How to Use Your Browser Effectively
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Know Your History! Web browsers keep a list of sites you have already visited so you can quickly and easily go back to any of those you liked. This is usually accomplished by clicking the drop down arrow of the location bar and choosing the site you want from the resulting list. Unfortunately this also takes up disk space, and some people may not like leaving a trail for others to follow.
A user can also set the length of time the history list will keep track of web sites.Just select the desired number of days and place in the box.
Internet Explorer offers the same features by going to Tools > Internet Options > General, and , by clicking browsing history > settings, selecting the number of days right for you. You may also click Delete and choose the delete history button to reset the list.
Limiting the number of days may be an issue for those people who are heavy Internet users, for those who may be running low on disk space, or someone who is concerned about their Internet privacy.
With hundreds of new web sites appearing every day and virtually no one monitoring the content of the sites available for viewing, many parents and teachers are concerned about children surfing the net unsupervised and finding inappropriate content. There are programs available on the Internet that address this concern, but Firefox and Internet Explorer include tools to deal with this issue as well. In Firefox,
in Options select "privacy" or "advanced" tabs to see informational screens that will help protect your computer. Follow
the onscreen instructions to set restrictions that you want.
Internet Explorer relies on a similar rating system. Go to Tools > Internet Options > Content and click the Enable button under Content Advisor. Depending on the version of Internet Explorer you are using, check out any other tabs for further options. While neither system is perfect, they do come free with the browser and enable adults to have some control over content when they cannot be there every minute to supervise in person. A point to keep in mind though: when the Content Filters are enabled, they do their job, and may restrict access to sites you consider OK.
There is no replacing the presence of a responsible adult to monitor Internet use by children.
Browsers temporarily save web pages to your hard drive so you can switch back to previous sites without waiting for the pages to reload. Storing all these files can take up a lot of hard drive space. If hard drive space is premium real estate on your machine, you can adjust the size of these cache folders. In Firefox, go to Tools > Options > Privacy tab >clear now . You can also set what you want cleared under setting, and under advanced > network, you can set how much space is reserved for the cache, and clear it. In Internet Explorer, users can change their temporary file option by going to Tools > Internet Options > General and clicking the Delete button to totally clear the area. You can choose to delete any or all of temporary files, cookies, history, form data, or passwords. A great way to shorten the time it takes to get to your favorite site might be to set it as your Home page. If you always check the local newspaper before you do your surfing for the day, set it as the default so it's the first thing you see once your browser opens. If you always go to some great person's home page (ahem!), then you can set that page to be home, unlike the example above in "Know Your History". The Home page can be any page on the Internet. Make it your school web page on computers at an open house, or on a kiosk in your office area, for some self-promotion that's on all the time. In Firefox, click Tools > Options > main and type in the address you would like to begin with each session. To save even more time, display the page before opening this window, then you can simply click the Use Current Page button to make the adjustment. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > General, and again either type in the address, or if the page is in view in the window, click Use Current. Put Your Internet into "High Gear" If you have had your computer for a while, and the speed of your processor is somewhat less than what's on the market these days, you may find your browser slows to a crawl loading certain web sites, particularly those with lots of graphics, sounds and video. If you are mainly interested in the text of these sites and not necessarily all of the pretty stuff, you can turn off these multimedia extras to speed up the whole process. In Firefox, go to Tools > Options > Content, and uncheck the checkbox next to Load Images automatically. Now the browser will load only text, leaving placeholders for the images. If you want to see them on a particular image, click View Images by right-clicking on a placeholder. In Internet Explorer, the area to investigate is under Tools > Internet Options > Advanced. Scroll to the Multimedia section of this window, and uncheck the boxes for the options you no longer want to see. Where was that site yesterday? Once you get a long list of favorites sites to visit, you might need to organize them to be able to use them most efficiently. You can group similar sites together, or sort them by the person who uses them if you share the computer with others. Perhaps you just want to move some closer to the top of the list.
In Firefox, choose Bookmarks > organize bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu. To add folders, use the New Folder button and simply type the name of the new folder. Then drag and drop the appropriate bookmarks into it, or if you just want to move them up or down on the list, then use the "move" button to move the bookmark to the correct location. In Internet Explorer, go to Favorites > Organize Favorites. From this window there are buttons to Create Folders, Rename and Delete items from the list, and the means of moving them from one folder to another. The browser windows are extremely flexible in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. You can choose which of the toolbars you want to display, and even the appearance of some of those you do choose to have visible. In Firefox, to make toolbars appear or disappear, simply right-click on the top toolbar and select "customize" to see which icons / choices you want to hide or show. Experiment to determine just which ones you actually use, and then hide the rest! Once you've determined which toolbar choices are keepers, you may be able to increase the size of the useable screen by shrinking the buttons on the toolbars. Choosing "use small icons" will display small pictures only without the names. In Internet Explorer, right-clicking on the toolbar lets you select the toolbars to display. If you select Customize Command Bar , you can add buttons to the toolbars, have text or not, and control the size of the icons on the buttons themselves. Need a translator?
Found a web site you think has info you can use but it's in I've Never Meta-Search Engine I Didn't Like ... Almost every page that allows you to search for information is referred to as a search engine. A few of the sites are more correctly identified as either Subject directories or Meta-search engines. Subject directories divide the web into general categories of information, and then within each category there are narrower and narrower sub-sections of info. Probably the best known of this type is www.yahoo.com (www.yahoo.ca). Usually the main topics are quite general, but as you drill down and choose more specific categories, the results become more focused as well. It's a more guided approach, and a good way of locating info if you have a clear idea what you'd like to find. Casual surfers also like subject directories, as they open up areas surfers never thought to explore before. Meta-search engines submit your requests to many search engines at the same time and show you the results from each one. In this way, you may find more results in less time. Two meta-search engines are www.dogpile.com and www.metacrawler.com. Ever downloaded a file with the extension ".zip"? Have you heard people talking about a "zipped file"? Files are zipped or compressed to allow for faster downloading. At the University of Winnipeg, we've started recommending the program IZArc to "zip" or "archive" files although there are many other utilities available to do this. IZArc also unzips, or converts the zipped files into files you can install or use on your computer, and it's free. The other reason for zipping, or "archiving" files is that you can place all your files into one folder and, after it is achived, you can download it as one file to any machine with Internet access, instead of having to download one file at a time (downloading of folders is generally not allowed from off-campus). To get this powerful, yet free program, you can go here. Open links in new windows / tabs Often, it's helpful to open a link in a new, second browser window or tab. Imagine, for example, that you're moving down the list of search results on Google or Yahoo. Each time you check out a link, a new window opens to give you a glance; if it doesn't contain the info you were looking for, a quick Command-W (Macintosh) or Alt+F4 (Windows) closes it and takes you back to your search results window. The trick to opening a second browser window in this way is to press Command (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift (Windows) as you click any link. In I.E., press CTRL while selecting links to force a weblink to open in a new tab. In Firefox, each new website which opens in a separate page can open in a new tab as well. Under Tools > Options > tabs > you can force links that open a new window to open in a new tab, which means that you will see the tab of the original webpage you were on, and the new one at the top of the page. Holding down the CTRL key (or the middle button of your mouse) forces a web link to open in a new tab. Be careful -- some webpages may have the coding to cause a link to iopen in a separate tab already, in which case you might get two windows for the price of one. Scroll without the mouse If a whole Web page doesn't fit in a single window, life's too short to use the scroll bar. Even the mouse's wheel, if it has one, requires some time-consuming precision. Instead, press the Space bar to see the next screen (when your insertion-point cursor isn't in a text box). Press Shift with the Space bar to scroll up again. (The Page Up and Page Down keys work, too, but the Space bar is a bigger target.) Alphabetizing
The Favourites For Internet Explorer Open Explorer, and then click on the <Favorites> pull-down menu with the left mouse button. Now use the right mouse button and single-click anywhere in the <Favorites> list. A pop-up menu will appear. In this menu, single-click on <Sort by Name>. Presto! All your Favourites are now alphabetized. Note that you have to repeat the process with folders within the <Favorites> list. Just open the folder, right click in it, and select <Sort by Name>. In Firefox, go under bookmarks to <Organize Bookmarks>. Then, select the options with which you wish to organize your list (under "view", select your criteria). Exporting Favourites / Bookmarks – Internet Explorer & Firefox Backing up your favourite internet bookmarks is always a good idea. That way you can transfer them to other computers, or have them on hand in a jump / flash drive if you have computer problems. For Internet Explorer, single-click the File menu with the left mouse button, and then single-click on the Import and Export option. The Import / Export Wizard opens. Single-click on the Next button. You’ll be asked to select an action to perform. In the box provided, single-click on Export Favorites. Now single-click on Next. The Wizard will ask you which file you want to export. This is handy if you only want to export one folder from your list of <Favorites>. The Wizard presumes you probably want to export all your bookmarks, so defaults to <Favorites>. If you want to export a specific folder from <Favorites>, single-click on that folder to select it. Then single-click on Next. Now the Wizard wants to know where you want the <Favorites> exported to. Single-click in the button marked Export to a File or Address, and then single click the Browse button. The Select Bookmark File opens. Save your <Favorites> to a location where you can find them easily (like the Desktop). Single-click on Save. Back at the Wizard, single click on Next. You’re almost done! Single-click on Finish and the Wizard will copy your favourites and send them to the location you specified. You’ll get a little window informing you that the export worked. Now you have a file with all of your <Favorites> that you can email to others or save as a file. For Firefox, things are done a little differently. Go under the Bookmarks menu to Organize Bookmarks. Then, go under the file menu > export. Firefox will create a file “bookmarks.htm” which can be saved to the Desktop, or anywhere else. Importing Favourites / Bookmarks - I.E. & Firefox Okay, so you’ve saved your favourite Internet bookmarks as a separate file, and they’re safely stored on a flash drive. Then you switch computers, or (eek!) your computer goes into meltdown and you have to reinstall everything. How do you get the saved bookmark file back into your browser’s <Favorites> or Bookmarks list? For Internet Explorer, single-click on the File menu with the left-mouse button and then single-click on Import and Export Favorites. The Import / Export Wizard opens. The first thing you’ll do is single-click on the Next button to get things started. In the list of options provided, single click on Import Favorites, and then single-click on Next. On the next page that appears, single-click in the button marked Import from a File or Address, and then click on the Browse button. The Select Bookmark File will open. Locate the bookmark file you want to import, and single-click on it to highlight it. Then, single-click on Save and single-click on Next to continue. Now the Wizard will ask you what folder you want to import the files to in the favourites list. Leave things the way they are and single-click on Next. The imported files will appear in a folder labelled Imported Bookmarks. The Wizard will let you know when the files are successfully imported. Close the Wizard and you’re done!
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In Firefox,
this list can be cleared by selecting Tools> Options > Privacy
tab
and clicking the Clear now button. This may clear
the history list, along with other options (you choose) and causes
the links of previously viewed sites to return to the unviewed
color. 
Italian, or German? Don't despair; there's a service offered by Altavista
to help you. At 
For Firefox,
open the browser, go under the Bookmarks menu
to file > organize
bookmarks, then to file > import. You
then choose from where you are importing bookmarks, and voila,
it will appear in the bookmark list. Then, you sort out the
bookmarks (you will have to get ride of duplicates in the personal
toolbar folder, quite possibly) and you are ready to surf!