Technical Support Guidelines Web FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Complied by: Bill Bailey, Enterprise System Engineer
Q. Why do I get "The page cannot be displayed" when trying to access a web page? A. There are several reasons why an error of "The page cannot be displayed," "Can't Find Website," "Unknown Host," "Sorry. No Such Address," or "Cannot find server or DNS Error" appear in your browser when trying to access a web page. It's possible you have typed the address incorrectly, clicked on a broken link, accessed a page that is no longer available, or simply have too many temporary Internet files stored. Follow the steps below to troubleshoot this problem. Step 1: Make sure you are entering the address correctly. Web addresses can be tricky, leaving room for errors. Common mistakes are: including an @ symbol, forgetting // or : after http, putting spaces in the address, misspelling the address, not including the www at the beginning of the address, using back slashes (\) instead of forward slashes (/), and not understanding that dot means period (.). The correct format for a web address is http://www.compuserve.com. Step 2: You may have too many temporary Internet files stored. To resolve this problem, delete your Browser’s Temporary Internet Files. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Click on START, select PROGRAMS, and then click on Internet Explorer. Click on Tools. Click on the Internet Options. Click on Delete Files, under the “Temporary Internet Files” Section. Click “OK.”
Still Having Problems? The web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to add more security for your browser. Try the following: 1. 2. Click the RELOAD button on your Internet Explorer Tool Bar (a small icon with two green rotating arrows), or try to access the page later. Try going to a different web address, such as http://www.cnn.com or http://www.google.com. If you can access another web address, the problems probably lie with the page you were trying to visit. If you can't access another web address, close all programs currently running. Try restarting your computer, signing back on, and trying the address again.
Q. What is a “Back Button?” A. The Web Browser uses a stack to remember visited pages. Each time a link is followed, or the user gives an URL to retrieve, the browser will push the current URL on its stack. If the user selects the back function of his browser, the browser will go to the document whose URL is saved on the top of the stack (if the stack is non empty) and will pop the URL from the stack. The end result is that the Browser will display the last page visited.
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Q. What if the Back Button doesn’t work, and I return to the same page? A. This usually means that the page you have accessed is using an HTML coding “trick” to “trap” you on that page. Sometimes, clicking Back several times rapidly in succession will move you back to a previous page. Otherwise, you will have to close your browser session and open it again. Q. What do I do if I click on a page and get an “hourglass” cursor that won’t go away? A. The information the browser is trying to recall is either not currently available, or your process has “timed out.” You should click on your “Stop” icon on the toolbar to stop what your browser is trying to do. This icon is a small red circle with an “X” in the middle. Q. The text is too small, how do I change font size on my browser? A. Fonts can be changed. 1. 2. 3. 4. Open the Menu item labeled "Tools" (in the menu bar across the top of your browser window) Look for "Internet Options" Look for the button that says "Fonts" Change the font and font size as you wish.
Q. My computer won’t do anything. A. Make sure your computer (and monitor) is turned on, plugged in, and there is no disk in the slot (called a drive) in your computer when you turn it on. Q. My page did not completely display. What do I do? A. Try “refreshing” your browser session. 1. 2. 3. On your Tool Bar, locate the button with the page symbol, and two whirling green arrows. Click the icon. If the page doesn’t re-display correctly, the site may be having problems, try going to another site and see if you have problems displaying it.
Q. Do I have to type in the “www”, and what does it mean? A. The string “www” is shorthand for the “World-Wide Web”, and you do not have to type it in as part of the address. Your browser should “assume” that it is part of the address. Q. What is a “browser”? A. A program used to view the World Wide Web. Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer are examples of popular browsers. Q. What is a “domain”? A. Part of an internet address, the part without the username. For example, the president of the USA's address is president@whitehouse.gov. The username is president, and the domain name is whitehouse.gov Q. What is a URL? A. Uniform Resource Locator. An address of a resource on the net, such as http://www.ccl.org A URL is something you can type into the Address box in your web browser.
Q. What is a Home Page? A. Several meanings. Originally, the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up. The more common meaning refers to the main web page for a business, organization, person or
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simply the main page out of a collection of web pages, e.g. “Check out so-and-so’s new Home Page.”
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Becoming Familiar with Internet Explorer
Get Started If you're running Windows 95 or later, chances are you already have some version of IE on your system. But just in case you don't--or you want to upgrade to Microsoft's latest browser (IE 5.5)-you'll need to download and install a copy. Download Internet Explorer First, you must download a copy of Internet Explorer. You'll find the most recent version, 5.5, on Microsoft’s own site at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie . Keep in mind that when you download the Internet Explorer file, you aren't actually getting the application itself. Instead, you're accepting a small program that automates the download and setup process for you. After you've downloaded this file, stay connected to the Internet, double-click the file's icon, then let the installer application complete the process. Install IE After you launch the IE 5 setup file (ie5setup.exe), a dialog box appears asking you which components you want to install. Check the boxes next to each component and hit Enter. Once the application has finished installing, it prompts you to restart your computer. When you reboot your machine, IE 5 automatically finishes installing itself. Save Disk Space If hard drive space is at a premium on your system, fear not. The IE 5 installation process lets you limit the amount of room the program consumes. To customize your installation, run the setup file (ie5setup.exe), select Customize Your Browser, then click Next. Choose the components you want to install; for your convenience, the installer lets you select Minimal, Typical, or Full from the pull-down menu. Keep an eye on the download size number at the bottom of the window to see how much space your installation requires. Set Up Your Profile Although you may not want to share personal information (such your name or email address) with the rest of the Web, it's sometimes convenient to have easy access to it when, say, you're filling out lots of Internet shopping forms and don't want to type your stats every time. That's why Internet Explorer's My Profile feature conveniently stores your demographic info. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu and select the Content tab. Click the My Profile button under Personal Information and then either create a new address book entry or select a current one to use for your profile. Customize Your Browser Now that you've installed IE, you're ready to start surfing. But before you dive in, you might want to tweak IE's interface to suit your needs, interests, and surfing style. Here's how. Set a New Home Page When you boot up any browser for the first time, its home page--the page your browser automatically loads when you hit the Home button--is already set to Microsoft's manufacturer's URL. To change your home page, find the page you want to view at start-up, pull down the Tools menu, and choose Internet Options. Click the General tab. In the Home Page area, select Use Current to use the page you're currently viewing, or type any site's URL into the text box. To start each session with a blank page, click the Use Blank button. Or, even simpler, drag and drop any URL from your address field onto the Home button in your toolbars. Add and Remove Toolbar Buttons If you want quick, one-click access to IE's search or cut/paste functions, just add shortcut buttons to IE's toolbar. Right-click the toolbar, then click Customize. A dialog box pops up showing all the
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buttons available. With a few clicks, you can add the buttons to your toolbar. Just select the button you want, hit Add, and click Reset. IE immediately puts the button in your toolbar. Change Text Size Don't like the way certain sites display text on your browser? Are online fonts too small for you to read? IE 5 offers a simple remedy. First, set your browser to override Web page settings. Select Tools/Internet Options, click the General tab, then click Accessibility. In the resulting dialog box, check each of these top three check boxes: "Ignore colors specified on Web pages," "Ignore font styles specified on Web pages," and "Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages." Click OK to return to the Internet Options dialog box. Next, choose the View menu option and select Text Size (Largest, Larger, Medium, Smaller, or Smallest). These changes won't affect all text on every page, but they should work for most standard pages. To Change Your Background and Font Colors And suppose you hate the background or font colors on some Web sites. Turns out you can change these too. Once again, set your browser to override Web pages' settings (see the previous tip). Then, on the General tab of the Internet Options dialog box, click Colors. Deselect the Use Windows Colors check box. Click the boxes beside your preferred Text and Background options and select the colors you want to use. (Keep in mind that choosing the same or similar colors for the background and text will make it impossible to see the text.) You can even change the colors of visited, unvisited, and rollover hyperlinks. Change Default Programs When you click the Edit or Mail button in IE 5, Windows launches a word processor or an email client, respectively. To view and modify which program IE automatically launches, click Tools and select Internet Options. In the Internet Options window, click the Programs tab. Use the pull-down menus after each category, such as HTML Editor, Email, Newsgroups, and so on, to change which program will open when you click the corresponding button. Surf Fast Few cyberlife experiences are more annoying than a slow-loading Web page. That's why we've rounded up a few performance tweaks and browsing tricks to get the fastest possible performance out of your browser. If you're working on a 14.4-kbps modem, however, we have one word for you: upgrade. Disable Animated GIFs Animated gifs may make your browsing experience seem more like TV, but they can also bring your browser to a virtual standstill. So, if you're sick of constant distractions and slow downloads, stop them from loading altogether. Head to Tools/Internet Options and click the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the Multimedia section, deselect the Play Animations option, and click OK. From now on, you'll see only the first frame of each animated GIF that loads. Cut Down on Multimedia Likewise, do away with bandwidth-eating streaming video and audio. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu and click the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the Multimedia segment and uncheck the boxes in front of Play Animations, Play Sounds, Play Video, and Show Pictures. To restore these settings, just recheck the boxes. To turn off Java, select Internet Options and the Security tab, then click the Custom Level button. Check the Disable box to turn off ActiveX Controls and Java applets, or check Prompt to have IE warn you when an applet tries to load. Use a Blank Home Page Every time you boot up IE, the browser takes you straight to whatever home page you set. But it takes time to load any Web page--time you might not want to waste. So, eliminate a home page altogether and start up on a blank page. Here's how: Pull down the Tools menu and choose
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Internet Options, then click the General tab. In the Home Page area, click the Use Blank button, et voilà, no more home page. Increase Your Cache If you often revisit one site several times per surfing session, this tip will save you lots of time. When you visit Web pages, your browser stores HTML code and graphics from those sites in a folder called a cache. The cache helps you get files fast when you hit the Back button because they're coming from your hard disk, not over your Net connection. For best surfing speeds, we recommend you allocate at least 10MB of your drive to the browser. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options and choose the General tab. In the Temporary Internet Files section, click Settings. Under "Amount of disk space to use," drag the slider to the right; you should choose about 5 percent of your hard disk. Stop Long Downloads This tip may be obvious, but it's also highly effective. If you're waiting for a page to load and it's taking forever, push the Stop button. Then hit Refresh to start over. Sometimes the path the page takes to get to your PC contains Net burps that slow it down, and refreshing will send it back to you via a new, clear route. Navigate With Just One Word Don't bother typing entire domain names (for example, www.cnet.com) into your browser. Instead, simply type the site's name (cnet) in the Address bar and press Ctrl-Enter to automatically add http://www and .com on each side of the word--a real time-saver. Manage Your Favorites Like an address book, a well-kept Favorites folder is your best friend. It stores links to all of the Web sites you want to revisit so that you don't have to hunt them down and type in their URLs every time. Here are a few tips to help you build up and organize your Favorites list. Save Your Favorite Sites Here's the scenario: every morning, you go online to get your business news from the Wall Street Journal and check the weather at the Weather Channel. So, rather than type www.wallstreetjournal.com or www.weather.com every time you visit the site, save the URL into your list of favorite sites, called Favorites in IE. Pressing Ctrl-D is the fastest way to create a Favorite, but that shortcut doesn't let you specify where to store the link. To add a Web page to a specific folder in your list, click Favorites in the menu bar, select Add To Favorites, and choose the appropriate folder. Organize Your Favorites It's not enough to stuff random links into your Favorites list. You'll need to be able to find them later, which means organizing them into the right folders. From the menu bar, select Favorites/Organize Favorites. You'll see a dialog box listing your current bookmarks and offering several button options. From there, you can create new folders and rename, move, or delete folders and bookmarks. Print Your Favorites Now that your list is in order, it's easy to print one of the Web pages in your Favorites folder without visiting the site itself. Just right -click the page from the Favorites menu and select Print from the pop-up menu. IE will send the site's page directly to your printer. Export Your Favorites If you have access to more than one computer (for example, one at work and another at home) and you'd like the same Favorites list on both of them, you can export your Favorites list as an HTML file and copy it to your second computer. To do this, pull down the File menu and choose
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Import And Export, step through the wizard and select Export, then pick the Favorites file you want to export to and the file where you want it to go. You can send it to any drive on your system (including a floppy) or to any computer on your network. Import Netscape Bookmarks If you're migrating from Netscape Navigator to Internet Explorer (or if you use both browsers interchangeably) you'll want to import Navigator's Bookmarks into IE's Favorites folder. Select Import And Export from the File menu to start the Import/Export Wizard. Click Next, make sure Import Favorites is highlighted, and click Next again. Select Netscape Navigator under "Import from an application" or browse to the bookmark.htm file under "Import from a file or address" and click Next. Finally, select the folder where you want to store the new bookmarks, click Next, and click Finish. Navigate With Ease Your browser's main purpose is to help you travel from one Web page to another with minimal fuss. Internet Explorer provides you with all the standard surfing tools, Back and Forward buttons, and a URL address field, but there's lots more power under the hood. Check out some of these slick navigation tricks. Take Giant Steps Back and Forth While it's easy to move back and forth between Web pages one at a time with IE's Back and Forward buttons, you can also leap ahead or back several pages at a time. Right -click either button (or click the tiny down arrows next to each button), and a pop-up menu displays the last ten sites you've visited. Then, simply select the page you'd like to jump to from the pop-up menu that appears. Browse With Hot Keys Keyboard shortcuts save loads of time because they let you execute certain commands without digging through menus to find them. IE makes use of many standard Windows shortcuts, plus a few browser-specific ones. For example, to move back and forth between Web pages without clicking the Back and Forward buttons, hold down the Alt key, then hit the left arrow to move back and the right arrow to move forward. Add Buttons to the Links Toolbar The Links toolbar is a quick and easy way to access your favorite Web pages without entering the Favorites menu. First, turn on your Links toolbar (if you haven't already) by right-clicking any toolbar and selecting Links from the pop-up menu. To add a new button to the toolbar, drag any URL link from the address field to the toolbar and drop it. Tah-dah!--an instant link to any site. Open Multiple Windows Ever need to open a second Web page but don't want to close the one you're on? Internet Explorer lets you open more than one browser window simultaneously. Click File in the main menu, select New, and then Window. To close a browser window, click the X in the top right corner or select Close from the File menu. You can also open a new browser window with Ctrl-N. Surf Safe and Sound These days, we hear a lot about hackers, crackers, and malicious applets that can wreak havoc on your machine. Of course, it's a good idea to install Internet privacy software, but IE also has built-in security measures. We've listed a few of our favorites. Set Your Security Level If you want to keep random Web sites from sending cookies to your hard drive or uploading ActiveX Controls, for example, it's easy to adjust IE's security settings. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu and click the Security tab. Slide the bar under "Security level for this zone"
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up or down to increase or decrease the security level. Each level (High, Medium, Medium-Low, or Low) lists exactly which actions and applications it allows or blocks. More advanced users can click Custom Levels to fiddle with individual settings. Disable AutoComplete Chances are, you occasionally visit a Web site, fill out a form, or perform a search you don't want anyone else to know about (like that time you bought your husband's birthday present online). You should know, however, that when IE's AutoComplete function is active, some sites' search and entry fields retain the words you've entered; anyone who uses the browser after you and visits that site can see the last entries you made. To turn off this part of AutoComplete, choose Tools/Internet Options, then click the Content tab. Click the AutoComplete button in the Personal information section and uncheck the Forms box in the AutoComplete Settings dialog box. Cover Your Tracks Internet Explorer also stores a record of all the Web sites you've visited in its History folder. It's convenient for you, but also means that the boss can easily find out you've been surfing the want ads. Here's what you can do to get rid of unneeded URL histories: From the Tools menu, go to Internet Options. Under the General tab, find the History section, and click the Clear History button. Delete Individual History Pages If you don't want to clear your entire History folder, on the other hand, it's easy to remove just single pages. Click the History button on your IE toolbar to open the History window frame. Then right-click any file you want to dump and select Delete from the pop-up window. Toss Your Cookies The History folder isn't the only place IE records your surfing habits. Many Web sites drop little files into your system that let them keep track of your passwords and the dates and times of your visits. To get rid of these files, delete the contents of the Cookies folder and the Temporary Internet Files folder in your Windows directory (but not the folders themselves). All traces of where you have surfed will disappear. Make IE Safe for Kids The Internet contains information of all kinds, and not all of it is for all viewers. But it is possible to safeguard kids from the Web's more risqué elements. Using a separate software program for child-safe browsing will provide the most powerful options, but IE has some built-in filtering tools of its own. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu and click the Content tab. Click the Enable button under Content Advisor and adjust the slider in each of the four categories: Language, Nudity, Sex, and Violence. The Description box at the bottom details what each level allows. Click OK to activate the Advisor. Search the Internet It's one thing to know how to navigate the Web, but finding the information you need is another matter entirely. A ton of info is available, but without the right search tools and techniques, it's easy to get lost. Internet Explorer tries to plow through the sea of Internet information with several built-in features and functions. A good general purpose Search Engine is Google, at: http://www.google.com . Use IE's Search Assistant One of IE 5's handiest and most effective tools, the Search Assistant, helps locate sites, places, and people on the Web by accessing several different search engines, including Yahoo, AltaVista, and Google.com. To display the Search Assistant, click the Search button in the toolbar. A new pane opens on the left side of your browser window. Pick the kind of search you want to perform, either for a Web page, an address, a business, a map, or results from one of your previous searches. Enter the text you want to find, then click Search. By default, IE 5 uses
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Go.com to run Web site searches. To run the search using a different search engine, click the Next button in the Search Assistant pane, and a drop-down menu displays the services you can choose from. Fine-Tune Your Searches It's also possible to fine-tune the Search Assistant. Click the Search button on the toolbar and select Customize. Now you can specify which types of searches you want to appear in the Search Assistant window and which sites the assistant will use for those searches. Type Keywords Into the URL Box In addition to the handy Search Assistant, IE 5 also lets you type search terms directly into the URL address field. So rather than typing, say, www.macys.com into the URL field, just type macys directly into the URL box, and IE will automatically perform an MSN search of the Web. Find Related Links If you're interested in a site you're currently viewing and would like to check out similar sites, select the Show Related Links from the Tools menu. IE uses the interest-matching service Alexa to search for Web pages on similar topics, then displays them in the browser's normal Search window. Search Your History Suppose you need to find some information you recently saw on a Web site, but you can't remember where or when you saw it. Provided you haven't erased your History in a while, IE will search your previously visited sites for keywords. Just click the History button, select Search from within the Explorer bar, and hunt away. Sift Through Long Pages Say you've performed a Web search for a specific word or phrase, but the resulting page of links is so long that you can't find the site you need. Just search for keywords on the currently open page. Choose the Edit menu option and select Find (on This Page) or hit Ctrl-F. Enter the word you're looking for into resulting the dialog box and hit Enter. As with other Windows-type searches, you can limit your search by clicking the Match Whole Word Only or Match Case boxes. Work Offline Surprise! Internet Explorer's not just for surfing the Web. Sure, we have plenty of complaints about version 5's tight Windows integration, but it does allow you to use your browser to search your hard drive, send email, and launch programs right from your desktop. Organize Your Hard Drive Case in point: IE 5 can also operate as a file management tool similar to Windows Explorer. To view your hard drive from within your browser window, type C: in the Address bar; the window will display the drive's contents. The toolbar buttons will change, and you can use them as you would those in Windows Explorer. For example, you can copy files from one folder to another using Copy and Paste, and double-click a document to open it in its related application. Launch Programs From Your Browse r IE also lets you open any program on your system from your browser, provided the program has a desktop shortcut. Just type the name of your shortcut in IE's address bar, and the program will launch. For instance, if you have a desktop shortcut to Microsoft Word, type Microsoft Word in the address bar, and the program will automatically launch. Keep in mind that you must enter the exact name of the shortcut as it appears on your desktop.
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Read a Web Page Offline Don't have time to finish reading your online newspaper before you have to log off the Web? Big deal. With Internet Explorer, you can take it with you. To read a Favorites or Links bar item offline, right-click it, then click Make Available Offline. IE stores the Web page, complete with graphics, into a temporary folder. Then you're free to read it on your own time. Save a Web Page for Offline Viewing Here's another way to make a Web page available offline: Select File/Save As; choose a folder for the file; alter the filename (if required); from the Save As Type drop-down list, select "Web page, complete (*.htm,*.html)"; then click Save. Anytime you want to view the page again, simply open the file; it will appear as you saw it on the Web, with all of its images, sound files, and so on. Or if you'd rather not waste disk space on graphics files, you can opt to save the page as a textonly file instead. Mail a Web Page If you want to pass along an online article or a cool Web page to a friend, there's no need to copy and paste it into an email. Just click the Mail button and choose either Send A Link to fire off the URL or Send A Page to transmit the entire HTML page. Note: Your recipient will need to have an HTML-capable mail reader to view the page. You can also select Send and choose Page By Email or Link By E-mail from the File menu to perform the same actions. Use IE As Your FTP Client In addition to viewing standard HTTP Web pages, IE also operates as an FTP client--an app that lets you download files directly from another online computer. Type the URL of an FTP site into the address bar (be sure to type ftp:// instead of http:// before the URL) and click Go or press Enter. If you need to enter a username and a password, select Login As from the File menu and enter your name and password. Once you're connected to the site, you can drag and drop files from your hard drive to the site to upload them, or download files from the site to your hard drive. Add Address Toolbars to the Windows Taskbar Have you ever wanted to open a specific Web page without launching your browser first? If you're running Windows 98, there's a simple way to do it: Just add IE 5's Address toolbar to your Windows 98 Taskbar (located at the bottom of your screen to the right of the Start menu). Here's how: Right-click an open spot on the Taskbar, choose Toolbars, and select Address from the pop-up menu. To remove the Address toolbar, right-click the taskbar again and uncheck Address under Toolbars in the same menu. Troubleshoot You've mastered your browser, but that doesn't guarantee problem-free surfing. Next time you run into problems that you can't fix with the Refresh button, see if one of these tips does the trick. Repair Internet Explorer If IE 5's on the fritz and you can't locate an obvious cause, try the Repair button. In the Start Menu, go to Settings/Control Panel. Then double-click Add/Remove Programs and select Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools. Click the Add/Remove button. A pop-up window asks you whether you want to add a component, repair Internet Explorer, or restore the previous Windows configuration. Select Repair Internet Explorer. This self-repair tool fixes any IE components that may have installed incorrectly. After the process is finished, restart Windows. Stop Jerky Browsing Occasionally, long Web pages load slowly or jerkily. To iron out your browsing, simply select Internet Options from the Tools menu. From the Advanced tab listed under Browsing options, select the box labeled Use Smooth Scrolling. Click OK to save changes. Now your pages should scroll without hitches or hiccups.
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Limit Cache Size Earlier, we recommended that you increase your cache size to boost your surfing speeds (see Surf Fast). But if you don't have a large hard drive, increasing your cache may not be a viable option because it will eat up space. So, to limit the amount of space IE uses, select Internet Options from the Tools menu and click the Settings button under Temporary Internet Files. Slide the bar under "Amount of disk space to use" to the left or enter a smaller number of megabytes in the field to the right. Reset Default Settings Sometimes, however--and believe us, it's not easy to say this--your IE problems are entirely your fault. After you've made a lot of changes to IE's preferences or customized your home page, IE may start to misbehave. If you have no idea which tweak caused the problem, back up to square one and start over. To restore IE's default settings, select Internet Options from the Tools menu, then click the Programs tab and the Reset Web Settings button. Resume Your Download After a Disconnection If your modem connection breaks during a download or if a download times out, sometimes the download window will remain open. If you leave that window open, reconnect to the Internet, and start downloading the file again, IE will resume the download where it left off. Get New Updates and Add-Ons Like all other software, IE is constantly changing and improving. To find Microsoft's latest updates and add-ons for Internet Explorer (including security patches), check out Microsoft's Windows Update page by selecting Windows Update from IE's Tools menu or from the Windows Start menu. (Make sure you're already connected to the Internet.) Windows Update prompts you to accept the Active Setup installation, which you must do to view the Updates page. Active Setup then checks your system to find which of the latest add-ons and updates you need, then lets you choose the ones you want to install from a list. Bonus: Tips Just for IE 5.5 If you've downloaded Internet Explorer 5.5, make sure you try out IE's new print preview feature and take precautions against its potential security problem (see below). Print Frames Sometimes printing pages from the Web can be a real pain because of all the graphics and frames that Web designers throw onto their sites. That's why IE 5.5 includes a print preview option. This feature shows you precisely what your Web page will look like on paper and helps you configure pages into print-friendly versions. Also, if you're viewing a Web page with frames and want to print only a certain frame, right-click anywhere inside the frame (other than a link or an image) and select Print Frame from the pop-up menu. IE will print only the selected frame. Download the IE 5.5 Privacy Patch When IE 5.5 launched earlier this year, bug hunters quickly discovered a security hole that lets a cracker--a malicious hacker--read files on your computer. So, if you're planning to download IE 5.5, you might want to get the patch as well. Be warned, however, this patch is only a beta, so install it at your own risk. The patch is available from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie.
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The Main Browser Window
When Internet Explorer is first opened up on your computer, the main screen of the program will appear. This main window has many parts to it, these parts are described in detail below. ?? The "Title Bar" at the very top of the window tells you what the title of the page you are viewing is. The "Title Bar" will also tell you what Internet Explorer application is currently active. ?? Directly under the "Title Bar" is the "Main Menu Bar". This bar has many different submenus which control all options, functions, and commands for the entire Internet Explorer program. Some of the browsing controls can also be found in these sub-menus. ?? Beneath this menu is the "Internet Explorer Toolbar". This toolbar contains all of the most frequently used commands and all of the browsing functions. (See the next section for more details) ?? Under the toolbar is the "Address Bar". This will tell you the exact HTTP/URL location of the page you are currently viewing. You can also type a Web address directly into this bar and then press enter to go to that site. ?? Below the "Address Bar" is the "Link Bar". These buttons will take you to pages at Microsoft's Main home site where they have applications and information specifically designed for your easy use. ?? Underneath the "Link Bar" is the "Main Browser Window". This window will display all of the information that is located at the Web site you are currently located at. Any text, images, movies, animation, links, or any other application files will be shown in this window. The scroll bars located on the right side and on the bottom of this window allow you to continue viewing the page you are located at even when the page is too large to fit in your screen. ?? The very bottom of the page is the "Status Bar". This bar tells you what the progress of the browser is while it downloads files to the page, where links go to when you move over them, whether or not a document is secure, and any other information that the program feels is necessary for you to know.
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The Main Explorer Toolbar
The main toolbar is composed of eleven different buttons. Each of these buttons has a different function and purpose in Internet Explorer. The individual buttons will each be discussed in the following sections. 1. The Back Button : This button will take you back to whatever document you were previously viewing. Pressing it immediately takes you back one document. If you have browsed many pages, or are well into a multi-page document, pressing it repeatedly will continue to back you up one page at a time. Once you reach your starting location, it will be greyed-out and unavailable. The Forward Button : This button will take you forward to the next document if you have previously browsed multiple documents and had then backed-up to the page you are currently viewing. (If you have not backed up at all, the forward button will be greyedout) Pressing it repeatedly will continue to move you forward one page at a time. You can move forward until you reach the last page that you had browsed, at which time the forward button will be greyed-out. The Stop Button : The stop button stops ANY current operations by Internet Explorer. It will stop any type of file from loading. It can also be used to stop animations from continuing once a page is loaded. If you press it before a page has finished loading, the page will display everything it had finished loading before the stop button was pressed. If a document is completely loaded and there are no animations, movies, or other files still running, the stop button will have no immediate function. The Refresh Button : This button will reload the current document that you are viewing. It is useful if the page updates very frequently so that you can view these changes as soon as they are available. If you are loading a document and the transfer was interrupted, you can reload the full document again by clicking here. The Home Button : This button will return you to the page you have selected as the default start-up page for Internet Explorer. It will not take you back to the beginning of your web browsing, it will just return you to your home location from where you are. If you press back after reaching your home page, you will go back to the page you left after you hit the Home button. The Search Button : This button will take you to the page you have selected as the default Web search page for Internet Explorer. If you have not selected a page it will take you to Microsoft's default search page. The Favorites Button : This button will open up the Favorites menu. You can choose a favorite that you wish to go to from the list, add a favorite to the list, or organize your favorites from this menu. The Print Button : The print button will bring up a Print dialog box. In the box you can decide if you would like to print the contents of the page you are viewing, how many pages you will print, and also how many copies you will print. Keep in mind that if you try to print a page that is graphics intensive, you will need a printer that is capable of printing
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graphics. Also, the more graphics and pages a Web site has, the longer it will take to print. 9. The Font Button : Pressing this button causes Internet Explorer to cycle through the available font sizes. This button is useful if the text is too small to read, or too large to fit comfortably in the window.
10. The Mail Button : This button will open into a drop down menu from which you can select to read or send E-Mail. You can also open up your newsgroups from this menu. 11. The Edit Button : This button will ONLY be on your toolbar if you have a Windows system Web editor (such as Microsoft Frontpage or Microsoft Word) installed on your computer. If you press this button, it will launch that editor and open the document you are currently viewing in it.
Beginning Basic Browsing
Your first time that you browse the web, you may have some difficulty. Efficiently browsing the Web is just like any other complex task in life, it takes practice to be good at it. Internet Explorer has some built-in features which will help to make it easier for you to browse the web. The fastest way to get to a place that you can search from, is to click on the "Search" button on the Internet Explorer main toolbar. This button will take you to a document within Microsoft's home site. On this document you will find a choice of categories to look through and a list Search Engines to use. A Search Engine is a application that will attempt to find any documents that contain the subject or phrase that you enter into the search parameters. You can also browse through the categories of Web sites that the search engines have already organized for you. Another important thing to remember when you first begin browsing the web is that if you know the Web address of a site, you don't need use a search engine to find the page you wish to visit. Go up to the "Address Bar" near the top of the page, and click on it. Now you can type in the Web address of the site you want, and then press enter. Internet Explorer will go to this site directly from whatever document you were currently viewing. This is much faster than going to a search engine and trying to locate the site you want in their directories, or searching for it with a query. (Address Bar shown below)
Links Once you connect to a site, and display a page, you may see links. You know your cursor is over a link when it turns from an arrow into a hand. The little pointing hand means you can click to follow a link. Usually all the links on a page point to different pages or sites so each person visiting a single Web page can follow whichever link or links interest them. So while the Web is presented in pages, it isn’t like a book with one page after another that each reader follows in order. Surfing That’s why it’s called "surfing" the Web; because you can so quickly follow your whim, clicking on a few links and after enjoying several pages, find yourself off the path you started at your first site.
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But have no fear, that’s why your browser has a Back button. Just like Hansel and Gretel left their trail of breadcrumbs, your browser remembers the trail of pages you have visited during each Internet session. Each time you press your browser’s Back button, you will be taken back one step through the trail of pages that you have just come from. Back and Forward The Back and Forward buttons located in the top left hand corner of your browser allow you to flip through the pages that you have been viewing like a book. Therefore if you were to click on the Back button, it would take you back to the last page viewed. Then if you were to click on the Forward button from that page, you would return to the page you started from. Filling in Forms If you are asked to fill in a form on the Web, there will usually be an icon marked “Submit”, or “Continue” on the Web Page containing the fields that you are filling in, or are selecting. Until you “Submit” the information, your information will not be sent to the computer that is “asking” the questions. Once you fill out a form, always be sure that you have clicked on the proper link, or icon, to submit your information. Leaving a Site Leaving a Web site is as easy as simply selecting another web address to view. Or, if you are through “surfing” the Web, you may simply select the “File” option on the Toolbar, then select, “Exit” to close down the browser. Or, you may click on the small “X” in the box in the upper right hand corner of your browser screen. This will do the same thing as “File,” “Exit.”
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