Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Tips #11



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*1. MY COMPUTER IN THE TASKBAR         
 
Here is a question from subscriber Marty G: 

"Is there any problem with putting My Computer in the taskbar
 when you're running Microsoft Internet Explorer 4?" 

No problem at all, Marty. In fact, there are two ways to place My
 Computer in the taskbar: You can drag the My Computer icon to
 Quick Launch, or you can create a new toolbar for My Computer. 

If you simply drag the My Computer icon to the Quick Launch
 toolbar, a shortcut to the My Computer folder appears in Quick
 Launch. To get each item in the My Computer folder to appear in
 the taskbar, right-click the taskbar and choose Toolbars, New
 Toolbar. When the New Toolbar dialog box opens, click My
 Computer to select it, then click OK.  

Since there are a number of items in My Computer, they will
 consume most of the space on the taskbar. To save some space,
 you can right-click the new toolbar where there are no buttons
 and deselect Show Text. Now all the My Computer icons appear
 without titles.


*2. A SHORT HISTORY         
 
Subscriber Kerri S. submitted this Microsoft Internet
 Explorer 4 tip: 

"When you need to research a specific topic, it's often best to
 delete all your previous History files and start with a
 clean slate." 

Good point, Kerri, and you can certainly delete your History
 files and start clean if you wish. However, although this was
 almost required in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3, it is much
 less important in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, since the
 program now dates the History files.  

To delete your History, run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and
 choose View, Internet Options. When the Options dialog box
 opens, click the General tab (if necessary) and click Clear
 History. When asked if you want to delete all the files, click
 Yes. Then click OK to close the Options dialog box.


*3. SENDING LARGE FILES         
 
Reader Lo C. sent in this Outlook Express E-mail tip: 

"Although you can send some very large attachments using Outlook
 Express, you should be considerate of your recipients and make
 the attachments as small as possible. I think it is always a
 good idea to use a compression program such as WinZip to reduce
 their size. Your recipients will appreciate it." 

Thanks for the comments, Lo. We entirely agree. By the way, if
 you happen to be new to the Internet and aren't familiar with
 WinZip, take a look at  

http://www.winzip.com 

to find out more about this useful utility.


*4. LOCAL FAVORITES         
 
Here's a question from reader Jerry H: 

"I'm almost sure I saw a tip on how to add a folder on the hard
 disk to the Favorites folder. Is this possible or am I nuts?" 

Sorry, Jerry, but we can only answer the first part of your
 question. Yes, it is possible to put a local folder into your
 Favorites folder. Here's how: 

Run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and type into the Address Bar
 the folder you want to add to Favorites. For example,
 you might type 

c:\data 

and press Enter. This takes you to the requested folder. Now
 choose Favorites, Add To Favorites. When the Add To Favorites
 dialog box opens, you can click Create In to choose a folder
 for your new addition, or you can click OK to put the page into
 the main Favorites folder. 

For example, suppose you have a folder named MyStuff.
 You would type  

c:\MyStuff 

in the Address Box. Then choose Favorites, Add To Favorites and
 choose a spot for your entry. The name entered into the
 Favorites folder will be MyStuff. 

Now choose Favorites, MyStuff. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4
 will take you there.


*5. SEND THIS PAGE         
 
Reader Barry K. asks this Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 question: 

"Is there an easy way to e-mail an entire Web page to someone?
 Will the recipient get the whole page, pictures and all?" 

Yes, you can send an entire page, and the recipient will get it,
 pictures and all. Just navigate to the page you want to send and
 choose File, Send, Page By E-mail. When Outlook Express opens,
 enter the address and click Send. That's all there is to it. 

Things are a bit different when a page uses frames (and there
 are more of these every day). When the page you're sending has
 frames, a dialog box opens offering to send the page as a
 read-only page or as an attachment. If you simply want the
 recipient to view the page, choose Read Only.  

You may want to test these options by sending a few pages to
 yourself before you send them to someone else.


*6. EDIT FROM HERE         
 
Reader Sharon P. sent this Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 tip: 

"Everyone knows you can edit a Web page in Microsoft Internet
 Explorer 4 by clicking the Edit button. But did you know you
 can edit a Web page without even navigating to it? Try this:
 Click History. When History opens, right-click the page you want
 to edit and choose Edit. The page opens in FrontPage Express
 (assuming that's your default editor)." 

Thanks for the tip, Sharon.


*7. MIX AND MATCH FAVORITES         
 
This question is from subscriber Mark H.: 

"I have three systems upon which I now have three sets of
 favorites in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. Is there some easy
 way to merge the three files, removing duplicates, yet not
 losing anything?" 

There sure is, Mark. The easiest option is to use Windows
 Explorer to copy the files from one Favorites folder to another. 

Let's say you want to copy one set of Favorites to a floppy disk
 and then copy that data to a second computer. Put a blank
 floppy disk into drive A: and run Windows Explorer. Navigate to
 \Windows\Favorites and click the Favorites folder. The contents
 of the Favorites folder now appear in Windows
 Explorer's right pane. 

Press Ctrl-A to select all the Favorites contents, then drag all
 the icons to the A: drive icon. This copies all the folders to
 the floppy disk. 

Now place the floppy disk into the second computer's floppy disk
 drive and run Windows Explorer. Navigate to \Windows\Favorites
 and click the drive A: icon. Then press Ctrl-A to select all the
 Favorites files on the floppy disk. Drag them all to the
 Favorites folder on drive C:. If a dialog box appears asking if
 you want to replace existing files, click Yes To All to replace
 all files that have the same name.


*8. DRAG AND DROP YOUR WAY TO HAPPINESS         
 
Reader Del G. sent in this drag-and-drop tip: 

"I don't know whether everyone knows this or not, but you can
 drag text from the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 browser to a
 word processor. If the word processor handles graphics, you can
 drag pictures from Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 as well." 

Thanks for the tip, Del. To see how this works, run Internet
 Explorer 4 and set its size to cover about half of the screen.
 Then open your word processor (or WordPad) and set it to cover
 the other half of the screen. Move to the browser, select some
 text on the current Web page, and use the mouse to drag it to
 the word processor. 

If you're using WordPad or a word processor that can handle
 pictures, try dragging a picture to the document, too.


*9. REAL KEYS FOR REALITY         
 
Reader Sara L. says we have never mentioned that there are
 shortcut keys to speed up your navigation through a VRML site.  

We appreciate the implied suggestion. Let's correct the situation
 using the following list supplied by Sara (and further
 tested by us).    

Function/Keys 
Go To/Ctrl-Shift-G 
Pan/Ctrl-Shift-P 
Roll/Ctrl-Shift-R 
Straighten/Ctrl-Shift-U 
Study/Ctrl-Shift-S 
Turn/Ctrl-Shift-T 
Walk/Ctrl-Shift-W 
Zoom Out/Ctrl-Shift-Z 

Sara reports that once you become accustomed to using the keys,
 your VRML navigation will be smoother than ever before. 

Thanks for the tip, Sara.


*10. SHOOT YOUR OWN WALLPAPER PIX         
 
Reader George M. submitted this Active Desktop tip: 

"Although you can ordinarily use only BMP files as wallpaper,
 if you have Active Desktop installed, you can make wallpaper of
 almost any picture file (BMP, JPG, GIF). To activate Active
 Desktop, right-click the desktop and choose Active Desktop,
 View As Web Page. 

"To select your new wallpaper, right-click the desktop and
 choose Properties. When the Display Properties dialog box opens,
 click the Background tab and click Browse. Now locate and select
 the picture you'd like to use as wallpaper." 

Thanks for the tip, George!
