the previously visited page in your history list (same as Back icon)
Forward: Moves forward to the next page in your history list (same as Forward icon)
Select All: Selects all the text on the page for copying and pasting
Create Shortcut: Creates a shortcut to the current Web page on your desktop
Add to Favorites: Adds the current Web page to your Favorites
View Source: Brings up the HTML source code of the current page
Encoding: Allows you to choose a language
Print: Prints the current document
Refresh: Reloads the current page from the server

2. WHEN THE MOUSE POINTER IS OVER A LINK

Open: Opens the page
Open in New Window: Opens the link in a new copy of IE 5.5
Save Target As: Saves the link as a file
Print Target: Prints the link
Copy Shortcut: Copies the URL to the Clipboard for pasting into a text editor or word processing program
Add to Favorites: Adds the selected page to your Favorites

3. WHEN THE MOUSE POINTER IS OVER AN IMAGE

Save Picture As: Saves the image to a disk drive of your choice
Set as Wallpaper: Uses the image as your desktop wallpaper
Set as Desktop Item: Sets the image as an Active Desktop item
Copy: Copies the image to the Clipboard for pasting into a graphics editing program
Add to Favorites: Adds the selected images to your Favorites

CUSTOMIZING INTERNET EXPLORER

IE 5.5 offers a number of customization options. This section will highlight some of the more useful features available under Tools/Internet Options on the Menu Bar.

Tools/Internet Options is divided into six tabs. Each one is explained below.

1. General

Home Page: Specify the URL of the page you want to appear whenever you open IE 5.5, or whenever you click on the Home icon

Temporary Internet Files: This option allows you to view the files in your browser's cache. The cache holds viewed Web pages for subsequent quick viewing. Retrieving a file from the cache is much faster than repeated trips to the remote Web server where the file originated. You can customize the Settings to decide how often to check for newer pages, to specify how much disk space to reserve for your cache, and to view files in the cache.

History: This option customizes your access to pages you have visited with the History function. Here you can set the number of days to keep pages in your history.

Colors: Choose colors for links, visited links, and link hovers (the color appearing when your mouse is over a link). You can also set a default text and background color.

Fonts: Select the language script, the font displayed in Web pages, and the font displayed as plain text.

Languages: Select the language that will display Web pages accessed with IE 5.5.

Accessibility: Choose to ignore colors, font sizes and font styles on Web pages. You can also set a style sheet as the display template for all Web pages viewed with IE 5.5.

2. Security

Here you can set levels of security for individual Web pages. See IE 5.5's Help menus for more information.

3. Content

Content Advisor: You can enable ratings of objectional content to control the pages that may be viewed with this browser.

Certificates: This feature allows you to manage the identification certificates you may have. See the Help menus for more information.

Personal Information: This consists of two options. AutoComplete will store entered Web address, information entered into forms, and usernames and passwords needed to access sites you have visited. When you are using your browser, previous entries will come up as choices so that you don't have to retype the information. This can make your work go much faster. You can customize these options, and delete your settings. My Profile offers a template for enteringr personal information. If a Web site requests this information, you can give permission for it to be used.

4. Connections

Here you can store the information about your Internet Service Provider, configure your LAN settings, or send your browser requests through a proxy server.

5. Programs

Here you can set the programs you want the browser to use for HTML editing, email, Usenet news, collaboration ("Internet Call"), your calendar and contact list.

6. Advanced

This screen offers a number of options in the categories of accessibility, browsing, HTTP settings, Microsoft VM (Virtual Machine), multimedia access, printing, searching and security. Set these options if you are comfortable with them.

Laura Cohen
lcohen@albany.edu