Here's a quick little trick with MS Internet Explorer's scroll bar.
Most of us actually grab the scroll bar when we go to scroll down the length of a web page (well, unless you have one of those little scroll mice).
A better way is to right-click the scrollbar. A little menu will pop up that's chock full of scrolling options. Give it a try. It's kind of fun.
Have you ever been to a web page that had dark text on a dark background? It happens. Sometimes a background doesn't load right and sometimes it just bad design, plain and simple. Either way, it's hard to read.
Well, next time that happens to you, hit CTRL-A.
All the text on the website will be selected (highlighted). The selection color is normally blue with white text. Much easier to read then, say, a dark red on a black background.
Before:
After:
Try reading the text below, then hit CTRL-A to see the difference:
Here's a sample of hard to read text! Here it is in red!
Have you ever made a mistake while filling out a form on a web page or in a software program? If you're like me, you occasionally find that you've put information in the wrong box.
Most people would just sigh, delete out the error, then re-type it in the appropriate box.
And we wonder why carpal tunnel syndrome cases are on the rise.
Well, to save your wrists (and some time), highlight the text that's in the wrong location and drag it to its proper place (box).
BTW - This works with more than just forms. If you are re-doing a table in a word processing program, you can do the highlight, drag & drop thing too!
One last thing. Before I get an inbox full of e-mails reminding me of this - you can highlight any text in a word processor and drag it to a new location. Lots faster than copy & paste.
Let's say you want to download a program and you're offered several different places to download from (Microsoft likes to do this). Which do you pick? Most people would choose the one that's closest to their geographic location. WRONG!
Here's the way I usually decide. I first look at the time zones the sites are in and hit the one that would be in the least busy time zone. In other words, if it's 8:00AM in my time zone, but 5:00AM in another, more westerly time zone, I'll pick that one.
If it looks like I'm in prime time no matter what time zone I'm in (say it's 3:00PM my time) then I'll probably pick the last or second to last choice. People seem to pick the first or second link, so usually the further down the "link list" you go, the less traffic you encounter.
By default, newer versions of Internet Explorer (v5.0+) can automatically "remember" stuff you've filled in on web forms (including passwords).
Well, if you've ever entered the wrong item, you know what a pain it can be. Every time you fill in a form, you get multiple choices from the little auto-complete drop box, but only one (usually the one at the bottom of the list) is the correct one.
How do you shed the excess?
Depends on how far you want to go with it.
If you just want a word or two gone, next time you see one in the auto-complete drop box, arrow down to it and press your Delete key. Poof! David Copperfield ain't got nothin' on you!
If you want to clear the whole thing out, you can do that too. Open Internet Explorer, hit the Tools menu, Internet Options.
Next, click the Content Tab, then the AutoComplete button.
On the resulting screen, click the "Clear Forms" button to clear out web form info and the "Clear Passwords" button to get rid of any password info you have stored.
| Sidebar Note that this does not get rid of the web addresses in your address bar. Go to the General tab of the Internet Options screen and hit Clear History to do that. |
Finally, if you want to shut this feature off (or turn it on) you can do so from the AutoComplete screen too. Just check or un-check the appropriate boxes.
Do you have one of those handy little wheel mice? If so, here's a cool trick for Internet Explorer that you'll like.
Have you ever found yourself on a web page with a font so tiny it was almost unreadable? Well, don't strain your eyes a moment longer. Next time you visit a page like that, hold down your CTRL key and roll the wheel on your wheel mouse. You'll find that you can increase / decrease the font size as fast as your finger can spin that little wheel. Give it a try now if you like. Here's some small text to play with:
Wow! Look at this small text!
Don't have a wheel mouse you say? Well, there's another way to increase the size of your fonts. Just hit the View menu, Text Size, and you'll get a sub menu that lets you choose a larger or smaller font.
Oh, one more thing. If you start messing around with font sizes, you may discover the web site you're looking at doesn't display quite right. Most of the time us web designers create the site to look good based on a certain font size. Just FYI.
Thanks to the reader who sent that one in!
Have you ever been at a site and saw a link you wanted to follow? You almost click the link, but then decide that you want to finish looking through the web page you're currently on. What should you do?
Next time you're faced with the question above, right-click the link you want to follow and select Open in New Window from the resulting menu (you can also hold down the SHIFT key while you left-click). A new browser window will open and display the new page.
I use this trick all the time when I'm hunting around for information. For example, when I'm using a search engine, I'll do the "Open in a new window" trick each time I see a link that looks relevant. It's great to have the rest of your search results ready and waiting for you when you're finished exploring a link!
