Guide to the Internet - Essential Browser Skills

The key skills required in using a browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer) are shown below.

Navigation	Typing in a URL in the address bar Clicking on a hyperlink Back, forward and home buttons File Open (Menu command) Favorites (Menu command) or Favorites button
Reloading a page	Refresh button
Saving a file	File Save (Menu command) saves a web page onto your hard disc
Saving an address	If you want to return to a website at a future time you can 'bookmark' it to find it easily in the future. While the website page is displayed on your screen select the Favorites (Menu command) and click on Add to Favorites.
Printing a page	Use either File Print (Menu command) or the Print button.
Copying and pasting	Select the text you want by clicking and dragging with the mouse. Then use <Ctrl+C> (or the Edit Copy command) to copy the selection to Clipboard. Select the place in the file you want to paste into and press <Ctrl+V> (or the Edit Paste command) to paste. NB the quickest way to select everything on the page is to press <Ctrl+A>
Changing the size of text	Sometimes the text on the page may be too large or small - alter the size by using the View/Text Size Menu command
Setting your own home page	Navigate to the page which you want to use as your home page and then select Tools/Internet Options/General. The Use Current instruction will designate the current web page as the default home page for the future.
Working offline	Internet Explorer stores pages which you have visited recently on your hard disc (the settings for how far back it will store pages is in Tools/Internet Options/General). If you are not connected to the Internet and you click on a hyperlink the Dialup Networking dialog box appears. If you select Work Offline then Internet Explorer will attempt to find the web page on your hard disc. If it cannot find the page then it prompts you to connect online.
Security	Tools/Internet Options/Security allows you to specify security levels - this should be set at either Medium or High, the latter if you don't want cookies.
Tips	Don't switch off your modem, or disconnect whilst Internet Explorer is downloading a web page - it may crash your system Make sure that the 'Launch browser windows in separate process' option is enabled in Tools/Internet Options/Advanced. This will improve the stability of your system Do use several browser windows at a time when surfing. That way you will always have something to look at whilst another page is downloading (<Ctrl+N> is the quick way to launch a new window) Hover the mouse over a link and look in the status bar (bottom of the browser window) to see where the link will take you, or whether it opens a special file or program