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Date: May
31, 2008
Subject: Internet
Explorer 7 Keyboard Shortcuts & Enhancements
In this month's
ELM Bulletin we will give you a short list of
useful keyboard shortcuts for use with Internet
Explorer 7, as well as a couple utilities and
hints to enhance your use of this popular
Internet browser.
Internet Explorer 7 Keyboard Shortcuts -
Since Internet Explorer is provided
free with Microsoft Windows remains the world's
most popular Internet browser. A very
unscientific analysis shows that over 65% of
website visits are made using Internet Explorer.
Consequently, most websites are designed to be
compatible with Internet Explorer. This means
that you are more likely to see a website
correctly when using Internet Explorer than if
you were using alternatives such as Opera or
Firefox.
Since you will
most likely use Internet Explorer at some point
or an other during the course of business, or
pleasure, here is a list of several of the more
useful keyboard shortcuts for Internet Explorer
7. (Keyboard shortcuts for other widely used
software can be found on our website by
clicking here.)
|
INTERNET EXPLORER 7 SHORTCUT KEYS |
|
SHORTCUT KEY COMBINATION |
FUNCTION |
|
CTRL + LEFT MOUSE BTN |
Open a link in a new background tab |
|
ALT + ENTER |
Open a new tab from the Address Bar |
|
CTRL + TAB |
Rotate forward through tabs |
|
CTRL + W (or CTRL + F4) |
Close current tab |
|
CTRL + Number |
Switch to a specific tab (numbered from
left to right) |
|
CTRL + Q |
Open Quick Tabs (thumbnail view of all
tabs) |
|
ALT + N |
Give focus to Information Bar |
|
ALT + D |
Give focus to Address Bar |
|
CTRL + E |
Give focus to Toolbar search box |
|
ALT + ENTER |
Open your search query in a new tab |
|
CTRL + DOWN ARROW |
Show the search provider menu |
|
ALT (or F10) |
Toggle display of Menu Bar |
Internet Explorer Enhancements -
Many enhancements are also available for
Internet Explorer, below we list a couple of our
favourites in the hope that you might also find
them useful. Enjoy!
IE7Pro - IE7Pro is an add-on for
Internet Explorer 7 only. IE7Pro enables
many additional customizations for Internet
Explorer 7 but perhaps its most useful
feature (and the one that I use many times
each day) is its download manager which
allows great flexibility over file
downloads, their location and their
retrieval. You can visit the IE7Pro website
by
clicking here.
Google Toolbar - I have been
accused of being a Google fanatic. While
this may or may not be true, I do believe
that Google provides some of the best
computer enhancements available. The Google
Toolbar is no exception. With the Google
Toolbar installed Internet Explorer (all
current versions) gains the following:
- the
ability to perform a Google search
without leaving your current website
- a
pop-up blocker
-
highlighting of search terms within
search results
You can
visit the Google Toolbar website by
clicking here.
Internet Explorer Add-On Management -
Some software, when installed, will
also install add-ons to Internet Explorer. Many
of these add-ons can be useful, such as Adobe
Acrobat Reader, IE7Pro and Google Toolbar, but
others can just bog down your system or add
unnecessary clutter to the Internet Explorer
interface. Here are some easy tips for add-on
management.
Toolbars - If toolbars are
displayed that you just don't want to use
you can usually disable them by
right-clicking on any empty area in Internet
Explorer's toolbar area and de-select the
toolbars you do not want. Any toolbar with a
check mark beside it will be displayed.
Add-Ons - Add-ons, such as Adobe
Acrobat Reader, are perfectly benign but
others can be detrimental to system
performance. (We will not discuss add-ons
detrimental to system security here; please
refer to
last month's ELM Bulletin.) Different
versions of Internet Explorer manage add-ons
differently, here is the process for
Internet Explorer 7:
a)
Click on Tools in the
Menu Bar (if the Menu Bar isn't
displayed, pressing the ALT key should
make it appear)
b)
Select Internet Options
from the sub-menu
c)
Click on the Programs
tab
d)
Click on the Manage add-ons
button
e) As
you highlight add-ons in the list you
will be given the option to
Enable or Disable
the add-on in the Settings
area at the lower left of the dialogue
(please be careful with what you choose
to disable as some add-ons are necessary
for proper Internet Explorer
functionality), you may need to restart
Internet Explorer to make some of your
changes take effect
As always, please
contact me if you have any questions about this
or any other computer
issue.
Previous issues of the ELM
Bulletin are
available from our website.
You have
received this ELM Bulletin either by request or
because you have given your contact information
to an ELM employee. If you no longer wish to
receive the ELM Bulletin, send us an email with
"Remove Me" in the subject line and we will
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