I hope you have discovered some of the new features of Internet Explorer 7 – the latest and greatest update of this famous (or infamous) browser.  It really is good – and it is even better if you learn a little more about it and start to use some really neat keyboard shortcuts.  These shortcuts will help you control your UTMTO syndrome.  (That stands for Using The Mouse Too Often.   OK - so I just made that up!)

 

Most of these shortcuts are unique to this version.  But they will make IE7 even more enjoyable to use.  Try them out.

 

1.       The ZOOM keyboard shortcut:  A new feature of IE7 is being able to “zoom”  in and out of a webpage.  You couldn’t do this in previous versions.  To zoom in and out with the mouse, click on Page icon, point to Zoom, then pick the percentage you want to zoom – either in (larger) or out (smaller).  Notice – you can set a specific percentage by clicking on Custom. 

This is a great feature when you come across those poorly designed web pages that force you to scroll horizontally to view all the information on the page.  Or, if you have a really small screen.  The Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl - + (plus) to zoom in and Ctrl- - (minus) to zoom out.  You will zoom in or out by 10% each time you use the keyboard shortcut.  Also, you can hold down the Ctrl key and turn the scroll wheel forward or backward to zoom in or out (also by 10% each time).  To get back to 100% view, press Ctrl-0 (zero).  Try it – you’ll like it!
 

2.       If you have visited several websites on one Tab, you can go back to previously visited pages by holding down the Shift key and turning the scroll wheel on the mouse.  Also, you can go forward to websites you viewed by holding the Shift key and turning the scroll wheel in the opposite direction. 

This is a little different than using the back and forward button in that it actually loads these pages from your RAM and not from your cache.

 

3.  As you may know by now – Tabs are the latest and greatest new feature of IE7.  There is an easy way to move through the tabs without using the mouse.  Hold down the Control key and press a number to move to that tab.  For example, if you press Ctrl-1, you will go to the first Tab.  Ctrl-2 will go to the second Tab, and so on.

 

4.  To close a Tab, press Ctrl-W.  If you hold down the Ctrl-W, you will close every tab and when they are all closed, you will actually quit Internet Explorer.  So – be careful with this one!

 

5.  Quick Tabs can be accessed by clicking on the little square to the right of the first Tab.  It actually looks like four tiny squares inside the little square.  Did you find it?  The keyboard shortcut to display the Quick Tabs is Ctrl-Q.  This is a handy shortcut that will help cut down on UTMTO. 

 

6.  Here’s another UTMTO trick.  Press Ctrl-I (as in Iditarod).  This shows your Favorites.  When you press this shortcut, the Favorites show as a floating panel on the left side of the screen.  That is the opposite of “pinned.”  If you want to see what a pinned Favorites panel is, click on the little green arrow just to the right of the word History.  When you place you cursor over the green arrow it will say “Pin the Favorites Center.”  Do you see the difference?  OK – but don’t stop using keyboard shortcuts yet.  When you are showing the Favorites panel (either pinned or un-pinned), you can use the Up and Down Arrows to scroll up and down the Favorites, and you can use the Left and Right Arrows to expand any folders.  When you get to the website you want to visit, just press the Return Key.  (Oh, my UTMTO syndrome is getting much better already!)

 

7.       When I first downloaded and installed IE7, I noticed that there was no Menu Bar showing.  Of course, the first thing I did was click on View, pointed to Toolbars, and selected Menu Bar.  Aha – there’s my Menu Bar.  What I didn’t realize is that the IE7 gives you the option to hide the menu bar – on purpose. 

When you hide the menu bar, which you really don’t need very often since most features can be accessed from the various tool bars, you gain valuable screen real-estate.  In other words, you have a larger screen area to actually look at web pages.  For many small monitors and laptops, this is a good thing. 

OK – so to use this feature, you have to first hide the menu bar:  Click on View, Toolbars, and deselect Menu Bar (remove the checkmark next to Menu Bar.).  The Menu bar is now hidden.  To view the menu bar, just press the Alt Key.  To rehide the Menu Bar, press the Alt Key again.  The Alt Key becomes a toggle to show and hide the Menu Bar.  Hmm…very cool!

 

8.  Did anyone get into Feeds yet?  (What’s he talking about?)  I’m talking about RSS Feeds.  RSS stands for Rich Site Summary.  Or maybe it stands for Really Simple Syndication.  Actually – they can’t seem to agree on what it stands for.  Doesn’t matter.  IE7 now builds these RSS Feeds right into the browser.  So here how it works.  (This is a hands on demonstration – so do all this stuff I am going to tell you).  First of all, the Feeds Icon is just to the right of the Home Page Icon on the right side of the screen. 

Go to ccn.com.  You will notice that the little Feeds Icon turns a bright red (or is that orange).  That means there are RSS Feeds accessible on this page.  Click on it.  Aha – you get a bunch of news headlines which are links. You can veg out on reading these feeds from CNN.  So that’s what feeds are.   Most TV news websites like wcco.com, foxnews.com, kare11.com…and many print news sites like nytimes.com have feeds. 

 

And – you can subscribe to these feeds.  When  you click on the Feeds Icon and look at the Feeds that are available, you can subscribe to them.  At the top of the screen, click on the link that says, “Subscribe to this feed.”    When you do, that subscription becomes active and is available at the click of a button – without having to go out to the website.  You just press the shortcut key, Ctrl-J, and you will see all the Feeds that you are subscribed to in a floating (un-pinned) panel.  You can also access the subscribed Feeds in the Favorites panel (Ctrl-I or the History panel (Ctrl-H).  Try some of these shortcuts to see how it works.

 

You can learn more about Feeds.  When you click on a Feed to subscribe to it, there is a link that says, “Learn more about Feeds.”  You will access the Windows Internet Explorer help screen and you can read an excellent FAQ on the subject.  We’ll learn more about Feeds and Feed Readers in the future.

 

Well – that’s it for now.  Learn more about IE7 and unleash the power of the internet on your computer.

 

Here’s a list of the shortcuts we learned.

 

Ctrl - + (plus) or Ctrl- - (minus) to

Ctrl + turn the scroll wheel to Zoom in or out of a webpage.

Ctrl + 0 (zero) to return to 100% view.

 

Shift – turn the scroll wheel to go backward or forward to previously visited web pages.

Ctrl-W to close a Tab

Hold down Ctrl-W to close all tabs and quit Internet Explorer.

 

Ctrl + a number – to go to that Tab.  Example:  if you have 5 tabs open, and press Ctrl-5, you will go to the 5^th Tab.  Ctrl-4 will take you to the 4^th Tab – and so on.

Ctrl – Q to open up Quick Tabs

 

Ctrl – I to show your Favorites.  Don’t forget to use the arrow keys (Left, Right, Up, and Down) to navigate the Favorites Panel and open folders.

Ctrl – H to show the History Panel.

 

Press the Alt key to hide and un-hide the Menu Bar.  (It has to be hidden before this will work).

 

Ctrl-J to open up the Feeds Panel.